I often ponder in advance
the subject of my next blog. This
time, I got to thinking about why I blog. At the end of the day, I hope to
achieve by blogging a collection of stories, memories, which I am completely
grateful for.
Indeed, it goes without saying
that I enjoy blogging. But more importantly as in my title “My Magnificent
life” it clearly is about my life.
My experiences. My musings.
My interest. My opinions. (I
just realized that, I, a person who strives to avoid attracting attention to
myself, have devoted an entire blog all about me! Ironic.) That is enough about
me. :)
May was a busy month. My mom celebrated her 93rd birthday and it leads me to contemplate the issue of time. Not old age, nor the balance of life and death. But in particular, about why time appears to speed up as we get older, or is it just me? I remember, as a child each summer day seemed to go on for an eternity and that was okay with me. What happened? When did our perception of time change?
And, in a nutshell, that is why it is nice to be
able to go back and read my past blog posts. Blogging is my way of capturing snippets
of my life, which if left to chance might disappear into the abyss. Usually, I'll pick a quite time at
the end of the year to pick events from the previous year. More often than not, a smile
will grace my face but sometimes tears too as I go back into time and read various posts. It is a glimpse into my life, souvenirs of the good and bad.
That said, already, I feel like I’ve done a whole summer’s worth of activities and it’s not yet the end of May.
When the family gathered in
the same city earlier this month for my mom’s birthday party, this presented a
perfect opportunity to spend an evening with my five beautiful sisters. This was a rare occasion because it
seems that someone is always missing at family events. Reconnecting and reminiscing about time
past and celebrating current successes produced precious laughter. Moreover, big sisters keep you
real. Lol! (An interesting observation, my
brothers don’t seem to make an attempt to get together. Is this a male thing, I wonder?)
The following day, a huge
birthday party! I admit being a
bit of a control freak (read, bossy!) and I was somewhat taken a back when I
discovered no one was in charge of coordinating the event. How is that possible, no boss, I
thought? How will people know who is responsible for this or that and what type
of food to bring, this being a potluck an all? And, it didn’t help my state of mind either when the wild meat
for the soup was delivered still frozen and unprepared at 1 pm. Yikes!!!
In the end, it all came
together like magic, everyone pitched in and did what needed to be done and
brought perfect yummy dishes. I
have an awesome family!
Mama (as she is known to everyone) had no idea what we planned as she had a small party on her actual birthday. She entered the Friendship Centre and was greeted with an explosion of applause and happy birthday sung by everyone! Clearly, by the look of her it was a major surprise.
As a gift to her I created
our family tree. It was an amazing
process for me researching seven generations of family. As I read the research
reports, I imagined the era of that individual person. I was especially blown
away when I wrapped my mind around how much has changed in the world.
Particularly, our technology! I tried to imagine what my great, great,
grandmother would think if she knew I was researching her lineage on a computer,
viewing it later on an ipad and sending electronic files on my iphone to the
internet in real-time so those who could not be in attendance would feel like
they were part of the celebration.
In terms of time, this progress is but a wee blimp in the history of time, and yet
to my mom, it is real science fiction.
When printed, the descendant
report was over ten feet long with 258 people and 93 families. I can’t imagine how mama felt knowing she is responsible for
a community hall full of people, not to mention those who were absent! Interestingly,
her mother was an only child. How
awesome, huh!
May is a month for family birthdays, and another birthday
surprise for my dear special young ladies. Thinking up surprise is what I really enjoy doing but
sometimes I collaborate with someone and in this instance I needed Jenelle’s
help. It was killing her to keep the secret I know, but so worth it! What do
you get a budding contortionist? Well a contortionist dream holiday, that’s
what!
Later, on the May long weekend, on a gorgeous sunny day, we attended a small intimate wedding at a beautiful historical venue.
My bias to be sure is small weddings,
and this wedding was perfect! The
bride looked as all brides do on their day, absolutely radiant. Apparently, the groom said to his bride as they were planning
the wedding,” A maximum forty people and if one extra person is invited, the
wedding would have to go on without me.”
The bride must have taken him literally because there were no more than
forty people in attendance. Well,
that we knew of anyway. Because
apparently this historical building had a resident ghost who is known to make
an appearance each day at 2:30, but no one at the wedding actually saw her.
Finally this week, I
completed (actually I co-coordinated the riverfront landscaping) including a
spot for late night bonfires at the cottage. It looks spectacular!
Wow, this was a hectic
month! It’s no wonder time appeared to whiz on by quick like lighting.
