Humans – Best Day Ever

Seldom, if ever, do people decide to just stop whatever they are engaged in; their work, their duty, their play, their goals, their dreams, their fears, their fantasies…their conscious lives.

Seldom, does one’s life reduce itself to its most basic elements.

An opportunity exists for us now to reflect; to sense ourselves without distraction. This is the opportunity that seekers of meaning; explorers of inner and outer spaces hunger for and here it is,

Plop, in the middle of our laps.

Cancel the meditation retreat and the ayahuasca, to induce an altered state and lead you into new awareness. Here it is, free of charge.

The bardo; the space after the exhale and just before the inhale. A long precious moment in our shared existence, where everything has hit ‘pause’.

And when “play” is pressed again, will the same Music play on?

I wonder.

The idea of travelling to Haida Gwaii arrived in my head unprovoked. Perhaps I was influenced by marketing that I no longer remember, who can say? It’s not something that has haunted me in the past.

My uncle lived in Charlotte for several decades but I visited him long after he’d sold his marine engine business there and retired to the Gulf Islands.

Nevertheless, the idea took hold. I tried to shake it off several times. Getting there is expensive and time consuming. One might try to convince oneself it would be a scenic voyage along the coast… but on a ferry?

Two days before I was about to leave, my sailing was cancelled. Bad forecast. I was quite disappointed and a tiny bit relieved. I could cancel the trip or consider flying.

I asked a friend. She emailed back one word. “Go”.

I flew.

For the first couple of days, I kept waiting for something appropriately mysterious and magical to happen. Why had I been ‘called’ to visit Haida Gwaii, anyway?

I walked. I hiked. I drove. I ate. I slept. I explored the magnificent Haida museum in Skidegate. I took pictures.

And nothing, happened.

It was a trip about small things. Little openings of thought. Brief encounters with people. Better sleep each night. Looser walking each day.

Just small things.

We are celebrating Kaylah’s completion of fifteen earth years, on January 8th.
She was our second Schipperke, our first being a divine little beast whose physical form was a disaster; heart, liver, thyroid. Her fighting spirit and Schipperke elan delighted us. We’d adopted her at two, and we finally released her at six.

Kaylah (Mazeru’s Kenya) came to us from Anna Verleg, in Vernon BC. She was a feisty puppy, (factory installed) and I was a complete novice pet owner. She endured my ignorance with equanimity. Over the past decade and a half, I have diligently taught myself to be a better trainer and she has skilfully guided me to becoming a better human being.

Thank you, Kaylah.

Today, I dismantled a single bed box spring with a pair of scissors and some needle nose pliers. It’s a fairly old box spring with Ruby chew marks at all corners.

Its next stop would be the landfill, so before that happened, I considered how I might repurpose it.

Box springs look quite luxurious in the store and they are pricey. It’s interesting to take one apart in about 15 minutes, revealing its less luxurious staples, cardboard, plastic, foam and polyester.

After stripping off the foam backed fabric, pulling out the staples, removing the large rectangle of cardboard, I was left with a fairly solid frame; screwed together, not stapled.

My plan is to bisect it and put wooden tops of each half to make two dog training platforms. I may decide to put some feet or wheels to elevate it from the ground and make them easier to move around outside.

Repurposing makes me feel happy.

Today, I am grateful for my husband who helps make my creative ideas a reality.

Category: Humans

Just press “Paws”

Small Things

Fifteen

Repurposing stuff