Textured (weekly photo challenge)

Path (weekly photo challenge)

La Mauricie National Park, near Shawinigan, Quebec (Canada) is a place dear to my heart. If you can forgive the over-abundant mosquito population you will be amply rewarded by the gentle grace of the towering trees, the perfect stillness of the lake, and a welcome replenishing of the soul.

Here are two of my favourite loved ones making their way down the path that leads to the waterfall basin. Within minutes they’ll be in the cold, fresh water…

My life in thirty-five

In response to a suggested topic from The Daily Post, here is one sentence about my life for every year that I’ve been alive. It actually took longer than I expected, but was totally rewarding – try it!

Can you tell I was born in the seventies?!

1976: I am born in November and quickly become very fat but remain rather bald for longer than my mother would have liked.

1977: At six months old my parents take me to Iran to show me off to the extended family; I’m still hoping to go back for a second visit.

1978: I really don’t remember being two, though I wish I could.

1979: I don’t remember being three either, but apparently I was a quiet and observant toddler.

Baby sister!

1980: I have my first lucid dream, in which I calmly inform Sylvester the cat to stop chasing me because “this is my dream and I say so!”

1981: Even though kindergarten is technically only half-a-day, I stay all day, every day (I love it, and the teacher loves me).

1982: I wildly decorate my baby sister’s due date on my wall calendar; she arrives two weeks late.

1983: We move from a small 18th floor apartment downtown to a perfect little house near the beach (in Toronto).

Never without my books...

1984: I wear my hair up in a high side-ponytail and eat peanut butter sandwiches for lunch almost everyday.

1985: My best friend Sarah and I invent a secret language that is actually just English, but we speak it so quickly that no one else can understand.

1986: My buddy Michael gives me a ring as a token of our friendship; my mom makes me give it back.

1987: At our grade six ‘graduation’ my friends and I sing “That’s what friends are for” and promise each other that we will always stay in touch.

1988: At age 12, my family moves from Toronto to Montreal, creating a 600km divide between my childhood and my adolescence.

Montreal (as seen from the old port)

1989: As the new girl, I am unwittingly voted into the class council as pastoral representative – a position that I gradually transform into morning poetry reader and Amnesty International advocate.

Teenage tree-hugger

1990: Teen angst rears its ugly head and my journal pages quickly fill with melodramatic ramblings.

1991: Adolescence marches on.

1992: And on.

1993: Finally graduated from my private all-girls high school and after four years in the same kilt, was utterly unable to even look at the colour blue.

1994: First real boyfriend…

Freedom!

1995: Dancing all night is a way of life.

1996: Developed deep friendships.

1997: Dropped out of university, quit my job, and moved to the Rockies with a boy I had known for only a few weeks, but knew that I had known forever.

1998: Came back pregnant and unmarried, much to my parents’ chagrin ;)

1999: My first daughter is born, au naturel, while a fantastic blizzard blankets the city.

Mama Love

2000: Started wearing blue again.

2001: Went to school, worked two jobs, raised my girl, had lots of stress and lots of fun.

2002: Continued to be an honours student on most days, beer-slinger on some nights, and mom all the time.

2003: After breaking up and making up a million times, realized that some people just aren’t good for each other.

Friday night on the job

2004: Finished my undergrad in psychology and philosophy, and only eight years after I had begun it.

2005: Got a real job.

2006: Fell in love again.

2007: Started grad school.

2008: Stopped bartending/waitressing after almost ten years.

2009: Birth of my second daughter, under a perfect crescent moon and in such a hurry that she shoots past the doctor’s hands and is caught by the nurse.

2010: Life is messy, beautiful, funny, chaotic, painful and glorious.

2011: I start this blog.

~~~

Up (weekly photo challege)

Moment of Glee

– brought to you by fresh spring air and daddy’s arms –

Flowers (weekly photo challenge)

I stepped out onto my back balcony the other day to find the afternoon sunlight pouring over these awesome yellow flowers in my neighbour’s yard. The bees were going mad sucking up all the nectar from the exposed centres of the flowers, which are so tall that they rise far above my first floor balcony. I snapped dozens of photos, and these three are my favourites. What I love best about these pics is that they are not altered in any way – not cropped, not colour-adjusted, not anything. Just as is – like the flowers themselves, and the bees, and on the best days, me.

Colour Therapy

Last week I bought a colouring book for my toddler – her first, actually – and was reminded how much I love this activity. As we sat together and dumped out the box of classic Crayola crayons I felt the grip of yet-another busy day start to loosen. Before long I was happily filling in a portrait of Big Bird posing in the park, only vaguely keeping an eye on my little one, who was cheerfully scribbling on the table, the chairs, and occasionally the colouring book.

I don’t know exactly what it is, but there’s something about colouring that is just so soothing. Maybe it’s the zen of the back and forth or the sense of control from staying in the lines; whatever it is, I’ve loved it for as long as I can remember. As a child I would spend hours lying on the floor with my coloured pencils all around me, carefully filling in the pages of my jumbo colouring book, colour coordinating the outfits on the cartoon animals and what have you. In adolescence I discovered the next level – a colouring book with white sheets thick enough to handle markers (woohoo!) and page after page of intricate patterns, designs, and mandalas to fill. When I wanted to shut down my mind and find some peace, that’s where I’d be.

Nowadays it’s back to basics with the crayons and the newspaper-grade paper but I have to admit that it’s great. In fact, this is one of the things I love best about being a parent: doing it all over again.

Entrance (weekly photo challenge)

The theme of this week’s WordPress photo challenge – “Entrance” – immediately made me think of this amazing doorway I encountered in Berlin.

An entrance to the world outside.

Hi everyone –

I’m Sarah – welcome!