3BT's on Valentine's Day

3BT's (Three Beautiful Things) for today ... or maybe four:
1. Timing of a message that brought my spirits up and made my day. The message came right when I needed it, and literally, just as I finished praying about the very thing the message was about. It felt like God was really listening when I prayed and gave me hope. It felt like God prompted the writing of the message.
2. Lindt dark chocolate. Or any other kind of dark chocolate, really. :)
3. Spinach / fresh baby greens and strawberries salad.
4. A tasty lunch of salmon with lemon wedges and coconut milk rice. Can you believe that was food from the hospital cafeteria?

Food isn't the only thing that makes me happy. It is something, though, that can be appreciated in the moment. Today, when eating the salmon and rice, I took the time to really enjoy each bite. A nice break in my work day.

Jamming and Connecting

Yesterday, I had a really good day! The highlights of my day included jamming - with drums - and connecting with a couple people. Jamming has a neat way of bringing people together. It's a different kind of connecting where you're both in that moment and really enjoying yourselves. I notice it especially when you get into a groove, when it's tight, and you make eye contact and you can tell the other person (or people) is also really enjoying themselves. Later, I had a good conversation with another person. It felt good to connect on a personal level. Jamming, eating good food and connecting are good things!

3BT post

1. Today is sunny and I'm happy.
2. I am going out to earn some money this afternoon.
3. Mmm... coffee and oatmeal with nutella for breakfast
4. Now off to have a cold hamburger patty with mustard. Also mmm. :)

3BT post

1. Laughter. And lots of it!
2. Having a car to drive.
3. The summer weather.
4. That feeling after a good workout.

3BT post

1. Excellent customer service at two different locations in one day!
2. An excellent deal on the printer I bought - less than what was even posted online!
3. A very tasty navel orange. mm ... I love oranges.

3BT post ... and a link to an awesome video

It's time for another 3BT's post (3 Beautiful Things).

1. The orange glow of streetlights on freshly falling snow.
2. The fact I got all my Christmas shopping done without entering Walmart! :) I got it done all in one afternoon. And enjoyed myself for the most part. I am thankful for the option of online purchasing, though. Less tiring and the mix of going to stores (in real life) and browsing through stores online makes shopping more enjoyable.
3. Sex in a Pan. The dessert, that is. :D
4. Powerful music ... such as the link below. Particularly fusions of classic and something else (rock, metal, alternative, etc.).

I've posted this video before but it was taken down. I love this guy's music and this song, in particular, this song. The 2nd video is a different version of part of that song - I love the energy in this one too. You can see how much he's enjoying playing.

Love Story Meets Viva la Vida


Love Story Meets Love Story

My Thankfulness List

Being Thanksgiving and all, I thought I would put together a list (although small in comparison to everything I'm thankful for), both as an exercise to think about what I'm thankful for and to maybe to motivate others to think about this.

Things I'm thankful for. :) And, in no particular order.

1. Family. Wish I could be there for Thanksgiving dinner to be with you all. But, hopefully it will work to come out for Christmas.
2. Little emails that let me know I am loved and cared for (Thanks B H and KK H for the notes this week!)
3. The genuine faith of a child.
4. Friends - who have been there for me and continue to be there - Ruth, Kendra, Jason, Perry, Nathan, Janet, Mixed Nuts, Nanda, Katia & Renzo, Crystal, Mike, and friends I've made more recently!
5. Beauty and nature. Today I noticed the neat snow flakes on a leaf and SO badly wanted my camera with me to take a picture of that. :)
6. Photography.
7. My faith.
8. My church family.
9. My mind. To think, to reason, to discuss, to read, to process, to drive a car, etc.
10. My car. Especially on cold days like today!
11. My senses - to be able to feel the wind on my face, touch something soft (did you know that many items in store now say "touch me" on them? If I couldn't stop myself before, now I definitely reach out and touch those objects!), taste dark chocolate, smell fresh coffee, see beauty, hear music or the sound of a river rushing or the crunch of leaves in fall, to perceive where I am in space to generally stay upright when I need to, and yes, even for pain that lets me know I need to take life easier on occasion.
12. Drumming. And the occasions where I can't wipe the smile off my face. :)
13. A place to live, food to eat, the basics in life.
14. My education and experiences in life.
15. Ability to play various instruments.
16. Books.
17. The world of communication - internet, email, cell phone, television, newspapers, blogs, facebook, etc.
18. Good food, including turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie. Good coffee. Tea. Almost anything lemon, including lemon slices.
19. A child's smile or laughter.
20. Hugs!
21. Candles. Mmm ... playing with fire. :D
22. My scooter and the ability it gives me to explore places I couldn't without.
23. Warm clothes. A winter jacket. Blankets.
24. Sunny days.
25. Airplanes that make trips to MB (or elsewhere) shorter!

