Gratitude and Glimmers #105

Welcome to my post of glimmers (of joy and wonder) and gratitude for the month of March. You can find links to more posts like this one at LeeAnna's blog, Not Afraid of Color.

Peace and joy happen, neither in the quietness of the forest, nor out of the accomplishments of the marketplace, but only from within.

--Sadhguru

1. One of the (many) things I love about living in Canada's southernmost town is being in the Carolinian forest, where winters are mild (though this one slapped us hard with more cold and more snow than usual) spring is early. Snowdrops and winter aconite are out as early as the end of February/early March. Snowdrops especially amaze me that their blooms can withstand frosts without so much as a shiver. Here is a lovely little clump of wild crocus that are blooming everywhere down the greenway paths between subdivisions where I walk.

The force of nature is astounding: these little beings push up against a fairly heavy leaf cover; the blooms close during cool grey weather and open, literally blossom, in the sunshine. They make me smile every year on every walk.

2. It still feels a bit 'empty' without the Olympics and Paralympics. I watched the most Paralympics I ever have this year, and this Canadian curling team especially. I am so proud of this team, setting a record for being undefeated in the entire round robin and winning gold. This article is a good read if you missed it. So many glimmers of joy watching this crew. Quite the backstories, Mark Ideson's, the skip, especially.

3. I love words, their etymology, their sounds, their spelling, word puzzles, and more, but kangaroo words is a new concept to me, and I freaking love this.

My grade sevens especially loved these word picture puzzles. I challenged them to create their own, and wow, were there ever some clever ones. Here are eight I found here for you to solve. I'm stuck on 7 and 8 still, and yes, I did find out that the answers are provided (which solved #1 another I was stumped on) but I'm not peeking for 7 and 8... well, maybe until tomorrow. 

4. I like big books and I cannot lie. 😉 I spent the first two weeks of the month immersed in The Priory of the Orange Tree by British author Samantha Shannon, a book that's been on my 'to read' list for some time. It's fantasy, a genre I really enjoy, though it took a hundred or so pages to properly get into it, but boy did I get into it after that! It's a little over 800 pages and I lived in it, dreamed about it, thought about it even when I wasn't reading it. Samantha says it's a sort of feminist re-telling of the St. George myth. (He's the patron saint of England; wear red on April 23 as that is his day, and my mum made sure we remembered it every single year.) I have taken out its prequel which is 846 pages(!) but I got an email that my book club book has come in which I've had on hold for a month, so it will have to wait for a bit. 

Another book I read this past month that I must mention is The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak, a Turkish-British author.

It was just such an incredible story, weaving together a fictitious story with historical facts about the history of Cyprus, and naturally layering those with scientific facts and lore about trees, birds, and nature, and then folding in culture, politics, grief, family and climate change, with one of the voices a wondrous ancient fig tree...it's truly a remarkable, sometimes heartbreaking read, and will stay with me for some time. I had no idea of the turmoil Cyprus has been through.

From the book:

Humans teach their children to paint the Earth in one colour alone. They imagine the sky in blue, the grass in green, the sun in yellow and the Earth entirely in brown. If they only knew they have rainbows under their feet.

—Elif Shafak The Island of Missing Trees

5. I like finding Canadian equivalents of American billionaire-owned apps. Hey.cafe is one, though I only pop on a couple of times a week. The Book Lovers Café is dangerous in that I'm adding more books to my never-dwindling list of 'to read'! One of them is my 11th book, a new-to-me Japanese author, rather a quirky little book. I'm a bit beneath my four books a month goal. I've recently discovered Stingray Music, and have been listening in the mornings and using it when I teach yoga.

6. Wow, this is a terrific piece of good news, and it's a Canadian model who is the first trans person to walk on the Chanel Exclusive's Runway at Paris Fashion Week. Yup, definitely a glimmer of joy! She's from Guelph, 'just' up the highway (a little less than four hours' drive) from me. 

7. This provincially-funded programme I learned about thanks to the good news section of Tod Maffin's newsletter gave me a glimmer because it's my city! It supports "young men at risk of homelessness ... helping dozens to transition to stable housing and independence." I may see if they need any quilts! I did give a Centred quilt to a similar (or maybe it's the same one) organization several years ago.

8. Still in my 'hood, when I heard that Canadian Tyler McGregor was elected to the International Paralympic Committee Athletes' Council a few weeks ago, I was pleased, but when I learned he's from Windsor I got a big old glimmer of joy in my heart. He's captain of our Para ice hockey team.

9. I really enjoyed the Britbox series Riot Women, and was super-impressed to read that Sally Wainwright, (terrific creator of the show and several other worthwhile series) insisted that the actors actually play their instruments for authenticity. MacGyver ended up watching it with me, and I'm pretty sure he quite enjoyed it too.

10. This story, though heartbreaking and gut-wrenching, has such an incredible happy ending. And it's about my favourite breed of dog, (sorry Rufie) a pibble.