Nature walks.

I have a new goal. Last couple of weeks I've been focusing on meditation and finding peace within. I went to the Bohdi Meditation Center in Richmond and joined them for their group meditation. It was an interesting experience. I started to meditate at home more regularly. I wanted to make it a weekly thing, joining the group meditation that is, but the weather outside called me to explore the outdoors. So for the rest of summer I will meditate at home and so as many nature walks as I can. I find that being out in nature makes me feel so good and peaceful. I love it. Here are the places I went to this week.

This is my mini bouquet that I made out in a park in Kits. Looks pretty good I think!

West Dyke Trail in Richmond.

Some pretty flowers by the bank.

Another shot of West Dyke Trail.

The underside of a fern was facing up during a walk in a trail by Kerr and Marine Dr. I love the contrast and order.

I think these little berries look like Chinese lanterns hanging.

Little berries. Don't eat these.

A tree by Oak Street.

Q.E. park.

Something good today...

Lots of good things happened today. It was a very successful day. However something very funny happened to me at the grocery store today. I was checking out some grapefruit when some man came by and starting checking out grapefruit too. We were both feeling the fruit and he said that it's tricky choosing grapefruit. I told him I just look for grapefruit with shiny smooth skin and feels kinda juicy. He told me he thought the juicy feeling ones were just about to go bad. Then he handed me a fruit he had in his hand and said, "here, feel my fruit". There was an awkward silent moment and we both chuckled a little bit. Lol. Of course I felt his fruit and he said he would buy two different types of grapefruit and test out his theories at home. I wished him luck on his fruit. I still chuckle thinking of that moment. It was pretty funny. Reminded me of dipping donuts in sauce... Another awkward chuckling moment I had with some one else once.

A big update!!! Last two weeks of foodie goodies and a little walk around the sea wall!

So last week I didn't have a chance to post on my food adventures in Vancouver because I spent that time posting the awesome paintings that the students in my class did all year. I am going to update you now... and lucky you...lots of foodie photos to go with it. Last weekend was a decently nice weekend with periods of sunshine and some overcast. I woke up early that Saturday morning and hit up a local cafe for some yummy coffee and to do some reading. My friend, Andrea, wanted to meet up for lunch so I stuck around the area until lunch time. We decided to hit up Rocky Mountain Flat Bread Co. This is a place that is most well known for their flat breads that are cooked in a special oven. I don't know what kind of oven... but the flat bread comes out nice and crispy like a pizza. Once again, this in the Mt. Pleasant area. It seems to be where we hang out every weekend for a number of years now... we need to explore a little more outside of East Van. But the thing about Main Street that makes it so special is that nearly every second retailer is a eatery. You can go there every weekend for years and not try everything you had on your list because there is too much. It's kinda like New York City in that way.



Rocky Mountain Flatbread Co boasts all natural juices...not sure what that entails exactly...but it got me to order a cranberry juice...it was good... like cranberry juice. Andrea got herself an iced tea sweetened with maple syrup. She liked it and said it was not too sweet. She could really taste the lemon. It was not too overly maplely as well.


Here is my flat bread: tomato and boccochini. I didn't know it came with basil and mushrooms but it was a good thing. The addiction of mushrooms made it taste meaty and hearty. I really liked it and would definitely order it again. Andrea ordered a breakfast flatbread with egg and sausage. I've had this before. I have an issue with egg on my "pizza" but she didn't.

I don't remember when we got this doughnut. I think it was earlier that day after our flat breads... really bad eating habits I know. But this is a Coconut Cream Pie doughnut from 49th Parallel. I think everyone in Van has heard of the Lucky's Doughnut counter they have now. I think the doughnuts are more famous than the coffee! Personally I don't like the coffee from 49th Parallel. They are well known local roasters but I always found their coffee very dirty tasting.

Later that night it was a birthday party for two of our friends. We went to a friends place to celebrate. They cooked a nice Italian meal for us and we also got these little cakes from the birthday girl who is majorly creative. These are push pop cakes. You push the part on the bottom upwards and you can keep eating until the cake is gone gone gone. They were so cute.






I love this cake sign...even though it wasn't my birthday maybe my wish will come true. I wish we had a picture of the festivities after dinner as we went to Whalley, Surrey, for bowling. Not only is Whalley really out of the way, it is also the ghetto of the suburbs. It's not a place one usually goes to unless you know someone living there or you need to buy drugs, or you work there. But... my friend had a groupon to go bowling down there at Dell Lanes and it was awesome! They played music from the 90's and everyone was super friendly. Everyone just wants to have a good time. People there were quick to chit chat. It is kind of a surprise as we are from Vancouver, and normally when someone talks to you anywhere in Vancouver you just hurriedly grab your things and walk away...no talks to strangers in Vancouver!!!



