Beauty in the Ordinary

This is not about being brilliant, or extraordinary, it's not about wanting to be famous, or making headlines, or trying to impress...this about sharing a 'gift' each day with the world...to lift the spirit of people when they read this blog, to show them the beauty in the ordinary.
"And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it." Raold Dahl

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Cell Phone Carriers!



Over the past two months, my cell phone carrier
has overcharged me by a total of $95.00.


I won't name which one it is, suffice to say their name begins with a B, ends in L and rhymes with hell.



And while they have been nothing but sweetness and charm when the mistakes were pointed out, doesn't it behoove them not to make these errors in the first place?

Each time the over-billed expense is reversed on MY NEXT BILL.  So they get to keep that money for a full 30 days.

Just imagine, being given those free dollars to use x millions of customers each month...quite an useful little tool, don't you think?



I can only imagine people who, unlike me (!), don't have the luxury of time to pour through their bill every month line by line.

Can you imagine the number of corporate account holders who never even see their monthly bill!



So...caveat emptor...settle yourself in somewhere comfortable and pretty and...

CHECK YOUR PHONE BILLS CAREFULLY!



Thursday, March 29, 2012

Thursday's Child

I am Thursday's child.



So is my sister Victoria.



 We both have been on the road for a very long time.

One thing I know for sure...

We have 'far to go...miles to go before we sleep'.

This journey is far from over.

Serious Questions

I've been asking myself some fairly serious questions just lately.

Things like:

"How much is enough?"

"How much is too much?"

But then I realized they were the wrong questions.

This questioning just invokes struggle.

They raise a bar, where one doesn't need to exist.

We all need to stop struggling...

it's killing us, for God's sake.



Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Who Are You?


I am the left brain.
I am a scientist.  A mathematician.
I love the familiar.  I categorize.  I am accurate. Linear.
Analytical.  Strategic.  I am practical.
Always in control.  A master of words and language.
Realistic.  I calculate equations and play with numbers.
I am order.  I am logic.
I know exactly who I am


I am the right brain.
I am creativity.  A free spirit.  I am passion.
Yearning. Sensuality.  I am the sound of roaring laughter.
I am taste.  The feeling of sand beneath bare feet.
I am movement. Vivid colours.
I am the urge to paint on an empty canvas.
I am boundless imagination.  Art.  Poetry.  I sense.  I feel.
I am everything I wanted to be.




 I'm 60% left, 40% right.


Who are you?

Pictures are of a print campaign created by Shalmor Avnon Amichay/Y&R Interactive Tel Aviv, Israel for Mercedes-Benz and is on adsoftheworld.com

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Sorry...but Men are Stupid



All I wanted was a simple goal.
Said to hubby "post surgery, five days on, we can go to our little, local pub and have a guinness on St. Patrick's day."

What a nightmare!
He HAD to invite family.
We HAD to stay way too long.

He couldn't wait to get home, in the door, take his pain meds
and climb into bed.

I am sure he was feeling awful.

And why?  just to prove you can...what?  why? and to whom?

Men are stupid!

I'm worried that all the progress we have made over the past few days is now lost.
If it is, I will be spitting mad.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

In The End, Only Kindness Matters...



It's funny how things happen.  The chain of events, seemingly random, that bring you to a place where you gain a deeper insight of yourself.

Yesterday was a difficult day, not as hard for me as it was for Rudy, but stressful none the less.  My lovely daughter came and waited with me, providing tea and conversation and distraction.
All the tension of the day bubbled up and out last evening when, after leaving the hospital and putting Lindsay on the train back home, I was invited to dinner at my next door neighbour's home.  We are extremely fortunate to have good people living close to us who understand that we are a community and know just the right thing to do and don't hesitate in doing it.

So off I go and am welcomed to their table where they also have a friend visiting from the city with her two delightful young daughters.
I found myself babbling on, unable to restrain myself in conversation.  Truthfully, my tongue loosened by a touch too much wine, and even though I could hear the little voice in my head saying you are talking too much, you are commandeering these people, it all felt so relieving.  And these brilliant people just smiled and let me carry on.
I don't want to overdramatize here...I didn't cry, there was no confrontation, I was just a lot more ME than I usually am.  And at the end of the night, I went to bed able to sleep because I felt emptied of all the residual tension of the day.

