The fog lifting in the Fraser Valley of BC.
(taken with my camera phone while zooming down the freeway)
Seeing: White and grey. I’ve been away for a week now…checking in with my father in the interior of the province. It’s colder here than on the coast…below freezing and with an arctic wind blowing. Br-rr. A few inches of snow fell a few nights ago so it’s looking a little Christmassy.
Hearing: The wind blowing. Howling, in fact.
Tasting: Ginger Ale. Dad has been sick and is drinking ginger ale...and so have I. It’s odd the associations this drink brings up for me...whenever we were sick as children, we were given ginger ale and to this day it takes me back to that. We were never given pop or soda at any other time except at Christmas, so it always felt very special to be sick and get this treat! It's interesting how these things can get twisted in a child's mind and taken forward into adulthood. What were you given to drink (or eat) when you were sick as a child? Does it have the association of being nurturing? I still find a glass of Ginger Ale to be very comforting.
Smelling: Peppermints…how many people do you know who still keep a candy dish full of “sweeties” on their coffee table? (My dad does.)
Feeling: There are changes afoot in dad’s health and it’s difficult to watch him try to come to terms with this new challenge. At 96 (next month) change in one's life is not usually an easy process.
And yet, life is always about change. It seems to me that a successful life can be measured by our adaptability to the changes we encounter along the way…both the ones we think we want and the ones we’re sure we don’t want. Do we struggle and rail against them or accept them and then look for the "fascination" with where this new step has taken us?
Not always easy to do, but I'm practicing!
The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled.
For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers."
Scott M. Peck
Blessings to you all dear friends, in these last busy days and weeks of 2011.
