My blog is currently getting another makeover (more to come).  If you happen to stop by during construction, please accept my apologies.

You should still be able to find everything…

Thanks for understanding.

I caught this moment at the Toronto Zoo today.

Evidently, the king has a sense of humour – check out his tongue

sticking out his tongue.

March 8th marks International Women’s Day.  I have decided to set aside my cynicism (at least publicly) and be positive.

That we shouldn’t need a day doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have one; we still need it.

I have many hopes for all who identify as women.  I look forward to a time when:

• what makes us different is celebrated and valued
• we are all free to make our own choices without fear of judgment and persecution for not meeting gender role expectations
• we are free to be proud of our gender and what it affords us
• we can stop feeling pressure to meet the male standard and seek sameness, but change the standard to include and value what makes us women
• we can all possess ownership of of our bodies and reproductive potential
• we can all express ourselves in ways that we deem appropriate
• we all have access to equitable opportunities, pay, and acknowledgement
• the unpaid work that we do is valued as much or more than the paid work we do
• we all receive recognition for what we contribute to the world in which we live

I look forward to a time when we don’t have to designate a day to celebrate our worth.

What are your hopes for those of the world who identify as women?

Today, I am honoured to be featured as a guest blogger on Coffees and Commutes!  My post is entitled My Fantasy Future.

Thanks to Christine for giving me the opportunity!

click this image for more info on the Won’t you be my Neighbour

In a matter of hours my son will be two years old.  I am so proud of him.  He is an amazing, good-natured kid.  Everyday I think I could not possibly love him more, and then a new day dawns and proves me wrong.

As he gets older (or more significantly, as I get older) I will forget the details of who he is today.  I won’t remember the small things that make him, him right now.

• His favourite colour is orange

• His favourite dinosaur is the triceratops

• His favourite letter is W

• He loves to eat fruit, specifically blueberries

• He loves to play with cars, trucks, trains, and anything that moves

• He is naturally athletic and has an amazing arm

• In bed, he needs his 3 giraffes, 2 monkeys, and one baby piled around him

• His favourite saying is “Boom shaka, Boom!”

Every day is a new adventure and I welcome each one (even though they are not always fun).  I anticipate and look forward to seeing him grow and learn and carve out his own place in this world.

Happy Birthday, Bubs!

I have a sneaker collection.  It’s a little known fact.  I have been collecting them for years and am partial to adidas and Puma.

Over the past few years, I’ve lost interest in getting new sneakers – I’ve had other things to spend my money on. . . like, diapers!

Still, I am attached to the ones I have.  I am particular about them, too – not wearing them in the rain, cleaning the littlest speck of dirt off of them to keep them crisp.

However, for a while I have been considering getting rid of them – donating them to a local women’s shelter for women who need them more urgently than I do.

I am feeling weighed down by excess in my life and want to simplify by relieving myself of unnecessary things that take up space. . . like say, a couple of dozen pairs of sneakers.

Black satin and red suede

Yesterday, I went through all my shoes with the intention of taking them to the shelter with the 3 garbage bags of clothes that I finally decided I will not wear in the near future (or ever).

I managed to part with 2 pairs – one of which I had never, ever worn.  I am not going to lie, it was hard.  I wanted to keep them, but in the end I could not justify keeping a pair of shoes in my closet that someone else needs.

Which brings me to these (pictured).  Aren’t they pretty and awesome and lovely and cool?  Did I mention pretty and awesome?

They are my favourite pair and I love them.  I have only worn them twice, but they make me happy every time I look at them.  Black satin and red suede.  I would rather admire them than wear them. . . wow, that makes me sound so materialistic!

For now, I’ll keep them.  Maybe someday in the future I will see someone wearing them on the street and smile (unless it’s raining. . . they are satin, after all!)

The excess is cluttering my life – literally and spiritually.  It weighs on me that I have so much that I never use when it is so easy to give it to people who have nothing.

How do you de-clutter your life and break attachments to memories & it-might-come-in-handy potential?

I have always loved dreaming.  Sometimes, I go to sleep just so I can dream – and often, to finish a dream.  Yes, finish my dreams.  I have always had very vivid dreams and lucid recollections of them. At the risk of sounded cliché or crazy, I will say that my dreams are so real that it seems like they transport me.  Arguably, they feel as real when I am in them as my perceived reality feels when I am in it.

When I was kid, I pictured a TV in my head as I was falling asleep (no wonder my parents took our TV away for a few years).  As I fell asleep, I would ‘flip through the channels’ and choose what I wanted to dream about.  I would skip through the scary ones and settle on the the ones that made me feel good.  It wasn’t until much later in life that I realized that this was uncommon. It served me well.  Though, I don’t have to do it anymore, I sometimes will for fun and nostalgia.

Now, I can fall asleep to finish a dream from the night (or nap) earlier.  Usually, I see where the dreams take me and go along for the ride, but when I know I am dreaming, I can dictate what happens next, when it ends, or who will appear in it.

As a result of my connections to my dreams, sometimes the distinctions between my perceived reality and my dreams blur.  I often do things in my dreams that I need to do in my reality and then I think they have actually been done.

Recently, I read the following passage in Mysticism and the New Physics by Michael Talbot (page 6 in my copy)

“I may dream that I am sitting at a table having breakfast and talking with my friends, but when I wake, I know that both I and my friends are part of the continuum of the dream. To say that there are many ‘consciousnesses’ in the dream is merely a semantic distinction. All the people in the dream are illusions. They …are constructions of consciousness”

Interesting and provocative.

What does that say about reality and consciousness?  Could it be. . . that saying there are many consciousnesses in reality is also a semantic distinction and that people in reality are constructions of one consciousness?  Illusions. . .?

Not long ago, I watched Horton Hears a Who (which is a cute movie, by the way).  Dr. Seuss is deep and Whoville always gets me thinking.

In Horton Hears a Who, Whoville – an entire world – is in a speck of dust atop a clover flower and the Whos had no idea that there was anything bigger beyond them. . . much less many, many MUCH bigger things – like Horton who is an elephant!

So, it got me thinking. . .

How do we know that our world isn’t in a speck of dust atop a clover flower?

. . .and what if it is?

I am so honoured to receive the Beautiful Blogger Award from Heather at Acting Balanced!

Thank you Heather! Check out her blog filled with stories, love & family!

Instructions for the award:

Seven interesting things about myself (in no particular order)

1. I have lived in 3 provinces and 9 towns/cities, including Montreal, Toronto, and Edmonton.
2. I draw road maps in my head when I walk and drive & I feel really disoriented when I don’t know which way is North.
3. I don’t show Q’s face on Twitter or my blog because I have had shady people in my life.  I don’t do it to protect him so much as because I don’t think it’s any of their business what he looks like or what his name is.
4. I love to dance and I was good at it.  Once, I had to battle at a club to get my friend out of a bar fight – it worked and they loved us after that. Phew.
5. I spout useless trivia at the most random of times.
6. I never grew out of sleeping a lot and I often nap when Q does.
7. I like to think that I like to read, but I really would rather watch TV.

And the award goes to…

Christine at Thoughts from a Lite Mocha Mom

Maria at Bored Mommy

Sarah at Old School/New School Mom

Jacki at Our World from A to Z

ENJOY! (and thanks again, Heather!)

It’s winter… and there is no snow.  It’s cold and there is nothing outside to play in!

What’s a mom to do?  Yup!  Indoor playground.  Q loves them, and so do I!

Ball pit! (I know they are gross, but he has SO much fun in it, so I grin and bear it!)

*photos taken with BlackBerry, so not best quality.