Random Act of Kindness?

I met an interesting woman in downtown Vancouver today. She was riding on the sidewalk behind me. I didn't even know she was there until she stopped beside the woman standing next to me at the stoplight and said, " You are beautiful. I know I don't know you, but you are beautiful". The woman's reaction was as expected. She half-smiled, blushed and quizzically looked at her complementor.

This distributor of feel-good compliments has uncombed, coloured and slightly dirty hair pulled back into a wee ponytail, underneath a bike helmet rammed onto her head. She wore old blue jeans and a track jacket from the early '90s, faded from weather and use. By any current standards she would not be considered a beauty herself, but she seemed completely unconcerned by the paradoxical nature of her comment.

As the light changed to green and the signal to walk lit up, she pushed off on her bike and sedately made her way across the street. About half way down the block I heard her say "That is a lovely skirt you are wearing. I know I don't know you, but I like your skirt". She got about the same reaction she had gotten five minutes beforehand.

You see many interesting things in downtown Vancouver.

I wonder how often she does this. What are her criteria? Has she ever gotten a compliment of her own or been thanked? I think she deserves a compliment of her own. Compliment Woman, thank you for making days a little sunnier for women you don't even know. Your tiny acts of kindness are commendable for their seemingly innocent inspiration and for the feeling they give the women to whom they are delivered. Cheers.

Shake my head...

Sitting in my favorite internet café, I just saw the oddest thing. Bemused, I can only shake my head and chuckle. Ok, so this Thing: An old Asian woman in sweat pants and a sweat shirt and old keds, running up the hill. She was really working it! The funny part is that she had a lit cigarette hanging out of the corner of her mouth.

Bad Stuff

Ok, so something bad happens. And it is all your fault. OR you are either the root cause of the discontent or the propagator of the badness.

It is physically exhausting feeling guilty about something you can do nothing about, isn't it?

The More We Work

The more we work, the more work we have. It is true!

These days I notice it more and more. Maybe 'tis the season... that would be a very good excuse.

Not only does it seem to pile up in paper form, but also in mental and emotional forms. Nothing beats the cheer out of a good night off when the guilt is mounting over some unfinished business. Not that I have a personal relationship with guilt or anything, but I am sure you must have noticed at one point in your lives how this sometimes happens. How it sometimes can get quietly obsessive, and before you know it, you no longer want to do anything about it because it is just too much to even think about it! But, the longer you leave it, the more the issue balloons. It's a wicked vicious circle!

So, just get to it. Right? Just DO it. Right? Or at least get started. That's the hardest part, isn't it?

Happy Musings of the Season to you!

Pictures That Move You

Taken in Zambia by Julie Remy
Taken in Angola by Jet Belgraver

I wanted to share these pictures that I found on the Medecins sans frontieres website (www.msf.ca). They truly move you. Plus they show how effective a simple action can be. I applaud this organisation, and as everybody knows, I always wanted to join them.

Ever Really Look at Yourself?

Ever look at yourself in the mirror and realise you do not actually know that much about the person you are looking at? Or that you do not think you look like the way you feel or you wonder if you look that way to other people or if people see you the same way as you see yourself? Yeah... me too.

This morning I was up absurdly early to get up to the university in time to give exams. I had the biggest, purplest bags under my eyes, but funnily enough, bags make my eyes bluer. Maybe I should take up wearing massive amounts of coloured eyeshadow. They say it could be all the rage...!

Today

I have finished teaching for the day and my musings are in order. As I watched my students write a test, my mind wandered... why is it that some pencils make that squeaky noise while others sort of scrape?