A Matter of Degree

A degree, or two, or four, changes this

to this

and vice versa, I suppose.

Technically, of course, it doesn't change bushes to a road. Just the snow to rain and ice.

Two WikiThoughts

So, Wikileaks. So what?

1. News flash: DIPLOMACY REQUIRES TACT.

2. As the World High School Turns: Episode summary.

Chris, the crusading and/or conniving editor of the school newspaper, found a diary containing the most personal and private thoughts of Usa, the most popular girl in the school (just ask her).

Chris, being the crusading type, or possibly the connving type, plans to publish the diary in the school newspaper, page by page, thus drawing out the drama all week long.

The school is all a-twitter. (Twitter: See how au courant I am?) What does Usa think of us? Of me?

Those in the Asia club huddle to gossip, but then North Korea pokes South Korea in the eye and China says, "Don't make me come back there" and they lose their focus.

The members of the African club try not to be concerned. Australia and New Zealand shrug and go surfing with their Pacific Islander friends. Central and South America pretend to go about their business but hang out in the hallway outside the newspaper office.

Two groups of loners (yes, it's oxymoronic)--the Middle East and India/Pakistan/Bangladesh--brace themselves for the publication of nonsense about them (though Israel and India secretly think they'll come out looking relatively good).

Poor Haiti. It's home sick. (Seriously. Haiti deserves a better 2011.)

The Scandinavian Club remains aloof, as usual. Somone in the former Soviet club insults a former Baltic state and a scuffle ensues. Russia officiates.

The groups disband and reform: the History club (members of the former British Empire) meet to share rumors, then report back to their home continents. The former Soviet republics touch base with Turkey, the Middle East loners, and north Africa, then drift back.

Even the European Club, focused though they are on ekeing out each other's allowances, can't pretend they don't know that Usa's most secret feelings are going to be made public.

Meanwhile, Canada sits at the window, staring out into the evening. What will Usa say about me? Will Usa recognize my loyalty? Will she compliment my mission in Afghanistan, my compliance in trade negotiations, my leadership, uh, followership, uh, "being there"-ness in environmental and security issues? Will Usa go on record and tell everybody we're really best friends?

A horrible thought crosses Canada's mind: what if Usa doesn't say anything about me at all?

Tune in tomorrow, when Canada is forced to write her pal Usa a sternly worded letter (in invisible ink) in As The World High School Turns.

47 Days of Thanks: The Wrapup

Here are the posts from the final partial week, along with some closing thoughts. For what this is all about, go here and start at the bottom.

‎47 Days of Thanks, Day 43: I'm grateful for the opportunity to see a live production of The Laramie Project last night. The acting was impressive but the real inspiration was the tangible commitment to the project. It was a wonderful cap to a week full of challenge and insight around our human creative (and destructive) potential.

‎47 Days of Thanks, Day 44: I'm grateful that I made myself brave the swirling snow and yucky roads yesterday morning to go where I needed to go and do what I needed to do. Sometimes snow is an opportunity to take a break; sometimes it's an opportunity to keep going.

‎47 Days of Thanks, Day 45: I'm grateful that my brother, Pete, celebrates his birthday today. It's been a difficult year for him, health-wise, but he's doing well. I'm happy he's part of my life!

‎47 Days of Thanks, Day 46: I'm grateful that so much of my work, both paid and unpaid, is about imagining a future and bringing it to life.

‎47 Days of Thanks, Day 47: I'm grateful to friends and family, many of whom have accompanied me on this journey, and all of whom have given me so much to be grateful for!

I finish this adventure with mixed feelings, which is par for the course with me. This week in particular was busy and productive, and it was hard not to feel nostalgic in advance that I was coming to the end of the 47 days.

Here are some of the highlights (for me) of the experience as a whole.

On one hand, 47 days is a whacking long time. Coming up with something to post on Facebook first thing in the morning was sometimes more difficult than I expected. On the other hand, 47 days is also only one-and-a-half months--a blink in a lifetime, less than 1/6th of a year.

Regardless of my perception of the rate of time passing, lots of “stuff” happened during this 47 days.

Some of the stuff was big stuff. One of my aunts died--that family's first loss of a parent, which marks a new stage of life for my cousins, bless them. One of my brothers had his last round of chemo and celebrated his birthday feeling strong and optimistic. I am now eligible for CARP membership myself.

Some of it was less-big stuff, though not small. A cousin's son (in fact, the grandson of the aunt who died) is in a vocal singing group whose video of Lady Gaga's Bad Romance went viral. It was fun to see the video appear on diverse friends' Facebook pages. Also, there was much busy-ness about jobs and work and clients and organizations.

In fact, much of what I was grateful for reflected the groups I am part of: a church and its Wednesday evening series, a writing group's readings and workshops, the book club, the occasional theatre production (as audience).

Some of my gratitude reflected the time of the year. A windstorm suspended electricity and took down trees and I was reminded, again, that my life is far easier than many. In summer, we might shrug at all the opportunities to see wildlife. In the fall, birds on the deck or a fox trotting through the yard are Events again, and thus reasons to stop and watch.

When I started, I felt somewhat petulant and in need of an attitude adjustment. This exercise certainly helped me focus on gratitude for at least a small part of each day. As the American holiday approached, I began feeling positively festive, so much so that I made a celebratory meal yesterday and took the day “off.”

Therefore, my Thanksgiving-Day-to-Thanksgiving-Day journey is complete, but the experience will stay with me for awhile.

One insight I'm still mulling over. Early on, I said that it's possible to find things to be grateful for even in the face of difficult times. That continues to be true for me.

But I can also see how someone could focus on gratitude as a form of denial. Your daughter stays out past curfew but, hey, you're grateful she didn't end up in jail. You're behind on a project and don't want to tell your boss, so you focus on the beauty of the lemons in the bowl on the counter. Turning your face toward gratitude could become a way to turn your back on challenges--having those difficult conversations, exercising the self-discipline you know will make you happier in the long run, or even making large, difficult life changes. “It's not as bad as it could be” could be either a positive insight or, ultimately, a destructive one, if it keeps you from fixing things you can actually fix.

But I'm still thinking about that, and about the other lessons from the whole 47 days. And I think I'm most grateful for that--the fact that this experience has given me so many rewards, so much to contemplate--most of all.

I Walk in Beauty

See?

I buy exercise gear when it is on sale and I'm at a discount department store in the U.S. Those are my main criteria. So I'm not even sure what brand these shoes are. They were on sale, though.

As a bonus, I'm leaving butterfly-wing footprints all over the driveway!

47 Days of Thanky Gratitudinal Goodness

Here we are, week 6 already. One partial week left.

For what this is all about, go here and start reading at the bottom.

Here's a recap of the week, with thoughts at the bottom.

‎47 Days of Thanks, Day 36: I'm grateful for the first snow of the season! It's a beautiful addition to the otherwise relatively bland November landscape.

‎47 Days of Thanks, Day 37: I'm grateful for the sense of continuity that comes in a day when you can see life at both "ends." Yesterday I remembered loved ones lost and got to see pictures of a friend's brand-new granddaughter.

‎47 Days of Thanks, Day 38: I'm grateful for my iPod and CBC radio podcasts. Sometimes when I'm walking or working outside, they're just background noise, but often I get a gem--new musician or writer or quote--that stays with me.

‎47 Days of Thanks, Day 39: I'm most grateful for the opportunity at a writing workshop last night to play around with characters--creating them, defining them, presenting them. It's useful sometimes to remember that creativity is FUN.

‎47 Days of Thanks, Day 40: I'm grateful for another evening that gave me a compelling idea--happiness is like a mirror. Other emotions can pass in front of it but it doesn't change the mirror's essential nature. That's what I'm finding about the life I live today

47 Days of Thanks, Day 41: I'm grateful for days when I wake up in a winter wonderland. I know that snow is a pain in the neck for some; I know rain will make the world a sloppy mess this afternoon. But now, this minute, it's beautiful, and I'm grateful.

‎47 Days of Thanks, Day 42: I'm grateful that not ALL the scones got burned on the bottom. Sigh.

Again, another mix of sublime and mundane, which is a reflection of my life. Lots of my days are taken up with twiddling and fixing--reorganizing others' ideas and clarifying their meaning. Yet I also have time for creative work and I'm grateful for the structure of a couple of groups that formally address creative living.

