Tag: life

I Love BC but……

I love BC but it is time? …. I love the mountains that stay snow capped long into the summer. I love the ocean and how everyday it provides new and awaiting adventure. I love the forests, dense and left wild,  bringing new life with each season. I love the look, the smells and the simplicity it all brings. But is it enough?

For all that I love of BC I equally love about my family I miss them more then ever before, maybe it the painful loss of Maggie that opened up emotions of love that I had long since let go dormant that makes me long to with them. Maybe it is this stage of aging that brings awareness for the need to have roots, to have structure, to find a new purpose or to make a long-term plan for future existence.

I can see walking hand and hand with my parents as they age through their years. Maybe its this vision that drives the need for me to be with them. I can see playing with my nephews’ kids as their lives begin to take root. I can see BBQ’s and snow filled evenings with my brother and sister in law as we plan a possible new adventure.  But is it enough?

What holds me here in this place of beauty is the draw of nature and how tangible it is every day. What draws me back home is where family and roots may be waiting.

Perhaps the next hour, the day, the next moment will bring clarity and allow my two possible worlds to become one.

Live Love Laugh,

Catherine

One Strong Breeze

One strong breeze and everything can change . The wind topples the top of a tree, with a loud bang and a snap it falls to the forest floor, where it will decay and provide food for all things in nature or it will become the nursing branch, from which news saplings will grow

One strong breeze can move clouds at amazing speed. Creating cloud formations that are joyous to watch and opening up spaces for the sun to shine through, changing a cloudy forecast to a sunny spring awakening

One strong breeze creates a playground for eagles to practice their soaring skills building strength for their powerful explosive hunting dives

One strong breeze can change a calm ocean into ripples and waves carrying in sea life for other sea creatures to have life.  Washing up debris on to  ocean shores, nature’s way to self clean itself from things no longer needed

One strong breeze changes so many things

Thank you for reading

Live Love Laugh

Catherine

This Old Barn

There is something deeply nostalgic about old farm houses and barns.

From the moment you see their neglected lane-ways, now covered with wild grass and weeds with only a hint of the paths that lead the family home each day…to that next moment, as your eyes are drawn to the byres and ranches that have long since been forgotten.

That feeling of wistfulness for a place that I never knew….

I can imagine when this place was full of life….

Hard working families and children with chores, who have risen with the first sign of dawn to tend to their animals and fields of plenty. 

The family dog dutifully next to his master as he watches over his homestead, hands calloused, skin weathered and darkened through season after season, year after year of hardships and elation for the masterpiece of existence he has created.

I can imagine the home fires burning, smoke billowing out of stone hearth chimneys, dinner on the table as mama, the matriarch, calls her family home to her.

The laughter, telling of stories and adventures, everyone eager for their chance to share the happenings of their day, as the food that was harvested by the hands of the family is passed from one to another.

I can imagine as the children grew and began to pull from the roots that once grounded them, on to other quests, the draw of the city, the dream of something bigger or just different. 

Their aging parents slowly letting pieces of their homestead whither and age in time with themselves. The animals and fields either passed on or sold off, the homestead no longer a homestead.

The barns have aged, sun, rain and years of weather have transformed them into productions of art. Stunning reminders of what they once were.  Nature taking them back to the land  

This Old Barn

Thank you for reading

Live Love & Laugh

Catherine

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

 

To be a wildflower?

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a wildflower?

The start of your new life so unencumbered, so free. To be relayed to destinations unknown by gusts of wind, that have first pulled you from your mother plant?

Winds that carry you along, asking for your trust as its transports you to the place where you will lay your first foundation,

The winds stop…. and your new struggles for live begin. 

Did you find yourself perched high on a mountain top where you know your challenges will be many?  Where your existence depends on finding a crack, an opening, your home to lay root?

Where the elements of nature leave you exposed and threatened with each passing day. Sun rays that beat down giving and taking life away. Where spring rains and summer storms threatened to pull you from your perch, but also where your beauty is by far the greatest of all,  shared only by those that are blessed with wings, that are fortunate to fly amongst you

 Did you find yourself tossed along a highway strewn with broken stones, pebbles and runabout weeds?  Where storms and rains can’t harm you, but where you stand alone. and must lean learn to live with the loneliness of barren highways. Hoping that hasty cars and walk about wild life, take a moment in their passing to pay you heed,  to reveal in your wild beauty and in your strength to stand alone

Or did you find yourself in the fields and countryside that your ancestors before you have spoken about, as you waited for your moment to live life. Where you are surrounded by others the same and some different, where rooting, soil, sun and rain, all make life as a wild flower seem easy in comparison. Where people travel for miles to find you, to take in all your beauty.

Yet it is here amongst so many that you struggle for uniqueness and wither away young because no challenges befell you. Nothing could make you as courageous as the roadside warrior or as strong as the  mountain top beauty. 

Have you ever wondered about the life of a wildflower? 

Thank you for reading Live Love Laugh

Catherine Deslippe

Thank you to photographer Lorraine Begin for providing photos

 

Find Something Amazing to Talk about

I had a friend recently send me a message asking why he had not seen any recent stories from me.  I never answered Joe’s message, for the same reason I have not written.   I just have not had much to say.  Thank you, Joe, for reminding me to stop and write.

