Montreal

Hitched a ride to Montreal to run-away for the weekend and take in some of the Montreal Jazz Festival. It was also my first time experiencing Montreal without snow. The other times I've gone were in the winter so this was a real treat for me. I was sad I missed out on Stevie, (I've seen him in concert but would def pay to see him again and again and again and again etc.) but got to see Dave Brubeck at 88 years old, playing that jazz. WOW. A new find though, we discovered during one of the free outdoor venues, albeit not really jazz but very cool nonetheless, was a group called Random Recipe. I video'd part of their performance but can't seem to get it off the camera so looked them up on youtube and found one of the songs I liked that they performed that night, check it out:

CAUTION: I can't understand the rap cause I don't speak spanish so apologize in advance if it's offensive.

what do you think?

Anyway, it was a great weekend with great food and wonderful people. Vive la Montréal!

Beauty.

I certainly get it because I am most certainly NOT immune to the pressures in striving to look a certain way and conform to our society's definition of 'attractive'.

Yesterday, while at dinner, I got up from the table to use the bathroom. While heading over there, another woman was a few steps ahead of me and she walked in first. I followed and went into a stall while she was already in one.

Anyway, call me sheltered but it was the first time that I had heard someone throwing up in the bathroom and NOT because they were sick. Don't ask me how I knew (though it sounded pretty obvious) and of course, there is a chance I could be quite wrong but I'm most certain that she was throwing up her dinner because she was unhappy with how much she ate.

I'm not here to judge or speak condemnation but to just say that it really sucks that this happens. I'm no angel, I'm guilty of judging by appearance but when I see something like this happen, makes me all the more have the urgency to change the way of thinking.

The Pinery

I think that every single person should spend at least a weekend out in nature once a year. And I don't mean spending it in a fully furnished cabin with television, internet, a working kitchen, beds and all those other luxuries that you find in a house cottage. But rather, sleeping on the hard ground in a tent, cooking your own food, boiling your own water to wash your dishes, looking out for shooting stars, listening to dead silence, and being reminded that you can't control everything in life (ie. weather).  Roughing it makes you a better person.

We were faced with the threat of thunder storms forcasted for everyday of our trip. Praise God that He allowed instead, scattered showers throughout the day and just one night of hard rain. But it was because of this very bleak reality that when the sky miraculously lightened up and the sun came out and I was able to marvel at the stars, I was more grateful for the good weather. I'm not saying that rain is bad or that I'm now going to look for bad things to happen to me, but what I'm saying is that when not so nice things happen, that are out of my control, I'm hoping that I'll choose to follow and see how God works through it with me. Of course, some experiences are harder than others but I've recently been reminded that all good things are possible with Him.

Anyway, camping was good good fun...even if we did have to fend off a gi-normous raccoon that ate our sugar cubes.

P.S. oh, and food tastes so much better when you're camping.

No world record

Went downtown on saturday afternoon to take part in Luminato's 'Great Canadian Tune' challenge, which was to break the world record for the number of people playing their guitars together. I was so sure that we would surpass the number (set in 2007 in Germany) but SADLY, it did not happen. BOO.

 It appeared so quickly and stayed only a few minutes.  For those who were able to catch it, it was just enough time to enjoy it.  I knew to look out for rainbows after storms that move in and move out quickly because someone taught me how rainbows were made.

Sometimes there are real and true things that happen around us and in our lives but appear so subtly and so quickly that we can miss out on them if we don't know to look out for them.          

  

Sometimes we miss out on good and beautiful things around us because we easily get stuck in our own ideas of good and beauty.  

I hope I don't become so closed-minded and engrossed in myself that I miss out on truth and all the good and beautiful subtleties of life.