The first snowfall mostly disappeared before we got the heavy, covering snow, some of which has itself blown away. I left the scones in about a minute too long. But why must these scones be destined for sharing with company??

Ah, well. Into each life a little snow, and burned pastry, must fall. It's just my turn, I guess!

One Expression, One Pronunciation

Recently, I have been trying to collect other language observations but still have just one expression and one pronunciation. So here you go.

1. Expression: "keener," as in, "The keeners who finished their assignments early got a lollipop."

From context, a keener is enthusiastic. She is eager. She is on that project right away. A quick trip to the urban dictionary confirms my sense that a "keener" is a little like a brownnoser but not as nerdy.

I don't know an American equivalent. Do we scorn eagerness and achievement? Do we answer rhetorical questions? We do: indeed, we do.

2. Pronunciation: "juke," as in, the Grand Old one from York with ten thousand men who marched them up the hill (and then he marched them down again).

"Duke" has cropped up on TV fairly often recently, for some reason (perhaps Prince William's engagement? but he's a prince...hmm). Often it's pronounced as "dee-YUKE," run together quickly. But I've heard a fair amount of "juke." Since moving here, I have heard mercifully less "dook," which is what my "dee-YUKE" pronunciation was teased into, lo those many decades ago. Apparently the "y" sound conveys a certain refinement, a sense of "who do you think you are?" intolerable to my peers. And I caved to their pressure. I pronounced down.

Also, in this country I am apparently surrounded by "KYOO-pon" rather than "KOO-pon," which ditto with the teasing, although my husband says "KOO-pon."

And I, embracing my inner keener, have found myself returning to "KYOO-pon" and "dee-YUKE." And now, I'm off to march up and down hills!

First Snow

The first snow of the season came this weekend. We got just a little out here. Folks in town had more.

So you have to wonder: will it stay or melt before we get more?

Because there will be more. Meanwhile, we're sorta like this rock--
half and half, and half and half.
Brown/black, wet/dry.
Half hoping, half dreading. Half excited, half resigned.

And, like the rock, we're not getting up to go elsewhere.
Yet we reserve the right to the mixed feelings.

47 Days of Gratitude and/or Thanks, Week 5

Here's this week's round-up. For what this is all about, go here and start at the bottom.

‎47 Days of Thanks, Day 29: I'm grateful for aaaaalll the laughter about changing the clocks: "I turned all the clocks back!" "But I did some of them already" "Did you do this one?" "I don't know, what does it say?" "Well what time is it?" Etc. Note to self: next year, this is the job of ONE PERSON.

‎47 Days of Thanks, Day 30: I'm grateful for a day with some chunks of time to put toward projects, as opposed to the slivers that have been more typical of my days lately.

‎47 Days of Thanks, Day 31: I'm grateful for the ongoing warmish weather, which is allowing us to clear the trees off the camp roads in shorter sessions, a couple of hours a day, instead of in two or three backbreaking days. We're maybe 1/3 done. Good exercise!

‎47 Days of Thanks, Day 32: I'm grateful for the wee aches and twinges my body shares when I do real work outside instead of an approximation of work in a gym setting. It's a nice grounding in the physical. (Also nice to get trees off the path.)

‎47 Days of Thanks, Day 33: I'm grateful for those who speak their truth about their experiences so that I learn what their sacrifice was like.

‎47 Days of Thanks, Day 34: I'm grateful for days that bring a variety of tasks. If something isn't going well, I can move to something else for awhile.

‎47 Days of Thanks, Day 35: I'm grateful for today's lesson in the meaning of the term "exponential." As in, two grandsons cause exponentially less mayhem than three.

This week brought a nice mixture of ceremonial gratitude, with Remembrance Day, and solitary gratitude, with opportunities to work outside. It started with the companionable laughter of the two of us bumbling our way through life's tasks, and ended with a more boisterous family time, when two grandsons spent a night and a day and reminded us again that learning the right way to safely cut your sandwich with a sharp serrated knife is really fun.

As my husband is wont to say, "Life is good."

How Much?

Here's what it looks like around here today.

This is just one tree, too.

There will be firewood! And yes, it also looks like this sometimes, or it did a few weeks ago.

Living here is definitely worth the work.

47 Days of Gratitudinous Thanks, Week 4

The days are flying by (tickety-boo*), rather like the years (tickety-boo-hoo) and we come to the end of another week.

