Snake oil…
Five and one half years ago to be exact,
I went on a road trip to Seattle…
It was the first time that I left Little Gem for the night,
because I needed a break,
and it was time to start weaning…
Some babies will fight hard to stay on the breast,
and some never get over that they never got any in the first place…
And they risk aging into people who suck energy,
every where they go,
and cannot live without the modern day I am So important pacifiers,
we know to be blackberries and cellphones…
On this trip to Seattle,
I noticed that the friend of a friend,
I was staying with,
had this huge hoop in her bedroom,
up against the wall…
I almost didn’t want to ask,
but I did…
Friend of a friend told me that it was her hula-hoop,
and I did I want to give it a go…
In a second I had that full circle up and spinning,
until there was a party going on in my body…
A few minutes later I discovered that,
with one leg just a bit ahead of the other,
the less you move the better it is…
Hale Le’a…
A month after that I made a class set,
for the twenty-four six and seven year olds I was working with…
With seventeen little boys in your class,
as the teacher ,
you need to find something to keep EVERYONE happy and motivated…
Especially when they’re in grade one,
and it is expected that every student WILL be reading and writing by March reports…
Hula hooping is how we all got there…
Thirty minutes or more a day…
With my classroom opening up onto the field,
we could let it rip on demand…
My students would always say,
Teacher can’t we go outside first…
It is so much easier for us to sit down and work after we’ve been hula hooping…
It must build some kind of super powers…
By the following September we made about eighty hula hoops in the school,
and requisitioned a special holder for the change rooms off the gym…
If you want to make some hoops for your situation,
you can find everything you need (pipe, cutter, connector) right here…
Do you remember???
You have to have guts to hula-hoop…
You can’t worry about what other people think,
especially when you’re working tricks like the Octopus…..
Getting too close to a spinning heavy weight hoop can result in burns,
black eyes,
and other injuries…
I don’t think the Canucks are ready for this level of danger…
But they should get there sooner rather than later…
Hula hooping centres,
grounds,
takes inches off the waist,
and combined with the right kind of practice,
it can both awaken and support,
the movement of,
your true Self…
In this proud land we grew up strong...
Stir stick…
A friend called last Wednesday afternoon to let me know that the Canucks weren’t doing well…
He wanted to make sure that I knew that the season had started…
He asked,
Philosophydoll, have you been watching the games???
The Canucks need you…
Remember how you got them out of their losing streak last season…
I’m not sure that I can take all of the credit for that…
I wasn’t playing hockey with the Canucks,
I was just thinking about it…
But as honesty is my only policy,
I came clean,
immediately…
I’ve had other things on my mind,
and I’m still not over Mats not being here…
It is going to take me some time to realign my commitment to NHL hockey…
I know that this is how it works…
Players come and they go…
You can’t get too attached…
But you have to remember that when a professional hockey player visits you in your dreams,
before hockey is even on your radar,
it takes time to find interest in an updated roster,
because I’m wired up like a swan…
In case you’re a new reader,
and haven’t been following along,
I only started to watch hockey,
and pay attention to the Canucks,
when Mats came to town…
Prior to that I had no idea who Mats Sundin was,
in fact I’d never heard of him…
I don’t have a television,
and I’d had a longtime boycott on professional sports…
But then I had a dream about a hockey player,
with the same haircut as Mats,
and some channels opened up…
Luongo thinks he knew that Mats was retiring before anyone else,
but last Spring in the middle of the night,
I found myself,
interviewing Mats…
Mats and I were talking about relationships,
and the challenges of staying connected,
with such physical distance in-between…
And that after twenty years in Canada,
he was ready to go back to Sweden,
and start a family…
I saw it coming,
but I also held out for hope that he and his lovely Josephine,
would settle in Vancouver…
Until I heard about the lakeside house…
I’d leave Vancouver for a lakeside house in a second,
with no doubt…
In fact I’m gettin’ in the car right now…
Wednesday evening is bata de cola night…
Last week I got an ole from teacher,
so there is no way that I am going to miss a class,
to watch a hockey game…
Bata is,
at the very least,
a four-to-five year commitment…
If you show up for practice willy-nilly,
you won’t see your vision hit the ground,
and my underskirt has blue ruffles for a reason…
I’m glad that,
with four freaky goals out of seven,
the Canucks were able to turn things around,
in their last game…
Although three losses in a row does not really constitute a losing streak,
or a rough start to the season,
it is part of the ebb and flow of hockey…
How do we know we’re winning if we don’t lose sometimes???
And what would sport radio have to talk about,
if the Canucks always played a perfect game???
Where would fans direct their emotion???
Canucks fans might have some reflecting to do,
if they found they were still anxious and unhappy,
even after their home team pulled off a Stanley Cup victory…
Not everyone is up for looking inward…
In aboriginal cultures around the world,
there is no word for mistake…
Anything tried is an attempt,
and struggle is an opportunity to learn,
and grow…
And when you’re really doing it,
way down deep,
growing hurts…
Everyday is a winding road...
I’ll give you 110%…
I love Paris in the Springtime…
Hawaii in the Winter,
and Tofino in the Fall…
Little Gem was singing to me in the tub this evening…
as I was soaking my post-stick and puck aches and pains…
Really no aches and pains, only some stiffness and drama creation…
Eckhart Tolle warns against drama but a little bit of it is fun…
And in our house of girls we live for a few moments of high drama at least once a day…
like a flock of ducks with their occasional squabbles on a pond of mostly peace…
YOU can sing me anything...
As I soaked and Little Gem sang I reflected on a passed life when I lived with Starshine and Little Gem’s father…
and how a few hours of Sunday morning soccer could take up a whole day…
There was the preparation of THE kit…
The pre-game at home stretching…
The drive out to the suburban astroturf field which should have been returned to wildlife…
The dressing in the change room…
The game…
The undressing in the change room…
The shower…
Coaches Corner out by the mini-vans and station wagons where every exciting moment of the game is verbally re-lived…
The drive home…
The hot bath etc…
With the one hour of yoga class that I could barely get myself to once a week I was incredulous at how two periods of 45 minute game time could equal five hours…
This mister played with men who required high level numeracy skills in their day jobs,
but somehow the math on the weekends didn’t add up…
Two halves sounded like it was equaling up to a whole lot of doing nothing…
But I now see that I was looking through the lens of resentment,
and this lens amplifies inequalities and inconsistencies…
some false and some true…
A friend who is still nursing her toddler lays out the full deelio,
from her perspective…
She says,
Peace and Love to Frank,
but when he goes out to play hockey at 8-Rinks,
which I understand is really important for his mental health,
he comes home exhausted and falls asleep…
When I go out for some time to myself I come home and nurse all night long… I
‘m exhausted too but at this point in the game falling asleep isn’t an option for me…
I’m really not sure how not to have some anger in those moments…
I’m not at the stage of acceptance yet…
Even though she already knows this,
I remind her that her feelings are real,
and they’re definitely okay…
I’m not the Dalai Lama,
I believe that anger is critically important information to work with,
and to express…
I tell her she could always add the following feature to give some light to her middle of the night evil eye meditation…
A repetitive mantra that I learned from Little Gem…
Mama, no matter what…
even when I’m mad at you…
you need to remember that I love you…
more than 100%…
When any of you are at GM place for a good game of hockey,
please spend some time thinking about giving,
110%,
in the name of love,
to a girl…
Canuck'd 