Small is beautiful

Lately, I’ve been remembering my childhood garden, a huge double lot in Vancouver. In the Spring, there were small pale-yellow primroses and small dark purple ones. I would pick them, along with moss, to decorate a little Easter basket; purple and yellow, the colours of that season. There also were miniature violets, so difficult to find; my Mum and I would search for them in one spot of the garden….they came up near the grassy edge of the flower bed under our small pretty pink dogwood. Sometimes they were in the grass! They reminded her of her childhood in Europe.

 

In July, our mother taught us to appreciate the delicate scent of blue cornflowers in the sunshine, found at the edge of our Dad’s huge veggie garden, amongst the buzzing bees and flitting butterflies.

 

And there was the exquisite fragrant taste of the tiny wild strawberries that my brothers and I searched for, hoping that a bird hadn’t pecked them first. Between us, we would gather a small bowlful to share and savour together.

In late Summer, my Mum’s favourite appeared – a few stems of light orange montbretia, hidden between its finely pointed verdant leaves in the partial shade of our dogwood trees. When I see these montbretia now, if the shading and colours are just right, I feel such a deep grief and and longing for my Mum, who has been gone for thirty years – there is so much we haven’t been able to share together.

I am very thankful for those simple joys together as family in my childhood garden, and for the sense of appreciation for the gifts of nature that we were taught by our parents. Now that the property has been sold and divided, with a house on each lot, the garden is smaller and new. I walked past it the other day with friends and realized that my childhood garden only lives on in memory and photo albums.

The photographs in this blogpost are taken on daily walks in our present neighbourhood of Mount Pleasant in Vancouver, which still has the older varieties of blooms that triggered these memories.

The completely unexpected surprise last week, of a serving of five small wild strawberries from a friend’s patio garden (the same variety, European she said, that I knew so well from my childhood garden, and which I have never seen since, but for which I have been longing and even speaking of lately), touched a deep place inside me, and I had to write.

I had to write about and share pictures of these blooms and fruit that, to my sensibilities, possess a beauty more subtle and understated than the larger, brighter blooms and fruits so popular today.

I had to describe some of the special memories of my childhood and to relate how I was taught to appreciate the rhythms of nature, the rewards of waiting and searching, and the love for delicate beauty.

Thank you to my parents, and I miss you both!

Small is beautiful!

It’s a small world after all: where Franz Kafka, Taylor Swift, ABBA and Yemen intersect

A few weeks ago, as Swifty and I strolled lazily homeward along the False Creek seawall on a lovely warm Friday evening, we came upon two young women waiting beside the footpath, one of whom offered me a small package of a dog food sample. “We have started a new organic pet food business; would you like to try some for your dog?” Swifty, who loves people, was already being very friendly with both young women. “ Sure!” I responded gratefully, as I am always looking for something to sprinkle on his dog kibbles, trying to encourage our fussy and pampered “Basenji mix” dog to eat.

I enquired how the name “Kafka” was chosen….it was the name given to the pet cat of the founder of the enterprise; she had been reading Kafka’s “The Trial” when she adopted her cat, and the cat’s disposition suited the name.

“Here’s our business card; please email and let me know if he likes it!” “Will do.” I wished the young women all the best in their venture. I enjoy young people and love to encourage them in their creative and hopeful ways to improve our world.

 

Franz Kafka (1883-1924)

Kafka, Sarah’s cat

Swifty and I continued home as the sun set behind us, giving hints of peachy pink to the darkening sky above the ever changing high-rise skyline of Vancouver, striking against the beautiful blue silhouette of the local mountains, so familiar and steadfastly unchanged since my birth.

Once home, I fed Swifty, adding a teaspoon of the colourful dogfood sample, rich with chopped veggies, over his kibbles. He chowed down rapidly! A friend of my son’s who was over as they prepared to leave for a hiking trip took a look at the little sample package and it’s listed ingredients…“This looks good enough for humans to eat”, he observed correctly.

