Let me explain: To add a bit of creativity in the thick of the pandemic which will not be named...I thought it might be interesting to plan a two-day excursion around southern Ontario this summer (after it was acceptable to do a little local traveling) to a few towns that sounded exotic...with European names. My husband and I truly experienced a jam-packed 48 hours as we wended our way from Newark to Berlin (the names Niagara-on-the-Lake and Kitchener started out with)..with Grimsby, Paris, Vienna, Copenhagen, London, Stratford, and Cambridge in between. We gathered some simple and sweet memories like purchasing a vintage Ferrari (antique toy car) and picnicking outside of Paris, having tea with real china on the banks of the river while reading a German Fairy Tale, discovering a castle in London, and sharing fish 'n chips not too far from a beached pirate ship. Yes, it's all quite tongue-in-cheek...It is, however, also all we had at our disposal. I wrote a poem a few years back called: Nearby Beaches. Paris, Here: that starts--
is there a way to live
simply but with panache?
I have been practicing doing that since I first wrote the poem back in 2012. It takes some deliberation to begin to see the beauty in common things, especially in the midst of fearful times and other turmoils. But as I learn to do so more and more, life becomes richer and every day, overall, a bit more beautiful and joyful.
Click on this castle to transport you to EurOntario! I hope you can feed off my excited "panaching" here and do your own in the coming days and months. Let me know something you have done to add richness to our own life! (Comment below or contact me privately.) Remember that creativity is often not realized in a painting, out the end of a pen, or even in a song...Sometimes, it shows up in the most mundane of places: It even often starts or can end simply in our attitude.
Since love grows within you, so beauty grows.
For love is the beauty of the soul.
- Augustine
