Moments D150: Sunrise

The thing about staying at my BFFs post volleyball, is that she lives a 45-50min drive away from work. That’s WITHOUT any traffic. So the trick was to leave uber early to miss the worst of it.

I was out of bed by 5:45am and on the road with a traveler coffee (thank you BFF for getting up to make me coffee!) shortly after 6:30am . That’s nearly 2 hours earlier than normal for me to jump out of bed. Honestly, I don’t know how the commuter crowd does it. Blarg!

The drive was easy for the first 35min or so and around 7am the traffic began to thicken and slow. The drive alone was a great time to ponder life and to pause and reflect. And then, as if the universe were listening in, as highways merged, the trees parted and I had a moment to fully appreciate the sunrise to my left. It was stunning. And, with traffic dead stopped, I managed to capture a picture.

With the autumn solstice around the corner I thought it was fitting to appreciate the natural beauty around me.  The faintest of red on the valley trees. A smattering of yellow here and orange there. The low laying clouds sitting in the valley, waiting for the sun to burn them away. All. So. Beautiful.

A glimpse. A moment. Pause.

What a fabulous way to start my day and better yet, what fabulous way to start my weekend.

Moments alone to reflect.

Moments to appreciate nature.

Moments D149: Beef Stew

Today was the last round of volleyball tryouts for the all women’s competitive league. It’s typically a 40 minute drive from work. Today, it took me 2 hours to get there. I was late. Thirty minutes late. They were already playing. I jumped in. No warm up. Not even touching the ball. I was flustered. I was cold. I didn’t play very well at first.

But after the first (crappy) game, I began to warm. The 2 hours in the car melted away with every touch of the ball. And before I knew it, the tryout was over. I had fun (I always do). I had a couple of great spikes and saves. In the end, I wasn’t completely disappointed with my performance. I won’t know until early next week if I made one of the leagues teams, but I’m certainly hopeful!

And post tryout, I headed to my BFF’s house for the evening for a proper catch up. I wasn’t in the door 5 minutes and I had a glass of red wine. Score one. Best friends know these things. Five minutes later I a bowl of warm beef stew with a side of super sassy hot hot sauce. Oh my. I was in heaven. After all, I hadn’t had dinner yet! Within 10 minutes of being in her house I had wine, tasty stew with sassy hot sauce and a fabulous conversation in the works. Oh yes. That was my best moment of the day. Food and friends. Yup. Honestly, I think that really sums me up sometimes. Food and friends. It’s the best (delicious!) way to leave all the rest of the day behind and to focus on the important things!

Moments for friends.

Moments with food.

Moments D148: Strangers Hugging

Today’s moment occurred early in my day. I was on my way to work. Running late after a morning of unfortunate events. I was not in the best of moods, knowing the workload that awaited me and the fact that I’d end up working later than I wanted to to make up for the lost time.

As I was stopped at the billionnth (no exaggerations here!) stop light, I watch as the pedestrians crossed the street. There was a motherly looking lady crossing South. She was heavy set, medium in height and black. From the other side, heading North, there was a young, tall, skinny white guy. He wore a hat and had a bit of swagger to his step.

I didn’t see it coming. They paused in the middle of the intersection and embraced. There was an exchange of words during the embrace and as they released one another they both had huge smiles on their faces. And before I knew it they were already on their way, resuming their walk to wherever they were headed.

That moment brought me much joy today. To me they were strangers hugging. Of course, they knew one another, but it was fun to imagine it. Seemingly completely disparate beings meeting randomly in the middle of an intersection to embrace in a hug.

Sometimes I like to imagine a world where we were less caught up in “stuff” and we were more present with people. The world needs more hugs in my opinion and I was tickled by the display today.

So, why not go hug someone today. I’ll bet they could use a hug.

Moments of randomness.

Moments for hugs.

Moments D147: Self-Reflection - Setting up a Profile

You know, every now and then one needs to stop and take stock of who they are, what they want, and where they are going. Today I had that moment as I was setting up a new profile of me. I’ve had many moments in the past year where I’ve had to stop and think about who I was, but today, today was nitty and gritty. I needed to really find out what was unique and marketable about myself. What makes me stand out from the crowd.

This is not an easy moment. First there is the panic that I’m just like everyone else. There’s nothing special. Nothing worth barking about. Then there is the spark of hope. Maybe a little of this, or a touch of that makes me special. It’s still not gang busters, but it’s better than the darkness of nothingness. And then, the flow of that light spreads. You realize that there are pieces of you that are unique and might be important to someone looking for those attributes.

