Once In a Lifetime - Talking Heads
I find now more than often I ask the question 'How did I get here?' It's not that I'm confused or unhappy with where I find myself in life but rather a chance to look back at all the experiences and choices made in life to bring you to a point in time. I look at it as a celebration of what I've done and where I am now. Every little step makes us who we are and takes us along the road in life.
I think it's important to take stock now and then on where I am and check in with myself. Do I like where I am in life?, what I'm doing with my time?, whom I'm spending time with? Am I learning?
Looking back has been particularly relevant in the past few days as I find myself in Europe. I am continually drawn back to past trips and experiences while travelling whether these be 9 years or 30 years prior, they seem to be suddenly at the forefront of my mind. Perhaps that's age as the long-term seems much clearer than the short-term these days. I'm loving it.
In independent travel there are lots of individual decisions to be made. Decisions as large as where and when to go, to the smaller ones like which street to turn down when meandering through a new city. While both are important, I love the adventure of the small ones. Turning a corner unguided brings about unexpected adventure and opens your mind to all possibilities.
In the past days I have wandering the streets of the catalonia area in Spain. Barcelona and Girona in particular. Barcelona is familiar but always changing and developing. Girona is new to me and the perfect place to make those little decisions that have the potential for great experiences and open your mind to every sight, sound and smell. You reach a destination and looking back to 'How did I get here' takes on a new meaning. Was it the tracing of the past few turns on the map or does it extend to the choice of city and method of transport, or even further to what brought on the decision to pack a bag and make the journey? It's important to think about it now and again and take that journey back in your life. How did you get to where you are now? Let yourself enjoy the journey once again.
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Saturday, July 11, 2015
And the cat came back the very next day
And the Cat Came Back - Harry S. Miller
We live in a house of dogs. Not that we have a ton of dogs, in fact, the dog we have now sits on the borderline in the dog-cat spectrum, but we identify as a dog household rather than cat. In fact you could say that some in the household are 'anti-cat'. This tendency is reinforced by mild cat allergies in my girls and the fact that we already have a cat chasing dog in the house.
So, where is this all going? One late night as my daughter was walking home from work she called and said she had a problem. Ok, that could be anything so I braced myself. The problem is that a small cat had been following her home for a number of blocks, randomly darting out into the roadway in the process. I told her to keep walking and ignore it and see what happens when she got home. She tried to ignore it and walk it back but eventually, the two of the arrived at our door. My thoughts were that it could sleep outside with a dish of milk and a blanket but at midnight I wasn't wanting to negotiate or reason with my daughter with that idea. So, in my new version of parenting teens I left it to her - 'What should I do?' My response: 'You decide'. So, my daughter decided to keep the cat in her room for the night and then source out the owner in the morning.
I left her on her own the following morning to find the rightful home for the feline and checked in with her later in the day with the provision that it would NOT be spending another night in the house. By the end of the day she had looked for identifiable tattoos or chip implants and found none but decided to have it checked out by the nearby vet. They found a chip and also confirmed that not only was the cat fairly young but it had been recently spade and was still healing from the surgery. The vet researched the chip and identified that it was registered in - get this - Taiwan. Before you take your mind the same route mine did namely, how did this animal get across the ocean, the story makes sense in the end. Due to the time change, they wouldn't be able to get any info on the registered owner until the next day. She found a friend who would take the cat for the night thereby meeting my requirements that it not be in our house and also relieving her of the ever increasing allergic reaction she was having. The cat was gone for the night but, as the song goes, the cat came back the very next day.
In the end, the owner was identified as someone living along her route from work to home. Apparently Taiwan is a common place for cat rescue and that's where this one originated. Although sounding bizarre at the time, in the end, it all made sense. It was a good lesson for my daughter, learning to make a decision, live with it and carry it through to the end. It also prompted her to fully clean her room to get rid of any 'essence of cat' that might remain. That in itself was worth a few days with a feline.
Now, if it had been a puppy....that's another story.
We live in a house of dogs. Not that we have a ton of dogs, in fact, the dog we have now sits on the borderline in the dog-cat spectrum, but we identify as a dog household rather than cat. In fact you could say that some in the household are 'anti-cat'. This tendency is reinforced by mild cat allergies in my girls and the fact that we already have a cat chasing dog in the house.
