Reason, Season, Lifetime

It's not hard to explain HOW I came to be in possession of this poem (my mother sent it to me) but WHY she did so is a very long and sorted story so I'll save you the dirty details and just share the poem (or whatever you might call it). It was sent in a pretty little email with photos and such and was broken into the tiniest of lines. I've tried to make it flow a little better here. Hopefully, I've done it justice. It's not the most well written of statements, but the message is worth the read.

The story it tells is a good reminder of why sometimes people will come into our lives and make it better but not stay. Sometimes it ends badly, sometimes it just ends but either way we all change and grow, learn and teach and when those jobs are done, it's time to move on. What we fail to realize is, that is perfectly okay. It is life.

Enjoy.

People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime.

When you know which one it is, you will know what to do for that person.

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When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend and they are. They are there for the reason you need them to be.

Then, without any wrongdoing on your part or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away. Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand.

What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled, their work is done. The prayer you sent up has been answered and now it is time to move on.

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Some people come into your life for a SEASON, because your turn has come to share, grow or learn. They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy.

Believe it, it is real. But only for a season.

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LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons, things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life.

It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.

Maple Syrup Day

Look at me go! I haven't posted for months and now all of a sudden I'm stacking up two in the same week. Don't get used to it. Just two more sleeps and I'll be in the Big Apple for a week so there will be, "No more posts for you! Come back one week!" Ahhh... how I wish I could actually "do" funny.

Anyway, today will be another random thought entry. Some days I need inspiration to beat me over the head with an idea and other days, they just flow like golden maple syrup. Today is a maple syrup day.

Toddlers With Chainsaws
Now that the kids are back to school the doggies have had the house to themselves during the day. The first few days weren't too bad. Unfortunately, Mr. B left his Rush hat out somewhere before he left for 'la Belle Province' and it was mistakenly identified as a chew toy. The next day I think perhaps their allergies were acting up because they used ALL of the Kleenex but were not polite enough to put them in the garbage when they were done. I see that we'll have to have a refresher course on proper etiquette. The day after that we were very careful to remember that dogs have the capacity of a toddler. A toddler with a chainsaw. That day was incident free. Yes! We're on to something here. (insert big sigh here) But alas, all good things do come to an end eventually. Although we didn't get a picture of the actual presentation they chose for their masterpiece, I did manage to grab a shot or two of the gathered disaster. This is what they did:

Quality Over Quantity

Has something bad ever happened to you that you were actually thankful for afterwards? One of the books in there was a special little book given to me by a dear friend. A dear friend who loves me as I am and who probably knows me better than I know myself sometimes. She shares my passion for photography, particularly black and white, and she shares my view of quality over quantity when it comes to friends. We're the kind of girlies that stand the test of time. All that being said, it was quite fitting that she gave me this book. She gave it to me many years ago for no other reason than she knew I would like it. Those are the best kind of presents, aren't they? It's been proudly displayed on my bookshelf since she gave it to me but I shamefully admit that I've only looked at it two or three times.

I was very sad to see that my goggies had chosen that particular book to chew but I'm not angry that it happened. When I found it, I sat down and looked through every page to assess the damage and it occurred to me that they had actually chosen the perfect book to destroy.

You see, I needed a reminder of sorts. I didn't need a reminder of how much I love Shannon or that I should spend more time with her or any of the typical things that would go through one's head at such a time. We have extremely busy lives but we use every resource we have to communicate and get together when we can, stress free. We both appreciate every minute no matter how frequent or far apart they are. In fact, the NYC trip is a sort of celebration of the friendship that she, her beau, Mr. B, and I all share. So, I didn't need a reminder of what a good friend she is, I'm well aware of and thankful for that. I did however need a reminder of just how rare our friendship is and how amazing we are together, as well as individually. I needed a reminder to remember those things in me which she loves. I needed a reminder to stop using my camera just to take pictures and start capturing moments and telling stories again. ;)

My Life in Coffee Cups

I won't go into my rant about how difficult it is to be a Gemini again, you've heard that enough but it's necessary to touch on it to explain the dilemma I faced this morning.

A huge part of me loves order, balance, and coordination. Another huge part of me hates performing the work necessary to obtain order, balance, and coordination as is evident by the photo of my drink ware cupboard.

If you look closely you can see that I have a rather large collection of just plain white cups and just clear tumblers... somewhere in behind the beer glasses of the world and the mish-mash of coffee cups.

When I open this cupboard I usually feel this overwhelming sense to straighten it and hide the monstrosities that do not match but then my desire to actually use one of them dominates and I leave it for another day. A day that comes only two or three times a year when the control freak in me can no longer take the disorder.

I saw things differently this morning. The need to match, tidy, and organize lasted only a second and then I had trouble deciding from which story of my life to drink my morning courage. I placed them all on the bar top so that I could examine each one individually, remember where each of them came from and why my love for each is stronger than my compulsion and make a well deserved choice.

It was not an easy choice.

