Kahlil Gibran - The Prophet

Kahlil Gibran is a literary hero of mine. He writes with the delicacy and knowledge of a man who has lived a hundred lives instead of a man who died before the age of 50. In his masterpiece, The Prophet, he writes about so much of life. There is such beauty and simplicity in his words, and I often read it when I feel like a wilted flower. It is in this small book that I wonder, if every person had the opportunity to read this, would compassion grow?
If you are reading my blog post today just because you'd like to read something, I ask you to consider reading The Prophet as your next choice.

The Writing on My Wall

Things turn out best

for people who make the best

of the way things turn out

Every day for the past five years I look at a cloth banner on my wall that reads that phrase. When I have a bad day, it inspires me to make the best of what I am going through. When I have a good day, it reminds me to make the best of it. It reminds me mostly of the life I want to live and the way I want to look at things.

City Mouse / Country Mouse

One of my favourite children's stories growing up was City Mouse and the Country Mouse. I think back then I liked it because it starred mice, but today I've been thinking about country living and city living.
I'm visiting the city, I live in the country and both have their amazing traits which I find to be somewhat mutually exclusive.
Last night I went to my dear friend Samantha's documentary premiere for Oil Literacy and it was fantastic.  It made me seriously miss living in the city where I get to go see things like this. Then today I did my true favourite city activity: going bargain shopping then to some grocery stores that worry about the ingredients in their products so I don't have to. I didn't really find any deals or much in the way of food, but it was so fun just to go out looking. And tonight I get to have a dinner date with my friend Andrea and we are going to have amazing foods that are practically impossible to find back home. It will be a delicious, healthy feast to be sure. Also this weekend, I watched as one of my best friends got waited on by a professional wedding dress lady, and she ended up buying a glorious dress for her wedding next year.
It has definitely been a time of doing things that I love, and these things are not the types of things I get to do back home - especially the wedding dress shopping.
On the other hand, I am looking forward to getting back home where all my friends and the activities that we do are walking distance from my house, where a fun evening with girlfriends can be spent crocheting hats and headbands, and where my family outnumbers my friends by a long shot. It is more quiet in the country, less things to be tempted to spend money on, and a lot more fresh air things to do like skiing. And, just like the country mouse, I feel like I don't mind that there are less of the finer things in life because I actually have the time to enjoy what I have more. Plus, when I come to the city I can better appreciate all the gifts a bigger centre has to offer.

La Nina

This year, 2010, is a La Nina year. La Nina and her brother El Nino have long been sources of interest for me. People talk about them like they know them personally and, when you're from the town of Revelstoke, people generally talk about them like they're the God and Goddess of increased snowfall.
La Nina generally makes the winter in western BC cooler and El Nino makes it warmer. This isn't always the case, but it's a good general rule to follow if you're wondering what the effect of La Nina is going to be.
What happens with La Nina is that the trade winds in the Peruvian area of the world start blowing stronger (for reasons I have never known) and this causes more upwelling of deeper ocean water. That deeper water is cooler, and with its emergence the jet stream is modified (weakened) and this causes a global shift in weather for the La Nina period. The effect isn't the same globally, but the change in something as important as the jet stream definitely causes some changes to weather throughout the world.
How this translates to Revelstoke is that we generally get a snowier, colder winter. The difference in temperature is not alarming though for us of the human persuasion: it's about 1 to 2 degrees colder on average.
And what about this year? Will La Nina deliver what the snow sport lovers want? My big decision is that nobody really knows for sure. Definitely not me. I haven't even looked at a weather map.
So far, in December, we don't have epic amounts of the white stuff, but La Nina really shows off her precipitation and coolness from December to February anyway, so it's too soon to tell what the winter snow forecast will be. What I do know for sure is that I'll be with the rest of the people who are hoping for good snow beneath my skis.