Shout from the rooftops - "Thimbleberries!!" (July)

Thimbleberries, the name says.. small. But they got a big taste! Like raspberries, but with a vanilla aftertaste. And their juice is thick and red. July.

Wtf was July all about?

I came across this blog today, http://crazysexylife.com/  I forget how - probably from some chick-friend on fb. The title attracted me.. what's not to like? Sexy, you say? I actually first read, "Crazy Sex Life.."   Yeah, I know..

After I got home from work I looked it up again to have a second look. The first title didn't interest me much (competition? a girl-thing guys just don't get (like girls don't get why guys like to break stuff) (ps - it's not the crunchy sound, it's the whole experience))) but I like new blogs, so I scrolled down,

"Lastly – it’s totally ok for you to be that extraordinarily lucky woman. When amazing things happen to you, share how you manifested it and shout it from the roof-tops. It gives everyone else permission to manifest even the craziest dreams too."

... I took the above from a post titled 5 Tips for Crazy Sexy Manifesting. Cool. That's what I came for. Let yourself be lucky. I just became relationship-free again lately, and my eyes have been re-opening to life..

Shout it from the rooftops! :) That's how this blog started, something about a little boy wearing a cape, and thinking - we should all wear capes (http://errandknight.blogspot.ca/2010/10/my-blog-my-chosen-lifestyle.html). The idea is to be who we are in the open, to have the courage to try to be our best, in the open.

The first point in the list of five is about letting go, and clearing up your junk. Yep. July was about that for sure. For me anyway. And I'd forgotten how good I have it in life, I had become disconnected from it, probably because I was in a relationship with someone who was somewhere else. The last few days I walked home, or wherever, and nibbled on the wild thimbleberries along the side of the road. Was this what I expected as a high point for July? Nay. Yet it was. We don't know where we'll find joy, or what will tie us to our daily experience of the world. And.. they're really good!

As a small town lawyer I have struggled with having a blog, this blog. These are my guts on the page. Now I feel it's more likely I'll go totally public with it one day than ever take it down. I set out to live a new kind of life, for me, and to set an example for others - so they too will shout from the rooftops - You can live your dreams!!!!

I live in paradise, and I work for it. I never would have dreamed, 20 years ago, when I first came here, that I could live a life like this, and I have no idea what I'm gonna do next...

For today - I'm glad to have my daily joy back. It is a crazy sexy life. ;)

Twilight of the Idols and the Awakening Society..

"It's not a student protest, it's a society that is awakening."

An old friend from Halifax honked me down as she drove by this afternoon - probably recognized my walk (one of the great things about living in a tourist town - everyone comes to you:). She was always a great activist, and one of my inspirations for going to law school. She gave it all up a year or two ago, after her Mom died in an accident. It woke her up.

There are currently huge student protests going on in Quebec and Mexico. Did anyone catch that? It's not in "Egypt" anymore - it's here. Cue the quote, "They're here.... "

"They're" - us. It's time. I can be pretty cocky at times and feel like I've been ahead of this 'awakening' curve for a while - I gave up my day job and dove after my dreams. She reinforced it to me today, that all that's worth doing is our passion, and just in time too - I needed to hear it. I've been feeling overwhelmed a bit, and losing sight of the Stars, looking at the fence-posts.

She said she feels like she's retired, and I said (from Doc in Long Beach, Cali) - 'Everyone should be retired from 25-45, and then work until they die.'

When people in our lives die - it wakes us up. The opposite of my friend - it was my Dad's death that helped me see I needed to give, and live, through my work - it inspired me to get to where I am.

Montreal and Mexico - the only part of North America that's not in Revolution is the english speaking part.. Why Not???

What will wake us up, what Idols must fall? Brad Pitt or some hockey player?

The Moon is setting, into the forest, outside my window. I watched it earlier, as I hung out on the beach with some friends. There it goes.

911 shocked a lot of people, but it didn't seem to wake them up, as much as put them to sleep. To hide, perhaps. Like when you don't wanna get out of bed on a day when you dread work. Fuck work. Do what you love. The greatest revolution we can ever have in human society is for everyone to do as they love, to act from love. Then we are all free noble beings. With no need of Idols

And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.

The love of life.... Suil-na-Greine

Hope is only the love of life

My brother was right, some time ago, when he said that because I'd set out to live my life, fully and completely, without any reservation, I had found joy, and in doing that - I had found something I would never want to give up.

A woman I used to work with, back in Ontario, stumbled into my office today. We chatted about times old and new, she had a friend with her and I told them my story of the last few years. They both said they wanted to do it too, but it was just a dream. They couldn't know.. that I've doubted, that although I haven't waved the white flag I keep it furled in one pocket, on many days. Before leaving her friend said, "I have a little bracelet I picked up here this week, it says, 'follow your heart'".

"Hope" is the thing with feathers

that perches in the soul

Yes, he's right. But what's it all about? Hope. It carries us through our days, if we're lucky. Because even if it's only a trick, and at the end it was all for nothing - at least our days were coloured well, we acted with honour, and got up in the morning and fled the nest..

