Creative Waves

I have been quite lax in posting here although I do have some things to say and some photos to come.

A few things came to me today that are excellent reminders that giving thanks is something to do on a daily basis.  Take the time if you will to view a couple of short videos. It is well worth the time.

What is Important To You?

This is a short video that I feel is important enough to share. It really brings home what is truly important in your life. Here is a great example of Expressing Appreciation for what we have.

What’s For Dinner?

Needing a short reminder just how good we have it?

This will give anyone pause to give thanks I imagine.
Plate of fried chicken — the Berlin Film Festival first place video.

Lydia is back posting on her Serenity Blog and posted about Thanksgiving.  Good stuff.

These videos and such are good reminders about just how precious life is and that can be taken away from us in an instant in a physical sense and of course there is the time factor that just seems to fly by and more so as we get older.

About a month ago I went to the store and the Olympic torch came running by so I stopped to take a few picture. The torch is travelling across Canada on its way to the 2010 Vancouver and Whistler Olympic Games right here in beautiful British Columbia.

Ok, will see if I can be back sooner to post something else.

Cheers,

Gene

Indeed I have been lax in posting here and it is not from lack of information or photos etc.  The timing just has not seemed right when the thoughts come to me.  I will start with a quote and follow it up with a few other things, thoughts, poetry etc.

Some interesting material in the MillionaireX1, daily quotes and inspiration, this one came from the daily quotes from MX1.

There is much truth in this saying:

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it,
or who said it, no matter if I have said it,
unless it agrees with your own reason
and your own common sense.
-Buddha

I have been enjoying many of the quotes as well as the inspirational messages.

Many of us seek outside ourselves for the solutions to our challenges.  This can often lead us astray. The main source comes from within and many of our answers, if not all, are there for us to uncover and discover.  It is wise to be guided by our own counsel. As Wayne Dyer puts it “If you want to follow your passion, be independent of the good opinion of others.”

Some poetry for you, if you would like to read it, starting here and more by following I Am With You, below:

I Am With You

I believe this gift will, at times, to you, signify
That this dream, as you call it, will last
A dream can a reality be, it’s all within the eye
To see, or not, and deeper still we travel beyond the past

Speaking of gifts, this one is natural, and following up the previous post about my friend, “the naked one”, here is a photo exposed and very soft to the touch. No it is not Pamela Anderson but she and it is from this very island, Vancouver Island. That is as far as I will go on that subject.  At least for now. Whew!

These are magnificent and awesome trees called arbutus around here. The bark peels off naturally. A true wonder of nature.

Before I go for now, I just wanted to mention to check out Lydia’s post on Manufacturing Personal Reality.  I have this belief that we create it all.  We can get hung up on the words and terminology but the essence is in there no matter what we choose to call it.

Ok will move on out of here for now, may you be blessed with good health,wealth, love and all that you truly desire.

Cheers,

Eugene

Just about 80 Kilometers, 50 miles from Victoria BC is the town of Chemainus, population approximately 5000.  Chemainus is a seaside town founded in 1858 as a logging community.  This small town is famous for 39 outdoor murals painted on their buildings.

During a visit by my son to Victoria, we decided to take a trip and check out the murals.  To get there we crossed the Malahat mountain past Goldstream Provincial Park which houses some 600 year old Douglas fir trees, western red cedars  and arbutus trees.  The arbutus is Canada’s only broad leaf evergreen tree which is found in Canada only on Vancouver Island and the southwest coast of Canada.

Hey this is one sexy tree folks.  It is naked.  The bark of this tree peels off and reveals a very soft smooth surface that feels good to touch.  If you are touchy-feely you cannot resist this. This also reminds me of my friend, standing naked.

Just looked outside and there is a little “Bambi” in my yard looking kind of lost.  I see them all the time around here. I hope “Momma” is nearby and safe.

Ok, back to the trip.  On top of the Malahat is an awesome view.  Then comes the town of Duncan that has the world’s largest hockey stick and puck, 205 feet and 61,000 pounds stuck, or should I say slapped on the side of the Cowichan Community Centre. I do have a picture of that as well.

Driving into Chemainus, you can tour the town quite quickly in a vehicle but it is much better to get out and walk around to view the murals on the buildings.  Some are quite stunning.  Here is a collage of some of them, check out the palm tree in the center of the collage.  Yes we do have them here on the Island, some would not believe that, palm trees in the Great “White” North!

