Life

Have you ever heard the phrase, "Man plans and God laughs."? It is not biblical if that is what you are thinking! I love it. There must be a strong GOD DNA line in my gene pool, I laugh at myself a lot!

When I was 5 years old, there was nothing beyond going over to Brenda's to play dolls on my mind. Certainly not what kind of job opportunities would I be looking at in my 40's. Yet, here I am, looking at job opportunities. And Life.

Reflection can be a very harsh thing, but it can allow grace as well. My life has been filled with both.

The saving grace (other than Jesus!) has been my sense of humour. Hallelujah for that!!

I have found pieces of the most incredible humour in the midst of crisis, the death of a family member, the crumbling of a marriage, the loss of a job, or even the end of my uterus!

Is it indeed DNA? Or is it a choice? A decision. In moments I may succumb to my circumstances, but for the most part, I choose life, humour and optimism. Why not!

On the evening of September 10th, 2001, I was blessed to be one of a few hundred people at a seminar in Vancouver. The speaker was Patch Adams. The title was "Laughter in Healing". It was actually being put on for the medical community. My girlfriend Kelly is a nurse and saw the advertisement on a bulletin board at work. I will be eternally grateful to her for inviting me.

Patch is one of the most humble, lovely, eloquent, heart driven people I have ever seen in my life. Did I mention his sense of humour? We laughed and we shed a few tears, we laughed some more, and yes, we shed a few more tears. He has worn clown clothes for about 30 years. His hair is long, 1/2 of it was blue, he has this terrific showpiece of a mustache. Family, as in the human race, is his passion. Loving them no matter what. Going into orphanages in Russia with a group of 20 or more other love filled passionate people with terrific senses of humour. They brought smiles, laughter and hope to children and adults who had none. They splashed colour onto a country that was broken, gray, in despair. Hopelessness fills the land. Bring in the clowns!

We ended the evening, so grateful to be able to take a bit of that with us. I had furiously written notes throughout the entire evening. I still have them.

My mum and I were staying with a friend that night. We had a wonderful time, regaling her with the stories from the evening, we had aching stomach muscles by the time we went to bed.

The next morning at 5 a.m., Merrilee woke us up as I had to get mumma to the airport by 7 a.m. The television was on, Merrilee looked haggard. None of us will ever forget what happened on September 11, 2001.

The funny part....yes there is one! Country Bumpkin #1-Rebecca & Country Bumpkin #2-Mumma never bothered to stop and process any of the information that was being broadcast continually on EVERY television station in the electronic world....even in Vancouver! Yeah..... so, Bumpkins #1 & #2 proceeded to shed a few tears with our host, and all the while in shock and awe about what was happening on the other side of the continent (so how on earth could it affect us?) travel as planned to Vancouver International Airport.

You are shaking your heads in amazement.... no kidding. Imagine what we were doing when we finally came to!

As we were driving up the long road that is part of the airport entry way, Country Bumpkin #1 & Country Bumpkin #2 were in an incredulous state at the number of RCMP vehicles and Local Police cars and Airport Authority vehicles everywhere. WOW! Wonder what is going on here? Huh? We were stymied! (this is so hilarious that I am not even slightly embarrassed!)

Mumma hopped out of my car, kiss kiss hug hug, "Call me when you get back to Kelowna!"

I proceeded to head to the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal. I have this visual that I like to share. As I was leaving the airport, in complete Bumpkin Oblivion, that horrific morning of 9/11, I can totally visualize the gates locking, the bridges being blocked, the Authorities setting up check points ....bang bang bang, right behind me all the way. Can't you just picture it??? Dum dee dum, dum dee dum.....la la la la dee da dee da dee da.

When I arrived at the ferry terminal, there was no sailing for about 2 hours, Imagine That! So I got out of my car and headed over to the stalls of lovely things tourists love to buy. I found a fantastic hat stall, bought the most incredible black hat, it is my 9/11 hat. You will find hanging in a state of prominence among my other 47 hats.

Conversations were filling every available space, people were clustered, speculating, often suggesting they knew exactly what happened that horrifying morning. I couldn't stand listening to it anymore. With hat in hand I went straight back to my car. The windows and doors were shut tight, I pulled out my notebook from the night before. There was hope on those pages. I managed a few smiles while remembering stories that had been drawn from the heart of a man who lives to bring joy. Joy in the ashes.

Even on that day, I was able to realize moments worth smiling about. As the day progressed and we learned more about what actually happened, I was so grateful to have been able to enter and walk through the day with a different perspective. There was nothing on earth I could do on that day to change what had already happened. So I chose to look up and ahead. I chose life.