And many more...

3BT for today

1. Seeing a small group of people who are homeless sitting near some flower beds, reading stories to each other out loud.
2. Friends who invite me for supper and a nice evening unexpectedly.
3. The smell of lilacs.

and another for good measure...
4. The flutter of wings of a small bird as it hovers just before landing.

Time for another 3BT's post

Three beautiful things (3BT's)

1. Fried rice with mixed vegetables
2. Beautiful sunsets with the mountains as the background setting ... amazing colours
3. mm mm mm tea. My new chocolate mint black tea is really good ... with bits of real organic chocolate. I'll go have some now.

There, that felt better. :D It is therapeutic to write a list of beautiful things when feeling a little stressed. Seriously. Try it for yourself!

One day I hope to take some pictures of the beautiful sunsets with the Rockies as the background setting. It's difficult to take pictures when driving away from them. :)

3BT's Revisited

3 Beautiful Things ...

1) Raindrops splashing in puddles (see yesterday's post)
2) Granola mixed into yoghurt. Fruit makes it even better.
3) The local coffee shop (Good Earth Cafe). It's bright and cheery and I can read the newspaper there. I'm heading there now.

Spring

Today, I had to have my car out of the garage by 8 am this morning. That meant no usual Saturday morning sleep-in. It was a good day, although it started out a bit rough. Getting up early, than the girl at Tim Hortons not getting my order correct once again. I've come to expect it at that location. I just shake my head and go on. There were many good things today, so I decided to make another '3BT' entry:

3 beautiful things today:
1) The warmth of the 30 degree sun! Ahhhh! :)
2) The smell of white lilacs
3) Finding a few pairs of pants in the store that fit me well

This evening, I also enjoyed spending time with a friend. The weather was so nice out this evening that, instead of sitting in a coffee or tea shop for most of the evening like we usually do, we roamed around the neighbourhood south of 17th Ave until after dark and appreciated the quiet residential neighbourhood with beautiful houses. At one point, there was no curb cut, so we had to carefully maneuver the scooter off the curb as there was no room to turn around. We did stop in at a Starbucks but were not there long. That location had really neat orange comfy chairs with an odd shape. We sat on these chairs.

And, here are some signs of spring - from pictures I took this week:


Perspective looking down my street. The trees will become much more full of flowers in the next week or so.

Closer up of the tree.


Close Up of the flowers (what I call 'white lilacs')


... And signs of spring. The leaves are starting to open up on this shrub.

3BT for today

3 Beautiful Things for Today:

1) The splendor of the mountains with the sun shining on them.

2) The taste of lemons - I love eating lemon wedges.

3) Spending time with family. In particular, spending time with my nieces who are growing up way too fast. (I do value and enjoy my time with the rest of you too!!!!)

oh, and another for extra measure

4) Hot springs on a 2 degrees Celcius day

Hopefully I will put a post up in the next few days of some things I experienced while some of my family is here with me in Calgary.

This picture is of the Three Sisters - my nieces like to say these mountain tops represent me and my sisters. I'll save the explanation for each of the mountain tops from this forum but I will say which one is which - my older sister is on the left, I am in the middle, and my younger sister is on the right. My nieces attribute characteristics of these mountains to each of us that go beyond our age order. Kaia (my niece) took this picture - she was really into taking pictures today. Maybe I will have a photography companion when she gets older!

Llamas and Beautiful Things

I came across an amusing song / video. Click here to see the Llama Song. Kids would probably enjoy this song / video as well.

I also came across a blog that focuses on 3 Beautiful Things, or 3BT for short, the person experienced that day. This inspired me to make a list of my own for today, a day where several things seemed to go wrong.

1. 2 refreshing volunteers came that, despite very low turnout for the activity, served cheerfully and eagerly.

2. A good time of fellowship with co-workers at lunch ... the women's group where nobody turned up turned into a fun, relaxing hour with co-workers.

3. Bothwell cheese and quesadilla flavoured crackers. Mm mm good!

This exercise of thinking about 3 beautiful things in my day was really refreshing. I think I'll try it more often! You should try it yourself. Maybe you want to add a list of 3BT's as a comment.