Throughout the week the weather was pretty decent. The sun came out once again and inspired normally calm people to go off the handle at the playground... my coworker doing a flyby...

I love posting pictures of adults having fun at playgrounds...

This Friday I went downtown to the Chopra Yoga Center to register but not to actually take a yoga class. I think it was just an excuse for me to eat sushi at Organic Lives. I went with the co-worker above. Organic Lives is a locally owned raw food joint. They used to have a joint in the Mt. Pleasant area but that one had a mishap and had to close. Now there is only a tiny stall in the Chopra Yoga Center. I ordered myself a Pecan Mango Sushi. It's a sushi roll made out of raw nori wraps, avocado, sprouts, mango, carrots and pecan pate. It was SOOOOOOOOO good! I was so excited to eat it I forgot to take a picture.  When I find my pictures of the first time I went to Organic Lives I'll post them for you. I was inspired to eat more raw foods afterwards and convinced some friends and another coworker of mine to go try a restaurant on Commericial Drive called Eternal Abundance on Saturday.  This is what we ordered.

Super Green Smoothie: made with Kale, apple, ginger.  This was SO good. It was not sweet at all and tasted super green. I think the leafy green taste came mostly from the kale. It was strangely intoxicating and I wanted more. It felt very healthy. I wouldn't mind drinking one right now.












Sunflower seed/Mango sushi nori roll. This nori roll, compared to Organic Lives, is much more dense. It's pate was made more crumbly and more difficult to eat. Because it was more crumbly, I was able to taste each ingredient. Sometimes I would get a bite that tasted more gingery than others. I prefer the more well blended raw pates than this kind. I still ate more than half of it. I shared it with some friends. I think if I ate the whole thing I would be too full. I don't think I would order it again just because of the crumbliness of it.







Kale Caesar Salad: I love this Caesar. I like kale in general as it has much stronger flavour and just makes you feel good after you eat it. The dressing is very strong and garlicky. It is also super creamy. I thought it worked well to balance out the strength of the kale. However, it would be better if it were less heavily dressed. Maybe next time I'll ask for dressing on the side. One really cool thing about this salad is that comes with croutons that are super crunch and tasty. Organic Lives also has a delicious Caesar but it doesn't come with as many croutons and you pay close to the same price. This place is incredibly affordable for such high quality, nutrient food.





Lastly, my friend ordered a Zuggetti. This is basically spiralled zucchini with raw marinara sauce and some crackers. I didn't like it. I have had other zuchhini pastas before and I have never liked them. I can't get over the zucchini texture. It tastes nothing like real pasta and the sauce is bland. I know one friend that totally loves zucchini pasta. So I guess some people out there like it. In general, with the people I ate with, it was not their favourite.

How do you go about the day after eating a super healthy raw meal? Yup... go out and find the biggest cookies you can. We got this from the Cupcakery at 1st and Commericial. These cookies were so cheap... they were only about 2 dollars each but the novelty of the cookies were obviously the size. I was so excited to try mine, but don't judge a book by it's cover. My giant short bread cookie fell short. It wasn't moist, or crumbly, or sweet, or salty. It didn't have much tastes at all. The better parts were the parts with chocolate but the cookie was too floury too enjoy even the chocolate.



This giant oatmeal cookie was better but nothing fantastic.... next time you see a cookie the size of your head think twice before buying it.

 The Stanley Park Sea Wall

As the day was starting to brighten up with the sun we headed downtown to walk the seawall. It's basically a 3 hour stroll around Stanley Park. Here are just some of the nice things we saw along the way. Enjoy! Hope you had a fabulous weekend!



The beginning of our journey was by the docks on Georgia Street.

This is the famous mermaid! Upon closer inspection, and reading the nearby plaque, it was actually a lady in scuba gear. Now most people in Vancouver call this the mermaid anyway. It kinda killed the magic to read the plaque. I won't tell anyone if you don't. Keep the dream alive.

Lions Gate Bridge.

The majestic Totem Poles in Stanley Park.

hmmm... thoughts...

Why do people hurt the ones they love or cared about?

When things are said and done can't there be forgiveness there? Can you begin to care about each other in different ways. Why do you need to avoid one another? Why can't we let things go and just be happy for each other? Be happy that we once had each other? The things we appreciated about each other are still things in us. It's not like we are different people. Why do things have to be so ugly? Why cut them out of your life? Can't we be respectful of one another? Can't we continue to care for one another? Why do we need to act like we don't know each other? I feel like I am singing that song by Gotye: Somebody I used to know.

