The party has already begun: 2010 in Vancouver and I Believe

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They’re here. Turquoise jacketed volunteers and orange vested police converge on the city. They’re here. They’re everywhere.

Tomorrow, the world’s biggest winter party and carnival begins in this grey, wet city. Is this the first winter Olympics ever held in a place where the grass is green? Where the vines are sprouting with new growth?

No matter. They’re here. The flame arrived this evening. They’re here and more are arriving every minute. It will be a party even if we all have to dance in the cool, cool rain beside the eternal Olympic flame.
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Deva Premal: the tranquility of Gayatri Mantra

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A day of stress and frustrations and, in the end, a recognition that I’m not ready to move forward on a course of action requiring a one-year commitment…not just yet…not without a more careful consideration of the options and possibilities. So, a little something to calm the soul….
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Deva Premal sings The Moola Mantra: a gift of love

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A couple days ago, this mantra played during a peaceful, energetic, meditative moment while in a healing session with my chiropractor. It reminded me, as it often does, of the woman who gave it to me. It was my introduction to the grounding peace and tranquility of mantras. As I listened, I remembered that in just a couple days in her part of the world, now this morning, the sun would rise on the anniversary of her birth.

Deva Premal is just one of the many wonders we shared with each other, discovered together, in our epistolary love affair. It was an extraordinary time for me, part of a period that saw my already blooming heart and soul open fully to the wonder of it all and the possibility of love. Separated by hemispheres, it often felt as if we were closer than the touch of our fingers on the keyboard.
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Butterflies: Hope for the caterpillars

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Book cover for Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus

Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus

While we’re still fresh with images of butterflies…

‘How does one become a butterfly?’ she asked pensively.

‘You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.’

~ Trina Paulus
Hope for the Flowers



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Fleetwood Mac and my summer of love

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I can’t remember how I met her. I think it was possibly on the boardwalk, or in the arcades at Weirs Beach. I do remember my buddy Brad and I hitching part way around Lake Winnnepesaukee so I could be with her. It was the summer of ’76 on the lake, and my first summer love, and I’d just turned 15. I was raging hormones and sweet tenderness and she was Vicki, beautiful, smart, from Detroit and spending the summer at her family’s cabin in Meredith, New Hampshire, a 20 minute drive from where I lived.

That summer now punctuates many wonderful memories. What could be better than summer in New England’s Lakes Region learning about love, kissing, passionate caresses and long, lazy days on the lake?
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Winnie the Pooh and the Vinegar Tasters

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The Vinegar Tasters

The Vinegar Tasters

The Vinegar tasters is among my favourite allegories and provides an excellent introduction to the three philosophies that dominated China through thousands of years: Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. For me, the most important of these is Taoism, a gentle, soulful and luminous philosophy. I’m going to be lazy and let someone else explain it all.

If you’ve read Benjamin Hoff’s The Tao of Pooh, you may recall this passage. If you haven’t, I recommend you do. It’s a beautifully gentle introduction to an utterly Eastern way of thinking.
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Gabriella Cilmi: Lessons to be learned and feel a little safer

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Gabriella Cilmi (pronounced “chill me” — and she does give me chills) was all of 17 years old when she co-wrote and recorded this song and others on her debut album, Lessons to be Learned. This is no Avril Lavigne, or Miley Cyrus, or Britney Spears. Cilmi has a soul of the ancients, and a deep, resonant voice that sees into the heart of the matter at hand. There’s another vid I’ll post which reveals a presence well beyond her years. But back to this song.
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Fugitive Peace

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I watched the film adaptation of Anne Michaels’ novel, Fugitive Pieces today. One of the most achingly beautiful love scenes I’ve ever seen is followed, closely, by Michaela picking up Jakob’s journal, holding it, looking at it, quizzically, curiously. she seems to be asking of it, “what else might you reveal of the man I love?” Jakob is watching her.

“Read it,” he says.

“Are you sure?”
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Beauty, Cathedrals, Purpose: The Pillars of the Earth

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Saint Denis Cathedral arches & stained glass

Saint Denis Cathedral arches & stained glass

It wasn’t very far into Ken Follet’s, The Pillars of the Earth before I understood what might be enthralling the people who’ve been telling me I should read it.

“Because it will be beautiful,” Tom the Builder answered Prior Philip.

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