So, where is this all going? One late night as my daughter was walking home from work she called and said she had a problem. Ok, that could be anything so I braced myself. The problem is that a small cat had been following her home for a number of blocks, randomly darting out into the roadway in the process. I told her to keep walking and ignore it and see what happens when she got home. She tried to ignore it and walk it back but eventually, the two of the arrived at our door. My thoughts were that it could sleep outside with a dish of milk and a blanket but at midnight I wasn't wanting to negotiate or reason with my daughter with that idea. So, in my new version of parenting teens I left it to her - 'What should I do?' My response: 'You decide'. So, my daughter decided to keep the cat in her room for the night and then source out the owner in the morning.
I left her on her own the following morning to find the rightful home for the feline and checked in with her later in the day with the provision that it would NOT be spending another night in the house. By the end of the day she had looked for identifiable tattoos or chip implants and found none but decided to have it checked out by the nearby vet. They found a chip and also confirmed that not only was the cat fairly young but it had been recently spade and was still healing from the surgery. The vet researched the chip and identified that it was registered in - get this - Taiwan. Before you take your mind the same route mine did namely, how did this animal get across the ocean, the story makes sense in the end. Due to the time change, they wouldn't be able to get any info on the registered owner until the next day. She found a friend who would take the cat for the night thereby meeting my requirements that it not be in our house and also relieving her of the ever increasing allergic reaction she was having. The cat was gone for the night but, as the song goes, the cat came back the very next day.
In the end, the owner was identified as someone living along her route from work to home. Apparently Taiwan is a common place for cat rescue and that's where this one originated. Although sounding bizarre at the time, in the end, it all made sense. It was a good lesson for my daughter, learning to make a decision, live with it and carry it through to the end. It also prompted her to fully clean her room to get rid of any 'essence of cat' that might remain. That in itself was worth a few days with a feline.
Now, if it had been a puppy....that's another story.
Saturday, July 4, 2015
Another one bites the dust....
Another One Bites the Dust - Queen
Everything is in a state of constant change. No complaints as I like change but while out on a walk the other day I was particularly struck by the change happening in my neighbourhood. I live in the centre of a smaller city where there has been a mix of housing but mostly older 1-2 story family homes on larger lots. In the past 5 years that has changed so that the shift is to larger, grandiose style structures with more living space than lot area. It seems every day there is yet another smaller home being bull-dozed and it's place a yet even larger structure.
I'm not sure where this is leading to? As my thoughts move toward downsizing and reducing space and clutter, these larger homes promote massive living areas to be filled yet more and more clutter. Where will I go when the kids are gone and I no longer need or want to manage more space than I can use? Will there be a space for me? Will my only option be to buy a piece of the sky or live in the underground space of one of these larger homes? Who can afford these places and is that sustainable?
I'm beginning to no longer recognize the neighbourhood that I have grown to love over the past 25 years. I guess I'm sounding like one of the 'old folks' that can't let go of the past. I'm not really. Ok, I'm older but I'm willing to allow things to move along. I'm just not ready to feel like it's not my neighbourhood any longer. I like where I live but am beginning to like many parts of it a lot less.
If people are attracted to living in this neighbourhood why do they need to change it rather than embrace what it already has become? When we learn that bigger is not always better? More doesn't mean anything beyond quantity and not quality?
Enough of the rant. There are still many qualities to my city that make it special and exactly what I like. For now that will keep me here until it comes time for my home to face the bulldozer. (sigh).
Everything is in a state of constant change. No complaints as I like change but while out on a walk the other day I was particularly struck by the change happening in my neighbourhood. I live in the centre of a smaller city where there has been a mix of housing but mostly older 1-2 story family homes on larger lots. In the past 5 years that has changed so that the shift is to larger, grandiose style structures with more living space than lot area. It seems every day there is yet another smaller home being bull-dozed and it's place a yet even larger structure.
I'm not sure where this is leading to? As my thoughts move toward downsizing and reducing space and clutter, these larger homes promote massive living areas to be filled yet more and more clutter. Where will I go when the kids are gone and I no longer need or want to manage more space than I can use? Will there be a space for me? Will my only option be to buy a piece of the sky or live in the underground space of one of these larger homes? Who can afford these places and is that sustainable?
I'm beginning to no longer recognize the neighbourhood that I have grown to love over the past 25 years. I guess I'm sounding like one of the 'old folks' that can't let go of the past. I'm not really. Ok, I'm older but I'm willing to allow things to move along. I'm just not ready to feel like it's not my neighbourhood any longer. I like where I live but am beginning to like many parts of it a lot less.
If people are attracted to living in this neighbourhood why do they need to change it rather than embrace what it already has become? When we learn that bigger is not always better? More doesn't mean anything beyond quantity and not quality?
Enough of the rant. There are still many qualities to my city that make it special and exactly what I like. For now that will keep me here until it comes time for my home to face the bulldozer. (sigh).
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