On Friday, November 16th, our youngest grand-daugther had her second birthday. November 16th is a significant date for me and as this blog is kind of a diary as well, I enjoyed looking up past posts on this date. Two years ago I wrote about Niamh’s birth in the very early hours, then later hanging my exhibition and then having my opening that evening. As a friend commented: ‘What an Opening Act for your Show!’

Last year I revisited that time and also wrote about a big storm here that resulted in what turned out to be a very long boil water advisory.

This year there were no new births, art openings or storms. As we do on special days, we enjoyed a lovely family celebration. My husband’s sister from Vancouver Island joined in the fun and afterwards came to spend the weekend with us. It was a full weekend of endless stimulating conversation. I’m usually fairly quiet, and so is my husband to a lesser degree, but when she’s around we do talk a lot. Saturday, a very gloomy rainy day, saw us around the kitchen table ALL day with and without meals and tea. Sunday was dry and cool and we talked and walked for a couple of hours, then talked even more around that table!

A teacher and school counselor for many years, currently teaching ESL, Brigitte Rathje is a life-long student and traveller, attends numerous conferences and workshops even internationally and has an enviable network of friends and colleagues. Articulate, passionate and compassionate about connecting with and helping other people, she has recently trained in clinical hypnotherapy and facilitation with the goal of a new career in retirement. She told us she wants to facilitate a state of emotional well-being and create clarity in people’s lives so they can expand into the fullness of their being, teaching skills and strategies to overcome self-limiting beliefs, thinking and negative self-talk. She sees a huge demand for this amongst the wave of boomers looking for ways to have full and happy retirement years. What an inspiration my husband’s ‘kid’ sister is!

Well, I got pretty excited and did a lot of talking too, as I shared my passion for blogging, for the wonderful community or ‘coterie’ that it creates as Joe Hyam wrote. Brigitte, already part of many communities, was the perfect candidate for using a blog to more easily keep in touch with these connections, and she had so many resources all ready to share. And it could become part of her eventual practice. I strongly encouraged her, and knowing that she was not yet comfortable with computers, described my own slow learning curve at first. I think she’s convinced and will talk to someone she knows who may be able to help her start. I’m looking forward to seeing her blog one day and to showing her off to my readers!

By Sunday night after our goodbyes, I was pretty exhausted by all this stimulating conversation. Today was a quiet day.