Celebrate

Alright here we go again everybody. Christmas in Winfield is happening this weekend! In no particular order you can see above that we stopped at Grandma and Grandpa Palm's to see the horses, came home and started getting the ice ready for skating, saw the sheep and the puppy Mona, and have enjoyed a lovely candlelit dinner of tajine and pooris. Can't wait for the brothers and families to arrive tomorrow.

Happy New Year Everyone.

Resolve

I've started going to the gym on a more regular basis

and this week the gym is

totally empty.

I'm enjoying the fact that I have my choice of machine to work out on

and the quiet solitude of the locker room....

but every moment that I'm in there,

I just keep thinking about how

when the new year arrives

my current place of solitude will suddenly be

packed with people who have made up their minds to:

a) get fit

b) lose weight

c) go to the gym

d) all of the above

My friends, when you make your resolution this year,

please consider the wisdom of philosopher Bill Watterson.....

.... and if you do resolve to go to the gym, please don't go to my gym.

I like it quiet there ;)

Boxing Day

Merry Christmas everybody! I hope you had a wonderful time with friends and family yesterday.

Our family won't be selebrating Christmas together until next weekend and so there is more of the season to come for us yet! It's amazing how quickly Christmas is over isn't it? There is all of this running around then POOF! So I'm glad to be able to extend the joy just a bit longer.

A few years ago our mum started keeping Christmas decorations up into January. This week the tree STILL isn't decorated! It seems as if we are cheating somehow, letting the world be crazy on it's own and having a secret Christmas morning later on... I'd recommend it!

I do encourage you to keep listening to those Christmas winter songs as you eat left overs, and to hold off on boxing everything up today. It can wait, this season is to be cherished.

Much love

While Visions of Sugarplums Danced In Their Heads

Sweet Christmas Dreams, Calgary!

Does your mayor read you bed time stories???

Dark & Cold

Happy Solstice everybody, stay warm, stay loved, stay full of light.

Much love from the White Sisters

Music Monday - At Last......... Love

Finally got to light the fourth candle for advent yesterday.
The unlit candles have been bothering me every week,
but they've been a reminder that advent is
a time of waiting.




And now
with the arrival of love
it feels like everything is as it should be
Like even the darkness is a warm cozy hug, and I am surrounded by love



*Many thanks to Brent Tyler and Scotty Hills for this beautiful cover of
A Christmas Song by Dave Matthews

Alberta Roots

I just can't get over Canada <3

A few weeks ago I found this picture and have wanted to recreate this outfit and not take it off for the rest of winter.

What I didn't realize when I first saw it is that it is part of a Travel Alberta campaign featuring Roots Canada. When I went searching I found these...

...and this...



Don't you just love Canada? And being cozy? And that special sparkle that comes from the love of our landscape? I hope this made your cold Canadian winter day just a bit warmer :D

Pirate Babies Make Me Laugh

Okay, okay.
Enough of the crying and darkness already!
I need more things these days that make me laugh!

And thanks to Alisa Burke, I burst out in laughter at the Halloween "costumes"
she, her husband, and her baby, Lucy, "wore" this year......





bahahaha....... the pirate baby Lucy!


all photos from the amazing, talented beacon of light, Alisa Burke

Charlie Chaplin Makes Me Cry...

This is a video decreases world suck, and contributes significantly to increasing the awesome in the world. I cannot stop watching it. The sound and the images go together so well. The song is by the band The Album Leaf, I've loved their stuff for a really long time and it is always nice to see something which you love be used in the perfect setting. I believe this video has done that, with the song, the videos, and of course this speech...

Charlie Chaplin wrote, directed and stared in The Great Dictator in 1940. It was his first ever true talkie movie, and evidently he used this new technology very well. Released just after the first anniversary of when Germany invaded Poland, this feature film satire "...advanced a stirring, controversial condemnation of Hitler, fascism, antisemitism, and the Nazis." specifically in American society which was still formally at peace with Germany.

A daring move to say the least. Although Chaplin was quite famous at the time, keeping the public faith is always tricky business. Truthfully he could have been completely rejected because of this one project. Yet still he followed through with it and above that, The Great Dictator became his most commercially successful film.

