Re-Ordering.....

When all seems out of order

outside our homes, 

inside our heads,

seeing where our feet are

stills any fear or dread.

Are shoes in need of polish?

Or toenails painted red?

Sniffing still air around me, 

is it time for homemade bread?

Few short steps into the sun, 

see hummingbirds out of their beds ~

Look way up to treetops, ebon crows

squawk, finding mates way overhead.

Painting doomsday pictures for 

the world outside or in our heads,

keeps us stuck in overdrive

spinning tires without a tread.

So, listen to what’s deep inside 

our hearts and not our frightened heads.

Choose gratitude and fortitude,

and leave the rest unsaid.

“With all it’s sham, drudgery and broken dreams,

it is still a beautiful world.

Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

~ Max Ehrmann, Desiderata: A Poem for a Way of Life

Flattening the Curve

There is a lot of great health information and a whole of hype going around today about this teeny weeny virus that quite literally has received global attention. War zones and their devastation seem not to exist. People left without home and often family streaming country to country to get away from governmental corruption has vanished. Instead our focus has swung to cruise ships and international travel, large gatherings for sports, other entertainment events and political or educational conventions. Even TV talk shows with audiences have put audiences on hold! 

This has not been just today, but has been building as status reports rain on us from various levels of government and the media. I’ve received at least four or five emailed memos from various companies regarding the details of their preventative strategies. Across the board they appear to be in lock step. ‘Flattening the curve’ was the most important phrase I heard this morning. That from a Canadian medical official in Ottawa. Listening and reading other reports, that phrase has often been used to explain why we close so many gatherings, put conditions on returning from international locales, or using good hand and facial hygiene. It all has the potential to strike paralyzing fear in anyone’s heart. 

My thoughts have often turned to Florence Nightingale in this past week. A woman famous for establishing nursing schools, bringing hygiene into hospitals and surgeons and being a strong, no nonsense woman in the late 1800’s. And here we are in 2020, back to hand washing and good hygiene. Our hospitals, nursing homes and clinics have very slowly reduced staffing at all levels so that they all need ramping up, starting with those wonderful people that clean, the nursing staff that care for the sick and all the auxiliary workers. As one friend put it yesterday on a Facebook post, all these staff members are exposed to innumerable infectious diseases on a daily basis. How would Florence Nightingale have managed us all as we scurry about being afraid, over worked and understaffed? Afraid that we’ll not have enough, certain that someone else will give us this virus that will cause our death and scrambling for our turn to be tested and treated.

We are an abundant country. Yes, we have homeless people and abject poverty here in our land. Those folks have had to fend for themselves for years while we enjoy the comforts of a home. So now, the tables have turned. The spectre of not having enough stares us in the face, bombards our ears each morning when we watch or listen to new reports. In grocery stores especially there is a franticness of customers with heads down, carts full that is not typical even on a Saturday! I won’t pretend to know what situations others are in, even as I see one more 24 pack of toilet paper being carried down the street. The strategies that are outlined for us all by our officials are good, common sense strategies to help us to flatten the curve of transmission of Covid19. They are strategies similar to those that Florence Nightingale established 400 years ago and probably would have quite briskly used them today. 

"I think one’s feelings waste themselves in words, 

they ought all to be distilled into actions

 and into actions which bring results."

~ Florence Nightingale

Basics for Flattening the Curve

1. Wash your hands.
2. Don’t touch your face or eyes.
3. Learn social distancing.
4. Use common sense and kindness.
5. Be creative with all that you own.
6. Know that you have and are enough.

Out of Order

Out of Order

“Gallantly offering his hand, Lord Guillam assisted Lady Veronica from her velvet lined carriage….....

Out of order! This should have been from the blog post written on March 8! Instead, I quite blithely went to a movie, wrote and posted for my blog a movie review of the period piece Emma. I completely forgot the ‘G’ from CHALLENGES leaving, quite insensitively, poor Lord Guillam and Lady Veronica in the limbo of 'The Cloud'. Oh well, they’ll just have to wait for some other time. There are more important things to write about today than Lords and Ladies. 

An interesting interaction I had today. I was unable and unwilling to shake hands with a new acquaintance. How rude is that!? However, with COVID19 invading not only the world but our personal spaces, habits of a life time developed over generations have been sorely challenged. Leaning my head on my hand when reading, holding my two fingers over my mouth when listening intently, wiping my eyes....the list goes on. So I set about developing a list for hand shake alternatives (research over the internet and maybe a bit of my own imagination

1. Fist bumps ~ they’ve been around a long time. But what if the bumper or the bumper hasn’t washed their hands front and back!
2. Elbow taps ~ that kind of looks like some kind of a square dance move? 
3. Toe or foot touches ~ puts me in other a vulnerable position. My balance isn’t all that great anyway, so if the other party’s balance is off - or they’re just feeling mischievous - I could be headed for the pavement, sidewalk, tile………whatever is underfoot.
4. Hand to the heart ~ looks a bit patriotic to me. The message may be lost
5. A single wave of the hand ~ now that could make one look quite regal. I’ve been trying to perfect that royal wave for years.

Lost to our human connections are beautiful hugs and welcoming handshakes. Yes, we do need to be very cautious in this really scary time, but don’t let the scare create a further loss of human connection in this chaotic, crazy old world.

Included is a photo I’ve taken of the memo at the Walk-in Clinic I go to here in Victoria, British Columbia.

Keep well everyone!

“Chaos is merely order waiting to be deciphered.”
~ José Saramago, The Double

Security

Secure in the knowledge that 

an out of order, almost out of control, day sidelines and pushes aside

  musing, 

   essaying, 

     storying, 

or any form of word crafting conferring an awkward sort of permission for writing this stilted bit of wisdom.

