Along the Merry Way....

It's official. I'm leaving for New Zealand where I'll be getting on the good ship Mehitabel to travel to Polynesia. I'll learn to navigate and sail, and we'll be exploring little kingdoms and countries that are tucked away secretly like tiny gems in the vast stretches of the Pacific Ocean. I'm excited to see the Southern Cross again and the other strange constellations of the southern hemisphere, to explore Middle Earth before setting sail, and to finally do what I have dreamed of ever since I knew what sailing ships were :) I'm sure there will be some sea-sickness to get over, perhaps a shark or two to watch out for, and many cultural things to learn, but... Life is a book and there are a thousand pages and a thousand adventures to be lived.

The cool, sunshiny weather of Victoria summer has been replaced by the unpredictable showers of a Victoria fall, which tells us that winter (well, "winter") is settling in here. You can't actually call the winter cold, but rather, "less warm". There are some days that I do miss the frozen, crisp clear days of an Ontario winter--the ones with dazzling white snow and air so cold that it hurts to breathe, and all you can hear is the crunching of snow and ice underfoot. I miss the brilliant Autumn colors of the Gatineau Hills, followed by the smell of fallen leaves and the feeling that we will be bunkering down soon. However, there is nothing quite like standing on the breakwater at Ogden point, looking over the misty, crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean (a scuba diver surfacing every now and then), and seeing the peaks of the Olympic mountains in the distance. You wonder what each cargo ship is bringing in, and where it comes from. On the best of days, I watch...

Caminante, son tus huellas el camino y nada más; Caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar. Al andar se hace el camino, y al volver la vista atrás se ve la senda que nunca se ha de volver a pisar. Caminante no hay camino sino estelas en la mar. - Antonio Machado Remembering the Camino, which I made almost 10 years ago. So many lessons for life along the way. You meet good people and dangerous people. You travel with people, makes friends, and also lose them along the way. You pass through all sorts of colorful landscapes. Most of all, every detail of the path both does and doesn't matter. It does matter in that each little step will get you to Santiago, but it doesn't matter in that there are many different ways and adventures to get to the destination as long as you just keep walking! Poem translation: Walker, your footsteps are the way and nothing more; Walker, there is no way, we walk to make the way. We make the way ...

When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. — Wendell Berry

Here is a poem that I wrote, which was inspired by the famous " Bookmark " of Teresa of Avila and written in the traditional sonnet style. Peace Let nothing of this world disturb thy peace. Or cause thy kindly soul to be distressed. Cast fears aside, tell clawing thoughts to cease. From terrors of the mind give thyself rest. The driving ache and loneliness of heart, Will melt like mist and sadness fade away. For from his love none ever shall thee part, And he will not abandon nor betray. Defeat and disappointment thou may face. Yet bitterness shall not thy hope destroy. For he shall guide thee onward with his grace, And in his love and through his radiant joy, Thy shattered soul will mend; its ruins rebuild. In love divine the empty heart is filled.

Another reason I love Victoria :) I'll add more as I find them.         I like this: Sink the Bismark and then Go Confidently in the Direction of Your Dreams! :)

For the past month, the windowsills of the classroom have been blossoming and little tendrils have been climbing their way up to the light. We started a few seeds, watered them, and waited breathlessly until they "hatched". We even planted some jellybeans for fun, but the kids gave up on them after a week or two. The seedlings have grown so well that we had move some into the principal's office. Then other teachers asked if they could have some too to take care of. Then some of the teachers who didn't have them in their classroom came asking for some! Pretty soon, we had a plant nursery production going on - pumpkins, sunflowers, zucchini, beans and lots of flowers! As they were threatening to take over, the local pastor luckily gave us a space in his garden plot, and we were able to transplant the majority of it. The others we gave away to friends and even strangers! Whoever was willing to take an extra pole bean or zucchini off our hands :) PS. My pictures ...