For what this is all about, go here and start at the bottom.

Here are the individual days from Week 4, followed by a lesson or two.

‎47 Days of Thanks, Day 22: I'm grateful that I shared part of my afternoon yesterday with a whiskey jack (gray jay). While I sat at the dining room table shuffling papers and scribbling notes, s/he hunted flies outside, first on the front porch and then on the back deck. They have a way of looking at you that is so friendly!

‎47 Days of Thanks, Day 23: I'm grateful for the comfort and nurturing of quiet morning routines: making coffee, emptying and refilling the dishwasher, taking out the garbage.

‎47 Days of Thanks, Day 24: I'm grateful to have made it through a full five decades of life. I can't wait to see what the next ones bring!

‎47 Days of Thanks, Day 25: I'm grateful for all the kind birthday wishes and for being in touch with family and friends via FB, via regular mail, and in "real life." Also, last night I had the opportunity to remember "the saints"--those who live on in my mind and heart. It was a great (grate-ful) day.

‎47 Days of Thanks, Day 26: I'm grateful for the lesson I learned yesterday while watching a pileated woodpecker go to town on the insides of a downed pine tree: find a likely spot, work like hell, and don't let anything distract you or scare you off.

‎47 Days of Thanks, Day 27: I'm grateful to have a front-row seat to the changing seasons. This morning, the lake sports a thin skin of ice near the shore.

47 Days of Thanks, Day 28: I'm grateful for the security of having food in the pantry and refrigerator--and even some choice about what to eat!

The effects of the storm and power outage linger in the form of gratitude for the simple and natural things, like the company of animals (I didn't write about the pair of foxes that came to play on the lawn between the house and the lake, or the several deer that have cavorted through).

Also, speaking of the power outage, we threw away a lot of food that was spoiled, though we didn't lose too much. It's nice to know our food supply is safely replenished--and I am recognizing first-hand the role of food as a measure of security.

Again and again, and especially this week, I am reminded of just how wealthy I am, in family and friends, in life circumstances, in health. It's humbling, and inspiring.

*Hmm, I knew "tickety-boo" reminded me of something. Pooh's "tiddley-pom," anyone?

Hi Ho Hip Hooray

Well, it happened. I heard my third "tickety-boo" today. And when n = 3, and none of those "n"s is is a relative, and especially when one of them was a CBC pundit, I feel compelled to share.

So, here you go: "Things were going along tickety-boo when all hell broke loose."

I have never heard it used when it wasn't followed by the sense of "but I was mistaken" or "but that didn't last long."

As in, the economy was chugging along tickety-boo until the housing market collapsed. Or I was running all my errands, tickety-boo, and then I got slowed by road construction.

A brief Google search reveals that it may be Scottish, and that's likely how it came into Canada.

It also revealed the following earworm, with which I leave you:



It is, after all, a peaches-and-creamy day, on which one wants to bless mankind, including one's attackers.

My Birthday Gift

Today I am older--by one day, yeah, but also by a year and that year ends in "0" and I am now officially a crotchety old lady.

In that spirit, here's what I want for my birthday this year.

Americans: Vote. I don't care how angry or disillusioned you are, go vote. Then stop focusing on what "the government" is or isn't doing, did or didn't do, will or won't do. If you have a job, work and be glad. If it isn't the perfect job, work and be glad and learn what you can. Feed your soul and exercise your body. With the rest of your time, be with your kids instead of fretting about what you can't buy them--have them read to you or tell you a story. Go visit old people--smile at the chronically ill. Clean up the trash on the highway. Volunteer somewhere, somehow. There is always something that needs doing. So stop talking and go do it.

Canadians: Let go of the smug. The Canadian economy is barely hanging on and Canadians are getting more deeply into personal debt. An election is coming, sooner or later, and you'll have the opportunity then to choose your leadership. Meanwhile, you can also stop complaining--about the Harper government's disdain for scientific expertise and basic honesty, perhaps; both issues well worth complaining about--and work with your chosen party to research and propose some alternatives. But mostly, don't bother feeling superior to your neighbours in the U.S. Complaining about the government that's in power but refusing to clamour for its removal is its own form of insanity.

Don't make me come back there, y'all. Just smarten up and we'll get along fine for the next several decades.