beautiful commitment

So the sun is out....

And there have been a few more laughs in the past little bit :)  Partially due to how happy my dad was that I posted such a beautiful becoming picture of him... love ya dad.

So I think I'm getting old and emotional... I almost, on the verge, cried today in a coffee shop....  I'll set the scene.

The holiday season sometimes brings out the worst in some....  Lots of emotions come up for many during this time of year, lineups don't help and neither does somewhat-organized-chaotic traffic.  Monetary issues seem to get in the way of the true spirit of giving and jolly ol' santa claus seems to get accosted more and more every year by Pepsi and Coke....  Maybe though, just maybe, it's these stresses of the seasons that make the beautiful moments even more precious.

I'm sitting in a coffee shop.  Across from me sit two couples who definitely share old memories and golden times of a few too many wines and beer.  One lady, of the four, seems to have lost a bit of her golden memory and tries her absolute best to recover and remember days gone by.  A few events happened whilst they were there, including a quick rush couple trip to the loo following a "well honey if I don't get moving I'm going to poop my pants"..... rushing ensued.  Upon their return there was talk of burial plots and jokes of ways of dying....

Why did my eyes well up?  Well with all this talk was love and devotion of the most beautiful kind.... despite the morbidity of death and losing one's self in any way..... there were these cosmic glances of love and respect.....  Crystal clear blue eyes sparkling to one's "honey" after probably 60 years or so of waking, celebrating, depending on, hurting with, and living with one another.  It just hit me how much strength this must take.... and left me questioning whether we (my current generation) knows this strength... knows how to garner this strength and cherish the people in our lives despite pending death, faults, wrinkles and creases and failing memories.... Will we ever get to feel what that strength brings?  I hope so. 

truckloads of  love...

cheek hurting, stomach aching, tear jerking laughter

I miss laughter.

oh and sunshine.

The west coast of Canada is BEAUTIFUL!  The mountains are gorgeously snow capped, the rivers and lakes mostly pristine, warmer winters, beautiful architecture, luscious bountiful gardens, a plethora of creatures (both human and non ) and interesting people all about. 

In the winter here, it's pretty gray... it's a trade-off.....warm, but rain.....lots and lots... don't get me wrong, I cherish the sound of raindrops whilst falling asleep with the window open no matter how cold....but... the sun...  So the sun came out the other day!  It was amazing the change in mood around!  I was getting worried as it seemed as though there had been a clearance sale at the local cranky pants outlet... but the sun was a change agent for sure!

Went to see an absolutely fantabulous band last eve in the beautiful village of Cumberland... Five Alarm Funk... 10 members on a tiny stage dancing and funkin' it out....seen them before, but last night all the stars aligned for an amazing night of dancing.  I was SO happy to see young people, young people dancing, young people singing, young people laughing, young people kissing, older people dancing, older people singing, older people laughing... My cheeks hurt...

I guess my latest question is how to know when it's time for a new adventure.... ?  What's the difference between giving up and new "adventuring"?  Is it when you seek out laughter and feel like it's been a while since you had a tummy ache from goodness?  Is it when you feel like you've done everything you can to achieve that kind of blissfulness and yet it seems distant?  What is enough or the right balance when it comes to friends, family, tears and belly aches?

this is my dad..... i love him with all my heart as of course you can see why...where my belly aches and hurt cheeks originated......truckloads of love.........xo erin

unconditional mummering love......

“The more one forgets himself – by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love – the more
human he is and the more he actualizes himself"

"The bottom line is that people who think too much about themselves and who are preoccupied with their own desires – or their own troubles – are not very happy."

So... I received some stellar feedback from my last blog post, however nobody felt comfortable posting on the blog.... which I found in itself to be interesting.  Since then I've been thinking quite a bit about unconditional love.  By this, I don't just mean "romantic relationships" but also friends, family, strangers... those you feel unconditional love from.  

I have to say that I have been searching for this since moving to the West Coast.  I am finding lately that many of the relationships in my life feel quite conditional.  I know that most people here want unconditional love, but there just always seems to be some walls to interacting with others.