Kafka’s Organic Petfoods is indeed made with the best ingredients! Check out their website: https://kafkasorganic.com and you can follow them on Instagram @kafkasorganic.

Kafka’s Organic business card lay on our counter reminding me of my duty, and a couple of weeks later i did email and report that Swifty had loved the food!

That’s great to hear Jennifer, thank you! We have a professional photographer coming in for pictures on July 24/25. We have some doggie and owner models, would love to include you and Swifty too if you’re interested? Let me know 🙂

Surprised and definitely interested, I responded by sending this photo to remind her of our handsome photogenic pooch, and I also let her know that I would check my calendar for availability.

Dates were duly confirmed, and I looked forward to a new experience.  As some of you know, I do take plenty of photos and post them, at least in the past couple of years, since I have had a smart phone with a PHD (Press Here Dummy) fairly high quality camera. However, being involved as subject, or rather, sidekick for the dog, in a real photoshoot and by a professional photographer was completely new to me! Wow, who knows where this could lead….

Swifty and I were first on the list of about a dozen owners and their dogs. We walked down from our place, me in my usual last- minute rush, so that I arrived hot and flushed.  Swifty’s normal morning walk suddenly had a new twist to it, as he was met by a group of enthusiastic young people wearing “Kafka’s Organic” white T- shirts, and we were ushered inside the lovely spacious party room of an Olympic Village condo block.

After being introduced to the team, I changed to a brightly coloured T- shirt which I had brought along as instructed and was then directed to the make- up table. This is serious, I thought, makeup!!

Meanwhile, Swifty was also feeling the stress…..for him, the friendly team in “uniform” doting on him with sweet voices and directing him inside, brought back memories of experiences both at the vet and at groomers. He responded with a “bolt out of here” yank on his leash.

Actually, last year we had to stop taking him to groomers because he has had an increasingly severe anxiety reaction each successive visit. Swifty is a shedder so we try to furminate him fairly regularly, and our son Sam eventually shampoos him, after I hound him enough! This seems to work well in our walk-in shower, where a continuous stream of sweet- talk and a gentle spray of warm water does the trick. We have let Swifty’s nails grow long; “au naturel” is easier on everyone!!

However, this afternoon we were here for our first photo shoot, and I was determined to make this work! I locked the dog’s leash to control the attempted bolts and cajoled him. His tail was between his legs as he cowered under the make- up table, while I had a major hot flash causing the make- up expert to give me extra “dabs”, as she tried her best to beautify me. “Lipstick!!”, I protested. “I’ve only worn it twice in my life, on my wedding day, and under duress once or twice, when I have performed in dances.” I told her my husband was attracted to me because I didn’t wear makeup, and that we were still happily married at almost 29 years later. Then I realized that was probably not the best thing to say to a young woman making her living applying makeup, so I back-tracked a bit, and told her that I now, being older, wore more eye makeup. I decided to enjoy the experience and allowed her to do her job.

Thankfully, I had gone for a hair trim the day before at my local Fantasy Cuts salon, and Kafka’s talented expert also did a little “this and that” to it with gel to get my hair just right!

Swifty has humble origins as a rescue puppy from an abandoned house in Salmon Arm. His mother and litter mates were fortunately all abandoned together. He was subsequently adopted by our family from the Richmond SPCA in 2011 when he was 3 months old….(my husband and I and each of our three teenage sons were interviewed extensively before the adoption was approved). The litter of puppies had been named for the Muppets, and the shy little golden one we chose was “Kermit”.

Sam, our youngest son, who is the owner of the dog, changed the name to Swift or Swifty. Of course, all Sam’s friends and family knew why immediately! Taylor Swift,  the lovely blonde country singer who rapidly rose to stardom in her late teens, had became an intense “love from afar” for our youngest son when he was the tender age of thirteen.