I heard a story in high school, about siamese twins. Their heads were stuck together, in such a way that one looked up and the other looked down, all the time. The up one was happy and optimistic. It's a metaphor for ourselves. The down twin was sad and did not thrive. No wonder.

"In Gaelic the eagle was sometimes called Suil-na-Greine, Eye of the Sun... "

I turned down a trip the other day, too much to do ;) I went hiking and was gifted a giant eagle feather, mottled, from a juvenile - representing Transformation. A gift from the Sky God. In my travels of the last few years, particularly the real pure part of it - California - I was in touch with who I really am, so much, my best and worst, and eternal indifference, and JOY, pure LOVE OF LIFE, since then - there's no going back.

I kicked a hole in the sky. Always look up. Always hope, always believe in your dreams. But don't be attached to them - you are both older and newer than they - be ready to drop 'em and pick up new ones at a moments notice. There's an endless supply at the shop..

Kick a hole in the Sky. Run down your dream. Meditate.

After a glimpse

over the top

the rest of the world

becomes a.. gift.. shop

Paddling in blood and other things money can't buy

This is an addendum to surprise trampolines, as that's come up a lot lately. I had a chance to go paddling today with some First Nations friends. I had work to do. But no appointments. I had just gone to see them off this morning, and then go to work. They invited me along, and I went.

They talked about family. And Art. Making Art to show what's yours. Making art to teach the world. Money can buy art. But can it buy eyes to see?

My family's not here. But they are. I can't go visit them. But they're with me all the time. Today my friends paddled back up a river of blood - their own. And I paddle up mine. I longed, as they spoke, to go back home. For they spoke of place.

Then I had eyes to see - the home of my blood has never been a place - but an idea. My Dad did it his way (with politics) my Grandfather his (with his fists), I mine.

I swam, ate salmon, got a sunburn, laughed, cried (almost), made new friends, and paddled.

Today was a day money can't buy.

June and who you really are (True North)

It's not June anymore, I'm aware of that. Today's themes are love and the environment. As we travel through life things come along and remind us who we really are. That happened to me today.

I was chatting with a friend and told him a story from years ago about a tough time I'd gone through and how it helped me find myself. I could feel my compass turn, I said, and as I write I see that it was not just turning from one point to another, but from a false point, back to 'true'.

June 2012 has been tough for lots of people. It's been like - the Spring was grand, we could see this vast vista of the future and people were excited and electrified about it all.. then June came along, and we have to deal with the bars between us and that future. They are bars of our own making, but they have to be removed nonetheless, before we can proceed. Those bars are, ultimately, the ways we disempower ourselves. We all have our own, whether it's money, love, pot, food, or just staying unclean and off our path - not meditating; lying to ourselves.

The false compass point is the lie. I chose to express my love of the creator, and created, through service to the environment. I may one day express it differently. Perhaps through service to my country, and the ideal called "Canada". Perhaps through art. Shrug.

Today I see the path again. I hope you do too.

What stories of yourself remind you of who you really are?

Lebanon

Wherever you go, there you are. Wherever you are - it's hard not to dream about other places. I live in the place everyone wants to go, wants to be, the most beautiful place in Canada. I decided tonight, as I sat down to write, to let itunes play till it brought me a topic.

Wasn't hard - love and peace, or else.

Life is a journey, and many people say or think that if you want to be happy you should just do it where you are, or else you're "running away".

  Run run run run run.

                                               Running to stand still.

That song, love and peace, always reminds me of Lebanon. No matter how wonderful a place is - the future always beckons. I haven't figured out if it's a sickness or a hope, a sickness or just love of life. Love but not peace, unless it's peace in motion...

I've wanted to go there for years - the cedars, the beaches, the history, the mountains, the fact that they've stood against everything and everyone, a diverse multicultural society, formed of Muslims, Jews, Christians, speaking three languages, through violence and terror.

That's a place I want to go.

It represents a fantasy for me in some way, I don't know how - Lebanon. No matter how great my life is, and it is, it's hard not to dream about Lebanon.

Moon and the hawk

Came home tonight from a good and bad day. The moon was shining over the house. I'd been on the beach with some friends, looking at it, and to come home to it... shouldn't be a surprise.

Yet it just felt so constant. Years ago, probably Fall 2006, I was pretty down about life. I came home one day and there was a little plastic hawk on my step, standing there looking at me. In my animal cards the Hawk represents perspective and vision. Looking back over your past; seeing into your future.

When I went out earlier tonight I sat that little hawk on my computer. I knew back then, as soon as I walked up the steps and saw it, that my brother had left it there for me, even though I hadn't seen him in a few days.

There are challenges in life. It's good to be reminded of things that are constant. Our bodies are cycles of dust. Our souls are as constant as the stars in the sky. How you feel about things all depends on what you choose to identify with.

A Warrior knows that the ends do not justify the means.

Because there are no ends, there are only means. Life carries him from unknown to unknown. Each moment is filled with this thrilling mystery: the Warrior does not know where he came from nor where he is going.