February 27, 2011
Here’s another slice of my 2010 Highlight Moments, but without the superfluous links and elaborate explanations which were so painfully present in part one — live and learn!
APRIL
Our housing co-op gets its ventilation ducts cleaned, and my son Vincent turns thirty-one (story of his birth).
MAY
While my son Sébastien and his wife are in Jamaica, I spend ten days at their house with Justin, their youngest son, and Molly, their Golden Retriever.
This is the gift they bought for me — “HAVE A NICE DAY”
And here is the artist, Philip Henry.
My daughter-in-law said that this drawing reminded her of the ones that I draw. Coooooooool.
Back home, I give my balcony its usual spring makeover.
JUNE
My mammography turns out fine…
my grandson Justin turns four…
and I buy my MacBook Pro…
ho ho ho!
JULY
My oldest grandson turns eight; I get a new Mac because the other one was a lemon (O the drama and the multiple visits to the Apple Store!); and my brother sends me postcards from Rouen, in France, where our ancestor René de LaVoye was born (they will be added to my POSTCARDS FROM BOBBY BABY collection real soon).
Up untill then — minus the Mac episode — the year had been pretty darn smooth.
To be continued!
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January 31, 2011
(Better late than never, right?)
JANUARY
Wrote 21 posts on this blog plus 20 on my French blog, for a grand total of 41 posts — I was on a roll!
Faithful to my yearly ritual, I picked a rune: Ansuz — amazing how spot-on it ended up being. Wait till you see the one I picked for 2011 — YESSS!
Started this big 12-Notch plan with my usual over-the-top enthusiasm. I wanted CHANGE. I wanted ABUNDANCE. I wanted 2010 to be the most creative and productive year ever.
Of course, my plan was well organised and came with monthly goals, weekly baby steps, weekly updates, and a monthly trophy for reaching my monthly goals. I’m quite the Master Planner.
Did a whole lot of walking, that month. Could be it was a way to get out of the house for exercise… or could be it was a way to get out of doing the work I was supposed to be doing in order to move onwards and upwards towards a brighter future. In any case, I’m sure it’s what was best for me at the time — riiiiiiiight.
Saw the movie Avatar which had me imagining Cameron’s first draft… 
FEBRUARY
Wrote 8 posts + 8 posts on my French blog = total of 16 posts.
I stretched daily — it was my first goal.
My second goal was to come up with a decent about me page. A goal I reached in OCTOBER… and it’s still not completed. Must be my penchant for suspense, eh?
Ended up giving myself half a trophy and finding all kinds of excuses to justify my lack of action.
On February 27, I wrote 20 pages in my Journal about what poverty represents for me. It was — and remains to this day — an eye-opening and life-changing exercise.
MARCH
Wrote 4 posts + 4 posts on my French blog = total of 8 posts.
Though eliminating ones clutter is very feng shui and clears the way for the Law of Attraction, I must admit that physical work such as emptying storage units and moving personal archives around from boxes to shelves to more boxes has often been an excuse for me to not do what I should be doing in order to make my dreams come true — *sigh*.
But, I did end the month on a most positive note: got rid of my Pax The Singing Clown costume which was a constant reminder — as it hung in my closet — of my being “poor” and having to busk the metro for spare change back when I was in my fifties.
Goodbye “poor” me — Helloooo RICH moi!
(to be continued)
November 14, 2010
Once upon a time, more or less long ago, you and I were born with a treasure chest snuggled deep down in the fuzzy part of our hearts, and this treasure chest was jam-packed with the most wonderful happiness one could ever wish for.
Because we were such precious beings, the gods and goddesses, angels and fairies, leprechauns and other magical creatures rallied together to scatter keys to our treasure chest in gazillions of places. They wanted to make sure we could find the keys at any time of day or night, at any place here or there, in every city and village around the world.
How easy it was to find the first key in the arms that cradled us as we sucked our warm milk; the next in the brand new diaper that softly wrapped our tender pampered buns; and the very enchanting one contained in the lullaby that was sung to us as we slowly drifted into slumber.
