Good Mannered Young Man

On a crispy but sunny day i decided to take a walk downtown. I strolled around University Avenue, then around Elm Street. At one point I found my story at Bay and Dundas.  I was exiting the plaza right across the street from The Canadian Tire there. I opened the door to exit. Right in front of me there was a couple of very young people. A blond your woman in a khaki jacket and colourful tights. She was accompanied by a tall Scandinavian-looking young man in an old worn out jacket and a hat. He carried a sleeping bag thrown over his shoulder. They looked like they were street kids. Possibly they were coming back from a house party. But it was even more possible that they were not. I looked like they spent the night on one of the huge hospital vents.

As I exited the door the young man stopped, held the door open and let the woman go in first. The woman looked very serious and hardly acknowledged the man's act of respect, quickly passed the doorway and kept going. I quickly noticed the man's act because he did it so naturally without thinking or showing off. This type of behaviour has become scarce and so rare in today's world to the point that it needs to be praised! A street kid that is very well behaved and respectful. What is wrong with this sentence? So what happened? My mind id hungry for answers...

Celebrate Valentine's Day with a Woohoo!

So here we have again. This one special day that brings joy to all who love and are loved. This is
a day to invest more than just a present. We should give all our attention and love and time to those who mean the world to us! And of course, there are those who will tell you that this day was just invented to buy buy and buy. And don't get me wrong, I am all against commercialism, non-sense consumerism and useless plastic production. But it is so wrong to disregard this day. Unless you tell your loved ones that you love them everyday, shower then with attention, flowers, chocolates and other thoughtful gifts. Unless you buy them cards with no occasion and take them to dinner just to dress up and look at then in admiration from across the table! Only then you are off the hook in my books. Then again, if you are doing all that everyday, then you will most likely be happy to have another pretext to show your loved ones love and appreciation on Valentine's Day.

For me there will be no dinners, no chocolates, no cards today. I have to take my son to his dance class and I will not get home until 10. But it is my pleasure to see my son dancing and getting his champion skills! Besides, I did get my Valentine's present already. This afternoon I decided to cook a nice meal. Something that we all liked. And as I was standing at the stove making it, a paper plane flew by and landed right on the stove. My son loves to make paper planes of different sorts so our floors are covered with them. When this one flew in and nonchalantly landed on my working surface I steamed up a bit with anger and a bit in frustration. I was just about to open my mouth to verse my disagreement when I looked closer at it and I saw little scribbles in a red marker on the side of the plane. "Happy valentine's Day! I love you mom." My heart stopped for a moment and my face lit up.

Love and Live with love my friends!

Myths That Shaped Me As a Child

When I was small my mom never screamed at me nor lost her cool. Not to say that she always caved into my demands. She got me do things without coercion and arguments. She had her magic bag of tricks that I am jealous of as a mother. I wish I was as creative as she was. She used little myths that she would always say to make me do things needed to be done.  Every one of them shaped me as a child, my way of thinking and the way I am today. Although, now I know they were just made up statements that make me laugh, I realise how they shape who I am as a grown up. I hope I can do the same for my son. I try. One of my tricks to make my son zip up his jacket and wear his heat in winter is to tell him that is it illegal. I know, I know. I am not as inventive as my mom! But listen to a few things my mom said to me that I remember on the spot. I wonder if you could share with me some that you remember from your childhood. I am very curious. Shuffle some memories, search and let me know. Or maybe there is something of your own that you use now? Share!

B's teapot, Kashiwara, Japan

1. Drink milk when you eat your french fries. "If you don't they will stand up and poke your stomach." Growing up as a child in a small town in Roztocze, Poland, I had no luxury to go out and buy fries. We had no A&W, McDonald's, no fast food restaurants. Nor I missed any of those places! My mother made the best fries in the world. Every single one of them was peeled and cut by my mother's hand. Hence, they would take a lot of effort, smalec (lard) and time to make. She was making them from scratch, no frozen stuff! We would compromise. She would make my beloved fries as long as I drank milk with them. Pure genius! What child would not have agreed to have some milk to stop those sharp ends from scratching her/his stomach!

2. Don't play cards because you will have an empty head (translating the meaning here from "Kto gra w karty, ten ma leb obdarty"). I went through my childhood literally fearing cards. I really didn't want to have an empty head. I wanted to be good and smart and have a head full of knowledge! Just once in a while I would watch in awe how at scouts' camps some of my friends, very good students, would pull all nighters playing cards! Shocking and traumatic! To this day I cannot play cards even if it saved my life! I can't even hold them properly!

3. Don't put your clothes inside out or back to front! Even by accident! Because someone dear to you will turn away from you! I truly believed that one. So every time it would happen by accident I would  get terrified that my best friends would their backs on me. I tried my best and tell them how much they meant to me and didn't miss an opportunity to keep them happy.

Some of the myths mothers tell us are really peculiar, but they shape us and the way we perceive the world. It all depend weather we like milk, vegetables, treat our friends right, on these little events from our childhood. I wonder if you remember any of your mom's or dad's expressions or phrases that stuck with you until today. Tell me! Share! I am seriously curious!