There is an interesting story about The Hermit:

Walking around the downtown streets is a good way to experience and see lots of small interesting establishments. Lots of character there, also some good hand made chocolates which were delicious.

One more picture that I like, and there are others I like as well, this one is quite simple and who does not like an old steam train!

I have quite a few more to remind me of the trip to Chemainus. It was well worth the trip.  There are so many places to see and explore on this island.

Cheers,

Eugene

…..

Well this was a somewhat painful experience that turned into pleasure, later on. Don’t worry if you do not like the black and red stuff I have a poem about some knickers later on to share with you.

Those blackberry thorns attacked me quite good I reckon.  Nasty and very thorny and eager to attach themselves to your skin and watch you try to pull back and they go deeper into your skin.  So multiple scratches abound and that had some cleaning up to do.  Did I say RED? The blackberry season is a bit late this year so many are still not ripe. When you pick them green, they stay green.  Only way to pick them is very black and ripe.  The blackberry plants are all over this island so picking is free.

The later on came after I made low sugar uncooked freezer blackberry jam, the taste and flavor is tailor made to die for, of course.  I substitute a bit of honey for sugar and then it only takes 1 cup of sugar plus half a cup of honey to go with 4 cups of berries.  Much healthier than regular jam which has a high content of sugar of at least 4 or 5 cups of sugar.  Keeps up to a year in the freezer.

Goes great with my buttermilk, oatmeal, spelt pancakes and topped with fresh blueberries and perhaps a little bit of organic maple syrup.  Oops I forgot to take a picture of them.  They are all gone.

I do have a picture or two of the blackberry bushes and thorns.  The picture is a bit of an illusion.  The thorns come first. The best comes last and well worth the wait and pain.  No pain no gain, as they say. Whoever they may be!  Did I mention that I like blackberries?

Ok, so moving on to another realm entirely.   I did a few poems recently, yes there are lots already posted here, you just have to search near the top of this blog for the link to them and follow near the bottom of those pages for the subpages to discover more poems.  Don’t worry I will post the links here for the new ones.

So without further ado here are the most recent poems.

Mommy Dearest

The Shadows of Your Mind

Jump Up Now

What, if anything, do they have with blackberries? Well mostly nothing I suppose.  I do not have a blackberry but I do have blackberries, do you? Just do not spill these blackberries on a white article of clothes.  It will stain it right good I reckon.

Now as I recall it took me a long time to go and get those blackberries about 45 minutes there and back on foot.  In the morning it was cool and cloudy but by the time I went it was very hot.  So I had to wear shorts so that is one reason for the massive attack on my person.

Anyway, on the way back I had to stop in at Starbucks for a cool one. I waited a long time in line.  The guy in front of me kept letting in “his people”, two in front of him then another couple, then a lady who was totally engrossed into ordering a whack of stuff.  So I am so parched by then I can hardly stand up any longer.

I had been thinking on the way there that on July 31st I had gone to Starbucks to pick up a free drink they were giving away card holders, a viviano strawberry banana smoothie.  As I recall I was quite parched that day also. When I get in line they say they cannot make it because they are out of bananas and I should go to a different store near where I had just been before coming there. I was not going to walk back.

So to continue on the blackberry story at the other Starbucks,  the guy ahead of me could see me drooping and feeling a bit guilty now, asked me what I wanted and then he bought me a vende mocha frappuccino. Wow, instant manifestation.   This also reminded me also of the post on manifestation by Lydia on her new blog Serenity Chat.  She asked “Can manifestations really be helpful?”  Damn right I reckon!  Without a doubt maestro.

Anyway my viviano turned into a frappuccino.  So that is close enough for me!

Enjoy your day or night wherever you may be.

Eugene

Some years ago the idea of bare naked ladies would conjure up a different image for me.  That image, of course, changed when I heard The Bare Naked Ladies perform or saw them in a video.  Seeing them perform is one thing but the other side of that image, not so much!

Still it was a novelty and they have had some good tunes.  I still recall the song “If I Had A Million Dollars” and I would buy a K-car.   A reliant automobile.  Really?  And of course eat Kraft dinner.  See Wikipedia for more info on the group. Canadian, eh.  Well just happens to be.

So what got me going on this today?  Well, I received an email update from Kiva.  See Help Others at the top of this blog for more info on Kiva.  I recently made a loan to a Kiva member, Mavis Asare, if you are wondering why no payments have been made, well it is too early for that.  I am not worried, they will come and I will lend the funds over and over.  I plan on adding to it soon.