I'm not used to this.....

To give you an example of the culture in which I was raised.... my whole extended family is from Newfoundland.  Newfoundland in my opinion has the most beautiful culture in Canada and soon you will see why.  So a prime example is the Newfie tradition of Mummering.  Mummering is when locals dress up quite funny, with the objective to not be recognizable.  Mummers go from house to house and are let in for a drink and a snack usually..... then they leave, never to be known of their identity.  I remember people coming to our house and laughing and chatting for awhile, and a cold drink of rum,  and after they left I asked "who was that?" to which my parents replied "we're not quite sure".   My point is that trust and friendship is there immediately, enough to share your prized rum even!  In other cultures in Canada, there is this sense that you need to earn your way to trust and friendship which is done by placing walls I think... but maybe I'm wrong and PLEASE challenge me on this!

Love is all around..... we just need to follow it, grab on to it, and cherish it.... 

Here is an example of newfie mummers, again stolen from a talented internet photographer... thank you! :)

Passion Mongrel

Hi everyone!

So I haven't posted in awhile as I wasn't going to continue the blog after my trip... but I've decided differently :)

I have  become extremely interested in the dynamics of relationships, especially within my generation.  By this I mean all kinds of relationships.... friendships, family, love relationships and even those relationships formed with absolute strangers within a glance. 

I'm looking to find out as much as I can and please feel free to help me by providing your opinions and ideas!

I see today in my generation an absolutely tremendous amount of fear.  I see friendships and love relationships falling apart due to a fear of something.... what that is... I'm not sure.  Then this fear turns into anger, or hostility, dismissing that once-special person or losing that person from our lives. 

What is love to our generation?  Is it all about checking off the boxes as is what happens with online dating services now, without even a physical glance with the other?  Is it about filling in that empty space of loneliness that we all feel due to our increasingly individualistic ways of living?  Is it still as magical as we grew up seeing on the silver (or technicolour) screen?  Why do we let it go so easily without fighting for love....?

Can we fall in love with different people for different reasons at the same time, but still maintain a sense of relationship and commitment?

What are our criteria now.... for choosing a partner or friend? 

I heard a term recently... agape.... and thanks to wikipedia -" Many have thought that this word represents divine, unconditional, self-sacrificing, active, volitional, and thoughtful love".. I heard it explained as giving of yourself to someone even at a cost to yourself......  Can anyone think of any examples of where we see this "now adays?"    If you do... PLEASE share!! 

I stole this picture... but i love it... thank you to whoever took it :)

loads of love
erin

Love, love, love

Sooooo.... sitting here in Detroit and heading back to Canada tomorrow am!  I am so filled with lots and lots of goodness from this past month.  I've learned a lot about myself and a bunch about everything else in life as well :)  I have to say that I'm a tad nervous to be heading back to oh canada tomorrow as I'm so filled with passion and excitement and really want to share it... but it's west coast gray time!!  Be ready for loads of hugs!  xoxo :o)

I'm believing more and more every day in the sweetness of human beings....

More G! pics!!

Hi loves,

So things have been interesting here lately! Actually.... I'm not sure if it is possible for this place to not be forever interesting and intriguing... :)  So I've included some pics... Here are more of the Dacha.. the main house...We have most classes here...

 

Next up is a bit of the Farmhouse!  This is where we eat and cook and play :)  This is the old farmstead on the property.

 

Next we have this amazing building called the Chrysalis... so beautiful.... I know this will be a fave for some of you :)

 

 Next are just some pics from the land and some pics from driving around... It's just so amazingly beautiful here!!

 

 

The last one is quite sweet... those are solar showers that say "Do you remember when we met?" and the other fishy says "That was the day I knew you'd be my pet!"...... Very sweet....

So we went for a "field trip"!  We went to the Seneca Caverns where there was Stagmatite formations that were millions of years old... so neat!  And then we stopped at a sweet diner.... and I had trout!!  The people here are amazing.... absolutely amazing.... ohhhh.. I have to put a new post! one sec!

dinah dinah!