I find that kind of separation the hardest kind because you lose so many things. I will never let things in the past make me bitter or not care for those people who touched my life. I want to move on, continue caring and not associate people with pain. I want to continue to associate them with happiness.

But relationships, friendships and all sorts of "ships" require two people. Both have to want to be together as lovers or friends. I guess I don't even get to be a friend. I have never had people in my life who would not forgive me. Or maybe it's not even about forgiveness... I don't know. It's all a mystery to me. I guess it's good I have a bad memory. It helps me forget things and forgive more easily.

I saw a documentary on TV the other day. It was about mechanical physics. Mechanical physics is the study of atoms and the stuff the cosmos are made of. And they say that life was born out of the cosmos and the direction has been guided by the Big Bang since the moment it exploded. It started with order and turned into disorder and our lives are to follow that. The structure of the Universe it self is unstable just like most things in life. It's interesting that all things I am learning right now in the New Age books I'm reading state that form is unstable and mostly everything is form. All physical things, our bodies, even our thoughts are forms but forms generated in our mind, even our image of self is a form. All this is unstable and can change anytime. If we don't resist the events in our life, if we recognize all things are unstable, then we will be less disappointed in life. So even in the science based field of mechanical physics, all things start from order and turn to disorder... all form is unstable. And just like the New Age ideas that are coming out of the guru's that teach it, our life has been spelled out by the Cosmos since the beginning of time. Anything we are doing now, what we are experiencing now, it is exactly what we are supposed to be experiencing. It will lead us to find our true self. It is all for a purpose. That's why we need to live in the moment. We need to experience fully the urges and feelings of the moment in the space we are in.

I guess don't regret, don't feel shame. Just live honestly and live the best you can with what you have at the moment you are living in.

Beautiful days in Vancouver

It's really hard to live in this city and not believe we are lucky bastards because this city is so freaking beautiful! Today the sun is shining and a warm wind is coming and going. It really makes everything around you glow a little brighter and look more vibrant and beautiful.




This is a nice flower from our school garden. It's a rose that smells like grapefruit. I didn't edit the photo in anyway and only used my iPhone to snap it but even with the most minimal effort this flower is gorgeous.






That's not me obviously but look at what the sun makes people do at the park! :) That is my co-worker. When we went to the park yesterday she decided to demonstrate some of the moves she's learned from doing anti-gravity yoga. She is pretty amazing right????




Look at this amazing view of the ocean on the hilltop somewhere in west van. Amazing!!! What a beautiful day! Makes me want to sleep in the grass tonight for some strange reason.

Do you feel lucky for living here?? If you don't I suggest you go take a walk and look at some of the beauty we are blessed with everyday. I took some pictures on my weekend walk. I'll share some here with you. There is always a nook and cranny somewhere that has a little surprise.

















It was so nice this weekend I even tried to meditate at a park but once again I was not able to meditate. I decided on trying Bodhi Meditation at their center in Richmond this Thursday. Drop in is free!

I just wanted to post about the beauty I noticed this week. I will post a fun filled weekend update soon!!!! Later!

Day off!

So... I normally work Saturday mornings for a few hours but today I have the day off because my client went to Disneyland! I am not much of a person to sleep in so I got out of bed at 730 and went out for a cup of coffee and to read my latest book by Deepak Chopra. I think I am getting addicted to reading books by him but every time I read them I feel a little bit more confident that life has a purpose and a meaning and it's not all just random junk.

So I'm not going to go on about his ideas. I'll save that for another post. I'm actually going to post some of the art work that the students in my class did for the art show. They are all so beautiful! The students in my class are low incidence students in high school. Some cannot talk, some have huge behaviours and some can't walk. There is actually a blind student in my class that learned how to walk in our school and also can play the tune of any song we play for her on the keyboards at school. No one ever taught her how to play with the keyboard. She figured it out all by herself. She is amazing as they all are. None of the students shall be named due to confidentiality but check out their beautiful art work!


The art teacher had a series on famous artists. Can you guess who some of the kids are trying to reproduce?


















Another series was based on repeating images. These are some of my favourite pieces.
















Here are just a couple more paintings that I love... The students did such a wonderful job.














When the principal of our school asked a student what this painting was about she said it was about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Can you see what she sees? I can. What a beautiful imagination. Do you feel like you don't have this inside you anymore? Maybe we need to tap into our playful creative side a little more as adults. Then we can also create like this.



This students favourite color is red. Actually he had an obsession with this color. I guess it was his inspiration.

I get inspired looking at these paintings. They are all so perfect in their own ways. No one could replicate them with the same drive. Some of these paintings took weeks to complete. I hope you appreciated them as much as I do!!