Today, here we were, Swifty and I, with our humble, low- maintenance backgrounds, participating in a professional photoshoot! This day, July 25th, 2019, could we put our best feet forward?

Make- up done, I dragged the dog out from his hiding place to begin the formal photoshoot, which began with the indoor shots. His cute curlique tail was hidden, tightly tucked between his legs, and his shapely noble frame was pitifully withdrawn into a shrunken curve. As I sat down on a chair at the “set”, Swifty was noticeably trembling, while I was doing my best by uttering reassuring comments in my “Mummy voice” and frequent comforting pets.

One of the team noticed. “Awe…he’s trembling! Does he have a favourite song we could put on?” “ Maybe classical?” someone suggested. “Well, he does like some of my Israeli folkdancing songs… ( but no, i said to myself, too hard to find quickly online, and he gets excited and tries to dance with me )….

“Umm, how about ABBA? Try ‘Dancing Queen’”, I suggested.  I often play ABBA Gold loudly when I’m cooking, and it gives me energy to get my work done; I felt it was sure to give Swifty associated memories of good smells and home.

Within a nano- second, Dancing Queen was playing, and MAGIC – Swifty’s trembling stopped! Wow! These smart young folk could offer pet psychology classes as well as good food!

Swifty and I actually both relaxed somewhat, and the photoshoot proceeded fairly uneventfully; there was some passing panic from him outside when he was asked to jump up on a bench beside me (memories of the vet and needles, I think!)

Then there were some shots with the food; Swifty, who is of hunting background and usually has a long look around to make sure no predators and competitors are going to pounce on him while eating, amazingly ate it within seconds so that there wasn’t even time for photos. He was given a second portion, and the cameraman had readied himself for the quick action this time round! The team worried they may not have enough food left for the next participants!

After that, Swifty was instructed by me to put his paws up on my knees and shots were taken from behind my head. By now, Swifty was very happy, (he was now feeling well fed and “paws on the knees” is not a behaviour that would be tolerated by me at any other time). With his open mouth and hanging tongue just inches from my face, I could see the remnant food juice on his lower chins hairs and even a little chunk of carrot on the back of his tongue! I smiled and encouraged him through all of this.

Once all done, I snacked on some fruits, veggies and juice provided, while Swifty relaxed beside me, and we had a peak at the next models.

Whew, at least Swifty didn’t have to sit on a chair at a table and eat out of a bowl on a placemat!!

We walked home very, very slowly, both completely drained of energy for the rest of the day! We had made it through, and later I found out, we did apparently make the cut… perhaps you’ll see Swifty’s photo on Kafka’s Organic website! ( a middle – aged woman with her anxious dog!)

P.S. I may be able to add some of the actual professional shots at some future point, so do check back.

Afterword: How then should we live?

As for me, I have been reflecting how it’s rather ironic that I did a photoshoot for this delicious pet-food (and I do wholly support these young peoples’ goals and efforts!), while my heart is also breaking with all the human suffering in our world.

I have had the people of Yemen especially on my heart and mind for a number of years.

When I found the photo of Franz Kafka’s thin face online (he was already afflicted with tuberculosis and died of the disease at the age of forty), his features interestingly reminded me of a young KPU student whom I met very briefly during our Kwantlen Polytechnic University World Interfaith Harmony Week activities in 2018 ( at the time time I was working as chaplain at the Multifaith Centre). The student came up to talk with me, just before I was about to start a presentation with a colleague on Reconciliation Initiatives in the Middle East. He said to me, with his huge dark brown eyes filling with tears: “ They don’t talk about Yemen in the news.”

He stayed for part of our talk, and politely left early for a class, as he had already informed me he would. I hoped to follow up with him, but I never saw him again. However, I have not forgotten him; his name and face and people are on my mind and heart often and again as I write this, prompting me to continue to focus my search for ways I can personally help, and encourage Canada to help, the people of this war- torn, poor and hungry country.

