the pomegranate tiger

A quick note before I dash out the door for work this morning: Dear fellow hockey-mad Canadians, It's not the end of the world. The men lost at the Olympics and were eliminated from further rounds. They played poorly. They didn't play as a team and they couldn't score. In other words, they deserve to be sent home. It's a game. For all the moaning, teeth-gnashing and talk-show second-guessing, you'd think a major cataclysm had occurred. It's just a game. A game where the playing field has been levelled. What's wrong with that? It's better for the game - remember all the bleating going on about how our Canadian women's team was TOO dominant? Let's all get over it and move on. I'd rather celebrate the Canadian women who won four medals yesterday - in particular, Chandra Crawford, who won gold in the women's 1.1 km cross-country sprint. She wasn't a favourite. I'm not sure people thought she'd even qualify, let alone ...

This blog has been percolating in my brain for awhile now. It finally bubbled over when I read this post on Fat Red Ant's 44x365. I wasn't sure I'd ever address the issue of racism on my blog. Some of you who've known me from other places on the net may (or may not) know I'm not white. One of the reasons I like the internet is that I'm perceived by my words and ideas first and foremost – not by the colour of my skin. My writing and recollections sometimes have clear allusions to my ancestry and sometimes, they don't. I don't make a big deal about it, nor do I avoid it. It all depends on what I'm trying to convey. Anyways, back to FRA's post. It clearly illustrates to me how far we (I'm speaking of the global we) need to go before racism is eradicated. It's hard for people, no matter how caring, liberal-minded and accepting to understand the deep pain and frustration felt by those of colour. I've come to hate that term, ...

I have mixed feelings when I watch the Olympics. On the one hand, I don’t particularly like the “rah-rah, my country is better than your country, look at how many medals we have” attitude. Yet, on the other hand, I love the notion that nations can come together in a joint endeavour for peaceful, even idealistic purposes; the notion that athletes can compete just for the purity of their sport. Naïve? Maybe. But I want to look beyond the doping scandals; beyond the politics; beyond the judge-tampering; beyond the egos. I want to forget about medal predictions and the ensuing mega bucks involved in sponsorship deals. I know all of these exist, but I’d like to look beyond all the negatives just long enough to remind myself that there are nobler reasons for the Olympics. Instead, I want to see those thousands of athletes who attend the Olympics with no real chance of winning a medal, but are happy just to participate on this particular world stage. I want to see the individuals p...

I've been away a couple of days, but wanted to carry on with my musings of the other day: One of the reasons I said I don’t believe in absolutes is that we human beings seem to get into trouble when we do. When I look at pretty much any belief system - when it’s followed dogmatically - it tends to breed contempt, sometimes hatred for others, or at least, a certain holier-than-thou attitude – the patronizing, “oh, poor thing, you just haven’t seen the light” attitude. Besides which, it seems strange to think one person, no matter how wise, kind or beneficent a teacher is beyond flaw and has figured life out for everyone else. Because I nod my head in agreement with some of Buddha’s or Mohammed’s or Christ’s or Janie-next-door’s words, doesn’t mean I must be wedded to their entire belief system. It comes down to the fact I don’t believe in a ‘one shoe fits all’ school of thought. If it works for others, so be it. It’s just not for me. Something my grandfather told me: “Beware ...

I like the phrase, “A Conscious and mindful life.” Please bear with me as I think out loud. After my "Be Here Now" blog, it seems my dormant touchy-feely inner hippie is re-awakening. I haven’t consciously thought about some of this stuff for awhile so maybe it’s time to take stock. Thinking out loud/ affirming beliefs: In other words, a mishmash of my accumulated life philosophy – or how I try to live my life: Acceptance - Accept who I was in the past, both the good and the bad - Accept who I am in the present, both the good and the bad - Consider what I could become in the future, both good and bad - Choose to be better Appreciation - Appreciate where I am - Appreciate what I have - Appreciate those around me Change/control - I only have control over my own actions - I can’t change others - at most I can influence them by my own actions; what they choose to do is beyond my control - Make positive changes in my own life And something I read a long time ago that I recentl...

