I’m standing next to a tall, beautiful nun in a gorgeous royal blue habit. She is selling 2025 calendars from her parish, L’Ordre du Magnificat de la Mère de Dieu. Each calendar is $10. The owners of the shop bought a calendar and gave an extra $5 donation for a candle. As she walked out the door, the wind lifted her habit in a cape like way, as though she was a superhero. I was transfixed and felt as though I was in the presence of God or a divine spirit.
Cheers was an amazing American sitcom that was on television from 1982 to 1993. The show was about a bar, called Cheers, where a group of locals met to drink and hang out. It was the kind of bar where, “Everybody knows your name.”
There are wonder places like this in every city and town. There are also unique places and spaces which hold a “beautiful spirit”. Places that go beyond knowing your name. More like places which clearly understand your soul and being. Here are some of my favourite spaces and places which I LOVE!
In some ways, I guess I’m not a competitive person. Not much in my life gets measured. Unless it’s a bet that I’ve made, then this becomes a “principal point” instead. Some people are all about the measurement of life and perhaps that’s their justification for doing something successfully or not.
At the end of one of my creative writing workshops, a student got up from her chair, stretched and said, “Ahhhhhh! That felt like I was meditating!” Her comment took me by surprise!
Students say many things to me after a class or workshop. Mostly, they ask questions about the course materials and content. This was the first time a student compared a creative writing workshop to meditating.
I thought, I must have bored the student so much they went off into a meditative state.
In this regard, I suppose my class was terribly boring and drastically needing some excitement. I felt very concerned…
At first, my diary was a place to put all my confusing adolescent thoughts. Where else was I able to say, “I’m a freak! I’m so in love with Lee Majors, Fonzie and Elvis all at the same time.” Or, “I don’t know why my left boob is bigger than my right boob.” Or, “My F+*#kin English teacher, she’s such a…”
He opened the door and I closed my eyes and started a countdown in my mind. 50… la la la … 49… la la la … 48… la la la … I got to around 45 when I realized the palms of his hands were in fact godly.
I ask myself this question, how does this person finish our…sandwiches?
It’s nothing you can try to understand; it just is. Where did we meet? How did I know this person before? How does s/he understand what I’m about to say? Why is there so much connection without any connectivity? Is this a soul I’ve known before? It’s got to be more than what it is. But….there’s no known history.
How can there be so much more life in a mobile device than in actually living life?
As I was putting a grape into my mouth a fly whizzed by me and I dropped it. I reached to pick it up, but it quickly rolled under the fridge. I dove to get it, but it was too late. I lost the grape.
Oh, Gaaawd! – Published April 20th, 2016, The Canadian Jewish News – Literary Supplement
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