Spun Gold - POSSIBILITY - Theme for February 2022

Potential for………

Open ended answers……

Successful trials……..

Spontaneous……

I take her with me wherever I go…….

Beliefs take time ………

Integrity held fast……..

Living in a way…….

Imagining all the things…….

Turning dreams ……..

Yesterday’s hopes…….

“I am too much of a skeptic to deny the possibility of anything.”

~ Thomas Henry Huxley, Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley

A ‘New' Normal

Potential for normal is right now.

Calling our lives a ‘new normal’ suggests

Tomorrow

Next week

Next month or

Next year

Potential for normal is right now ~

We have met 

today’s struggles and victories,

with lessons already learned,

experiences already lived through.

Potential for normal is right now.

“It’s not about what it is, it’s about what it can become.”

~ Dr, Seuss

Flight # 2021 ~ OPTIMISM ~ Theme for January, 2021

“Overblown optimism is annoying and frustrating.”

Potential for ……..

Trusting that………

Intuition, or more plainly, gut feelings…….

Morals and ethics…….

Integrity…….

Sunshine or cloud

Morning comes…..

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

~ Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan

Desk Drawer Memories

Brass keys that once opened the locks of long forgotten doors. One loose staple that strayed from its little blue box. Polished multicoloured rocks. Bits of paper ~ their purpose? A beautiful green lacquered stamp holder with delicate red flowers. Its purpose? For rolls of stamps not used for many years, it is a treasured gift. File folder labels ~ red, green, blue and yellow. A pastel turquoise tiny stapler laying on its side beside a quite stern looking brown staple remover. And a single pad of sticky notes with a nail clipper and file on top. All of this tossed and jumbled in one desk drawer. As I pulled everything out leaving an empty, dusty side drawer, Harry James Big Band was playing. The vocalist, I think it may have been Bing Crosby, sang the words ‘the album of my memory’. Well, a cluttered desk drawer is not exactly as ordered as an album, yet is still full of memories. Some of the memories, like the keys, are lost in the fog of too many moves. Why do we keep keys?!

With each drawer that I open, I find tiny slivers of memories. It may be a memory of what my intention was, like keeping my file drawers in order. Or it may be a precious gift. Then again, it may be purely utilitarian, like my stapler and staples. Whatever their original purpose or use, they wedge into the tiniest of corners and cracks, much like memories of how to peel apples or knead dough. Marie Kondo, the Japanese organizing consultant, is known to say something like, if it doesn’t bring you joy, dispose of it. I quite agree. Going through this one small drawer, was rather bitter-sweet. A saying of my own is to find the soul within the task. So, clearing and organizing this small bit of clutter, will use these principles. Memories will always stay ~ well almost always. Re-purposing those precious items unhappily relegated to messy clutter, may be a solution. The scary potential of this joy and soul finding belongs to tomorrow’s project.

“Every time I open the drawers it’s a trip down Memory 

Lane, which if you don’t turn off at the right exit, merges 

straight into the Masochistic Nostalgia Highway.”

~ Sloane Crosley, writer

Suddenly Choices

Lynn Canyon Park, North Vancouver
from the centre of the foot bridge

Standing tall and taking a deep breath, 

     potential, 

      risk and 

       possibility surround me.

But which wins my heart and soul?

Or will it be all three?

Only the one

     in front of me

       planned with exploration the goal

         popping up out of the blue

With intriguing elements that 

     warm my heart

        bring smiles to my face

           expand my soul.

Always room for the challenges of

     Rocky roads

       Sudden detours 

          Stormy weather.

Standing tall and taking a deep breath, 

I choose.

“May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.”

~ Nelson Mandela

Gingerbread Showcase 2018 - Victoria, BC

Victorian Noel
created by Karen Peachey

Today, it is blustery and pouring buckets of cold rain from skies gray and foreboding. Saturday, the day I attended two Christmas season fundraisers, was a bit cloudy. A shade warmer but no rain. A good day for a stroll through downtown Victoria. I had already seen the Tuba Christmas, which I posted yesterday morning. I stopped for delicious lunch of gruyere quiche, chocolate dipped oatmeal shortbread and coffee at *Fol Epi about half-way along to see this year’s Gingerbread Showcase. After being warmed and fed, I set out to the annual Gingerbread Showcase held this year at the Parkside Hotel & Spa at 810 Humbolt Street. The Gingerbread Showcase is a fund raiser for Habitat for Humanity.

A West Coast Island Christmas
created by Cari Miller

The Gingerbread Showcase is their ‘premier’  fundraiser and brings together professional and amateur bakers from Vancouver Island. This year there were 25 entries ~ each with their own detail and creativity in edible art. Unfortunately I only have room to show three of them as each of them deserved attention. This year’s theme is ‘There’s No Place Like Home.’ These creations, from humble to grand, whimsical to playful, must meet specific criteria as these are judged by a select group of judges and later on by the public. In a space of 24” x 24”, all components ~ rocks, people, trees, anything included in the setting for the Gingerbread House ~ must be edible to be judged formally.