Ok, back to the reason this subject came up, in the email I received was a link to a YouTube video and it was a take on a Bare Naked Ladies song.  In this case, If I had $25 (The Kiva Song). So without further adieu, here is the video:

It’s a hit!  Also it is about helping others to help themselves.

I have posted a bunch of my photos at Me2Everyone so join and view them there if you wish.  If you have photos you can upload them for free and post them there for your friends and family to see. You do not need your own website or to use some other social network.

Here is an example of another picture posted there, from July 1, 2009 Canada Day.

Enjoy your day.

Cheers,

Eugene

Some time ago, I posted 10 Minutes To Creating Whatever You Want In Life. That is a simple step by step way to do it and I had success with doing this daily.  It really works.

Some will say that it is too simple. Well simplicity is the key as is repetition, over and over again along with a desire to do so.  I imagine you have heard about The Secret and the Law of Attraction.  All of this is part of an overall philosophy.  You can adapt any of this to use to create what you want in life.  Or do nothing.  YOU and only you, DECIDE.

I believe there are no gurus and you are the one to take the initiative to create the life you want. That includes no sitting on the mountain top.  Sure you can meditate and become involved in a spiritual journey.  Ultimately it is you who decides what that journey will be, and even if you listen to someone else, they cannot live it.  They may come along for the ride but it is your journey.

Along the same philosophy is something called Mind Movies.  Mind Movies can be made to assist you in creating what you want.   I was introduced to this sometime last year.  It is an interesting concept.  Check out the movie and get 6 Free Mind Movies now.  Use them daily for at least 30 days and longer is what I suggest you do.  Hey, it is FREE, what have you got to lose?  Sometimes the best things in life are free.  You can easily fit 5 or 10 minutes into your day.  Just decide to do so.

I mentioned that for the Canada Day celebrations in Victoria, BC one of the performing groups was Pacifika, Pacifikamusic and they were really good and well received by the large crowd on hand.  I did a pictorial video of them, the crowd and some scenes.  Here is the result.  I hope you like it:

This is the first, my first, YouTube – ing creation so it is a bit rusty and I could not quite manage to get the shot I wanted above. I showed this to one of my daughters and she said “Those are great shots! I like the music- it’s so relaxing ”  And my granddaughter said “Cool”.  My other daughter said “I got the pictorial vids.. they looked great. Nice to see Victoria through your eyes.”

A little bit of fireworks at the end.  I did another pictorial video on the fireworks but have not uploaded it, not sure I will.  Here is one photo of the fireworks:

Some of the pictures came out quite psychedelic, purely by accident of course.

Back to Pacifika, a lot of fireworks there!. The lead singer is Silvana Kane, originally from Peru who landed in Quebec and did not know the language and is now living in Vancouver.  Awesome, sexy,vibrant,sensual and a definite crowd pleasing performance.  Oops losing my train of thought again.  I cannot figure out why.

One last picture and has become a favorite of mine, not quite sure why.

Anyway, it was a great day celebrating Canada Day here in Victoria, BC.  Got to love this place, everyday I am grateful for just being, and being here.

Cheers,

Eugene

aka Gene

It is a beautiful day here in Victoria, BC Canada.  Canada is officially 142 years young today.

Lots of celebrations going on all across the nation.  Wishing all the Canucks a Happy Canada Day.

Celebration brings up the subject of music for me. Music transcends the mundane and uplifts us.   Canada has a history of producing some great musicians, poets, writers, performers etc.  I will post a few later on.  Just a sampling as there are too many to list.

In our capital city of Ottawa, Sarah McLachlan is performing today.  Here in Victoria one of the performers is Pacifika from Vancouver featuring a Peruvian born singer I first heard on CBCradio2.

It is impossible to  pick and choose the best one with such a rich list of artists with the likes of Neil Young, Anne Murray, Leonard Cohen, Burton Cummings, Randy Bachman, Céline Dion, Shania Twain and so on.  There are many newer artists up and coming and who have arrived on the scene. Some move on to the USA and other countries and many choose to remain “Canadian” maintaining their connection with the country of Canada.

As a nation we are generally tolerant and takes things in stride and rarely shout about this great land of ours.  It is a natural beauty.

I like to view the natural settings we have, when I take time to do so, such as a recent photo I took.

I will leave you with one of Canada’s finest, Gordon Lightfoot singing about one of the greatest historical achievements in Canada. It is hard to imagine the difficulty in building the railroad across the varied and rough terrain.  I am sure many died along the way so people could travel across the country coast to coast.

