My original plan for this week’s blog entry, was a followup to my Calgary Community Painters Society (CCPS) post. I had planned to talk about communities and art.
However, this week’s Canadian news cast a sad and heavy weight upon the shoulders of most Canadians. I found myself thinking about the tragedies, about fears, about death and felt like I joined the nation in a collective mourning. On Saturday, in the early morning hours before the CCPS art show, after I had done my set up, I had a couple of free hours and decided to listen to one of my favourite CBC radio programs: Stuart McLean’s Vinyl Cafe. Hoping to hear a witty or fun story, instead McLean’s program was about loss, death and mourning. I thought to myself, “great! I can’t get away from this.” However, his stories, although very sad, examined the beauty of investing in humanity and cherishing life…yes, being a part of life means pain, sadness, and grief…but the investment is worth it.
Listening to Stuart McLean made me think about how little time we all really have and if we’re here, we may as well make it worth it. Regrets should not be part of our vocabulary. We should be living life fully, spending time with people we cherish and doing things that are meaningful and fun.
Cpl. Cirillo and Warrant Officer Vincent’s lives appear to have been meaningful; it seems that these men were leading the lives they truly wanted to lead. Their deaths seem senseless but let’s hope that their memories provide great comfort to their loved ones.
Like most people, I remember a period of darkenss in my life, following some personal struggles and health issues. I was at a crossroads and pondered what I was really supposed to be doing with my life. After some soul searching I made a number of changes in my life and one of them was to resume my artistic path.
I’m not going to pretend that change is easy or that challenges are avoided. But living life fully is meaningful and instead of dragging myself around wishing to be doing something else, I feel energized and ready to do more.
Life is meant to be lived. We’re supposed to be participants, not specatators in this journey. Life may be short, and it might be unfair, but I say grab on tight and enjoy the ride.
‘Wander aimlessly,
Love like it’s your last day on earth,
And dream in technicolour’

Seize the moment…it feels great.