I had my RadarSat-2 cup which is important to me because Mr. B and I were part of the team that built that satellite and other cool stuff including the OBSS that allowed NASA to "Return to Flight" and reignite the shuttle program. Although we were just small drops in the bucket of effort to make both of those missions happen, we contributed and are therefore entitled to a little piece of the pride. We met astronauts and had lunch with NASA execs. That's a huge deal to two little Canadian kids who started their life together far too young and who never thought they'd amount to very much. To you it might look like just a cup, to us it's a symbol of how far we've come and how far we can still go. (and how yummy the spacecraft factory breakfasts were)

Then there was my Gemini cup from the Disney Store with Stitch on it. I love Hawaii, I am a Gemini, and I love Lilo and Stitch (Mr. B's folks call me Lilo, I love them) so this mug represents a whole lot of happy to me. However, I just whitened my teeth and so I really shouldn't drink quite that much coffee today, so I decided to pass.

That left me with my hibiscus mug that I bought at the ABC store in Hawaii, my Wicked! cup that I bought when I went to the musical last year, a beautiful Starbucks cup and saucer given to me for my b'day by my pal Marianne (because we always meet there), and my Wicked Witch of the West cup that Mr. B bought for me because it says, "I'm a wicked witch. What's your excuse?" and well, it suits me. All very important to me for various important reasons. I usually always use the wicked witch cup so I gave it the day off.

It was a tough decision but I chose the Wicked! cup because in just four more sleeps I'll be sitting in 4th row at the Gershwin Theatre in New York City with my dear friend and our darlings watching my most favourite musical. I'll try to remember to capture the moment but I have to admit that I'll be more concerned with just living it.

The Language Spoken Here

I had hoped to get some of our veggie adventures posted in the "mostly meatless kitchen" but Mr. B was home for a few days and so I was stuck to him like glue. I've started to document an unfortunate situation for an unsuspecting eggplant and I'll head back over there once I'm finished here.

We went out for dinner Friday night sans bebes and I really wish I had brought my camera with me. It was oh-so mouthwateringly delicious! Is that even a word? If it's not, it should be! We shared a caramelized onion and kalmata olive flatbread for starters. For our main, I had butternut squash ravioli with goat cheese and pine nuts and he had pan seared sea bass on wilted spinach au gratin and some sort of yummy vegetables that I cannot remember. Then, came dessert! I don't have dessert very often (or go out for dinner to a place that doesn't have a kids menu with food named like superheros or something equally as cheesy) so I decided to get my all time favourite. Creme brule. Oh, how I love the sound of the crisp sugar crust cracking under my spoon. I love the taste, the smell, the temperature, and the texture. If I could have dessert every day without fear of gaining 100lbs a week, I'd have creme brule everyday. Mr. B had New York cheesecake with strawberry coulis. An excellent choice! If you were to humanize the relationship between me and my favourite desserts, creme brule would be my sexy-smart-intriguing husband and cheesecake would be the object of a torrid affair.

Anyway, all that to say that dinner was amazing. What was not so wonderful though was walking home on the most beautiful night of the season carrying a 10lb food-baby and that being the only thing I could think of. Oh. My. It was way too much food to consume in one sitting and so it was rather uncomfortable. I think one has to do that every now and then just as a reminder that one does indeed have limits. It was nothing that jammies, a movie, and slipping into a coma couldn't fix. ;)

We talked, we planned, we made fun of each other's food-baby and most importantly, Mr. B did not let me sleep on the neighbour's lawn until I could walk comfortably. I begged him to go on without me and just leave me there until morning. Instead he held my hand and told me jokes to make me laugh so I could keep my mind off the fact that I really just wanted to sleep off the impending food paralysis

That made me think of all the reasons we've made it this far. There is really no need to get into the sticky mess that is our past, but let's sum it up by saying that many couples we know have split for much less than what we've endured. Even when things are bad, we still have a secret language that helps us communicate when all the other words are just too difficult to comprehend. Laughter. Fun.

We built a new house last year and our builder was sometimes very frustrating to deal with. One of the annoyances was the lack of lawn until late into the summer. It was a drag. The kids had no soft green space to play on and our house was constantly covered in a layer of dust or mud. We could have been real jerks about it but instead, we chose to do this:



Eventually, it looked like this and we were happy. Then we had to find other ways to entertain ourselves though.



You know my rule... when life hands you lemons, make lemon scones.

I've been uber-busy with my little business lately and so that I still get to spend time with Mr. B when he's home without letting my orders slide, he joins me in the dungeon and we play a little game we used to play a long time ago. When we were younger and the babies were still babies, we never went out because we were always so tired and besides that, we never had any money to go out even if we wanted to and so we used to play video games, watch movies, and play "stump Marnie". (Get it out of the gutter!) How it works is that Mr. B plays a clip of a song and tries to stump me. I can't remember where I put my car keys 1 minute after I put them down but I can remember a song I heard once or twice when I was 14 years old. He searches songs on Blip, I build jewelry and pluck the song out of my dusty brain and shout it out. Mr. B continues to search. Music. Another magical language.

