Not too Cheery until Cream Cheese and Cherry !

Mom called this morning to see if I could drive her to her Drs' appt...this was after several conversations , over the past few days,about how she wanted to be" independent" and knew she could do it, ( drive there ) on her own. So , a skiff of snow and a sleepness night , resulted in her calling me,to taxi her there and back. My morning plans now, had to be altered, and I was not feeling very cheery about my day being disrupted... but off I went to Mom's apt to pick her up. I "buzzed" her, said I'd wait in the car , rather sternly and with engine idiling,watched for her to descend the stairs. ...And she did, with a small box clutched in her hand , actually a box that had once contained Laura Secord chocolates."Have you eaten? Mom asked because  I made you a sandwich..... I had all the ingredients in.but it won't be nearly as flavourful because it hasn't had time to sit :-) .I knew without  asking, what Mom had made for me..my very favourite sandwich ....cream cheese and cherry !!! So, I drove Mom to her Drs appt.and while she was there , I sat in  my car, in the Lawtons parking lot ,and ate my CC&C sandwich, which was made with so much love and realized that my mother had taught me once again ,that there is always an upside ! :-)

Gray....and greatness..

Today  I stood at my kitchen window , thinking that  someone (body)  had  given  me a box of crayons that only contained  various shades of gray, and I had  ,  somehow coloured my backyard (which was once. so vibrant and full of colour) with , just that...shades of gray !. Mmmmmm , really had to purcolate  this pallette in my head. But , as you probably all know, there is that moment when  there is a tiny epiphany ...and that's what happened to me. My friend, Heidi Wulfratt, is an amazing fibre artist and you can google her name and be overwhelmed by her talent and all that she has created. Heidi 's eyes are failing and glaring light makes it almost impossible for her to see.....she is a very young woman ...so when we have gray days, baise days, her eyes come alive and embrace all the colours that are out there. She has generously shared this with us and I will , on a very gray, baise days try hard to see the "colour "., as Heidi has done..she has shown me that there is always an upside !

Snowstorm .....Soupfest.....South Korea

A funny thing happened on my way to the annual Soupfest fundraiser .  I had been dropped off at the back of the building ,  and now found myself   standing on one side of a huge snowbank ,wondering how to navigate it. As I stood pondering my dilemma, I was approached by a  young woman , who in very broken English , pointed to a car, with several passengers in it , and said to me, "where park, please ". The snow was falling heavily, and I knew that probably the only parking lot available ,would involve a long convoluted detour. So, the easiest solution  I thought ,would be to just jump in the car and lead them to the parking lot.There was a bit of  shuffling around and  I hopped in.  The driver was a young woman   from South Korea,  with her 4 friends ( 3 others from SK and another young woman from Columbia ) They had arrived in Canada only 3 months ago and had never experienced snow ! So , here was this young woman driving in a snowstorm (one that I would not drive in ! ) and with encouragement and support from her front seat passenger, and backseat driver :-) , was doing a mighty fine job of it!! Within about seven minutes, we were safely parked, knew warm soup was awaiting  and   knew that even a snowstorm ...has an upside ! :-)

Wow ! Three hours to get this blog set up , so many moments of frustration ,but I  have had a dear , computer whiz friend , to make it work( we were young and living in the frontier town of Ft. McMurray Alberta , many years ago.) With that spirit of youth and joie de vive , we were faced and challenged by experiences ,that we had never been exposed to in   our young lives.  How we embraced , learned and responded to those experiences ,would throw a long ,positive shadow over our unfolding lives......and for me ...the gift of knowing that there is always an upside.