Happy Holidays, Everyone! There are so many different celebrations this time of year… The first day of Muharram/ Islamic New Year has come and gone, as has Hanukkah, and we’re sitting on the edge of the winter Solstice. Today is the first day of the next cycle of 13 Baktun – the Mayan Long Count – so how do you envision the next 26,000 years? Christmas, Kwanzaa, Saturnalia are yet to come this month, but whether you celebrate any or all of these or something more personal, we wanted to wish you a safe and happy Holiday Season and a New Year filled with as much love, joy, peace, adventure, contentment, prosperity and excitement as you can handle! Continue Reading →
Category Archives: Spirituality
Creating Connections…
Hi Folks:
Today is our blog’s third birthday, so happy birthday to us!! We originally opened our doorway on this little corner of the ‘net as a place to share ideas, thoughts and feelings and to create connections with others, so ‘Creating Connections’ seemed like an apt title for today’s post.
Continue Reading →
Celebrate World Kindness Week!
Hi Folks:
According to the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation, this is World Kindness Week! How are you celebrating kindness today? Kindness can be a part of anything or everything you do; it’s not something you must go out of your way to achieve. And the more you practice kindness, the more relaxed and open you become. The winner of the RAK’s ‘Extreme Kindness Challenge’ is a woman named Madison Steiner, who runs a small non-profit called ‘Peach’s Neet Feet‘. Basically what they do is to purchase kid’s size canvas tennis shoes and hand paint them, then donate the shoes to children who have cancer or other medical challenges. Each pair of shoes is designed for one specific child, and celebrates things that are important to that child. You can see more by clicking on the link below.
Peach’s Neet Feet
If you’re not sure where to start with sharing kindness, try checking out some of the RAK’s Kindness Ideas! You can also read some of the stories shared with the Ripple Kindness Project. Need something really simple? Smile at a stranger. Do it again. And again Now tell someone you love that you love them. Share a hug. Allow yourself to open, expand and breathe. Practice kindness every day!
Hugs,
M&M
Thoughts on Marriage
Hi Folks:
Today Marcia and I have been married for 10 years (120 Monthaversaries in our terms). Next month we’ll have been a couple for 18 years. Yes, that does qualify me as being the luckiest man in the world. It also means that we were together for some eight years before we got married, and no, that wasn’t just because we had a very long ‘engagement’. You see, for most of my life I didn’t believe in marriage…
Would You Accept a (Free) Hug?
Hi Folks:
On September 2, 2012 there was an article by Elizabeth Day in the Guardian Observer about ‘Juan Mann’ – a pseudonym for the man who started the ‘Free Hugs‘ movement in New Zealand. There were 42 comments to the article (including ours), and comments are now closed, but in reading through the comments they seemed to be polarized between those who had participated in sharing free hugs and those who were adverse to the idea. While Marcia and I would never try to take someone beyond their comfort level (we wait for people to come to us and those who aren’t interested get a smile and a wave) it seemed to me that those who were repulsed by the idea spoke up for one of a couple of reasons. I thought I’d explore those reasons here, and as always, others are welcome to join the conversation! Continue Reading →
The Spirit of Canada
Hi Folks:
Last night Marcia and I were down at ‘The Well’ on Fort Street for the semi-finals of ‘The Spirit of Canada‘ – Poetry, Spoken Word and Singers/Songwriters’ Contest. Our friend Sheila was reading poetry in the event and has moved on to the finals on August 6!! All of the poems and songs were to incorporate Canadian culture, politics, landscape and/or humour, and there was some excellent talent there. Listening to the various performers, however, got me thinking about what it means to be Canadian, and I was reminded of a story shared with Marcia and me some years ago. I think it captures the essence of Canada in many ways. I was going to write it out for this post, then remembered that I’d already done so a couple of years ago. Here once again, then, is ‘Telling Tales‘.
Hugs,
M&M
P.S. If you’re in Victoria on August 6, be sure to come by The Well for the final presentations!
International Free Hugs Day!!
Hi Folks:
Today, July 7 (the first Saturday in July every year) is International Free Hugs Day!! So hug someone you love today. Or a stranger. Or, preferably, both!! This is our third year of hugging Victoria, so if you’re in Victoria today, drop by the Homecoming Statue (near the Tourism Victoria building, downtown by Ship’s Point) and we’ll be happy to share a hug with you!! Continue Reading →
Happy Canada Day!
Hi Folks:
It’s now well into the evening and the last of the Canada Day fireworks will be drifting away down at Victoria’s Inner Harbour. The weather here was absolutely perfect for a celebration – sunny and warm but not too hot. As is our wont, Marcia and I brought our ‘Free Hugs‘ posters downtown with us and invested some four hours this afternoon giving out Free Hugs to anyone who was willing to share one! It’s always a delightful experience for us. We hugged someone who was two weeks old, and someone who was celebrating his birthday today – possibly into his nineties. We shared hugs with a couple from Brazil on their first day in Canada, and we hugged a gentleman who knew about two words of English – ‘Thank-you’ and ‘Iran’. There were people from Australia and Ireland and the US, from Alberta and New Brunswick, and yes, people from Victoria! We even had two young women ask us for the loan of a marker and two sheets of paper torn from a notebook – they made their own ‘Free Hugs’ signs before heading on their way. Continue Reading →
Remembering Liz…
Hi Folks:
Seventeen years ago today, on June 16, 1995, Mike’s sister Liz passed away in hospital from acute liver failure. She was not a candidate for transplant. She was not yet 39 years old. The whys and hows of this aren’t important at the moment, because today we want to celebrate her life and not her untimely demise. Continue Reading →
Being Poemed
Hi Folks:
Our good friend (and amazing poet) Wendy Morton can sometimes be found at the various branches of the Greater Victoria Public Libraries, ‘poeming’ people. Basically, she engages the individual in conversation for a few minutes and then she writes a poem about him or her. We caught up with Wendy at the main library downtown on April 28 and had the chance to be ‘poemed’ by her. We thought we’d share what she wrote about us, with you…
Marcia
Now that I’m retired
I have more time to write,
more time to watch the golden finches
fly from the branches of the cherry trees.
And time to walk
time to be quiet.
I go to art galleries,
go to art walks.
What we love most,
is giving away Free Hugs –
we go down to the inner harbour,
give away hugs to people at random.
I’m learning slam poetry.
I’m learning everything!Wendy Morton
April 28, 2012
Mike
We live in a world where people are
so afraid of touch.
How can we live without contact?
We went to the inner harbour.
Two guys on standup paddleboards
came up for free hugs, then
paddled off. Once a guy got hugged,
went back and got his whole family.
We’ve hugged the whole world.
We’ll keep doing it.Wendy Morton
April 28, 2012
Thank you, Wendy!
Hugs,
M&M