Happiness

Helmet Head Family

Just a few quick words. I have been writing outside the blog again and since I am generally in a mood of decreased anxiety these days I don't have such an urgent need to purge every little feeling I experience. This is a good thing. Calm is good for me, a much healthier state of being.

My little family has been skiing of late and I just wanted to say here how happy it makes me. I grew up skiing on Hudson Bay Mountain in Smithers B.C.. My family back then was bigger, there were 6 of us and in the winter we skied, religiously. While other families worshiped together we fueled up on pancakes and then piled into our VW van. My dad had his own version of preparation anxiety and would occasionally yell and slam the basement door expressing his frustration with his troop of ill prepared kids. Skis! Boots! Poles! he would yell while pulling out of the driveway. Once on the mountain though, all that anxiety was replaced with gratitude for the place and the activity of wooshing down hills under clear blue skies filled with sparkling ice crystals. These are the happy family times that I am modeling my own family experience after.

Pearl's skiing is coming along. She is careful and moves methodically down the hill. Mark goes ahead of us sometimes for a blast of speed but we both take turns taking up the rear, skiing behind Pearl, protecting her from fast moving snowboarders. Even though I can ski aggressively I am enjoying the slow pace, savoring the turns, keeping my shoulders pointed down the hill, marking each turn with yogic precision, shifting my weight from one leg to the other, gripping my toes in the imaginary sand. My lungs filled with clear mountain air add to my euphoria.

Riding up on chair 8, in plain sight of Mt Shuksan, I am overwhelmed with love for Pearl and Mark and with happiness that the three of us can have this experience together. I say over and over how happy I am. I can't help myself. They roll their eyes behind their goggles but I know they feel it too.

Religious Experience

I think it's good to practice your religion regardless of the weather. My religion it turns out is walking. I try to walk most days as you know if you have read this blog or know me a little bit. I come from a family of daily walkers. We never went to church, we went for walks. As far as I can tell it had a similar effect on us.

Obviously it's November and the rains have come. We are in the midst of a storm. Lots of unstable air, strong wind and heavy, heavy rain. I ventured out around 12:30 today for my constitutional. It was windy and raining slightly. My favorite saying is "there is no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate attire". Today I chose my attire poorly. Instead of putting on my raincoat and rain pants, I did the old, how bad could it be move and went out in hemp pants and my down jacket. I did have a hat and gloves and I did make Luna wear her coat. Luna hates her coat, she prefers to tremble. I paid for the coat and feel strongly that I know what is best for her, so on with the coat.

We went up to the... I don't know what to call it. Centennial Park I guess. The Agri-Fair grounds, what ever. There is a series of soccer, rugby fields and baseball diamonds set well below the road level. I wonder if they built it this way to prevent balls from being kicked into the road. Anyway there are steep hills surrounding the series of fields and play areas. There is even a BMX track who's sign is an oversized bike. There is a path like a miniature road that runs around the edge of the whole place complete with paving and a yellow dotted line down the middle. Once we are down at field level I let Luna loose to run. Today she was obsessed with rubbing off her smart coat. She shot up to the top of the embankment and literally threw herself down on her shoulder and onto her back, what she failed to take into consideration was the steepness of the hill and the slickness of her little coat. She slid down, head first, her long legs kicking the air. She was hysterical, trying to ditch the coat in between running at high speed driven by fast moving smells carried by the wind.

Eventually it began to pour, really pour, like there were buckets of water being thrown at us. A flag girl we had passed on our way to the park was laughing at the intensity of the rain as we passed her in the crosswalk going home. We were both laughing. At least she had rain gear on I said. I paused slightly as we passed and showed her my soaked pants peering out from under my wet wool hat and steamed up glasses. Luna hid behind me hoping to dodge the sideways rain.

By the time we got home the rain was so heavy that the eaves troughs were overflowing creating a curtain of water, our final gauntlet. I was soaked and invigorated, two components of a worthwhile religious experience.

Solstice

Just coming down from an intense jag of work which was happily punctuated Saturday night with a nice solstice party here at Rancho Relaxo. As mayor of Rowanville I am always striving to offer my guests a totally pleasurable visit to the country (seriously). Luckily the weather was fine and we all sat outside around the bonds of fire. Mark launched a few bottle rockets, freaking out Eddy and the dog, but delighting everyone else.

It feels like we have successfully coaxed summer into gracing us once again. Maybe it does work–to invite your friends over–to call summer on all together, let it be known that it is missed, like a cherished friend. It felt good to do what our ancestors did and to really feel the desire for the sun. And the sun arrived like a neat package, up at 4 and no questions asked the next morning. I feel like an ad for the power of prayer.

It's no wonder I feel so darn happy.


–

The Church of Family and Nature

As many of you know I am not religious, in fact I am the opposite of religious. Regardless of this I do like Easter. As a kid I never understand why Good Friday was good after my mother explained it to me in the car on the way to the ski hill. Nature was our church and we worshipped every weekend. We are with Mark's sister for the Easter holiday this year and it's highly rejuvenating as any celebration of rebirth should be.

This weekend the plan is to eat, walk on the beach, sew and talk, talk, talk about everything (restaurants included). There will also be pool playing and harbor watching. So much to do at the Church of Family and Nature where we celebrate these most ospicious days. We may even do a little sinning just to make the whole thing legit.

_