A Surprise Gathering

When the day has been sunny

And the conversation funny

Children played, sang and danced

Adults chatted, laughed and relaxed

Food, in abundance, was delicious

Music and balloons were capricious

When we each took a turn

We created a very good day.

“There is no surprise more magical than the surprise of being loved.”

~ Charles Morgan

Roads

A nap in the afternoon

Just because

A coffee break 

Just because

Walking outside in the fresh air

At anytime - because it feels good

Getting up at the crack of dawn

Without having to get anywhere in a hurry

Learning another language - Spanish on the list

Because it’s something I always wanted to learn

Buying groceries that fit my new lifestyle

A ‘kitchen creativity’ life of deliciousness

Embracing community activities in ways

That I’ve not done since I was a kid

Delving into the road so much less traveled to 

Find that there are so many more roads to choose from

Knowing today as the future of my youth

And being uncertain of the outcomes but 

willing to take each step.

A nap in the afternoon

Just because of the magnitude of it all.

“When within yourself you find the road, the right road will open.”

~ Dejan Stojanovic, The Creator

Retirement Blues

A summer time shot from a couple of years ago - my goal,

Fourteen days into official retirement Twenty-six days from my last shift,

stepping forward was my choice ~
excited and open hearted until spaces of time when groceries bought for lunches magically appeared;
when the alarm clock no longer goes off
but I awaken on time and early anyway.
To these open spaces that drift past
left unfilled until I learn to stop rushing in my head and 

become comfortable with the tap tap and sway of new
rhythms in life and learning about
  Yesterday’s beliefs
      Today’s activities and
          Tomorrow’s hopes and dreams.

“Sooner or later I’m going to die,

but I’m not going to retire.”

~ Margaret Mead

Book Review: The Golden House by Salman Rushdie

The Golden House by Salman Rushdie is full of stories. There is never just one story to tell. One situation to describe. One family to recognize. Nero Golden comes to America with his three adult sons to establish a new life. Simple? Salman Rushdie’s characters stream through each other’s lives trying not to get lost in the currents and eddies of political strife, underworld machinations, cultural and gender shifting while adapting to identity, power, and greed to find and accept with an open hand, hope and genuine love. The narrator, one René Unterlinden, while writing a movie, takes from Roman mythology, Greek tragedy to the modern day Joker of the comic-book world. No super heroes to save the day but many anti-heroes litter the pages. An oft repeated question was whether a good man could be a bad man and could a bad man be a good man could appear to be the nub of the story.

My book group yesterday discussed the enormous number of words and ideas that were skillfully crafted by Salman Rushdie. Some of us enjoyed this novel, some of us were just overwhelmed by the sheer amount of detail that went into this work. I had not finished the book by time for book group so, while I had the latter opinion of feeling overwhelmed, I did not feel I could contribute much to the discussion. This morning, I finished The Golden House and found all the loose ends tied up as neatly as possible given the nature of the story. I say as neatly as possible given the very human situations. There is a great sense of reality to this book which, I must admit, engendered a sense of discomfort as much of this was too close to the state of the world today.

Will I read this book again? A book with this amount of detail will be reserved for its own time and place.

“This is what I am not: I am not one thing. I contain multitudes.”

~ Salman Rushdie, The Golden House

Title: The Golden House

Copyright: 2017

Author: Salman Rushdie

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Canada

Format: Novel

ISBN: 978-0-7352-7356-6

ebook ISBN: 978-0-7352-7358-0

Breath Work

fragile and ethereal

Hope suspended like

a flashy helium balloon

floats away on an errant breeze.

solid and energetic

Hope planted in

the ground at our feet

grows with the breath of our actions.

“I must do something or I shall wear my heart away.”

~ Charles Dickens

Motion

Settling grudgingly into

the fine silt of emotion

provides opportunity 

to focus on finding rest.

Rising happily into 

the open air of emotion

embraces the energy

to focus on welcome choices

“There is a difference between giving into something and accepting it.”

~ Elise Broach,  Shakespeare’s Secret

More than a Musical

Friday evening, I enjoyed an outing a friend. Penning this essay today, I began writing a movie review of the 1939 film classic The Wizard of Oz. That is until I realized that this evening was in fact a Victoria Symphony performance. It was unusual in that the only part of the Symphony orchestra I could see were the feet of most of the musicians, and the conductor not at all. Outside the edge of the screen on one side was a violinist and on the other side a cellist. A movie screen had been lowered in front of them for the showing of this movie classic starring Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale. The musicians played the score of this movie skillfully and very beautifully becoming the musical soundtrack of the movie.

A narrow, and somewhat, isolationist belief that a symphony performance will always involve the classical music of the ages has been dashed by the Victoria Symphony Orchestra. This belief of course involved the stereotypical wearing of formal evening clothes. Audiences in attendance do not follow that stereotype but attend to hear the music not be part of a fashion show.

Anyone can expect to hear and see wonderfully diverse music and musical theatre from Victoria Symphony Orchestra. This move outside of an expected norm to marvellous musical creativity has certainly offered me a musical ‘yellow brick road’.

“Follow the yellow brick road.”

~ The Wizard of Oz