Simple Acts of Kindness

I forget how powerful and important small acts of kindness are to those around us. Today, I feel a cold coming on and am trying to drink plenty of water and rest. Usually, it's not a big deal but next week (first week of class) is a big week for me where I am involved in a lot of projects with the incoming first year students. I need to be healthy.
So, I got in bed and when my husband google-chatted me about dinner, I told him I wasn't feeling up to making it. Could he bring me something home? After throwing out suggestions, I decided on smoked salmon (always a homerun here on the West Coast--best salmon, period, anywhere.) I thought I would take the packet of smoked salmon and layer it over cream cheese and a bagle for dinner. I was looking forward to that packet, 'cause I could munch on the leftovers tomorrow and the next day and smoked salmon is such a treat.
My husband comes home and tells me he'll be right up to see me. Five minutes later, he brings me an organic bagel with cream cheese, smoked salmon, onion and capers. He looked all over to find it. He also brought home an extra helping of smoked salmon so I can eat it later. It was delicious. And while eating it I felt totally and completely looked after and loved, precious and validated.
It made me think, when is the last time I showed kindness to another, something simple that was exactly what they wanted at the time, without asking? We pass up so many moments that could amount to another's happiness just by neglect. I have felt so loved in my marriage but, to paraphrase, to whom much [consideration] has been given, much is required.

Sexism Watch--VP Edition

Sigh. When will women be allowed to be people, too?

Darling Sister Number 5

The last week before summer's unofficial end, my gorgeous little sister G. stopped by with her school friends for a Jack Johnson concert, mini-golf, a long hike and a bike run around Stanley Park (for which I was lucky enough to join her). Even though we are nine years apart, she and I both began graduate school at the same time: she in physiotherapy and me in law. Additionally, we will both graduate at the same time, so we'll be fighting over family attendance at our respective grads. She is a very hard worker, dedicated to an extremely challenging discipline. She genuinely wants to help people recover from serious injury and I whoever becomes her future patient will feel competantly, thoroughly cared-for.
Unfortunately for us, she decided to study in Edmonton, Alberta, so we don't get to see her very often. She has always been very outgoing and friendly and it's not surprising she's made so many friends in Edmonton so quickly.
I am thrilled to get to know her as an adult, my respect for her grows and grows. She is empathetic, resiliant, smart, beautiful, genuine, kind.
We'll miss you! Have a great school year!

Taking Stock

It's the end of summer. School begins next week and I will officially live life as a 2L. So, that will be interesting. This summer has been...kinda horrible. Between sitting in Florida for two months, doing very little but wait for my husband's permanent residency to come through, to coming home to all sorts of disaster, problems, tragedies and sadnesses. This summer has sucked. In a year that sort of sucked. And I wonder, why doesn't it all get easier, get better?

But maybe it's because what we're shooting for is so huge, so big a step in the right direction that it doesn't come without a price. Tragedy strikes us all and it's inevitable.

For Hope

My heart is always with yours. I can't even imagine what you went through. I wouldn't ever, ever want you to go through such agony, such deep pain, such loss. But once again, you amaze me with your strength, your resilliancy. You have inspired and humbled me. You have shown me that goals are not just a measure of achievment but are sacred milestones to be celebrated for their own sake. Instead of looking towards what what will be gained, you have looked to what can be gleaned. You have shown me beauty in defeat comes from the simple act of accepting, believing in the good, holding on to what you are.

I have many times been grateful for our friendship for its own sake but never so much have I felt so close to my own personal hero.

"Don't bend/Don't break
Show me how to live and/
Promise me you won't forsake/
'Cause love will help me know my name."

Yay for Rachel

My favorite pundit, Rachel Maddow, is getting her own show. Will that make watching American punditry more palatable for me?

Maybe!