Enjoy your day, wherever you may be.

Cheers,

Gene

Here are a few of the performing artists, mostly singers from Canada, you may have heard of one or two of them:

Bryan Adams
Paul Anka
Randy Bachman  The Guess Who
Paul Brandt
Michael Bublé
Tommy Chong
Tom Cochrane
Bruce Cockburn
Leonard Cohen
Bare Naked Ladies  group
Burton Cummings
Céline Dion
Leslie Feist
David Foster  composer
Sarah Harmer
Jeff Healey
Diana Krall
K.D. Lang
Daniel Lanois
Avril Lavigne
Gordon Lightfoot
Ashley MacIsaac
Natalie MacMaster
Sarah McLachlan
Alanis Morissette
Anne Murray
Nelly Furtado
Brad Roberts – singer for Crash Test Dummies
Sam Roberts
Serena Ryder
Hank Snow
Shania Twain
Ian Tyson
Sylvia Tyson
Chad VanGaalen
Gino Vannelli
Martha Wainwright
Neil Young

Apologies to the many others not mentioned.  Feel free to make a comment and add your favorites, if you wish.

I am now adding this as a permanent page in the Help Others link at the top of the blog.

• There is a link at the top of this blog that I set up, originally on the Easy Ways Blog, to Help Others.  One of the ways is through a donation to Kiva.
• I had a bit of a challenge in doing the loan thing but have figured it out now with help from them.
• My own page is here.  My KIVA lenders page.  You can follow my “loans” there.  Over time I will be making more.

• Basically you are making no interest loans to help others who will pay you back over 6 months to a year and then you can relend the funds or take it back. You are lending funds to the working poor so they can help themselves and their families. I will just keep  relending  the funds.
• To view the complete page. Please Go Here Now Kiva Helping Others Help Themselves.

This can be a life changing event for someone.

Thank you,

Gene

On a walk to from the Inner Harbour around the winding pathway following the seacoast to the Seawall I came upon an interesting tree.  From some perhaps it would evoke a memory of Twisted Sister, but not for me.

Instead it reminded me of a friend from days past.  Quite a few days past.  It kind of goes like this, well it does go like this:

My Friend

Standing naked before me
Gently waiving as if in greeting
Arms reaching toward the heavens
Soaring upward yet grounded are thee

To find more about my friend go here to My Friend. You may ask what it was that evoked this memory.  Well it was this tree:

You likely know you can click on the image to make it bigger then come back using the back button.  This was originally inspired by a tree in St Vital Park, Winnipeg, Manitoba. Trees, even the twisted ones, have a lot of character and many live longer than we humans.  They are strong survivors and thrive in all kinds of inhospitable environments.

Down by the seawall the tide was out and I was able to take some closer pictures down the side.   I found this to be another interesting sight.

There are more photos which I may post on another day.

Enjoy your day!

Cheers,

Gene

At the end of May I went looking for something and could not find what I was looking for.  Actually I was a day late but did not realize it until later.  But do not tell anyone!  Shhhhhhhhhhhhh.   Hey, it happens.

So instead of heading back home I decided to explore a bit and came across the Galloping Goose Trail and I started to walk north up island way away from downtown.  I later reversed that direction and proceeded to go downtown to the Blue Bridge area.

Well as I walked north I came across an interesting over/under pass. The underpass was part of the trail that passed under The Gorge.  I noticed something from a distance that I did not know was there.

I could see that something looked like it was painted on the underpass wall and ceiling.  I approached to get a closer look and hey, I was walking that way anyway.  People walk and cycle the Galloping Goose Trail for many miles or kilometers as we use the metric system for the official measurement.

I went under the underpass and discovered an amazing sight.  It was completely painted from one side to the other and across the top.

Of course I could not capture it all in one shot nor three or four shots so I just took several pictures and this one shows the artist.

Quite a surprise and I was delighted to have discovered this on this day I was looking for something else entirely.  Goes to show that sometimes there is a reason for things to happen even if we do not know what that reason is.

So off I went towards downtown and this trail lead me to the Blue Bridge which is being replaced soon.  Many are upset as they really like the old blue bridge which was originally designed in 1920 but has gone through changes over the years.

So all in all it turned out to be a great day in Victoria, BC, which is usually does, BTW.  I am all for appreciating what what mother earth, this island, Vancouver Island and the land provides us.  It truly is a land treasure and with all the water around, a sea treasure as well.

Cheers,

Gene