Go Deep

Go deep

recognize that gut feeling 

let it bring you to a halt
feel the stillness
in time to divine the next step,
a perception ~

inside your heart and soul.

Go deep ~ 

feel the feeling for what it is.
Only you know its meaning.

“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart.

Who looks outside, dream; who looks inside, awakes.”

~ C.G.Jung

Author's Note: Edited January 14, 2024

Stumbling Blocks

Stumbling blocks
Blocks that sound big and scary
Scary blocks of channels and streams
Streams dribbling over rocks
Rocks that are really only grains of sand
Sand piled and pushed together
Together, only a perception of blocks
Blocks with tiny spaces for streams
Streams of consciousness
Consciousness taking time for awakening
~ to perceptions of crumbling blocks.

“A stepping-stone can be a stumbling block if 

we can’t see it until after we have tripped over it.”

~ Cullen Hightower

My First Christmas Event of the Year

Poster from Carole to my personal email

My first Christmas party of the year! An annual Holiday Open House at Carole James Community Office on Fort St. here in Victoria. No politics spoken here - just warm holiday welcome and greetings from Carole, her staff and volunteers. No perception of vote garnering in this small community gathering. A nice way to end my work day! I have only known Carole to work with integrity and compassion for the people of her community, with a great big smile, gentle brown eyes and firm resolve.

“The spirit of Christmas 

is found when we lift 

the load of others.”

~ Toni Sorenson

http://www.carolejamesmla.ca

Author's note: Edited January 14, 2024

All the Must's and Have To's

All of the must’s and have to’s of old messages swirl around ~ pushing determination and will

aside, chasing dreams and beliefs into dark corners,
sneaking back into their own 
shadows raising the dim of belief and dreams.

As the fog lifts
Perception of today’s reality clears once more.

“It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.”

~ Aristotle Onassis

Book Review: The Girl Who Was Saturday Night by Heather O'Neill

Heather O’Neill wrote a wonderful story with colour, emotion and chaos. This Giller Prize finalist for 2014, The Girl Who Was Satuday Night, also gave me an insight into so many that are raised in challenging economic situations and family dysfunction.

Twins, Nicolas and Nouschka. Étienne Tremblay, their father, a once popular Québécois minstrel. Their mother, not in their lives. LouLou, their grandfather. All within the bounds of Boulevard Saint-Laurent. What could go wrong? What went wrong was everything and nothing. Nicolas and Nouschka were their father’s pretty and talented children, but only on stage. Their grandfather did the best he could for them, providing them with food and a home. And of course the French/English divide from the 1970’s when the twins were young children to the 1990’s when they were in their late teens, added it's own form of chaos.

Nouschka narrated this story of twins that were in the midst of their father’s celebrity and yet at loose and parentless ends. They both felt the loss of their mother, one other person that fell to the charm of Étienne Tremblay. Both Nicolas and Nouschka's perceptions of this loss play out very differently. This is the story.

For anyone that is morally sensitive this may not be a book you want to read. Where there is no one to raise a child, the culturally appropriate boundaries of sex and friendship are missing. Learned by experience only. 

The format of the book has been fairly controversial. First of all the cats that roam throughout the book, feral and lost but always landing on their feet, or just being there. Then 67 chapters, each one titled in words suggesting the chapter focus. The chapters were short.  All of this can be off putting initially but my reading is that it matched the chaotic lives of all the characters in this book.

“I was trying my best to straighten out my life, but I always ended up

 in the middle of some festive waste of time.”

~ Heather O’Neill, The Girl Who Was Saturday Night

Title:  The Girl Who Was Saturday Night

Author:  Heather O’Neill

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

Publication Date: 2014

Format:  Soft Cover

ISBN: 978-144344-245-9 (pbk.)

Type:  Fiction ‘The author wishes to acknowledge the generous funding from the Canada Council for the Arts’

An Evening Out

Bubby’s Kitchen
355 Cook St.

Not a pub
Not a jazz club
But good coffee, great food and music.

This past Thursday, I shared a supper and a fun evening with two friends. At 8pm sharp, one of the staff sang for us.  Another confession! I didn’t even get her name. She accompanied herself on electric guitar and later on ukele. I did think the ukele carried her voice more beautifully than the guitar.  Even with my lack of attention to the musician's details and wonderfully plated meal, my perception of her musicality was present. 

My meal was beef rib and pasta ~ delicious ~ and some of that good coffee: a delicious latte. It was an enjoyable evening, one that I will do again - but next time I’ll pay attention to the entertainment and to the menu!

“Pay attention to the intricate details of 
your existence that you take for granted.”

~ Doug Dillon

Movie Review: Mockingjay Part 2 directed by Francis Lawrence

Pardon the flash on the poster!

I confess. The only one of the Hunger Games series that I have seen is the first:  The Hunger Games. Nor have I read this fascinating trilogy by Suzanne Collins. Fascinating, because in the first movie, teenagers were ‘chosen’ by a dictator to compete in a nationally televised event called the Hunger Games. This competition was to the death. The relationships began in this movie in 2012.

I had a bit of a concern that I’d not be able to follow some of the story line or character relationships, however went into the movie hoping and believing it would be made to stand alone. And stand alone it did. The tension and speed of the story was incredible. There was no time to worry about any previous relationships or history. In this movie, the goal of the original Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and her followers, is to stop the killing that has become a never ending cycle. To accomplish this President Snow (Donald Sutherland) must be assasinated. President Coin (Julianne Moore), the leader of the rebels clearly has her own political goals. The perception was that the leadership of either side could not be trusted. I definitely recommend this movie for those that want a dystopian setting, sensational scenes and well balanced tension and relief.

An interesting aside, Philip Seymour Hoffman, now deceased had completed all by two weeks of his role in all four of the movies before his untimely death. Lionsgate Productions made a statement regarding ‘work-around issues’ to be done that were ‘up to the best of his craft’. It was very sensitively done.

“My name is Katniss Everdeen. I am seventeen years old. 

My home is District 12. I was in the Hunger Games. 

I escaped. The Capitol hates me.”

~ Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay

Movies: The Hunger Games (2012), Catching Fire (2013), Mockingjay Part 1 (2014), Mockingjay Part 2 (2015)
Books: The Hunger Games (2008), Catching Fire (2009), and Mockingjay (2010)

Directed by Francis Lawrence

Partial Cast:
Jennifer Lawrence - Katniss Everdeen
Josh Hugherson - Peeta Mellark
Liam Hemsworth - Gale Hawthorne
Woody Harrelson - Haymitch Abernathy
Donald Sutherland - President Snow
Philip Seymour Hoffman  - Plutarch Heavensbee
Julianne Moore - President Alma Coin
Willow Shields - Primrose Everdeen
Sam Claflin - Finnick Odair
Elden Henson - Pollux