Still Pretty

It is still pretty outside. I am grateful to my friend S for pulling me out of the house early in the morning for a walk.  These photos were taken last weekend.

Paint Party Friday - Fall Leaves

Welcome to Paint Party Friday! I did some 'Fall Leaves' for you in my sketchbook (9" x 12") in watercolour pencils outlined with a waterproof black PITT artist pen. It is based on a photo that I took in the neighbourhood.

On Judgement-free Acceptance

I was reading this newsletter from professional organizer Hellen Buttigeig. She had a topic on 'organizing your life'. She advises us to practice judgment-free acceptance. Don't try to change people, accept them for what they are. They are what they are. She asked us to stop measuring situations. Don't try to change or control things. It is what it is. Judgments hold us back from a full life.

These are good, perhaps relaxing words of wisdom, I thought.

On Kindness

I took these photos a few weeks ago, no guarantees of what it looks like now.

This is a wonderful story I saw in the newspaper recently. 'Stranger pays $5K to reunite Kimbo the dog with his family' is the caption. 'Kimbo the dog was lost in August and ended up being adopted. When Kimbo's family discovered that he had been adopted out his adoptive family did not want to return him. Lawrence Dalle Vedove offered $5000 to the adoptive family to release the dog.'

Then the next day this follow up story appeared in the paper. 'Hero who paid to return stranger’s dog rewarded for generosity'. Expedia Canada gave him a free trip to Australia and the family who lost their dog started up a crowd fund which promises to amass more than the original $5000. Any excess will be donated to an animal welfare organization.

An Interesting Dilemma

Welcome to October!

 I was talking to a friend at the gym this past week.  She is in her mid-sixties I believe.  I had sent her a dentist referral for who I believe to be an honest dentist.  A cousin of mine used to work for her.  Apparently my friend has been seeing her current dentist for over 30 years so it is a hard decision to leave him.  However, she feels it may be time for him to retire as he is aging and he actually hurt her recently while doing some crown work.  I agreed it was time to leave.  It is an interesting dilemma.

 I took these fall leaf photos for you today, great shadows at this time of year:

On Homeless Youth

There was a moving article in the paper last week concerning Toronto's homeless youth. It heartbreakingly profiled 5 homeless youth. I was surprised to learn that half of the featured shelter clients are from middle to upper income families. One in 5 are LGBTQ. I learned that youth need different supports. They need basic life skills such as how to rent an apartment, cook, manage finances, and face a loss of family ties. There is a need for long term housing versus emergency shelters. Oh what a world we live in.

The Shift Replacement

Fall Leaves

Son K has interesting days at his part time job where he has worked for years. They employ a lot of students who come and go. There is a pretty girl who gets a lot of attention from the guys (and even from older male customers). She told K that most people would think it is flattering, but 90% of the time it is annoying. She also sounds like a nice, polite girl.

The other day K had to exchange one of his work shifts. He was having trouble finding a replacement as they are a bit short-staffed at the moment. Luckily, this pretty girl was on the shift he wanted replaced so one of the guys volunteered when he realized who he would be working with that day! Needless to say, the girl was not pleased with this replacement as the guy has been texting her a bit too much and she doesn't like him 'that way'.

Ah, the lives of the 'barely-adults'! K is just having a good chuckle about the situation and happy to have his shift replaced. He actually tried to borrow the girl's phone to send the guy a friendly text 'from her', but the girl smartly said 'no'.  So nowadays, 'why doesn't she call me' has become 'why hasn't she texted me?'