When I came home today from the hospital, there was a book on my front porch The Vinyl Cafe Notebooks by Stuart McLean.  This will probably only mean something to Canadians. Stuart McLean is our Garrison Keillor of NPR's A Prairie Home Companion.  Every Sunday at noon McLean hosts a radio show on CBC that he writes called The Vinyl Cafe.  It's hard to adequately describe this show...I guess radio variety is the simplest definition; but it's more than that.  This show centres around this man, his writing and his singular voice.  Lisa, the visitor to my neighbour and I discovered a shared a love of this programme and this man last night, so she, very kindly, left this book for me, and on the fly-leaf she inscribed: "To Jackie, Because Stuart McLean's voice brings you comfort.  Lisa"

As I sat having my dinner this evening...a marvelous tomato and chicken-stuffed avocado salad with olives, mouth-watering goat cheese and delicious balsamic dressing...yes, you guessed it, supplied yet again by my loving neighbours and delivered to my door...I began reading these notes, these thoughts of Mr. McLean's, and one touched my heart.  One written on 27 September 2009 called The People You Love.  The content of the story, while interesting, isn't apropos to this commentary, but the last paragraph is.  McLean writes:

"...it is time for you to believe, as Max Ehrmann said, that 'you are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars;  you have a right to be here.  With all it's sham and drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.'  There are people waiting to love you.  You might not believe that; but that may be the truest thing I have ever written.  If they aren't around you now, believe me, they exist..."  

So this brings me from my random, winding journey at the start of yesterday, sitting in that over-heated, ancient hospital waiting room for nearly six hours not sure what was going on, good daughter by my side, to being included in a lovingly prepared meal with kind, caring people, to the touching generosity of a newly-met friend and to finding this kind and clever man's words; to reach this self-understanding that in our darkest and most vulnerable moments, it's all about the need to feel loved.  Now I KNOW I am loved, but it's the FEEL part that is all-important here and that is an entirely different thing.  Those amazing people yesterday recognized that need in me, consciously or not and through kindness, simple basic, never to be minimized, kindness, made me feel loved.

"In the end, only kindness matters."  Jewel




The Morning After

Things didn't exactly go according to plan...


No laparoscopy...full-on open surgery.
He now has a scar under his right rib, that looks a lot like this:


However...it is over and now we implement the healing plan.

Lots of rest...


heathly, healing, nourishing food...





gentle exercise...


lots of TLC...


and I will have him home and back on his feet in no time.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Hmmmmm


Not that I am promoting this method...but...
since hubby has been on this low fat (read no fat) diet for his gallbladder issues,
not only have I lost the three final,stubborn pounds that refused to budge,
but also four more.



So now...I am acutally four pounds under my goal weight.


Husband (some 15 pounds lighter) is scheduled for surgery this coming Monday.



We are keeping our fingers crossed it will be laparoscopic surgery, however there is a chance it will have to convert to open, should the doctor decide.  No more dangerous we are told, just a longer recovery period.


Then it will be two more weeks of the low fat/no fat eating
while his body adjusts to not having a gallbladder any more.


Talk about swimsuit-ready bodies!!

p.s.  He says the one thing that has kept him (food) sane over the past little while?


Angel food cake...unfrosted, of course...totally fat-free!

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Out of the Mouths of Babes and Grannies...


Overheard in the hospital this week...

Grandson:  Jeez Granny...Diabetes? I'm only 30?  What the heck is this going to do to the rest of my life?

Granny:  Listen to me boy!..Never out of something bad didn't something good come!

I could have kissed her.

Update...



The patient is home.

Surgery to be booked for 6 weeks from now.

In the meantime, a low fat diet, and building up resistance so recovery is quick and simple.

Normal service to be resumed...


Thursday, March 1, 2012

When You Are Going Through Hell...Keep Going

This week we had seven serious business meetings arranged.


Seven potential accounts for our little company.

We were talking about after landing this little coup, taking some time off
and planning a road trip.



Everything organized, prepped, ready to go...

and then...

Drama, Pain, Emergency,


Hospital.


Monday night 7 hours in emergency waiting for pain medication and to see a doctor.

Finally....in the wee small hours of Tuesday morning, blessed morphine, one specialist, a surgeon and then admission.

Gallbladder attack.  Not me, husband.


So we are now playing the waiting game.

He is still in the hospital. The plan is to try and calm his gallbladder to ease into laparoscopic surgery in about six weeks.  But this GB is not so easily appeased it seems, and it looks like we might be headed to emergency surgery over the next couple of days.

Want to make God laugh?  Tell Him your plans!

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