The weeks and months went by, and we discovered with mounting excitement the keys hidden in our Teddy Bears and Barbie dolls, and in all the toys and games that filled our days with fun. Thus it became natural for us, as soon as we woke up in the morning, to think about having as much fun as we had had the day before. And as soon as the thought of having fun popped into our heads, the keys to create it popped up all over the place.
Little did we know, in the early stages of our journey, that the act of focusing on what we desired worked as a magnet to attract the keys that unlocked our treasure chest of happiness. But day in, day out, we focused… we imagined… we pretended… and we embraced with laughter and joy the many magical moments that made up our burgeoning lives.
Oh how happy we were! How passionately we lived every single one of our days, bright-eyed and amazed.
Even when it rained, or when we were stuck in the car on our way to grandma’s, or woe is me when we were sick in bed, we found the key to instant happiness through a game that was then widespread: I Spy with my Little Eye.
How thrilling it was to explore our surroundings; to scan in detail what made up our teensy-weensy world; to look for everything “red” or “blue” or “green.” Was it the red apple in the basket… the blue numbers on the dashboard… the green stripes in the wallpaper? I Spy with my Little Eye prompted us to be still — in the moment — and to sharpen our awareness… all in the name of fun.
But as we grew and our world broadened,
the game changed and the plot thickened!
In our teens, our little eye was deviously driven to spy on less amusing things: the pimple on our nose which we were certain had begun to glow; the tooth in the middle, on the right, that had gotten crooked overnight; and our thighs – jeez! – the way they rubbed together and made this squishy sound that was no doubt heard throughout the cafeteria as we walked towards our table, staring at the floor, thinking everyone was mocking us.
And now decades later, our adult spying eye has become an expert at zooming in on not only our personal faults and mishaps, but also on those of the people in our family and the ones at school, in the office, on the street… Eager to feed our hungry eye, we scrutinize the news for more: murder, fraud, famine, poverty, bigotry, racism, war… Evidently, it’s all gloom and gore!
And just when we think we’ve reached the peak of horror and disappointment, it turns out the purple drapes we ordered don’t match the purple in our duvet cover.
Disenchanted, we cannot help but recite to our stressed-out self:
I spy with my little eye
no keys, no chest,
no happiness.
WHAT TO DO?
I won’t ask you to stop playing the game — by now, it’s deeply ingrained. I won’t tell you to turn a blind eye on the state of your nose and the world around you — people will claim you’re letting yourself go or, worse, that you’re an insensitive jerk.
We don’t want to hear that, do we?
No… there’s enough drama as it is.
So the only solution I’ve found — and believe me, I’ve lived through numerous pimples, pitfalls, and pffft — is to play the game, see the drama… but focus on the humour underneath the tumour.
THE ULTIMATE KEY
I’m sure you’ve heard people declare, when something unfortunate happens to them, “One day, we’ll look back on this and laugh.” Well I say why wait, let’s laugh right away!
Because my karma has taught me the following lesson: Our level of happiness is directly proportionate to the time elapsed between the unfortunate event (pffft) and the burst of laughter (lol), i.e.:
happiness = pffft-lol
In this equation, the *hyphen* represents the shortest elapsed time possible between the disaster and the roaring laughter.
This is precisely what we are shooting for.
This tiny line — the hyphen — is the key to our happiness.
Now, I don’t know how long your line is at the moment, but if it takes you a few years to finally be able to chuckle about something that hurt you or broke your heart, I’d say your line is pretty long. Don’t worry, though: your humour is alive and well and growing under your pile of manure.
If it takes you only a month or two before you crack up and laugh — during which period you complain, bicker, rage, and have either migraines or heartburn, BUT you also either meditate or jog, read about Buddha or study the Torah, take up fly fishing or watch Oprah — then this means you are determined to snap out of your rut and quit tormenting yourself. Bravo! For this, I give you 500 Giggle Points and a Bamboo Back Scratcher.
Eventually — and this I know for sure — you will reach a point where immediately upon hitting a bump in the road, you will accept, forgive, let go, relinquish control, trust in the journey, and spy with your little eye something that is funny.
That day, sweet soul, you will roll on the floor,
laughing your heart out.
It will be
~ THE BEGINNING ~
and you will live happily ever after!