All of a sudden your profile comes together. The words you found to describe yourself sound (almost) impressive. Is that really you? Is that really your history and perspective on life? Hmmm. I guess it is. Not bad. Not bad at all.

And definitely worth a smile and today’s shared moment with you!

Moments of reflection.

Moments of believing in self.

Moments D146: Digging in

Heading back to school after an emotionally draining 9 month hiatus seems strange. I’m not sure I have the drive I once did for this part of my life. I shouldn’t be so hard on myself, it’s only the second week of class. But, finding myself behind already due to an implementation of a fall reading week at the university. What? Really? Why? Well, apparently it’s good for the students’ mental health. Hmmm. My mental health would be better if I didn’t find myself behind after the first class due to a crammed schedule.

No matter. Today’s moment is about digging in and getting a good handle on the semester to come. I’ve been able to make some serious progress on my required readings and while I’m not 100% prepared for class number 2 tomorrow, I’m very close. That makes me feel good. I’ve accomplished something important to me today and that makes me smile.

Moments to focus.

Moments to work.

Moments to roll up your sleeves and just dig in!

Moments D145: Curling back into the Duvet

This morning I woke at 8am. The air was crisp. I had no where to be and only a day filled with homework and research to do. If you know me, I love to be busy and be productive. But today, I wasn’t quite ready to get out of bed and start my day. So I didn’t.

What a delightful moment that was. It only took me a matter of seconds to decide to sleep more and enjoy the crisp air around me as I curled back into my duvet for another couple of hours of sleep. When I woke (for a second time) at 10am, I was ready to tackle the day.

Moments of laziness.

Moments of sleep.

Moments D144: Lost & Found

Today was my first golf tournament ever. It’s the second time I’ve ever played 18 holes. It’s also been 10+ years since the last time I played golf, and yet, I found myself enjoying it and I actually performed much better than I expected. (Perhaps all those high school dates at the mini putt paid off?)

It was a beautiful day with the sun and clouds fighting it out. It was cool but warm with the sun. It was perfect and my foursome was a lot of fun to play with. We managed 4 under par. As a crew: not bad at all if I do say so myself.

Today’s moment comes from both my golf day and a moment at home. It ties back to my life, so bear with me on today’s moment being a bit long.

My first moment, and the moment I intended to share on its own, was when I sliced my drive pretty badly. It went into the edge of rough of weeds and marsh. My partner suggested that I just let it go, but I was certain (stubborn?) I could find my ball. So I went on an adventure in the rough looking for my ball. The first ball I came upon I nearly squealed in delight. Sadly, it wasn’t my ball, but one from someone else who had given up on it. I searched and searched. I kicked weeds aside and managed to get my pants covered in fluff from the weeds. And just as I was about to give up on my ball, there it was, gleaming brightly in a dark patch of wet weeds. BINGO! I had found it after all!

And then later on this evening, while emptying my bags and cleaning up my hurricaned bedroom, I found my lost favourite earring. I was elated! I know, it’s just an earring, but it’s my favourite pair!

And this juxtaposition of items lost and found struck me. First of all,the golf ball was something I knew I might lose and I was ready to accept that fate if I were unable to find the ball. Contrarily, my earrings, being so dear to me, are not items that I would readily accept losing them (and yet I had already written them off).

One could further contrast how the items were found. For instance, while I took time and energy to look for my lost earring originally, I gave up the search and believed it lost for good. In the end, my earring essentially found me. On the other hand, the golf ball I searched and searched until I found it.

Strangely I related today’s experience back to my life as of late. Just shy of a year ago my world changed drastically. During this time frame, I realized just how lost I was as a soul and as a person. I was not happy. I was barely content. As the dawn of realization hit me, my search to find myself began.

There have been times in the past (near) year where I have searched and searched and searched to find and replace a lost piece of me (like the golf ball). There have been other times where a piece of me has found me again (like my earring). (And yes, there are many pieces that I continue to search for in the hopes of finding a deeper truer me.) Will I find those pieces or will they find me? I suppose it doesn’t really matter so long as the pieces are found and not lost.

The point is that even when you lost something, there’s always the hope of finding it again. The joy that spreads when the lost becomes found is worth the effort of searching and sometimes we must let go and have faith that the important pieces, the most important pieces, will find us in the end.

Moments of loss.

Moments of found.

Moments of life.