Baa Baa Black Sheep...

For the first time in my adult life, after thirteen years of having graduated from my wonderful high school (hear the sarcasm people), I have become the black sheep of my class and I feel as though I have been transported back into that time when I was often the last chosen on a team for gym class, or when I was happiest reading my many books while the rest of my classmates looked at their pagers or gossiped about everyone else or their clubbing adventures... and man oh man does it ever hurt.

I believe that I am by nature a pretty happy person - and until very recently, this has not really been the case... I have my baby boy to thank in part for this massive change in attitude and lifestyle;  he has enabled me to begin cherishing and appreciating our and my life to a much higher degree since about January.

I have also been the benefactress of a great gift bestowed upon me by my maternal grandfather, who loved other people so much that he knew the names of every single person on his street;  as a result of my seeing him interact with others, and perhaps due to an innate quality of mine, I am often the recipient of many life stories shared on a bus or metro, or I am the giver of hugs, smiles and words of encouragement.  I am also a born leader, and I never shy away from taking control in any given situation.  Consequently, I had been voted class president, and I had done my duty above and beyond what had been expected of me... until I was demoted by a general class mutiny.

But why?  And imagine this being asked in a high-pitched, whiny voice.  Well, due to some unfortunate absences caused by the new germs acquired by my son at daycare, and due to my own negligence and stubborness, I have missed a lot of classes.  Also, due to some kind of wormhole established in my house or right outside my door, the time between when I wake up and when I get to school completely vanishes so that I am left running breathlessly to my morning classes EVERY single day.  Thus, I am NOT a class favorite... far from being the class favorite in fact.

Now, rather than go into further details, I just wish that people would adopt the following mantra:

 

LIVE, LOVE, LAUGH

And let others do the same.

 

I have been warned for my misbehaviour, and I know where I have been in the wrong or not, so I am trying very hard to remedy the situation - but what happens to me and in my life does not regard anyone else BUT me...

Jospeh and Greg

Taking a few moments to talk with or listen to another human being can change your day in the most magnificent way possible.  I had the privilege of meeting and speaking with two incredible individuals last week and I wish to share these two encounters with you.
The first occured on the Metro, on my way home to be with my beautiful baby boy.  A grey-haired man wearing a grey and yellow wind-breaker stepped on and uncerimoniously sat down next me, and I smiled as he did so.  As my Ipod blared an old Nelly Furtado song in my ears, I noticed that this man was still glancing my way, so I quickly pressed pause and grinned back.  Our converstaion began with his asking if I was going to work, and it unfolded into my talking about Zach and asking him a few questions to which he answered child-like and innocently;  pretty soon, I was showing him a picture of Zach and he sweetly asked me if I would take his picture, which I did and have kept on my phone.  As my station was approaching, he gallantly told me that I was as pretty as a flower and that I had a beautiful smile, to which I responded with two quick kisses on both his scratchy beard-covered cheeks before happily trotting off the Metro.
The second occurred at the corner of Peel and Ste. Catherine, when I heard the notes of a guitar being plucked by yet another grey-haired but this time, bandanna-clad man, sitting on a tiny stool with his guitar poised on his knees.  I decided to stop and listen, singing along to the songs I know, and he acquiesced to my request of Joe Cocker's A Little Help from my Friends.  We chatted a bit about love, his blue eyes twinkling as he charmingly flirted with me, a young woman half his age, while he confessed that young women are not interested in him while old women his age are too serious for his young and childish heart.  We chatted about life, and money and sang a few more songs together before we formally introduced ourselves and I gave him a big bear hug.  Then, I made my way to the Metro while he also went on his merry way, his guitar slung on his shoulder and his little seat resting in the crook of his arm.
What binds all of us together, our commonality, is that we are all human, no matter what nationality, culture, religion, social status, gender or age... and this fact is so easy to forget as we go about our daily business and we become obsessed with what we think we need and deserve. 

Smiling at Strangers

In this individualistic world in which everyone's eyes stare down at the cigarette-butt littered and gum-splattered sidewalks and only furtively glance up so as not to run into a person or object, as they impatiently and hurriedly make their way to the various obligations awaiting them, where are the humanitarian gazes?
Smiling at someone as the individual passes you by is completely free, only takes a moment, and will perhaps make his or her day better.  So why isn't everyone offering this free and magnificent gift to anyone who strolls passed them?
Moreover, why is a person SO surprised when a grin is offered to them?  An initial look of shock flashes through the stranger's facial features until, if you are lucky, a reflective smirk robs their lips of its initial grimace.
Thus, I say cross the self-imposed barriers people have erected in front of themselves and be the first to make a human contact with another human being... see what happens... might make YOU feel better as well.

Fierce