Things That Make Me Happy

I'm back to school in two weeks and thinking serious negative thoughts. So, here are things in my life that make me happy:

1) rich, creamy body lotion
2) early morning runs by the beach
3) cold vodka
4) scented candels
5) raspberry sorbet/grapefruit sorbet
6) snowtopped mountains
7) a fresh battery on my ipod

Found While Stumbling

"You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you."

~ James Allen

When Life Gets Extraordinarily Sad

Gravity
John Mayer

Gravity is working against me
And gravity wants to bring me down

Oh I'll never know what makes this man
With all the love that his heart can stand
Dream of ways to throw it all away

Oh Gravity is working against me
And gravity wants to bring me down

Oh twice as much aint twice as good
And can't sustain like a one half could
It's wanting more
That's gonna send me to my knees
[repeat]

Oh gravity, stay the hell away from me
And gravity has taken better men than me (Now how can that be?)

Just keep me where the light is
Just keep me where the light is
Keep you all where the light is
Just keep us where the light is
Ohh.. where the light is! [repeat]

Baby Shower

Only six weeks away from baby's arrival.

Happy 21st Birthday

To my darling youngest sister.

Today is your birthday. In exactly one hour, you will have been on this earth for twenty-one years. When I think about what I wish for you, I have to hold myself back from wanting to instill my values, my life upon you. But no one can live their lives by another's standards. You are finding your own way.

I admire your innocence. You have a way of caring about people that is so pure that I wish I could wrap it up and keep it inside my clothes, to keep away my daily cynacism.
Our lives, as the oldest and youngest children of our particular family, are as different as if we were born hundreds of years apart. Sometimes I can't relate to you at all. But then I think back to you at a year and a half to two years old: I would take you in for naps and hold you close, hoping I could keep this solemn, serious child from harm. And I still do.

I struggle to comprehend your world but you have a strong sense of self. You know your family is there for you. You are open and affectionate and you have forged a place for yourself that I don't envy. It cannot be easy to be the youngest in our family. Or any family, but especially one as opinionated as ours, as loud as ours, where so many of us seek out higher degrees in our quest for the lives we want that it can be hard to differ from that pattern.

Whatever may come in the future, I know that you are your authentic self and I wish you a very happy birthday.

Larry King is an Incompetant Interviewer

There are a lot of things I can say about viewing Larry King Live this week, but I will stick to this:
Larry King sucks at interviewing. He doesn't remember salient facts about his guests and asks them the same question again and again. A ten year old could come up with more depth. It's embarrasing. The only person I have seen effectively deal with LK's defunct interview style is Jon Stewart. Stewart never takes the questions seriously when they prove uttery 'shroomed. But neither does Stewart come off as overtly sarcastic and snarky. He has a knack for keeping both the audience and LK entertained.

The Six Most Touching Moments of TV--Ever!

...from the final scene of "Six Feet Under." Beautiful and astounding.

Daily Chuckle/Head Shake

The House of Representatives just passed the Equal Pay for Women Act, which would do exactly what the title suggests--give equal pay for equal work. Bush promises to veto it.

Quick quiz: "Carpedia is surprised by the Bush administration's reaction to women's quest for equality?"

True__
False__

Fun with My Husband--Lynn Canyon

Yesterday, we braved the drizzly weather (my sister said we were "true Vancouverites to go out regardless of rain) and headed out to Lynn Canyon's suspension bridge in North Vancouver. There are two main suspension bridges in North Van, one costs about $14 each to cross and the other is free and goes over a swirling waterfall. We went to the cheap one and spent an hour or so on the trails.
Something that I truly appreciate about Vancouver is how much outdoorsy stuff can be done right inside or just directly outside the city. Last weekend, we went for a long bike ride in the park right outside downtown Vancouver. But once inside the park, you can go for hours and it seems like you're in the middle of nowhere. A similar experience greeted us yesterday when we headed by public transportation to Lynn Canyon. We took the seabus over to North Van and then boarded a bus to Lynn Canyon. We were there really quickly and it's amazing how much wilderness you can experience just outside a major city.