Animals, Thanks and True Confessions

When I was 10 or so I didn't believe my parents AT ALL when they said you never stop learning.  Alas, as I march toward ripe old 38 I get it.  I suppose I got the lesson some time ago, but needed to publicly claim it and thank my parents for challenging me to learn everywhere I go.  Sometimes my learnings are of the "Eureka!" nature, sometimes they're of the "Well, duh..." nature and sometimes they're subtle and occur to me slowly like a winter sunrise.  Whatever the case, I find that most of my ponderings include some aspect of my latest life lessons and for that I'm grateful.  In this season of gratitude it seems that growth and thanks go hand in hand - so I've been pondering their mutually beneficial relationship this week. 

We've had more than a few friends get some gut-wrenching news since we've moved here and have felt handicapped in our ability to walk through their challenges with them being so far away.  However, my appreciation for our 'technological age' and cell phones and such has grown immensely.  While I sometimes curse the very technology that I now hold in a new level of esteem, there's no denying that it makes separation seem smaller.  And I have to force myself to admit, reluctantly, that I'm much more dependent on items that plug in than I like to believe.  Herein lies my latest quest for balance - to figure out how to pursue actual human connection instead of relying so heavily on the virtual connection provided by apps and computers.  There's nothing that can replace the warmth in a conversation or the intricacies of intonation that an actual conversation provides.  And there's nothing that can ever adequately convey the messages we send with our body language.  While I'm thankful for the ability to be connected, I'm challenged to carve out time and space for personal interactions - they're so much more fulfilling than typing on a computer screen and reading sound byte updates of people's lives.  In seeking balance and I find myself learning more life lessons and may it always be so.

I've hit the stage here where I can easily talk myself out of my morning walk - today's an example, but it's more legit than some.  I'm home with a 'sick' child - she feels puny indeed, but as the morning wears on I'm not entirely convinced staying home from school was critical.  However, since her teacher's out as well we're chalking it up to a mental health day and moving on.  Alas - I digress.  We've been incredibly fortunate to have more than a few sunny days - which, as I understand it, is unusual in Vancouver in November.  On Tuesday I went out for a long walk to drink in the sunshine along the seawall.  It was glorious!  And I noticed an amazing phenomenon - striking in its simplicity, yet brilliant!  There were seagulls (a couple of whom were fighting over a prize crab - one had it in its beak while another swooped in to steal its legs for a snack) and crows who were diving toward the rocky shore and coming up with clams.  I felt a little sorry for them at first because they kept dropping them.  Then I had one of those "Well, duh..." moments - the dropping was completely intentional.  They'd pick up their choice mollusk fly up about 10-15 feet and drop it onto the paved pathway in an effort to crack it open and gobble up its tasty offering.  I marveled at the fact that an animal with a literal 'bird brain' could come up with such a brilliant, albeit labor intensive, approach.  And somehow they kept up with which clam belonged to which bird - I suppose if we humans worked so hard for a snack we'd all be in great shape.  As I walked I was again struck by the beauty that is this place - I left the seawall and cut into downtown to finish the loop to our apartment.  I traded the tranquility of the seawall (aside from the falling clams) for the bustling of Robson Street.

Views from the Sewall and of English Bay

Robson is the main commercial street through our neck of the woods and its energy is intoxicating.  I love walking down Robson - you see everything - and the store windows are fun to peer into as well.  Old Navy has opened its first downtown store and there were little bike 'cabbies' pedaling people back and forth from the store, a lady in hot pink tights and roller blades voluntarily directing traffic as she made her way to her destination, music was playing, street vendors were selling their creations and the sun was shining.  It was exciting.  And I had to be out of the house for a chunk of time so the realtor could show our apartment.  I was emboldened and decided I'd venture across to Michael's in North Vancouver while enjoying an infrequent car ride in the sun with the sunroof open.  I confidently strolled to the car in the garage and intentionally thought, "I've got this - no need for GPS - if this is going to be home I'm going to treat it that way".  Now, this has very much become home and I'm great at walking anywhere I want to go - but it's important to note that we drive very little.  And if we do, it's usually as a whole family and it's usually Philip driving.  And there are a lot of one way streets.  AND - I'm really good at remembering what various areas look like and how to use the streets in immediate proximity to navigate around said places, BUT I'm not so great at the bigger picture - the whole remembering how to get from my apartment to the area I want to go is a growing edge.  At least I learned it is a growing edge...