Please hop on over to today's Waiter Rant, Heaven and Hell . His little vignette embodies so much of what I believe about the world and the people in it. There is both good and bad everywhere. We can choose to be the four top. Or choose to be the little girl and her father. Choices. It's all about choices.

Three words from the seventies that may sound cliché to some. Yet, I come back to them time and again. I was reminded of them by JTL's blog . I've used them while raising my sons and use them to get myself out of a funk and just get on with it. It's so easy to get caught up in the picayune details of life; to stress over every little detail; to worry about choices and decisions already made; to get distracted from what's actually happening in the here and now. When we do this, we fail to see the beauty around us. When we do this, we ignore or fail to appreciate the people around us. When we do this, we fail to give our entire attention to the task at hand. When my son was very young, he had a tendency to chase down every curiosity, every minor distraction that crossed his path. - No, he didn't have ADD. - He was just inquisitive and rather obsessive – kind of like his mom. He didn't know how to channel his energy. If we were at the park, he'd be t...

One of these days I’m going to grow up. I’m going to act the way a proper grown-up should. I’m not going to burst into song when I wake up in a good mood. I'm not going to hum while brushing my teeth. I’m not going to skip through the house, just because I feel like it. I’m not going to make my grown sons roll their eyes when I say something silly. I’m not going to dance around when I hear an oldie but goodie on the radio. I'm not going to try the routine on Dancing with the Stars. I'm not going to dig sand castles at the beach. I'm not going to sing along at concerts. I'm not going to yell at hockey games and scream Yee Haw! when a goal is scored by OUR team. I'm going to be proper and sedate and dignified. Yup, one of these days I’m going to grow up. But not today.

So glad that Blogger is up and running again. I was having withdrawal symptoms. Scary how fast I can get addicted to things. Today, I've got a wee rant. My husband and I went out to the local White Spot for breakfast. It's something we like to do fairly often. Usually there's a mix of young families, couples and older folk who get up and going early. Seated at the table across from us was a couple with their son of perhaps nine. Nothing unusual about that. Dad was showing some travel brochures and he was talking about vacationing at Puerto Vallarta. Okay. But what got my attention was the behaviour of the mother. She was on her cell phone for the entire time - or at least for the time we were there. She was still on it when we paid our bill and left. She put the phone down briefly to order her meal, then continued talking after the waitress left. When her meal arrived, she just shifted it to her left hand so she could eat with the right. Was it business? I don...

Very odd goings on at Blogger since last night - posts appearing, then disappearing and appearing again. I'm glad I had my last couple of posts saved in Word documents. The last piece I wrote and posted on First Drafts has vanished again (after re-posting twice). This is a good reminder for me to save things offline before I post! I did, however get my x 365 Blog up and running. Just hope it stays put.

I thought of Anna as I was compiling my list of x365 and realized I needed more words to recall her properly . Anna was seventy years young, as she liked to say. She lived in a tiny one-bedroom bungalow - a cottage, really - in the middle of a quiet urban neighbourhood. The houses on either side of her were two-story family homes with immaculately manicured lawns and nice flower borders. Anna's garden was weedy and overgrown - to such an extent that you could barely see the walkway to her front door. The windows were dark and grimy and the draperies were perpetually drawn. If you didn't know better, you'd think the house was abandoned. Anna was also what people called a "character" - Yes, with the quotation marks. She'd been a British war bride and had come to Canada with her handsome soldier husband to begin a new adventurous life. Somewhere along the way, he died - she would never say how or when - and she ended up alone in this house. I met her when she was...

I haven't posted a blog in a couple of days, using various excuses like getting home too late from work, feeling tired and not feeling up to it. I was going to pass again, but decided to do what Wenda does - just write something. I've been considering a new blog site for my own x365. The original one is 40 x 365 that I mentioned a few days ago. In brief, the goal is to write about one person per day for one year. It must be someone you actually know (now or in your past) that's made some kind of impression on you. You must know their name and the number of words you use to describe the person is determined by your age in years. It's been interesting looking at other bloggers who are trying this. The younger ones have resorted to some pretty creative short-hand, cryptic phrasing and word-play in order to get in under the word allotment. This is one time I can see my age as a definite advantage. I can be wordy, so it'll be helpful to get the extra allocation of wo...