So what is it that you do to contribute to the amount of awesome in the world... regardless of potential rejection? Something you know to be right? Is it your business to rule & conquer anyone or do you try to help everyone if possible?

...Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that. We all want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate;
has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.

We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in:
machinery that gives abundance has left us in want.
Our knowledge has made us cynical,
our cleverness hard and unkind.
We think too much and feel too little:
More than machinery we need humanity;
More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness.

Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say "Do not despair".

The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people, will return to the people and so long as men die liberty will never perish. . .

Soldiers: don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you, who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder.

Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate, only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers: don't fight for slavery, fight for liberty!

In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written:
"The kingdom of God is within man"
Not one man, nor a group of men, but in all men; in you.

You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let's use that power, let us all unite! Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfill their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfill that promise! Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness.

Soldiers! In the name of democracy, let us all unite!

With a Love Like That

More Awesome

The Project for Awesome, is an annual event created by our inspiration, the Youtube vloggers Hank and John Green. Every year on December 17th Youtube becomes a place about charities, raising awareness and coming together as a community to decrease world suck.

People load videos about their favorite charities and then go and find more of those videos, 'like', 'favorite' and 'share' them with everyone. The way that Youtube works, all of this activity tricks the site into labeling these videos most popular in each of their different sections: Entertainment, Sports, Music, etc. Therefore, one day a year Youtube isn't dedicated to providing the world with videos of cats being spun around on ceiling fans, tourists at festivals accidentally washing their hands in the urinal, or (my favorite) adorable children explaining the plot of Star Wars episode IV. No. On December 17th, Youtube becomes the vessel for the publicity of organizations dedicated to making the world more awesome.

SO if you feel so compeled make a video showcasing your favorite charity. If that task seems to daunting then simply go onto Youtube next Saturday and join in simply by watching the videos others post, perhaps you will discover something new.

Here is a quote taken from the P4A facebook page (the official website is currently down as it's being remodeled for next Saturday)

Sometimes the world just sucks too much. This year is certainly no exception. But it’s the time of the year when we have to think about others instead of ourselves. Which is why the YouTube community is excited to band together to promote our favorite charities, and to encourage giving among young and old alike.

Music Monday - Waiting for the Brightside

We're getting there.

We're getting to the darkest days.

It feels like I'm just waiting out these days.

Hoping that I'll survive - and make it to the other side.

I've been thinking a lot about advent, and trying to change my attitude.

Make sure that instead of wishing these days away, I'm spending time waiting.

Waiting.

Waiting.

Waiting.

Waiting for the light to come back.

I'm trying to feel at ease with the darkness...... and trying....

...... to look on the bright side

Destiny is calling me, open up my eager eyes, cuz I'm Mr. Brightside!

Make Life Worth Living

There are many things that make this world dark...

When there are things to be done, that don't get done. Waking up tired. Someone who parks in your spot. The person who forgets how lines work in the grocery store. That jerk who decides that he does not have to signal...

The list could go on. All those little things that seem to add up to a catastrophe of a day.

But the darkness does not exist to take over and extinguish. Perhaps we get so caught up with the darkness outside, that we forget to provide space inside us for our own darkness. Both light and dark have their place and purpose. We are in the midst of it my friends, the darkest time of the year literally. Winter Solstice is a unique day, a time when the darkness triumphs, but of course this is only for a brief moment. From that day until the peak of summer, we turn towards the sun in search of warmth. It's a balance, and from the darkness we witness the birth of light.

In my research regarding the Solstice on December 22nd, I have found one main tradition: Fighting the Gloom. In order for new life to flourish, and for the sun to rise again, we must "vanquish the darkness with merriment". Schooloftheseasons.com suggests the following

"You should enjoy yourself as much as possible on the Winter Solstice because this will bring back light (and lightness) into the world. Different traditions mention feasting, gambling, playing pranks, giving gifts, visiting, drinking, dressing up, fornicating, putting on plays and staying up all night. During the dark of winter, invoke all the forces of pleasure and love which make life worth living."

So friends, this is what I suggest, December 21st we celebrate. Feel free to dress up, bring a candle with you. There will be feasting and drinking, perhaps some pranks, and we would love your attendance with all of your light, and all of your dark. Celebrate and turn towards the light.