Deep Significance + Optimists Shape the Future + Ode to Old.
Good Morning from Warren Grove, Prince Edward Island
Where did the summer go? It is a cool 14C/58F on the Island today.
"It is the glistening autumnal side of summer. I feel a cool vein in the breeze, which braces my thought, and I pass with pleasure over sheltered and sunny portions of the sand where the summer's heat is undiminished, and I realize what a friend I am losing." —Henry David Thoreau.
I hope you had a good week. Hard to do with all that is happening through the news.
“I feel the capacity to care is the thing which gives life
its deepest significance.”
—Pablo Casals
My heart goes out to the people of Afghanistan. Especially to the women and girls who had hope for a better tomorrow.
My heart goes out to the mother who lost her son after saving her from drowning during the flash floods in New York City.
“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten
that we belong to each other.” ― Mother Teresa.
My thanks go out to those who went beyond the call of duty to save anyone from tragedy.
The World Our Home...
“...the care of the earth is our most ancient and most worthy and, after all, our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it,
and to foster its renewal, is our only legitimate hope.”
~ Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays.
In light of the media’s propensity to bombard with negativity;
Success is...
“To be steady while the world spins around you. To act without frenzy. To hear only what needs to be heard. To possess quietude—
exterior and interior—on command.” Ryan Holiday
Contrary to my feelings some days, the world’s population is experiencing many improvements.
Recently I purchased the book Factfulness written by Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling-Ronnlund.
It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. Of course, that doesn’t mean there aren’t real concerns. When we worry about everything all the time we should embrace a worldview based on facts. We can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most.
The Rosling family created Gapminder. It is an independent Swedish foundation with no political, religious or economic affiliations. Gapminder fights devastating misconceptions and promotes a fact-based worldview everyone can understand.
If you like facts and absorbs them through visual means, you may enjoy this video by Ola Rosling, Hans Rosling’s son.
Optimism...
"To imagine is really the first step in creating anything. Therefore an essential chore for making a future we want to live in is to imagine what it is like and how we get there. That plausible path is a form of optimism. Believing it is possible makes it more likely to happen. When hurdles and setbacks arise -- and they will -- the belief in its possibility serves as motivation. History is filled with accounts of people who held an optimistic belief others thought unlikely or even impossible. This optimistic previsualization is a necessary component of change. Since we can not be certain of the future, optimism is only a belief -- a stance that could be incorrect. On the surface, an optimistic belief might seem no more valid than the stance of pessimism. But the deep history of new ideas makes it very clear that the optimistic stance of believing something is possible is a requirement to make anything new real, and is thus more powerful than pessimism.
In the long run, optimists shape the future." — Kevin Kelly.
This season of business has been one of the most stressful we have ever experienced.
One of the many shining lights within our business is the staff who commit to showing up and putting their best foot forward during such times. Thank you.
There are many great staff we could shine a spotlight on. Today, I bring forward Trudy Gilbertson. She was part of the excellent team who brought the new Garden Cafe to life this summer.
And by all accounts, the customers love the addition to our property.
Trudy is a part of the team as a barista, producing specialty coffees for our guests.
Other than ‘pulling’ great coffee, she is an artist.
She sculpts beautiful pieces of art using antlers and bones.
She does all the work herself. She creates her designs and does the carvings and finishing herself. Trudy started carving over 30 years ago. When she lived in Yellowknife, NWT, she shared studio space with carvers. The carvers worked with antler and ivory. She grew to enjoy working with bone and antler then.
Antler is a natural growth unique to ungulates. (deer, moose, caribou) Antler begins as cartilage and hardens into bone. It is attached to the skull of the animal and covered with a modified skin called velvet. Antler, unlike horn, is naturally shed and regrown each year.
If you can come to visit us at The Garden Cafe, say hi to Trudy. There are a few pieces of her work on display. Katherine MacLaine has taken the photos below of her work on display in the Garden Cafe.
The Garden Cafe is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday this week and next.
Here is a link to Trudy’s website.
Thank you for taking your time to spend here with me. I wish you a wonderful weekend. Take care of each other and dance a little.
Bruce + Millie
ps. Your Morning Smile
An Ode to Old Age
There's quite an art to falling apart as the years go by,
And life doesn't begin at 40. That's a big fat lie.
My hair's getting thinner, my body is not;
The few teeth I have are beginning to rot.
I smell of Vick's-Vapo-Rub, not Chanel # 5;
My new pacemaker's all that keeps me alive.
When asked of my past, every detail I'll know,
But what was I doing 10 minutes ago?
Well, you get the idea, what more can I say?
I'm off to read the obituary like I do every day;
If my names not there, I'll once again start -
Perfecting the art of falling apart.
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