Whatever He Says

The March that is in my genes has "a host of golden daffodils,"  "fluttering and dancing in the breeze" (thank you William Wordsworth,) and although for a good two thirds of my life, I have lived with a very different reality, I can never quite shake the feeling that something is wrong in March--the weather angel didn't get the memo maybe.  Today icy rain needled the snow on the ground until it shrank back several inches from the piercing fingers of "Spring North American Style."  I was grateful to be cosily warm inside all day, but at 3.00 I decided to leave the house to run some errands, deciding that the efficiency of a Friday afternoon versus Saturday for shopping, would be worth braving the nasty weather.  My first stop was our little post office, in the basement of the  St. Catherine of Alexandria  church hall. I recently lost the set of car keys that had my mailbox keys on it, so I had to get replacements. Laurie, the postmistress wa...

Little vanities? I have them! Not too many. And mine do double duty, being a source of innocent pleasure and laughter at the same time. Visitors to our house often pause at a photograph of Paul and I on our wedding day. Inevitably someone will look hard and say, "Has anyone told you, you look like Gwyneth Paltrow ?" And I laugh and say modestly, "A few." My friends have to forgive me taking my small pleasures where I find them. :) One of my few claims to fame is looking like Gwyneth, 44 years ago! On Friday last week, after a morning meeting, some of our work team went out for lunch together to celebrate the fact that it was almost the end of a week worked hard. It felt good to be almost at the weekend. Our server was lovely, attentive and pleasant. Someone commented that she was one of those people you just like, with an extra pleasant, friendly personality. As she took my order, she commented on the beauty of the day and her love of the fal...

It felt like a road trip even though it is usually just a half hour trip north. On Friday evening I suddenly realized that my 9.00 a.m. appointment with Jamie, my hairdresser, in Barrie, the next day; would mean driving north on the first holiday weekend at the start of the summer. Even on Thursday, driving south with co-workers from a meeting in Huntsville; as we approached Barrie, the highway going north was packed with cars that were moving as slowly as the last dregs of ketchup on their way out of the bottle.  So I set my alarm extra early for Saturday morning and left the house an hour before my appointment.  Maybe it was because it was a holiday weekend that I packed as though I was going on a road trip. I had a packed lunch; extra coffee in a thermos; my camera (who knew what photo opportunities might present themselves,) and a great book to read. And just in case I finished the first one; a back up book. Any road trip needs music, and in my CD player I had mu...

By Belinda On Wednesday morning my office phone rang. I excused myself from the person I was meeting with because I'd been playing a game of phone tag with some people I needed to catch. It wasn't either one of them. The breezy voice on the end of the line was Frances--my friend.  "Hello dear, are you busy?" she said, the question sounding oddly incongruous at that moment.  "Well, I'm meeting with someone right now--can I call you back later?" I asked.  "Oh, I'm so sorry," she said sounding annoyed at herself for calling, "I wrote a song, I just wanted to sing it to you." I promised to call back at lunchtime, but lunchtime ended up being 2.30 and when I called her Brian answered the phone and said she had just left to pick up a daughter from school. He promised to let her know I'd called. It was later, in the evening, when Paul and I were watching a movie that Frances called back. Paul paused the movie and I carrie...

By Belinda I locked my office door behind me and stepped outside into the fresh air to find that it was raining. In my capacious leather shoulder bag I had an umbrella. It is at such times as this that I am rewarded for carrying most of my worldly goods around with me at all times. It felt good to be heading home, although I would miss Paul being there. He is away for a few days. I didn't bother going to the post office. "No need to rush to pick up those bills," I thought. These days it is rare to get anything but bills and flyers. Letting myself into the big, empty house, the phone blinked: Message waiting. It was our friend Dave, asking me to call. "Did you only just get in?" he said. I glanced at the clock; it said 6.15; and said, "Yes." "Well, that was a long day," he said. I explained that I hadn't rushed home with Paul not being here, and how it had felt so good to actually finish several things completely instead of...

I lounged in a comfortable, wing back chair in our big sunny room at the back of the house, chatting with my brother on the phone. As usual, we laughed a lot. “It’s good to look to a funny side of things if you can,” said Robert. Reflecting on the past, he said,“I always took myself too seriously.” I’d been sharing a funny conversation that I’d had with some friends the week before. We were talking about how much has changed in one generation, when it comes to bringing up children. We remembered the amount of freedom kids had a few years ago. We would leave the house in the morning and maybe drop back in for lunch; or maybe not. Nobody worried too much. Parents knew that you were with friends and would come home eventually. Someone said that his mother used to lock him out of the house. As people compared notes, it seemed that this was not an uncommon practice! One person after another said, “Yes, my mother did that too.” Some mothers did it to clean the house; other mothers di...

A few nights ago, I touched on our conversation over dinner at cell group--a continuation of one we'd started the week before about our favourite movies. Sam had led an icebreaker where we had shared our favourites and it was surprising, funny and revealing to hear what they were. Here are some of them: Ron-- Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure Richard-- The Godfather Brenda-- Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Susan-- The Miracle Worker and Chariots of Fire Paul's were A Christmas Carol and Groundhog Day , and mine were: The Colour Purple and What About Bob All week though, I kept thinking--what was it about those particular movies that spoke to people--and that's what we discussed over dinner on Tuesday. It was as much fun finding out why people loved them as finding out what they were. We laughed loudly as Ron recounted some of the scenes in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure as they traveled back in time and collected historical figures for their history a...

It's been a busy week so far and a tiring day and I was praying about what to write when I checked out my friend Dave's blog. He laid down an invitation to play blog tag. I hope you won't mind if I do that tonight--and you may find out something you didn't know! I copied the paragraph below from Dave's blog at http://www.davehingsburger.blogspot.com/ These are the rules. 1. Let others know who tagged you. 2. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves. 3. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts. 4. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged. Like Dave, I am not going to send this to eight people like we're supposed to, but I'd love you to play if you'd like to. Just leave your blog address on http://www.whateverhesays.blogspot.com/ and we will come and visit you. So, here are my 8 random facts. 1. I feel very socially awkward in a crowd. I always feel as if everyone else is engaging in co...