I have attended other Gingerbread Showcases in the past few years and have always been impressed by the design and execution if these homes. One house (not shown here) was inspired by a family home that had burned down. The bakers created a charming replica of the house, yard and a couple of the family members. Wizard of Oz and Harry Potter inspired Gingerbread homes held the attention of many in the crowd. Sadly, I missed the Harry Potter home due to the interested crowd and the small space accommodating the number of entries. However, this event is held until January 2, 2019 so I must get back to see what I have missed. Choosing my favourite was a task that was very difficult as they were all my favourites until I saw the next one. I don’t remember which one I voted for ~ it may have been the West Coast Island Christmas. But as I said, I missed a couple so I may have missed my ‘favourite’.

The Pawer of RUV created by The Team from
Love of Dogs and Cats Organic Treats

There really is no place like home - a home where there is a real life with laughter, understanding  and tears, home cooked food and music ~ and maybe even the wisdom of a dog or cat. The house doesn’t need to be grand or filled with things. Seeing all these gingerbread homes, is a walk through of all the potential of a home. My wish is for such a home for each of us wherever we have landed in this life.

“Winter is a time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch 

of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.”

~ Edith Stillwell

A Squirrel-ly Poem

My patio garden - July, 2016

My fingers tap 

on the keys of my laptop

like the squirrel 

digging in my garden

wondering, perhaps, if anything worth eating

had been hidden beneath the damp soil waiting 

to be discovered and eaten.

But no, all had been harvested but each day the squirrel returns, curious 

about the soils potential

if squirrels know such big words.

When I dig in my garden I only find peanuts 

magically transported into the soil,

fine hairy roots beginning to sprout, but

I toss them out for the squirrel to pick up

and possibly cache in my little garden. 

“Poetry is the journal of a sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air.”

~ Carl Sandburg

Inbetween

Possibility
Ethics
Reason
Choice
Essentials
Potential
Thoughtful
Initiative
Opportunity
Nuance

“There are things that are known and there are things unknown, 

and inbetween are the doors of perception.”

~ Aldous Huxley

Potential

What challenge did I face today?
Slow burns that had potential. 
Potential to create open fires of unchecked emotion.
Recognizing the angst of some while others needed physical care.

Spreading calm one brush fire at a time teamwork also has potential ~
potential to dampen and provide checks for slow burns,
recognizing that to calm angst is as important as providing physical care.

“Unlimited potential can be developed using limited resources.”

~ Roy Smoothe

A New Meaning

Preparation is a word that has seemed to me mundane ~ blah, lacking in interest. When I am confronted with such a word, I play a game with it to change it’s personality. Give it a boost. A lift. So that I can work with it and find a new meaning and joy in it. 

Here is my boosted ‘definition’ of Preparation ~

Proceed with passion
Responsible actions
Enthusiastic responses
Procedural potential
‘Apparatus of discipline’ *
Rational rhythm
Anticipate activity
Thoroughness of Trickster
Imaginative initiative
Opportunities abound
Nirvana awaits!

*Leonard Cohen

“Poets are soldiers that liberate words from

the steadfast possession of definition.”

~ Eli Khamarov

Adaptation ~ 2

Adaptation and change

not easy when all around seems familiar 

has become comfortably uncomfortable

faded horizons only distant potential

now seem out of reach.

Adaptation and change

in turbulent, violent situations

necessary for struggling survival

control of what has landed venomously

poison to the soul.

Adaptation and change

in the energy and potential of the moment

each foot steps forward til direction is changed

grinding grey habits are broken, 

reaching horizons of yesterday a possibility.

Adaptation and change

keeps at it’s core

comforts of colour, music and home

listening to the playful child within

skipping forward on each new adventure.

“The wise adapt themselves to circumstances,

as water moulds itself to the pitcher.”

~ Chinese Proverb

Only a Black Band

It was only a black band,

but a black band that quietly stated 

potential and knowledge

experience and expertise.

A black velvet band

looked up to and cherished

from childhood all the way

through nurses training.

The crisp white cap was proudly adorned with the sought after black band showing physician and patient alike that the transition had been complete ~ transition from student to a real nurse.

From childhood dream to teenage imaginings

on to book work and clinical experience.

Black bands and nursing caps are a thing of the past

but transition from student to real nurse remains today.

“The distinction between the past, present and future

is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”

~ Albert Einstein

Nurturing Life as It Is

In my many years of nursing, I have taken education days for seminars, workshops and in-services about many areas of health care.

Attending these, sometimes willingly, sometimes not (but don’t tell), they have all been pieces of career development and were often tied to only my current employer.

Some were mandatory, some voluntary.

The workshop I attended this past two days will be useful both

in my career life and in my personal life

in situations that I pray never, ever occur.

However,

I do know that there is potential

as long as people are alive

someone  - a stranger, an acquaintance, a loved one or maybe a close friend -

will wish that they were no longer a part of this earthly community 

will have a plan put in place to relieve whatever emotional turmoil exists within them.

This is suicidal ideation, suicidal thinking.

The word ‘suicide’, not favored by many, is a reality.

World Suicide Prevention Day is September 10.

The practice and information received today begins to develop basic skills enabling assistance every day should they be required.

“In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst 

into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all 

be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.”

~ Albert Schweitzer

Established in Calgary, Alberta 

the ASIST program was developed by LivingWorks Education Inc.

Information about the ASIST program (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training)

can be found at www.livingworks.net

The ASIST program has centers in 

Calgary, Alberta  

Fayetteville, North Carolina

Nunawading, Victoria, Australia

Auckland, New Zealand

University Hospital of Northern Norway