The view up Robson Street toward our apartment (our building is in the background)

 

I had an hour and a half before I had to leave to walk and pick up the kids from school - plenty of time to get across town and back.  So I set out - no GPS - radio on, sunroof open - feeling all sorts of proud of myself.  And I drove toward where I thought I needed to go and I sat in construction traffic but didn't worry one bit about time because I knew where I was going and still had time - I was only a few miles away...  And then I reached the bridge - the wrong bridge...you see, I knew which bridge I needed to cross but I'd driven to the wrong bridge.  And so I caved - and plugged my destination into the GPS (which was entirely safe because I was sitting for the 3rd time at the same light since construction had brought traffic to a dead standstill) and was shocked (not really) to learn I was supposed to be heading in the opposite direction.  Philip teases that when I think I should go left I really should turn right...and he was right again.  I got cocky and then I got humbled.  You see - now there really wasn't time to get to where I wanted to go and back, so I used the GPS to navigate myself in a big old circle back to our apartment and I parked the car, got out and walked for coffee.  True Confession - I am NOT ready to venture out in a car without the GPS.  Dangit.  Some things never change I suppose - so I'm grateful, as well, for GPS.

The other thing that never changes is that when Philip's out of town some sort of household issue arises.  This week, as has been the case in the past, we noticed the heat in the kitchen and the kids' room isn't working - at all.  So we let the realtor who's listed the property know and we let the realtor who rented us the property know and a tech was on his way out to fix us right up before Philip flew out of town.  Well - he was on his way until he decided his truck was too big to come to our building (which I didn't buy) so we had to wait.  Of course, I called Carlos, the second tech, and he could come at 6:15 in the evening while Philip was away - naturally.  So he came...fixed the heat rather quickly...and he left.  But as the elevator closed with him on it the smoke alarm starting squealing.  Clearly the heat in the kitchen hadn't been on for some time and the dust burning off of it caused an issue.  ARGH - the only other time the alarm has gone off was when a pepperoni had fallen off a frozen pizza and sizzled its life away on the bottom of the oven.  When the alarm sounded in the pizza incident, it refused to be quieted and we ended up yanking both detectors from the ceiling and removing the batteries for two days.  Never let it be said a Friday evening is boring when frozen pizza and rental movies are involved...  So, when it went off this time, I was terrified that we'd meet the same fate and our neighbors would be horribly irritated.  Thankfully, with the flip of a switch the kitchen fan was turned on, the sliding glass door was flung wide open and that pesky little safety device (which I would normally be ever-grateful for) hushed itself.  It was 7PM and I was exhausted, but was grateful, again, for the quick end to the squealing and for functioning heat - despite the fact that I've left the heat off in the kitchen since that incident.

So here we are - I've learned tons and continue to learn even more.  As we are in the midst of the season of thanksgiving and I've not been giving daily thanks via facebook this year, here's my list - albeit incomplete:
- For family - I'm immensely grateful - for their unconditional love, support, willingness for adventure and partnership in this thing called life.  I wouldn't be who I am without them - and life is better because they're in it.  And a special thanks for the gift of Philip - we're a great team and I couldn't imagine experiencing all that we've experienced with another soul - God gave me Philip, it's clear.  And God gave the two of us our greatest gifts ever in Henry & Lydia.
- For health - I take it for granted that Philip, Henry, Lydia and I are healthy and that our families are healthy.  Daily there are reminders of the blessing of good health and the challenges that we don't currently face and I'm striving to make my gratitude for this gift more intentional.
- For not being fearful of mistakes and for the lessons those mistakes afford [for myself and my children]
- For friends - both near and far - What joy it is to be connected with dear ones and celebrate victories, grieve hard times and meander the roads of life in such a varied community of people!  Without such a web, the world would seem so very much larger and lonelier.
- For the underlying truth that people are made good and that no matter our differences there's always common ground to be found.
- And finally for faith - our family has been made most whole in our identity as God's own; as such, our outlook on the world seeks to celebrate our connectedness to all people as children of God.  And I am grateful that God is creative and calls us to be co-creators, living into the lives we've been given.