Bucket list entries 27 and 28

27.  Take a ride in a seaplane.
28.  Take Tap Dancing lessons
29.  Take hip hop (looks a little less dangerous than ballet).

Okay, that was 29 on the bucket list.  So many things to do, so little time.

Don't Pick a Fight With Vancouver--You won't Win!

This past week, Vancouver has been beaten up and her spirit challenged.  She has suffered embarrassment and shame at the hands of thugs who bullied her with the excuse of Canuck's loss of the Stanley Cup. Mob mentality took over and tried to destroy Vancouver and everything she stood for.  Vancouver won.  maybe not the Stanley Cup but she won with her strength and beauty.  On Friday, I went downtown.  What I saw were boards filled with loving messages, people talking together who might not have met before.  I know I did!  Last week made me question my fellow humans but also reaffirmed my respect and love for the people of Vancouver!


I went from Georgia Street down Granville and found myself deeply moved.  Only 2 days before, I, like many other Vancouverites, found myself angered and saddened beyond belief.  I felt, after that, that I needed to see Vancouver again  the way I'd always seen her: majestic, busy, crazy, quirky, elegant...etc.  I walked through Stanley Park and found myself snapping pictures of the reasons why Vancouver is so loved.

Numbers 25 and 26 on Bucket List

25.  Learn to sign.
26.  Learn to sign my favourite songs while singing them!

From Surrey to Delta

From Surrey to Delta


By Patti Anne White
February 19, 2011


Friday night

6:30

I'm bouncing along in the little shuttle bus,

Which threatens to shuttle my ass and brains through the roof

With every little bump.



From Surrey to Delta Part 2



Apart from the jiggly ride,

I look out, tonight,

At the silhouette of the mountains, and the ocean of sky above it,

Islands of light cloud lit up by the lowering sun.

Wondering What's Beyond across the horizon? (or bookshelf).

If anyone had told me two years ago that I would be feeling the joy of living again, I would've been either really pissed off at you or burst into tears. Now, I'm discovering and re-discovering, singing with less inhibition, and realizing, once again, how much I love learning.

I was shelving books the other day at the Surrey campus of Kwantlen University when I thought, "darn, why do I have so many interests?"  It's a good thing to have lots of interests, but, like a child, everytime I went to a different area in the stacks, it may as well have been a candy store.  As I was at work, I couldn't read the books, just shelve and shift them, but I couldn't wait for my first research assignment since starting university to take out materials that would help me with that research.  Now what topic?  Hmmm. 

Bucket List! Numbers 22 and 23 and 24!

22.  Learn to dance the flamenco
23.  Learn to speak Spanish!
24.  Learn to roll the "rrrr's"!

Journeys

It occurred to me today, the way it has occurred to me many times before: I'm alive and am having to take two journeys at the same time.  One journey is one that I Never would have chosen, that of widowhood.  The other is, maybe because of the first one, the journey I can choose where it takes me! Some people in my life had said that it's all about me now.  Frankly, that terrified me!  I love caring for others and I'm used to making one person my soul focus as I had for almost twenty years.  It's all about me. When I look at my bucket list, I realize that some of them weren't easy to list.  They seemed impossible, but I think, maybe that's why I put them there.  I like the challenge of making many of those on the list part of my journey and very much possible!