Category Archives: A Year In The Life of Me

Hola de Acapulco!

2 Replies

Acapulco - view from balconyHola! I’m writing today from the beautifully warm and sunny city of Acapulco!

Steve and I traveled from Las Vegas to Acapulco during the early morning of Saturday, February 13th. (In other words, it was a red-eye flight.) We had a longish layover in Houston prior to boarding the plane that brought us to Mexico.

This marks my very first visit to Mexico! Nearly everyone in my family has been to Mexico before except for me, but now I can finally say I’ve been there too! (Although, from what I understand, my family tends to stay at resorts, whereas the touristy resort scene tends not to be my thing.)

Steve and I have the pleasure of staying with a couple friends of ours for about a week, and then afterwards we may stay at a hotel for up to another week. Not everything is set in stone, though, so it’s always possible our plans may change.

Our friends Sasha and Isabelle are renting an apartment via Airbnb. It’s very close to the beach and has a lovely view! Case in point, see the pic at the top of this post! …And that’s only one aspect of the views available!!

Yesterday (which happened to be Valentine’s Day), in the late morning, Steve and I took a barefoot walk along the shore of the beach. The sand is a bit rougher than what I’m used to; I have pretty delicate feet, so walking along the coarse sand for an extended period of time caused the middle of the soles of my feet to become slight red and swollen due to the irritation. D’oh! But thankfully the sting didn’t last too long throughout the day.

It was so lovely to walk in the water of the Acapulco Bay, and it was unbelievably warm! I’d say it was the warmest body of water that I’ve ever walked in or along in my entire life.

There’s a great vegan restaurant near where we’re staying called Verde Vegan. You can find them on Happy Cow or by visiting their website at verdevegan.voog.com or on Facebook. (They also have an account on Instagram!) We’ve only had one meal there so far, but it was great. We had green juice and tacos, and we also shared a rich piece of gluten-free cake for dessert. I’m hoping maybe we’ll go back there again today! 😉

I’ve been trying to learn some Spanish while we’re here. I’ve downloaded Duolingo and have been going through the courses on there. Granted, it’s pretty simplistic at the beginning, but at least now I definitely know a lot more Spanish than I knew before. Sasha and Isabelle also have a different audio program for learning Spanish. Steve and I listened to some of it last night, and then more again today. It involves vocally practicing various new words and phrases. I can get a bit shy speaking foreign languages to locals, but I find that placing orders and asking questions in restaurants are great places to start.

Sasha and Isabelle will be attending a conference this weekend called Anarchapulco. (In fact, I think Sasha may be speaking at it as well.) They invited Steve and I to attend as well, so that’s what we’ll be up to next weekend. I’d say I’m pretty familiar with the philosophies behind Anarchism, given that I’ve worked at a worker-run all-vegan café and bookstore in Winnipeg for a year in the past. Most anarchists I know tend to think of capitalism as the root of the world’s problems, but what’s different about the philosophy of the anarchists gathering at Anarchapulco is their enthusiasm for capitalism. I’m curious to see how the two worlds of anarchism and capitalism collide.

After the weekend conference, Sasha will be hosting his own conference workshop on the topic of dating and relationships. He’s asked Steve to be one of many speakers there. I always enjoy listening to my sweetheart give a presentation and interact with those in attendance; he loves to speak and share his ideas with growth orientated audiences.

Schedule-wise, so far this week is pretty open. Perhaps we’ll take in some of the touristy water sports available at the beach area, like jet-skiing, parasailing, snorkeling and scuba diving.

It’s weird: I love being by large bodies of water like oceans, seas, lakes, bays, and even beautiful rivers, but I’ve never cared that much for swimming or sunbathing. I’ve learnt from a young age that water stings my eyes, and so I usually tend to avoid the chance of getting water splashed in my face or eyes whenever I can. …Even when I shower! I think having poor vision and being in need of corrective lenses (whether contacts or glasses) plays a role in that, too.

At any rate, I’m definitely up for trying something new. I’ve never been jet-skiing, parasailing, snorkeling or scuba diving before. And not only does it sound fun, but based on what I’ve seen from here, the jet-skiing and parasailing also look like fun!

Bueno… adíos para ahora, mis amigos! 😉

xoxoxo

 

p.s. I was actually able to translate that last sentence on my own! Yay for learning new languages!!

🙂

Creating a Blank Canvas for Your Creative Journey

Leave a reply

creating a blank canvas before setting out on your journeyWhat is a blank canvas? Aside from it’s literal definition, the term ‘blank canvas’ usually depicts the beginning or starting point of a creative journey before any steps have been taken toward bringing that creation into reality. I’ll use a metaphor to further explain what I mean:

Imagine that you are about to embark on a creative journey. In order to get from your starting point to your destination, you will be journeying through a sandy desert.

Before you begin your journey, you look out ahead at the path before you. Sand stretches out around you, as far as the eye can see.  As you begin your journey you begin to notice that with each step you take towards your destination you a leave behind you a footprint in the sand.

You toil through the desert towards your destination.  X marks the spot. Finally, you have arrived. You look back at the path you have traveled and see that your journey is clearly marked. Your legacy is the trail you left behind, each footstep showing the way.

In my metaphor described above, the blank canvas was the desert prior to the first step of the journey being taken.  As soon as the journey began and the first step was taken, the canvas was no longer blank, as the sand now has a footprint.

The sandy desert is your blank canvas.

The path, trail, footsteps and journey are the components of your creation.

The creation is completed once you arrive at your destination.

What are your artistic tools?  Your own body, drive and sheer will.

A blank canvas denotes potential.  It is a blank white surface, a blank page where anything can happen – a story, a poem, a mystery, an essay, a love letter, a novel, even a grocery list. Each stroke of a pen gliding ink along a page is akin to each step of a foot trekking along the desert, making an impression in the sand, leaving behind a trail of footprints as you traverse the desert towards the final destination.

When we are born into this life, we start out as a blank canvas, a blank page.  We write and paint our futures with words written in the now and brush strokes coloring this very moment.  Even as you read these very letters and words which appear before you, you are painting the canvas of your mind.

Creating a blank canvas plays a key role in the success of reaching the creative destination you seek.

Although, as we so often hear, the creative process is not necessarily always about the final destination. Sometimes, it’s about the journey itself.

In terms of my own life, I’m at a point where I’d like to clear away certain things, thus enabling me to create a blank canvas for myself. I have some tasks I’ve put off for a very long time (boring paperwork, mainly), and I’d love to get these things off of my proverbial plate so that I can completely immerse myself in consciously painting a beautiful work of art on the canvas that is life.

So often I find it ridiculously easy to imagine all the delightful things I can create, yet picking up that paint brush and making the first stokes can sometimes seem so daunting and difficult. But I know it doesn’t have to be this way.

Something I must bear in mind is that failure to even pick up the brush is still a creative choice — not necessarily the best choice, of course, but a creative choice none the less; by default, it’s a choice that simply creates more of the status quo, perpetuating whatever one’s current life circumstances already happen to be.

If art is created one step and brush stroke at a time, so it must be the same with the creation of a blank canvas.

As Vincent Van Gogh once said, “Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”

This is very much akin to those famous words attributed to Confucius: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

Even the creation of a blank canvas or slate is part of the journey.

So with that in mind… here I go!

Here’s wishing good journeys to us all.