A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up first, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it's normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that's the source of your problems and stress. The cup adds no quality to the coffee in most cases and in some cases even hides what we drink.
What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups... and then began eyeing each other's cups.
Now consider this: Life is the coffee, and the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life, and the type of cup we have doesn't define, nor change the quality of life we live.
Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee."
Life is the coffee, not the cup... 

When I was quite small, I asked my dad what he would buy for himself if he had all the money in the world... he thought about it, then said he'd always wanted a sailboat. Dad always loved the water - when he was a teenager, he worked summers as a lifeguard at the Toronto Island Yacht Club. Back in those days he belonged to a swim club in Etobicoke run by Gus Ryder, the trainer that worked with Marilyn Bell who later swam across Lake Ontario. My brother and I loved when he'd come with us to the local swimming pool. He was a pretty low-key guy, but if we pleaded enough, he'd do some fancy dives off the diving board. More than once I heard applause. I swore that when I grew up and became a rich and famous artist, I'd buy him the best darn sailboat that money could buy.

The rich and famous thing hasn't happened (at least not so far) and sadly, Dad passed away last October - by now, he would have been none too steady on a sailboat, but that memory has always stuck with me. Today is his birthday - he would have been 81 - we'd have had cake and he'd have blown out candles... I really miss you Dad.

For Valentine's Day Dave bought us tickets to see a performance of 'Lady Day', a selection of the songs of Billie Holiday... the show was Saturday night at the Glenn Gould Studio about a week ago. I thought Ashley Rose, the young lead singer, started out a bit nervous and I worried that it wouldn't turn out well, but as the evening moved along she seemed to feel the audience warming up to her and when she let herself really get into the music, her own passion came through loud and clear. Tough to come out dressed like and singing songs by one of the most iconic singers of the jazz era, but she did a great job - the band was amazing too - I hope Billie would have been proud.

It was really nice to go out to something other than a hockey game for a change too. Thanks honey!

Dave and I went to my Mom & Dad's house today - he went upstairs and did a sweep of one of the hardly-ever-used bedrooms... something I haven't had the energy for yet. After a while he came downstairs with an armful of papers - old greeting cards, funeral notices, newspaper clippings. Things I'd never seen before and some I had. Mom's birth announcement from July 1930 - my kindergarten report card among a stack of others that ranged up until high school.

Probably did this around grade 1. I have no recollection of painting it, but there are familiar things about it. Somewhere back in the cobwebs of my brain I kind of recall wanting bricks to appear rough & I can see how the brush was scrubbed across the sheet... the clouds are in a group of three and overlap, the sun is cropped out at the corner... all things that I still do when drawing.

Well, until the next session which is 4 weeks away. So I'll have to rely on myself to provide inspiration, and I'd better get busy - at this rate 365 drawings will take me half way into 2015!

If you've been checking in here, sorry, have been distracted and way behind posting anything. Phone and wallet were stolen from my coat pocket this week, so have been in a lousy mood - but these things will pass - my friend (and yoga teacher) put it very well... "their bad Karma is their own baggage"