The last thing I learned how to do, I learned today (thought I started yesterday)  I decided that I would teach myself how to knit lace. First, I must explain, I am not a lace person. I don't "do" lace or ribbons or bows of any kind for that matter. I am plain. Plain as possible. I do not know why after literally 30 years of knowing how to knit, making hundreds and hundreds of projects, and fervently avoiding how to knit lace, I would suddenly have it not only in my head to learn but also have the burning urge to teach myself how to do it. Quite a way to start the new year - but there it is, I learned five lace patterns by heart and am now in the midst of creating five different 'things' using these patterns. be warned, there may be a blanket in your future.

Knitting has always been a form of meditation for me (with tangible productive results, generally I am warmer in the end and so are those who end up with my blankets and sweaters and scarves) and these days I find that I am in greater and greater need of these moments. Something is searching me, and I it. This year began with learning how to knit lace. There is much more to come - much more to learn.

la
xo

Help.

I am terrible for asking for it, even when it is the single most important thing that I need. I am too independent, too conditioned to rely on no one but myself sometimes, too proud, too stubborn, too oblivious... I've learned to be self-sufficient.  It is strange though - sometimes I am viewed as helpless, which I have never really understood but there must be some truth in that as well. I'd like to say that I am improving on this, getting better at asking for help, but I would be telling a bald-faced lie. I am not better at asking for help. Maybe one day ;-)

Golden Rules For Living
By Miriam Hamilton Keare

1. If you open it, close it.
2. If you turn it on, turn it off.
3. If you unlock it, lock it up.
4. If you break it, admit it.
5. If you can’t fix it, call in someone who can.
6. If you borrow it, return it.
7. If you value it, take care of it.
8. If you make a mess, clean it up.
9. If you move it, put it back.
10. If it belongs to someone else, get permission to use it.
11. If you don’t know how to operate it, leave it alone.
12. If it’s none of your business, don’t ask questions.
~

Hello! It is Swim-A-Thon Time again!

The 33^rd Annual H.W. Coulson Swim-A-Thon is set to start February 16^th to 21^st – and Team LA is ready to go! This will be the 9^th year that I will be swimming the entire 66 laps myself. (my two daughters “swim” with me but mostly in the first lap – then they become the cheer leaders!). I look forward to the Swim-A-thon every year. It always falls on my birthday – and this year will be no different. Our overall goal is to raise $100,000 for Children and Youth programs here at the Club. Since becoming a staff member in 1991 – I have seen first hand the powerful impact that the programs, staff and volunteers and the entire organization has on children, youth, their families and the community as a whole.

I feel a special connection to the Swim-A-Thon. It is because of working at the Club and taking my bronze medallion class that I was able to get over my fear of the water. When I was 2 years old, I nearly drowned in an accident at the beach. I slipped under the water, out of sight over a sandbar, and had a deep fear of the water ever since that incident. Through the support and guidance at the Club – I worked hard to overcome my fears, and got my credentials. That is another reason why I swim each year to support the children and youth programs. The Boys and Girls Club of London is a good place to be.

My personal goal is to match the $400 that I raised last year and hopefully surpass it! Thank you to those who not only helped me but helped the event be such a great success last year. If you would like to support me again this year, I have set up a special giving page on Canada Helps to make donating even easier:

 Canada Helps - Swim-A-Thon 2009

 Just follow the link, and follow the instructions. You can print your receipts from the site!

Thank you very much for your generosity and support! You will be swimming with me in spirit – swimming a mile to make kids smile!

 

Leigh-Anne

I remember the day when I got my first tape recorder as a kid. I was 9 and it was a brown used recorder, one that my dad had brought home from work for me to use. You had to press down the play and record button at the same time. The speaker was tinny, but god I loved that thing. I would hold it up to the radio and record my favorite songs that were playing. Inevitably, the radio announcer would talk over the beginning of the song and then come back in over the end - but I didn't care. It was the music that mattered to me. I would listen to those recorded songs over and over again - adding one song after the other until the tape was filled.

Throughout the years that followed, I would spend hours recording off the radio. When I was in high school, I saved my babysitting money and the money that I earned during the summer working on a strawberry farm and bought myself a ghetto blaster with double players. The quality of my mixed tapes improved dramatically after that. For a girl living in rural Ontario, without cable, this was pretty high tech. From time to time I would exchange mixed tapes with with friends. My cousin and I would mail tapes to each other from Ottawa to Toronto for years. This is how we shared our love of music - those songs that grabbed our soul and made us sit still and listen to every note over and over. Sometimes, though rarely, I would make a mixed tape for a boyfriend or someone I was crushing on. Sometimes they never got to listen to it, but I made it all the same. Mostly, I have always loved to hear what other people listened to and loved.

Of course, as I got older, technology changed at a rapid pace, and the mixed tape has been transformed from the mixed cd to the playlist on the iPod. I still have all of the mixed tapes that I made off the radio for myself from those days, and the ones given to me by friends. They have become souvenirs of an era when music was the least accessible for me - during a time of my life, marked with staggering changes and transformation. Each mixed tape tells a story. The music marks the past, my past, and the history of those who I grew up with. When I go back and listen to it, I remember. I remember, and I am taken back to those moments. I remember the way it felt to listen to Herbie Hancock, to Stevie Nicks, to Air Supply and to so many others for the very first time.

I still love making playlists, and find myself often going through my music library, picking out different combinations of music that reflect my mood or what is going on for me in any given day. The mixed tape was, and still is a reflection through music of my life (and the lives of anyone who has made a mix for themselves or for others around them). I realized that it is like having an audio journal - at any given time, you can listen to a play list and get a sense of what is going on for me. Really, this is what this new writing ( that will be updated at my  random mixed tape blog) is going to be about - the music that moves me on any given day.


Here is my playlist. 18 songs for today:

1. The Mixed Tape - Jack's Mannequin
2. All At Once - The Fray
3. Broken - Lifehouse
4. Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own - U2
5. Keep The Car Running - The Arcade Fire
6. supernatural Superserious - R.E.M.
7. Wonderwall - Oasis
8. Today - Smashing Pumpkins
9. Mushaboom - Feist (Mocky Mix)
10. Love Remains The Same - Gavin Rossdale
11. Violet Hill - Coldplay
12. 1234 - Feist
13. Belief - John Mayer
14. Love Song - The Cure
15. Pride (In The Name of Love) - U2
16. Don't Go Away - Oasis (acoustic)
17. 1979 - Smashing Pumpkins
18. Lost! - Coldplay

xo
la

The last time I was completely dependent on someone was when I had malaria and was living in the Casamance in Senegal, West Africa. I was so weak from being ill, that I could not lift my head on my own. The village that I was living in had no running water, no electricity, and the houses were pretty rudimentary. The nearest doctor/ hospital was at least an hour away.

In the simple room where I was, aside from the bed that I lay on, there was a table and a window. I had to depend on help to move from the bed to do anything. After being in bed for some time ( several days) two friends of mine came and washed my hair for me. I was not able to help them - one had to hold my head, the other wash my hair. I have never been as sick as I was then - and never have I been as grateful to have to people there to care for me.

That was the last time I was completely dependent on someone. 1989.

quiet laughter....

and loud laughter
giggles
chuckles
chortles
belly laughs
and the big giant contented sigh that follows uncontrollable laughter


:-)