And perhaps it took today and spending it with my dear friend Lorraine to remind me that it is the little things that do matter.

And while the whole world seems to be teetering on the edge of a something drastic waiting to happen there is something amazing in everyday to talk about.

Today was amazing because in the midst of a sunny day, black clouds and a storm tumbled in but then in mere minutes it was gone and the blue skies opened up again.  So, similar to life that it was impossible not to make the comparisons

Today was amazing because our secret spot for watching Eagles did not let us down and hundreds of this majestic bird soared over ahead.  To have them so close to you, you can hear their flapping winds and the power in their soar.

Did you know that a group of Eagles is called a “Convocation” or “Brood”?   Strange as “Convocation” also means a large gathering of people brought together for an assembly. And the word “Brood” can also mean, to think deeply about something that makes one unhappy. No idea how they came to be associated with the Eagles I think they deserve something more stately then these two words to describe them.

Today was amazing because on our travels we noticed a hawk on a sign post, so we pulled over to marvel in it’s beauty.  The hawk trusted Lorraine so much that she was able to get within a few feet of the bird with nothing more then curious stares between the two of them.

Today was amazing because we saw Colonies of Herons working together to build their nests. Handing the other pieces of grass and leaves from beak to beak, to make just the right home for their young.  Did you know that a group of Herons is called a “Siege” Strange yet again because “Siege” can mean a prolonged period of misfortune, police or military action?  Who named these things?

Today was amazing because among the chaos of hectic work days, imposing winter storms that won’t let up, haggard and tired people that are mad at everyone, today it was sunny and the sun warmed every part of my being and reminded me that life is truly amazing.

Inspired to write again,

Catherine

I have included the link to Lorraine’s Photography Blog you may want to check it out to get a glimpse of the world through her lens   Beauty in photos

 

 

 

Life Imitating Nature

Decisions on life cloud my mind today just as the clouds take over the sky. Lakes and streams overflowing, mirroring the depths of human emotion

The heavy rains slow to a misty overcast ,  hovering in the layer of fog, the silhouette of lone coyote, a reminder of self preservation.

The rains let up ,  the clouds open to allow a sliver of sun, symbolic of possibility. Before they close back in again and torrential storms settle in

My storms, my thoughts, my day

Catherine

Rain

In the still of the rain we found some peace today. A week of stress and uncertainly gave way to playing in puddles. The air so crisp,  fresh and quiet and the presence of people absolutely nil.

Just Maggie and Me forgetting all the woes of the week, walking in wonder through raindrops.

So cold,  the rain teetering on the edge of turning to ice, laughing and running with reckless abandonment.

Remembering that life just is, people are just people and letting go every now and then is a must

Our day, our rain, our story

Catherine

img_6889

Taking a chance on the sun

The weather called for all day showers but Maggie and I had other plans so we demanded the sun to shine ….

 We saw a sliver of light on the horizon, our sign the universe had listened 

 While everyone was tucked away preparing for the expected wet day, we ventured out and were blessed with glorious moments 

 We saw rays hope and stole the moment …. we chased and followed the sun 

 Today was about merriment and marvel, it was about being silly and finding quiet 

 A great day to recharge, re energize and enjoy time my companion, my Maggie, my friend 

 To being silly and to finding the sun

 My Saturday, my Maggie, my story

Catherine

 

Is it Haunted here?

Is it Haunted here?  It opened in 1904 and was revered at the time as the asylum for the mentally and criminally insane. As medicine and research evolved over the years the name and the direction of the Riverview institute transformed into hospital that specialized in mental health issues, until it closed in 2012  

Let me take you back to the 1900″s.  Imagine this place perched high on a mountain side. With trees of all species that have never been logged, that have been here since birth. Such history in the pristine and raw forest.  Such strong forces of energy still at play all these year’s later

 Now imagine, still standing but crumbling, some of the original buildings that housed some of the most mentally ill people that were cast out from society

Witchery and barbaric methods thousands upon thousands of misfitted people locked away behind bars longing to touch what only their eyes beheld them through their windows

As I walk amongst the buildings, windows still barred holding in the spirits that walked the halls. I imagine the hand prints on grimy moss covered windows and the echoes of their screams and laughter as they struggled in their existence

This place is magical but eerie and haunting…. hairs stand on end as you peak through an open window to halls of emptiness but beauty in the building remains

Then out of nowhere a crack of thunder so loud we jump with fright followed by hard rains that send us the message we have over stayed our welcome move on now let us rest in the peace that we had longed for

My spooky Halloween 

Catherine

 

 

A Perfume Called Fall

Two of the greatest smells of all.

When you combine the smell of decaying leaves after a rain storm and campfires burning you have a collision of fall scents that awaken every sense of your being.

Taking deep breaths to try to take in as much of the aroma as possible hoping that if I hold it in, the smells will stay deep within my soul.

Bottle this and call it fall for these two smells can calm the most erratic mind and elevate mood to the point of elation

How is it that two means of ending, wood burning down to ashes and leaves decaying into dust can create such an alive feeling?

 Strange what nature has to offer, leaves, fire and life …. a perfume called fall

My Story My Fall

 Catherine

%d bloggers like this: