Christmas Encouragement
Dear friends,
A sweet and creative note below from Judy Too. And do take a look at the link she’s included. These are fabulous works of art!
Jude Somers has put in another entry in the Habitat for Humanity gingerbread house fundraiser contest - check out the website below - and she created a train! It's the E & N engine coming out of a tunnel! It's on display at the Parkside Hotel & Spa and you can only view the entries from outside - so we'll be pressing our noses to the window to marvel at the creations inside. Just like we used to do with the Eaton’s Department Store Christmas window. There are ways to donate to Habitat via the website.
Her gingerbread train evokes very fond childhood memories - the first 7 years of my life were spent on a large property in Langford, next to which ran the E&N rail line - whenever we heard the distant whistle, down we went to the track, ready to wave at the engineer and the caboose guy - hearts-pumping! I still get goosebumps when I hear a train whistle.
http://habitatvictoria.com/gingerbread2020
Was there a dazzling Christmas display in a downtown department store when you were a kid? For me it was the Hudson’s Bay in Edmonton, and all I can remember are figure skaters (a skill to which I aspired, without success) making figure eights in the big picture windows. I could have watched it forever. I fear today’s high-tech kids would find that display pretty boring…
Here’s are a couple of current Christmas window at Hudson’s Bay in Canada:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1195119596992434176
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlZYVvCyeR8
what are you eating these days. I confess to an out of control desire for lemon curd spurred on by the enthusiasm of our next-door-neighbour. What about you?
Vancouver’s Phoenix Choir sings Coronavirus Rhapsody
Virtual Pop Choir from Vancouver with another pandemic anthem
Although I have no idea who S.C. Lourie is, I think they’re reminding us of something important. Maybe we’ve always known it and are just now recognizing the truth of it in a new way because of Covid-19.
“I think we really need to talk to each other like we’re not always going to be around. And take that extra moment to hug and look into each other’s eyes when we say goodbye. And say I love you as many times as we feel it. And make more time to see each other and be kind to each other; let go of the hang-ups and the differences because in the end, none of that stuff matters.”
~ S.C. Lourie
Thanks again to Dale for turning me onto Bored Panda’s addictive images. Take a look: https://www.boredpanda.com/animals-photoshopped-cats-koty-vezde-galina-bugaevskaya/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter
Our world is full of beautiful stories. Here’s one from someone named Jeffrey Sherman who may not know Dr. Bonnie Henry but definitely looks at the world in the same way:
When I was a kid, they rolled out a vaccine for polio. We were given it at school on a sugar cube. I went home and my dad, who was working on Mary Poppins, asked how my day was.
What I didn’t know was that Julie Andrews who was hired to play Mary had not really liked the song my dad and uncle had written -“Through the Eyes of Love” - and it was rejected. It was their favorite song for the movie.
Walt asked the Sherman Brothers to come up with a new song that would be in line with Mary’s //Julie’s philosophy.
Dad asked me how my day was and I told him about getting the polio vaccine at school. I was known for rejecting the booster shots at my doctors’ office and running away.
He said, “Didn’t it hurt?”
I told him they put it on a sugar cube and you just ate it.
He stared at me, then went to the phone and called my uncle Dick.
They went back to the office and wrote -“A Spoonful of Sugar” (Helps the Medicine Go Down.”
… trust the doctors. When the vaccine for Covid comes out, get it. Trust science… We are a small world and we will beat this enemy if we listen to those who know. Be safe. Wear a mask. Be kind and thoughtful and considerate… We will beat this.
I believe people are becoming kinder and more generous through the time of Covid, recognizing we are indeed each other’s keepers. For instance, in Chicago, a man named Rob Kenney has a youtube channel that explains how to do some of the many things that might require a parental figure. Kenney grew up without a father in his life so is offering his skills to other kids who don’t have a parent with those skills to pass on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xrq331SI3mg
One day soon we will gather, but in the meantime we must all together stay apart.
Stay safe.
Aleksa