Gratitude List #7: Beauty, Nature, and Spirit

Deep Cove, North Vancouver BC

Today's gratitude list:
* the warmth and healing energy of the sun
* sunny weekends to air and freshen laundry
* a women's gathering to create art (write etc.)
* beauty to inspire and create
* a beautiful home and views (photo to left)
* stunning views of trees and water
* tall pine trees (I have an affinity for trees)
* Satsang (spiritual discourse)
* another beautiful home and views
* more tall pine trees and a garden to look at
* seeing the beauty of a Stellar jay flying
* the play and call of Stellar jays
* walks exploring the neighbourhood

Last weekend was also spent in nature in Hope, BC for a spiritual day retreat - see my gratitude post last Sunday and picture below of this woman's front yard. And (my) Spirit knows I desired and needed to get out more, especially in nature!

Photo of Hope garden

There was a connection from last weekend to this weekend in terms of being in nature and partaking of a spiritual event. However, there was also a spiritual thread, a focus, that weaved during mid-week and again today in topic.

In essence, I was being drawn or "called to" these circumstances. Some may call this coincidence as I used to term it years ago or synchronicity as I now refer to this phenomenon of being in the right place at the right time.

What does your gratitude list look like today, this past weekend and/or week? Did you notice any synchronicities?

November is National Novel Writing Month

A library shelf greeted me unexpectedly by surprise yesterday. The top shelf proudly displayed a sign, National Novel Writing Month with a beautifully designed page underneath that read, "Sharpen your nib and get creative - National Novel Writing Month."

The page (shown above) seemed to pop out at me so I browsed some of the many book titles on display. Two I ended up taking out, though one in particular jumped out at me: Writing for Children and Young Adults, a Self-Counsel Press writing series book by Dr. Marion Crook.

This book seemed to be a message to me as it reminded me of the 'career' card that I pulled from a small deck of 12 affirmation cards this morning. The cards were created by Anne Marie Evers, known as the 'affirmations lady.'

You may not believe in such things; however check the word 'synchronicity' as there were other indications through memory as well for me including an inspired story I wrote for young children.

Another, The True Secret of Writing: Connecting Life with Language written by Natalie Goldberg appealed to me as well as I had read her Writing Down the Bones book previously; it may have been a suggested reading during my expressive arts therapy program.

You can read a brief blurb about Natalie here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalie_Goldberg
or here at http://nataliegoldberg.com/.

November is apparently a heavy-duty writing month - must be the weather whoever originated that idea ;) - and is actually known as "National Novel Writing Month." It features a 30-day online writing challenge of a 50,000 word novel. NaNoWriMo (http://nanowrimo.org/) for short started 15 years ago! See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Novel_Writing_Month for details.

Now, I do not consider myself a novelist at all, albeit in about Grade 4, the idea of a story came to mind of a young girl and boy on an adventure. I think the girl's name was Susan, and the boy's name David, my favourite male name. Wow! Did I already know that back then?!

These characters, rather kids as they had no established character yet were pretty lifeless because I got as far as either one or two sentences to possibly a short paragraph at most.

And since then, now in fact, I think what happened? Why did I stop? Why did I not continue the journey, their journey to see where these two children would go? Where would their travels take them? What mischief would they get into, what troubles (problems) and surprises would await them?

Why hadn’t I continued to put pen to paper – no everyday computer back then! - instead of abandoning them?

Now, all I think I have left inside me, at present anyway, is at least one short story for young children that was inspired by a children's program that I ran a number of years ago.

Do you have at least one novel or book inside you? Would you consider participating in such a challenge: why or why not?

Written in response to Write Tribe Pro Blogger: November Challenges and Motivation (http://writetribe.com/challenges-and-motivation/) and is linked to NaBloPoMo and UltraBlogChallenge.

Happy 20th Anniversary ... and Happy Spring!

Another anniversary. The last one was to celebrate my one-year birth of my blog last July. This time it’s to celebrate my 20th anniversary in Vancouver, today (and the first day of Spring depending on the calendar year)! It also happens to be my favourite season.

Wow! I can’t believe it! How time flies by, especially as you get older! ; )

While working for a relatively large private benefits and consulting company in big T.O. (aka Toronto) in Ontario, Canada, I had posted quite a number of calendar pictures featuring landscapes of BC and Alberta.

I wanted to go out west to witness this beautiful piece of Canadian soil, mainly because I wanted to experience Expo ’86. This as a result of an attractive scenic shot of Vancouver, BC, primarily of downtown with Stanley Park, the surrounding ocean, and the mountains in the distance.

I may have mentioned it to colleagues including my bosses(?) during the recession at the end of and/or beginning of the 21st century when I was laid off (for what I believe was the first time in my life).

Before that occurred however, I bought a return ticket to Vancouver as my plan was to check out the city before I moved there. When finding out that I was to be laid off, it changed my plans accordingly. Instead, I ended up flying one way on a return ticket; first time to do so but feeling I didn’t have much choice as the economy was pretty bad and I wanted a career change anyway.

What also made me decide to move to Vancouver were my parents, my mother in particular as they were planning to move to one of three Canadian cities out west after my father’s retirement.

My mother declared to me upon a visit to my home with my father in tow, “Elly, if I were you, I would move either to Vancouver or Victoria. It’s beautiful out there, the weather’s better” …blah, blah, blah. I still recall that comment vividly.

So I asked my parents questions though what specifically I can only guess as I can’t recall that part of the conversation, probably stuff like the weather, housing, employment, etc.

And interestingly enough, a man who just happened to be visiting his family in Toronto and who was from Vancouver dropped by after my parents visit. I knew him from a few years prior when he visited the church I used to attend. Then I peppered him with lots of questions, some similar to what I had asked my folks to get another perspective.

When he left, I pondered over both his and my parents’ responses and the most fascinating thing occurred. I felt so happy like I had never felt before. I knew in my heart it was the right decision, without a doubt, without question.

It was confirmed when I moved here during the generally rainy spring season: the entire week was sunny and full of beautiful cherry blossoms in the city!

When have you felt the knock of Spirit on your doorstep or your heart? How has it come to you?