Category: #life

Hinchcliff & Lee

~ blacklilymusings ~ 1 Comment
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The Greatest Gift I can give myself in our Lovely City of Calgary is to take a little wander down to Hinchcliff & Lee. To visit  John and his Shop Dog.  Cash.  After a lovely meander through the Farmer’s Market with Helen yesterday, we met Beautiful Julianna at The Eden for a Delightful Lunch (a blog on that later under restaurants I love).  A few doors down is my  Favourite City Treat.

It’s the most amazing Trip through Asia at Hinchcliff & Lee.  A Second Generation Establishment.  John’s Mama’s Dream Child come to Fruition.  Always greeted by the most gorgeous caramel floaty haired dog, he’s Shop Dog Number Two.  When I first discovered This Gem, Doggie Jack was meeting me at the door.  Now Cash has taken up the torch, a Little Wilder and Floating His Freak Flag more than Jack.  Cash buries his nose in my purse looking for “Cookies”.  He pulls out my passport and has a solid hold.  I’ll Treasure the Teeth Marks.

John is a Gorgeous Soul.  I can’t even Explain It.  So Earnest.  So Engaged.  As Full of Character as his beautiful Asian Antiques.  I love the way he crosses his arms and gets that faraway look in his eyes and you know a Great Story is going to be Told.  An Asian Tattoo (I’ve yet to ask the meaning) scrawled up his forearm.  He pushes up his dark rimmed glasses with his middle finger, and tears fill his eyes.  His Papa has Passed.  We stand sharing his sorrow, tears rimming our eyes as he Gathers his Emotions.  He’s one of those People who make you Glad to Be Alive.  Enjoying this Journey of Life. He’s Got Passion.  Heart.

We wander through the Pergolas.  Paintings. The Heavy Wood Tables and Armoires in the Asian Reds and the Gorgeous Blue and White Porcelain.  Downstairs is another Treasure Trove.  The Weight of History of both the Old Building and Asia Mingling in the Summer Air.   Upstairs the floor is Creaking So Lovely under the feet of other Happy Saturday Wanderers.

I’m Glad it Graces our City.  I Highly Recommend a Trip to Inglewood to Hinchcliff & Lee.  Behind the Wooden Door is the Cutest Shop Dog eating the Sales Tickets.  The Shop Owner John and His Glorious Tales both New and Old.  Asian Antiques that will Take your Breath Away.

It’s Worth the Trip.

 

 

 

 

 

I’m Living The Dream

~ blacklilymusings ~ 1 Comment
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These words are Echoing in my Heart this Saturday Morning.  They were said by a man a Decade Younger Than Me.

 A Nobleman.

Wise and Rich Beyond His Years.

He Labours for His Lord.  He is a Minister For Christ.  An American Transplanted to A Foreign Land.  He is Poor, but He is Rich.  A Moment in his presence is Healing.  His Joy Contagious.

How can a young man who has Forsaken All for His Lord say “I’m Living The Dream” and His Spirit echoing and witnessing to his True Joy in it?

He Trusts His God Ordained Purpose.  Unfeigned Faith in Our Calling produces a Joy Unsurpassing.

 It causes us to Embrace.

 Soar.

 Explore.

Within the Confines of His Holy Will.  We Understand wherever we have been Called, is where the Richness will be Found for us Individually.

So Today, My Soul says “I”m Living the Dream”

Here’s to Soaring.  Here’s to Embracing.  Here’s to Exploring the Beauties of His Will.

Morning Serenades

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I awoke to the electric guitar floating over the morning airwaves.  Two houses down is a garage band.  It’s an odd time to be practising your chords, and if it didn’t Stir My Belly maybe I would’ve been a little annoyed.  After all, the electric guitar is rather ear piercing more than it’s melodic.  But it Stirred Me.

When I pondered why it awoke  Butterflies Of Excitement in my stomach I realized it made me Grateful….

Grateful for Music.  For Passion.  For Those Who Dream.

It made me grateful for another day to Ignite My Own Passion.  To work towards my dreams.  To embrace this beautiful land of promise.  To allow Hope to blow its soft gentle wind into my sails again.

I Inhale and listen to his Happy Although Screechy Chords, and I Smile.

Thank you Garage Band Electric Guitar Player.  Thanks for the Inspiration.

I’ll Sketch My Dreams Today.  Because of You.

 

Dreaming Big Starts Little

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We all have Big Dreams.  We all want to Go Places.  We dream of Reinventing, Rejuvenating, Restoring.  Along life’s journey hobbies Get Shelved.  Dreams Too.  The Pertinent and Immediate becomes all consuming.

So Here’s to Starting Little.

Do you want to Climb Mountains?  Let’s Start with Practising Endurance. Without Grit, no mountain can Be Scaled.  Practice Endurance.

At our Careers. In our Homes. In our Relationships.

 Pushing past Comfortable and Into Excellence.

 

Do you want to be an Artist?  Be okay with Failure.  With the Outcome of your Pursuits being a Caricature of Your Vision.

 Be Okay with Starting Over.  From Scratch. Next time you’ll be Closer to your Masterpiece.

 

Do you want to be an Inventor?  Be a Creative Problem Solver.

Every Day in the most Mundane Tasks.

Think Outside the Box

When you Clean Your Car.  Do Your Laundry.  Shop for Groceries.

The Greatest Ingenuity comes from Rethinking Old Patterns.

 

Let’s Start Little to do Big Things.

xoxo

 

 

 

 

It’s Like Riding A Bike

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We’ve heard this saying forever.  It basically means whatever we are trying for the first time, once we figure it out we will never forget.  Sometimes this can be a problem.

Maybe we learned a dysfunctional way to pedal the Life Bike.  Generations of dyfunctional pedalling.  Someone told you to go a full rotation backwards before going forwards.  Resulting in a lot of stop and starting and poor forward motion.

Sometimes in life, we need to learn how to ride the Life Bike again.  Relearn a more efficient way.  Sometimes our teachers didn’t know the best way forward.  Sometimes the only Life Bike we had to get us through the early years was rusty and missing gears.  We learned to pedal the bike, but it was no small achievement.

So, Huge Kudos to those who learned to ride on rusty gears.  You’re the coolest freestyle riders I know.  You’ve developed muscles so many “New Life Bike Every Year” people didn’t.  But maybe, it’s time to really relook at “Learning to Ride Again”.

Find your own way forward.  The way of easy riding.  Just think of the distance you can go with all the grit and determination you learned from those rusty gears.

Here’s to Freestylin…

xoxo

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Meet Me At The Grand Cafe

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In 1650, the first Coffee House opened in Oxford England.  The Grand Cafe.  It started a Revolution.  As Steve Johnson, a modern media theorist puts it, a wonderful Intellectual Flowering started to happen.  An Era of Innovation.  Before this, the drink of choice was Alcohol.  Instead of Numbifiers and Stupefiers, the English were imbibing Stimulants.  They would gather in this Elegant Establishment and Exchange Ideas.  There’s no greater power on earth than the Cooperating Collective.

We are a Coffee Infused Generation.  But we are also Numbing Ourselves with TV.  The Net.  Netflix.  Maybe it’s Time for some Innovation.

So here’s an Invitation….

Meet me at the Grand Cafe.  Let’s exchange Ideas.  I want to Hear Your Dreams.  What is Intriguing You.  What your Five Year Plan is and how I can help you Get There.  There’s nothing like Networking to help us achieve our goals.  We will never get anywhere as an Island.

If you’re shy and don’t want to leave a comment, email me and we can start a conversation!

My email is jeanninehhunter7037@gmail.com

Looking forward to hearing from you!