We also know how to have fun. Yes we do! The next photo captures an impromptu party that broke out with the kids... on a Tuesday night.


Loud music, dancing, soda pop and snackies for the kids, a glass (or two) of wine for Mama. Good times.

Oh, and this one is for you Ellen. I've taken your advice and I've chosen to avoid seeing tumours. Instead, my peppers now have bums.


The language here is sometimes a little different from what others speak. Sometimes the dialect is a little funny, quirky, dark, or silly but we all understand it and that's enough for us.

Racing Stripes

Isn't it funny how the mind can wander? How one simple image can lead to so many thoughts?

I bought a new coat. I think it's dandy. It's black (surprise!) and is sort of a short trench coat kind of thing. Anyway, one of the things that really attracted me to the coat in the first place is the racing stripes, oh and also the buttons on the sleeves. I love a long line of buttons up a sleeve. Sometimes.

Back to the stripes. There is a belt on this coat and on the inside of this belt there is a ribbon that has beige, black, and rust stripes. RACING STRIPES! So then I thought, "I bet this new coat can make me go faster. After all, cars with racing stripes can go faster, can't they?"

Then I wandered further. Further back in time.

Faster. Yes, just like my shoes. Then I remembered THE shoes. When I was about five or six years old I had a pair of Wonder Woman running shoes. Oh, how I loved those shoes! In those shoes, I could do anything. In fact, I vividly remember a conversation with my grandmother in which I regaled her with all of the many amazing things those shoes could let me do.

Picture it.

It was a sunny Sunday afternoon. We had already been to church that morning and of course I did not draw any unnecessary attention to my shoes. I had to stay incognito. Super heroes are supposed to be just like everyone else when they're not saving the world but beyond that, it's just not proper to do such a thing in church. My grandmother cannot drive so we caught a ride with one of the other parishioners out to the cemetery on the other side of town, our side of town. We used to frequently visit my grandfather's grave and ensure that all the flowers we had planted were weed-free and that all the bird poop was cleaned off of his headstone. Then we would visit our other family members and make sure their spots were ship-shape as well and then we'd walk home. It was that particular walk home in those shoes that I remembered best.

Looking back on it now, it was quite a hike from the cemetery to our 'hood for a little girl but we had done it so many times that it was really nothing at all. Especially since I had Wonder Woman shoes! There are many old growth trees out there and I informed my Nan that if I needed to, I could run right up those trees. You know, like if she were stuck up in one of those trees or something like that. Then we passed the gully. I told her that if I needed to, or really wanted to, I could jump down there and land flat on my feet without a scratch on me. You know, because I have the Wonder Woman shoes and they gave me power. Then we crossed the train tracks. I informed my Nan that if the train were coming and it was going to hit her that she didn't need to worry because with my shoes, I could pick her up and run the rest of the way home without running out of breath. Of course, I also informed her that since she wasn't in danger and I didn't need to save her that I couldn't just go ahead and do those things because that would just be showing off. She agreed.

Did I mention that my grandmother is the most tolerant woman I have ever met in my entire life?

All of this because I have racing stripes on my new jacket. The mind is a wonderful thing. I wonder what memories will come flooding back if I find something that reminds me of my Wonder Woman Underoos.

Top 5 things I love about my dog... Django

5. He doesn't smell like a dog, in fact his smell is like that newborn baby smell... delightful and comforting.

4. His temperature is about 400 degrees and therefore keeps me warm when he's cuddling beside me.



3. He eats the snow off the back deck so I don't have to shovel it.



2. He gives me many reasons to laugh out loud, everyday.

1. He makes me want to be the person he thinks I am.

A letter to Mr. B.

Dear Mr. B,

I thought you might be interested to know what happened to me today.

Today I learned to surrender. I know Cory Hart said to "Never Surrender" but as you know, I never much cared for him anyway. It's no secret that I quite often (some might say constantly) feel the need to be in complete control of situations and I discovered, or perhaps realized, that I don't need to always be in control. Sometimes, it's better to surrender.

I know, I know, you're saying, "whatchu talkin' 'bout baby?" Well, I had my massage therapy today and while I was in the chair I realized exactly why your massages are always better, even if they are shorter (much MUCH shorter) and you're not really trained all that well. No offense. ;) I realized that it's because I surrender to you. So, instead of clenching the armrest like the poor fellow was trying to kill me, I let go, relaxed, and actually got my money's worth this time. Mind you, I feel like I've been beaten with a hockey stick now, but I'll be heading to bed soon and the rest will fix that.

After I thought about it some more, I realized that I need to apply that same theory to many other parts of my life. I need to stop worrying about every little detail and just surrender to the moment. Take care of what needs to be taken care of, and enjoy everything else.

Now, all that being said I think I'll go "surrender" to a piece of cherry & chili chocolate.

I miss you. I'm counting the days until you come home.

Lovingly yours,

Mrs. B.