A Bear-y Merry Christmas To All

Once upon a time there were three bears…no, wait a minute, there were four! And they lived in a lovely big house on a quiet wide village street in rural heaven. All was well with the bears as Mama and Papa worked at their teaching jobs and Boy Bear and Girl Bear played and learned and gradually grew into lovely adults, eventually going off to find their own bear fortunes, one just across town and the other way across the country.

Mama Bear and Papa Bear were happy for their bear children but couldn’t help feeling their lovely big house was a little empty, so they decided to sell the lovely big house and look for something smaller, just right for two. Eventually, after a long, long time, these things came to pass, and Mama Bear and Papa Bear began to clear out their lovely big house. Many things would go with them to the new, just right for two condo, but many others had to be sold.
The Bears held two huge garage sales, advertised several bigger treasures in the paper, sent pictures over email to many of their bear friends, and eventually their house started to look really bare. (ha ha!) Piles of boxes filled the corners, all labeled with strange coding: Fragile, basement. Odds ‘n’ sods, m.b., serving pcs. Kitchen, and so on. Mama Bear wondered where she had put many things, such as the theatre tickets and the bear passports, and she said a little prayer to the Big Bear in the sky that all would appear in the new place.

While Papa Bear was off working very hard and very long hours, Mama Bear planned for the new home. She got the address, the phone number, the Internet connection, the water, electricity and heat---my! Bears need a lot of things---and every night lay in bed hoping she hadn’t forgotten anything.

Finally the big bear moving van came on December 14 and Mama Bear and Papa Bear got up for the last time in their lovely big house, showered for the last time in their shower, packed up a few precious breakables into their bearmobile and welcomed the Moose Movers at the front door. The Bears were off to their new condo in the city, hoping to be settled just in time for Christmas.

A very wonderful Christmas to all of you bear friends. We have our first bear grandchild on the way—Beth and Rich—expected March 1. We are ecstatic! Please come and see us in our new home.

Maybe There Is A Plan!!!

We've all experienced it, we've all heard the stories about it. From deja vu to been there, done that, we've all used the expressions which have evolved to describe it. The theme of my piece today is serendipity, those moments that just seem to magically happen where coincidence is pushed to the limit.

This morning while we were preparing breakfast my husband and I were talking about what we would do with the remaining books from my 1500-book collection after our final invitation to friends and family to come and grab what they want this Sunday. We talked about boxing them up and giving them to charity or to the local used book store and hoped we wouldn't have too many to take. Imagine my delight a few minutes later when I opened my email to find a message from my brother who has offered to take all of them to a new used book store opening up in his area. Wonderful! First that the books are going somewhere they'll be appreciated and second, that we don't have to take them!

Yesterday we took a jaunt to Tillsonburg to a great furniture store to see about a new sofa--an idea we have since put on hold till we see how our stuff looks in the new place. On the way home we decided at the last minute to have supper in a remote little restaurant en route. Sitting waiting for our meal we were chatting about the Monday night visit from our friend who lives in Chilliwack BC and was here visiting his elderly mother. He told us about meeting some people out there who used to live here and they knew us. When we heard the names we marvelled at how small the world is. You might think that's the end of the story but the words had no sooner left my mouth when I looked up at the couple who had just sat down at a table nearby and thought I recognized them. I couldn't believe it. These people now live somewhere in Manitoba and we haven't seen them for years. I got my husband to turn around to verify and sure enough there they were--the people we had just mentioned not two minutes before!

Well I know we all have those moments but when they happen I really start to wonder about the power of thinking things into reality, as mentioned in The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. That idea that like attracts like as in positive ions--whatever they are!--is pretty magical and I have to think that our house sale is an example. From the time we got an unexpected offer, got excited about moving, and then through all the counter offers and waiting for conditions to be met, I just kept seeing that the deal was going to go through. And it did.

My word for today, therefore, is serendipity. Here's to magic!

The Pictures are in the Words

Lately I have not posted much at all, primarily because of our impending move and the mountains of extra things I've had to do in preparation, but also because I've fallen into the habit of only posting when I have new pictures and my camera has been lazy to be sure.

I find this situation surprising as the writing is what I have always loved--finding just the right word or combination of phrases, making up the occasional new onomatapaeic word--how clever!, and bringing tears to my own eyes with my heartfelt laments. So what has happened to Elaine the wordsmith? I think I discovered how easy writing about fabulous photos can be, compared to cutting, pasting, deleting, retyping, rewording, discarding it all and starting again. Lazy. I have become lazy and it's not a good thing. I wonder how many of my readers find themselves in the same position?

Also I find that when I use great pics in my blog many more people stop by, leaving me catering to the audience, I guess. And here I thought I was so original! A little introspection happening here, folks. Pardon me while I flush my vanity.

Driving the 401 the other day to a lovely lunch date with my oldest friend (read longest friendship), I heard an insistent blast of the horn and searched to see from whence it came. A yellow truck was so close behind me in the middle lane, I automatically tightened up my buttocks and pushed the gas to get out of his way, a good plan most of the time but all three lanes were solid and there was no place for me to go. Beeeeeppp! I heard the horn again, so loud and so close that I decided to sneak into the passing lane and push ahead even though I was already doing 120 kph (20 over the speed limit!).

I left the offensive one in the dust and traveled normally for about 5 minutes when, once again, the horn behind rattled me. The yellow monster was back. In the thick traffic I had nowhere to go but noticed him move to the inside lane and nudge up on my right. Of course there was no room for him to pull in ahead of me so I watched to see what he would do. You guessed it! He threw on his signal and cut me off so much so that I had to slam on my brakes to keep from hitting him.

I'm ashamed to say I laid on the horn, which caused him to give me the 'finger'. Now I was just a little angry and my mama didn't raise no coward girls! I threw caution out the window and pulled out and passed him, this time hitting 130 plus as I left him to watch my rear end diminish in the distance. I kept a close eye on him in my rearview but he left me alone and I reached London with no more problems. As I ruminated about the event I realized I'd just had my first encounter with real road rage. I'm lucky he didn't shoot me, I guess.

Thinking about it now I realize he won because I did speed up and get out of his way. Hmmm. Not such a great reaction. Now I wonder how many of you have had similar traumas?