Go to the Water

                                   On my "66th" birthday I wrote: "my plan is to do 66 creative and memorable things in the next year".  Usually, I will make a detailed list of the things I am going to do in the new year, but for this year, I am just going to let it happen.  Throwing the control to the curb, I soon realized, I needed a commitment in order to commit.  Since there are only fifty-two weeks in a year, I realized I would need to accomplish at least one thing a week. I just counted and it is nine weeks since I made my birthday commitment and here I am posting the first 22.  Some of the 22 aren't creative or memorable, they are things that needed to be done.  Yep, changing the rules up as I go, because I can.  I was inspired to be spontaneous and the very first thing I did was set up a breakfast date on my birthday with the members of my "Once a Month Club"....

Recently, I was in Dollarama on one of my essential shopping trips. Usually, the line is long, and everyone just waits their turn as the clerks at the check outs whiz you through.  On this day, there was no one in line, I just walked up to a young man running the till.  At the start of the new year, I had decided I would make a point of asking service people "how is your day going?". So, I asked this man my question and he replied, "it was good", he smiled and acknowledged me. He asked me how my day was going, and we talked a wee bit, as total strangers do.  I want to say he was in his early thirties; he wore a wedding ring which said to me he was part of financially running a household.  When I came away from that interaction, I thought to myself "I wonder if he ever desired to do more than a clerk at Dollarama?"  It was evident to me that this man, enjoyed working at Dollarama and if he didn't, he acted like he did.  Clearly, he felt it was enough. ...

A little painting project Have you ever had an idea pop into your head and you think, I'm going to do that.  Then, you come to your senses and you realize that's an incredible amount of work and quickly decide your not interested. Well, that is usually how I am, I want to do things but after very little thought I decide against it. For some reason the other day I thought I should paint my living room, adjoining kitchen and hall.  I have done it before, and it wasn't that bad of a job. This lead to  one of those talks with myself and decided January could be a long month and I needed to have a project. I didn't want to go into spring and summer and think "why didn't I paint in January when I had nothing else to do".  Not sure what I think I will be doing in spring and summer but clearly more than in January. So, I have now convinced myself that I was doing a project and it was painting the biggest area in my condo.   Historically, if I had a project like pa...

I recently had the most amazing conversation with a total stranger and I decided I wanted to share it with you.    I was in a photography shop looking at one of their beautiful photos on the wall.  I said to one of the employees "everyone needs one of these".  It was a huge picture of a baby and a beautiful keepsake of a special moment in time.  The woman that works there said "it is very important to have those memories where you can look at them".  I replied with my usual conversation about Mom losing her pictures in a fire, and how those types of losses are hard.      I am not sure how a picture, keepsakes and my mom's fire lead to this conversation but it did. The woman went on to share a family story about her Grandma having a brain bleed and her death was imminent because of it. Her Mom and her Mom's two siblings went into Grandma's home and did what you have to do and cleared it out. The first thing the woman asked of her mom was "you ...

Is it just me or does everyone have a room that has no clue how to look after itself?  Is it also the room that holds your hidden addiction?   My room is my wee laundry room also referred to as the command center.  On the second Sunday of the first month of the new year, I took the room on.  From the outside it looks organized and somewhat tidy, although for some reason it doesn't get regular cleaning.  I am convinced that it is possible, one could get a dust born disease if they spent to much time in there.  The dust was one thing, mainly from the dryer, but I have come to realize that I have a paper addiction.  How would I possibly know that, well, because I found hundreds of pieces of paper, small envelopes, large puffy envelopes and other paper items, just waiting to be used.  They were neatly contained in a small cabinet, hiding out I believe.   Standing there looking at an insane amount of paper, I became very thankful that I ...