“You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.”

~ Jodi Picoult

Book Review: Autumn by Ali Smith

Evermore, and with humility, I must confess that I did not like nor dislike Autumn by Ali Smith. This has made writing this review a bit difficult. Had it not been for this afternoon’s book group discussion, I would have been left wondering what I had just read. Mental gymnastics, Brexit from 2016, Christine Keeler scandals (1961-1963), pop-artist Pauline Bote of the 1960's and a lovely relationship between a young girl, Elisabeth and an old man, Daniel Gluck ~ as well as dream sequences of the strange and bizarre. Their relationship began as a companionship that evolved into quaint and meaningful discussions about the meaning meaning of time, art, music, story and life. Elisabeth's mother was not always in favour of the discussion topics. Elisabeth to obey - for three days - but returned to the fascinating discussions and the respect she received from Daniel Gluck. Ali Smith really did weave all of this very skillfully through only 260 pages. Taking this very literally many times, I did struggle to follow the thread of the story, but soon let go of trying to find my way. Our group's afternoon discussion also revealed a great loss of mine with some good laughs. Several in our little group found much laugh out loud humour in this story. Could this be the fault of this reader being too serious? I did get a chuckle from the scenes she writes, when Elisabeth as a young woman, gets her passport renewed, could be in any passport office. Especially about the stringent regulations about the needed photographs. Will I read this book again? I’m really not sure. It has, however, made me curious.

Autumn is first in a four book series: Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer. 

“We have to hope, Daniel was saying, that the people

 who love us and who know us a little bit will in the end 

have seen us truly. In the end, not much else matters.”

~ Ali Smith, Autumn

Title: Autumn

Author: Ali Smith

Copyright: 2016

Publisher: Penguin House

Type: Novel

Format: Soft cover and hard cover

ISBN: 978-0-14-319789-8

ISBN: 978-0-14-319788-1 (ebook)

'Emma' directed by Autumn de Wilde

‘Emma’ directed by Autumn de Wilde is a difficult movie to pin down. Which one: Period piece? Chick flic? Comedy? Romance? All of the above? This writer is not familiar with Jane Austen’s written work except to know the titles of her books. This, most recent rendition of Jane Austen’s Emma, is quirky and made me laugh out loud. My laughter was at the machinations of Emma Woodhouse (played by Anya Taylor-Joy), an entitled young woman in the 1800’s. Emma, a self described match maker, interfered in the romantic lives of her friends. So much so that she almost lost her own love! Her father, Mr. Woodhouse (played by Bill Nighy), flighty and hypochondriacal, was always certain there was a draft to make him ill calling for his servants to 'bring the screens'. Mr. Knightley (played by Johnny Flynn), from a neighbouring estate, was a family friend who was frequently a guest at the Woodhouse estate. Class strata were evident in relationships and dress. Maids, butlers and footmen carried each day, dressing their superiors, serving their superiors and providing their every comfort. Including privacy while they stood ready to serve. This was all acted out in a charming tongue in cheek manner. The stunning finery, bonnets and coiffures, beautiful mansions and rolling greenery of the English countryside provided the backdrop for this delightful film.

“Silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by 

sensible people in an impudent way.”
~ Jane Austen, Emma (novel)

Directed by Autumn de Wilde

Written By:  Eleanor Catton, Jane Austen

Cast: 

Anya Taylor-Joy - Emma Woodhouse

Johnny Flynn - George Knightley

Bill Nighy - Mr. Woodhouse, Emma’s father

Mia Goth - Harriet Smith

Myra McFadyen - Mrs. Bates

Josh O’’Connor - Mr. Elton

Tanya Reynolds - Mrs. Elton

Callum Turner - Frank Churchill

Rupert Graves - Mr. Weston

Gemma Whelan - Mrs. Weston

Amber Anderson - Jane Fairfax
Miranda Hart - Miss Bates

Mellisa Catches a Frog

Naively pushing on, the little girl waded through the big pool of mud she had stumbled into while looking for frogs and tadpoles in the grassy ditch. Her mother had warned her. ‘Don’t go too far into that ditch. You never know what might be hiding in there.There could be snakes or even old tin cans!’ But Mellisa was a brave little girl. She had her shiny new, bright yellow rubber boots on her chubby little feet. She knew nothing could hurt her. And she might have been right. Pushing her dumb glasses up on her face, Mellisa pushed through the mud. There it was. A little green, speckled frog sat on the big rock at the end of the ditch. She stopped. Stood ab-so-lute-ly still. Hardly breathing at all. She could feel her glasses slipping. But she didn’t move. Mellisa wiggled her toes. She slid forward just a teeny tiny bit. Cold mud oozed down into her boots. Her mom would be so mad. But she really needed to get that frog. She was close enough now. Mellisa leaned forward really fast. But the frog! It jumped faster. Mellisa fell flat on her face. In the mud. The frog landed on top of her curly black hair. Mellisa grabbed it with both hands! She had a real frog!! And Mellisa was covered in mud. It dripped from her hair. Her new play time jacket was wrecked. Her brand new yellow boots were filled with mud. Her blue jeans were soaked and dirty. Mellisa almost started to cry. But then the frog wiggled and squirmed. She stuffed it in her biggest pocket, struggled out of the ditch and put her prize in the big jar she brought for it. Then, slowly and a bit scared, but still brave, Mellisa went into the house.

“Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, 

heart, talent, guts. That’s what little girls are made of; 

the heck with sugar and spice.”

~ Bethany Hamilton

Author's note: Edited April 21, 2024