Then here are some pictures of some happenings here.... some music... and the wonderful Mr Mark... who is brilliant... he played us two of his compositions... one with the lovely instruments you see before him, and the next on a guitar... ok get this... Gord you'll love this.... This big sheet he is holding up... that is the SCORE that he wrote!  In the piece he used his hands in the form of the letters in sign language on the fret board of the guitar...!!  There were 35 000 notes in the piece. ...!!!!  SO brilliant... one of the most brilliant men I have ever met.  And then that's it for now... Will post some more pics soon :)  constellations of love and warmth from here to there... xo

Clownin!

Below is a picture of our first clowning experience!  You can't tell that I'm wearing a full on- one-piece tie-dyed undies! They were amazing... As well my bottom was stuffed with too-toos! (How do you spell that anyhow??!)  A few of us then went to the nearest senior's home to play bingo and visit seniors in their rooms.  It was a Stupendous day!  I went into one lady's room who told me that I should watch it "you're quite wide in the middle you know... but quite slight up top...".... !!  We had so much fun!  You wouldn't believe what kinds of reactions Earl (my miniature rubber chicken) got..! I also met a man who was 94 years old.... with the sweetest, clearest blue eyes... He opened up to me and told me about his beautiful wife he was married to for 54 years who had passed away over 10 years ago....  He trusted me as soon as I walked in the room... quite a special day. 

Lots of other things have happened since then, and I'll post again soon!  Just have to go do some work :)  Oh, so the picture of the Dasha (the main building here, with the onion domes).... Found out it was build by a naked man..... yep.... naked the whole time he built it........ !  love this place....  truckfulls of love to everyone, xo

Erin...

G!

ooops - meant to put this with the last pics... Hey everyone!! I thought I would post a few pictures :)  I only have about 10 minutes right now before class but I really wanted to share a few of the pics and let you know that I'm doing fantastically!

There are people here from all over and I'm learning so much from all of them.  We have intriguing conversations every day.  Our classes are super interesting and learning lots from all the different people here.  Everyone is so lovely and hilarious.  I have been laughing so much that my cheeks now have permanent dimples :)  We've definitely had some interesting times of which I will not post right now!

A bunch of us are sleeping out in a yurt which has been amazing!  It's super cold at night, but we are all sticking together!  I think 10 of us have been sleeping out there thus far. ... people are starting to migrate inside though....

So the pics include some of the grounds.... the Dasha, Farmhouse (original medical clinic), yurt.... waterfalls...wokshop... which is a full fledge woodworking shop.... an exquisite corpse tea party we had the other evening... Today we went clowning for the first time at a senior's home!! SO amazing!   I'm hooked!

G!I

So G!I stands for Gesundheit Institute!  I thought I would post some pics! 

Washington DC!!

Thanks to Shawn and his lovely Lori, they took me out on the town in Washington!  They took me to this really neat art exhibit with a dj playing... apparently the newest band to be signed by Thievery Corp!

So then I took the train the next morning out of the beautiful Union Station

Then here are some pics I took from the train ..

The water is like chocolate!!  Ok I know you can't wait but I have to go for delicious dinner and hopefully will post more tonight!

lots and lots and heaps of love

xo

E

CRTICAL MASS!

Sooo... Going to make a couple of posts so that I can catch up!  Not having, or wanting, a lot of time on the computer while I'm here so here goes!!!

My lovely friend Gord took me on an adventure the night before I flew out to come here... I thought I would add a couple of pictures because it was an amazing experience!  All I knew was that we were going for a "bike ride" with lots of people..... So we get downtown... yes... I... Erin Rowsell..... rode a bicycle downtown Vancouver and only got yelled at a couple of times!! 

So we showed up to this...

Then we proceeded to go and block off the streets!! Hundreds of us!  People had coordinated music coming from their bicycles!  We even blocked off.....a bridge!!!!!!! This doesn't even show even a bit of how many people were there!!