For those looking for ways to help , over the past year, I have found that Save the Children Fund and World Renew both help in Yemen.

World Renew ( which is the relief and development branch of my husband’s church denomination, CRCNA), is working in Yemen through ADRA (Adventist Development and Relief Agency), a Canadian Food Grains Bank (CFGB) partner organization to implement food distribution. Recently, World Renew contributed $50,000 to support the work of ADRA, which was matched 4:1 through their membership in the CFGB. The response is providing food vouchers to 1,100 families through March 2020. The vouchers can only be used to purchase staple foods e.g. flour, oil, rice, beans. These vouchers enable households to decide on the timing and food quantities.

Since the photoshoot, Kakfa’s founder, Sarah Fernando, and I exchanged some emails, sharing our personal backgrounds and dreams, and I heard that she definitely desires to help with various projects, both locally and abroad, for those who are disadvantaged in this world, once her new business is doing well.

https://kafkasorganic.com/pages/about-us

I very much look forward to being involved as possible!

There are many ways to help one another in our global village.

It’s a small world after all and a very complex one….

How then should we live?

 

 

 

 

 

The Summer of the Four Great- Grandmothers*: Introduction

All four of my great- grandmothers lived into their eightieth year, or longer!

How’s that for an inspirational beginning to some shared stories of their lives?

For me personally, it is very inspirational, as my own mother died at 67, and then I was diagnosed with cancer and went through treatments at age 48….so I do not take longevity for granted!!

Over the last year, I have only just discovered the names of two of my great- grandmothers and some more information on all four of them. I am hoping to make further discoveries in the next few weeks, perhaps months.

In a forthcoming series of blog posts, complete with family trees, anecdotes and photos, I look forward to sharing with my readers some of the story of each of these four women whose blood, genes and experiences I carry.

Presently, being in my early sixties, I have become reflective on life in a new way – this happens with age. I love being alive, and would love to have the gift of life for a long time to come! Naturally, this I cannot completely control, but I am curious to find out, as possible, the secrets of these women’s approaches and attitudes towards life.  I am already amazed ( from the little I already do know) at the achievements of these four women, not only the number of decades lived, but through which events and how they navigated those many years.

I’m also reflecting on what they passed on – to my grandparents and parents, and eventually to me – both through genetics, epigenetics and environment….some of which, for better or worse, I have already passed on to my own children!

I realize I am perhaps also looking to my four great- grandmothers as role models for this later season of my life. I do wonder presently where to expend and for what purposes to conserve my energy these days; I mean energy in a wholistic sense – encompassing physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, and relational aspects of life. I am also pondering where I need to strengthen my weaknesses and which of my natural gifts, skills and abilities I should nuture, in order to live well during the coming months and years – for however many more the LORD of life will grant me….

Here are their names, in the likely order I will present them (related to how much information I have presently).

Malvine Gutmann Mahler  b. 1858, d. 1940

Amalia Malka Meisses Aszkanazy  b. 1849, d. 1935

Emilie Jane Rabey Holloway  b. 1857 d. 1937

Caroline Hughes Dolman  b. 1844, d. 1925

To whet your curiosity, here are a few interesting facts about them: one was widowed in her 30s and reared six children; two were widowed in their 40s and also each had six children. One outlived her husband, after he passed away in her eightieth year.

Two were involved in running a local inn or hotel in their small town; one enjoyed attending parliamentary sessions, plays and opera, and one had at least three children who became teachers.

My readers will find out who is who, as we go along.

* I have borrowed the title for this series from the excellent book by Madeleine L’Engle which I read many years ago. She writes of her own mother ( who was a great- grandmother in her 90’s) and especially of her mother’s increasing failing health, senility and finally her death.

I liked the title, but my subject matter will be different….I am still figuring out if any if these women actually lived to see their great- grandchildren…. both timing and location need to be determined. I will be sharing what I know of their lives and times, rather than their last year of life.

More to come…! Please be patient in the process😊