worth the wait

My "birthday present" from my parents - a note-by-note keyboard Billy Joel book - arrived in the mail today. (My birthday was months ago, but that's a whole other story, right Mom?) :-)

In it, there were a couple of songs I hadn't heard before. Presumably they were all hits at some point, but let's face it, I was pretty little when most of his stuff was REALLY big. At any rate, this is the song that nearly brought me to tears while I was playing & singing it through for the first time... It's been a while since a song did that to me, so I had to share it.

And as I played through it on the piano for about the 10th time tonight, I thought two things mainly - how beautiful it is to open ourselves up to the risk of loving someone (as per the lyrics), and that I think I "do music" in my life because it opens me up - to new ideas, new melodies, new richness. Incidentally, the guest speaker at the high school grad I attended today spoke of music's power - so a little "synchronicity" happening for me today, I suppose.

At any rate, two things I want to be grateful for tonight - among many others. 1) For Billy Joel for doing what he does so well. 2) For my parents, and the generations of family before them, for sharing the gift of music...

90

My maternal grandmother turned 90 on Friday. We had family home from BC, Alberta, Ontario and all over southern Manitoba to celebrate. It was chaotic with 48 people in one house, but it was also great fun! And my grandma continues to amaze me. After raising 6 kids during a time when maternity leave from her job as a nurse was NOT a year per baby, she has continued to stay active and spry enough to thoroughly enjoy her 20ish grandkids (and their significant others) and 10 great-grandkids.

I stood back a few minutes after the cake cutting and just watched the busy-ness of the place as my cousins and aunts started dishing up cake and ice cream. I thought about how lucky we are, to have so many people to support us.

How lucky we are, to have no one in the family who's gotten into any significant trouble, like drugs or teen pregnancy (that we know of!)....

How lucky we are, that every grandchild has at LEAST a high school education (except for the youngest who's still working on hers!)

How lucky we are that the vast majority of us have been able to go on to post-secondary and finish at least one degree.

How lucky we are to have so many people to call family who really get what family is about, and who love to just spend time together. One memory that someone mentioned on Friday at our gathering was of the day that most of our extended family went rafting down the Assiniboine river one summer about 20 years ago. We had lawn chairs and snacks on the make-shift rafts (plywood over empty oil drums if I recall), and a couple of canoes and inner tubes for those that were tired of the rafts. I think it's my all-time favorite memory of our family because it's such a significant image of us just being together, laughing and having a great time in the process!

And then I thought that all of that stuff is learned. Passed down through generations. And we are so blessed to have a grandmother who's still with it enough to continue to teach us about patience, love, wisdom and laughter.

Happy birthday, Grandma - we all love you!!

PS - welcome to the world, Gabriel Arthur!

For this, I give thanks

In case you just tuned in to this blog, I have been VERY delinquent in posting regularly. Here's the thing: I started this blog to record things that amuse me or inspire me, to share them with others, and to refer to them later when I need a pick-me-up. Well. Good. Only problem is, I am easily amused, and often inspired. And there's no way I'd have time to blog about it all! So here (in no particular order)are some things that have amused and/or inspired me in the past weeks and months:

1) Relationship Matters - A two day lecture by Dr. Gordon Neufeld about developmental psychology, attachment theory, and how we can harness the power of relationships as educators, parents, spouses, etc. He inspired AND amused. After 2 days of sitting in church pews listening and taking notes, I was up for a couple more days of his food-for-my-soul.

2) Democracy in action. I went to a standing-room-only all-candidates forum today in preparation for the election. The inspiring bits were: the variety in our candidates (age, race, gender, etc), the number of people who got up to ask questions, and the fact that the turnout was so good.

3) Friends. Way back in August, I attended a friend's daughter's fourth birthday party, with grandparents and immediate family only. To be included in the family like that was a very precious thing. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I am so, SO blessed to have the friends and the family that I have.

4) Thanksgiving. It may be my favorite holiday. I try to have a grateful attitude year round, but this time of year, with the beautiful fall colours around, and the brisk days requiring hot cups of tea/hot chocolate/coffee and cozy blankets, reminds me how lucky I am to have the luxury of spending time just being still. (On weekends, you understand; Work is way too crazy for that right now!) This year will be extra special because aside from going to Edmonton to visit the bf (having already celebrated thxgvg with my immediate family last weekend), my younger brother will be driving up to join us for part of the weekend. It will be the first time the three of us have spent quality time together just us, and I'll be cooking my first turkey!

5) Our students. Wow, this year has a unique feel to it at our learning centre. We are physically very nearly full every day, and yet the space is often nearly silent because everyone is so focused. I am so inspired by all these individuals that overcome a hundred barriers just to get there, and then still manage to focus on school work and hand lots of stuff in (a sure sign of progress!)

6) Facing my apprehensions (not fears exactly, but still requiring courage.) I am embarking on an adventure that will require every ounce of creativity I can muster. I am (thankfully) supported by a friend on this project, but I am nervous because it is something I have always wanted to do, and I really want it to turn out perfect, even though I know I'll never be 100% satisfied with it. Still, I was inspired by a student of mine, who, upon hearing that it was something I'd always dreamed of doing, challenged me with, "so what's stopping you?" Coming from someone who's had far more obstacles in her life, I had to take that to heart. And within a couple of days, the ball was rolling. What it came down to was realizing that I'd rather do it imperfectly than not do it at all ... (and I'll eventually reveal the project when I have a better idea what it's going to look like... still in preliminary planning stages!) :-) Carpe diem, right?

That's it for now. There's way more, but it's late, and I do Wednesdays much better on a good night's sleep! :-)