Category: Joy

Posted on

Pumpkin Pie

The store a few blocks from where I work sells organic produce and homemade baked goods.  Every Thanksgiving there are several chemical free, homemade, personal sized pumpkin pies for sale that usually get snatched up quickly.  So I keep an eye out for them the week before turkey day.  Finally I am rewarded on Friday, but it was a close call.  The last pie was being thoroughly examined and pondered over by a woman next to me.  She’d never seen these cute little 4 inch pies before.  She made a good decision and set it back on the shelf.  In the blink of an eye, it was mine.

What is Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie?

My Mom used to make them from scratch, the poor soul.  We’d carve up the pumpkins and she’d do the rest from the goop we scooped out.  It was a happy day when canned pumpkin pie filling arrived in the stores.

I’m not that interested in cooking, as I watched my Mother slave in the kitchen day after day to feed us, and then clean up afterwards.  But  I do want to eat healthy so I eat mostly raw fruit and veggies.  I am ever watchful for chemicals in my food.  There is absolutely nothing natural about natural flavour.  I see this little phrase appearing more frequently in more types of food.

However, every once in a while I have a chemical day and indulge in cheesies.

My little pumpkin pie pales in comparison to my Mothers gigantic ones (and she made several), but it reminds me of home, my childhood and all that was right in the world.

It makes me grateful, and thankful for the good and nutritious and the bad and fun.  For my family, friends, my little life and Sam my cat.

Happy Thanksgiving.  May you have as many blessed memories as I do.

Posted on

To The Moon

A new condominium appears on the horizon, inching above the scores of other such dwellings in my hometown, soon to be an eyesore at 55 floors high, the tallest in our city, so far.  Appropriately named The Sky.

The first high rise came when I was just a teen.  With shaky legs my friends and I would venture to its roof to be wowed by the view.  At 24 floors high, this was dizzying to us bungalow dwellers.

My first apartment was at the nauseating height of two floors.  Still, I enjoyed seeing the tops of trees and bushes.  It was kind of interesting to look down on things.  Later, I moved half way up our high rise and this is far enough.  Gee whiz, I don’t even like flying, so to have my body many yards up off the ground as a living arrangement is a stretch.

However over time I appreciate things that land dwellers can’t.  Storms rolling in from miles away.  Beautiful sunsets across the hills.  Canada geese fly right by my balcony in the fall.  No bungalow dweller gets this!  And I have the best vantage to watch fireworks on notable holidays.

Yet, I look out and now see the ‘tower’ being built and realize it is about to set a precedent.  Eventually there will be so many my building will look like a bungalow!

As we move up I appreciate the sentiments of a construction worker who penned this on a new condo:

Posted on

Right At My Feet

When I first got inklings to write about joy I had no idea God would put me so thoroughly to the test.

However, the stiffer He has made my legs, the more joy I have found.  My sense of humour has returned.  I make jokes about myself because I am quite comical to watch.  And when you move at less than one mile per hour, you notice a lot of things.

There right at my feet, as I got off the bus, a shiny silver quarter (it took some doing to pick that up since I don’t bend!  Ah, the right motivation can accomplish great things.)  And next to it, struggling in a soil barren crack, a tiny plant tries to get a foothold. I spot a large purple daisy with a busy nectar finding bee.  A shadow of an overhead butterfly zig zags across the sidewalk,  challenging me to spot it.  I look up, and a rooftop seagull looks down at me.

I am amused by the smallest of things; a sparkly elevator floor, a workman’s footprints on our carpet, a fallen flower from my orchid.

Everything has become a photographic opportunity.

My existence like that episode of Star Trek (Wink of an Eye) where there are two versions of time. One is accelerated and buzzing around me like bees.  Fellow pedestrians zoom past me like mean flies, angry scowls on their faces.  I smile up at the sky.  I have become a simpleton.  I can no longer strive to do anything.  I no longer hurry to get anywhere.  No longer care about things of no interest to me.  Out of the rat race.

For a while I took a short hike into the badlands, got lost in myself and my problems, but today am returning to joy.

Life is a journey of inwards and outwards, like breathing.  For a spell I am self absorbed and ruminating, the next out in the sun with a friend talking about Trump.

Good and bad are options constantly available.  So look for and see the good, even when you’re in the midst of some heavy duty bad.  Some joy might be right at your feet!