rain in guelph

dear friends and family,
i am writing you all from the public library in guelph. it is saturday and i just came from the market. my backpack is full of yummy local food and i am content.
i attended a yoga retreat last week. so every morning i biked to melina's house, the yoga teacher, and we medidated for 30 minutes and did yoga together. it was a nice group of 7 women. i really needed that space in the morning to calm my mind and find the balance i felt in costa rica. my mind was constantly rushing and throwing these issues at my heart. all theses decisions that i am suppose to make. I am still not home yet. meaning I haven't find a room yet that fit my criteria. and although i am trying to be patient and trusting I am tired. I am longing for a place to feel home and safe and settle. I am also not a hundred procent where I want to be in my job search and so my mind was just taking over in the last couple weeks drving me a little crazy. I know in my heart things will move and and work out but I am tired. I am tired of having my stuff spread all over town at different people's houses and I am tired of not knowing what contact address to give. I am tired at looking at rooms, trying them out and not feeling safe at the places i am.it really teaches me that home is something special.
i am trying to get my schedule changed that way i will only work during the week. i am watching rowan only once a week and then i want to try to find a job that really fullfuls me on another level . meaning dishwashing is fullfilling in many ways. don't get me wrong. for example by now i can totally read the dishwasher and its moods. i know even before the green light shuts off that the circle is complete just cause the sound of the motor changes.i am a professional now on how to coordinate all the other tasks around me. so now i can serve coffee, ring another costumer through, make more coffee, open the dishwasher so the dishes can cool off, wash the cheese grade machine that the kitchen likes to throw in my sink when there are already a million other things in it, clean the trash cans in the bathrooms, get more ice for the drinks, run downstairs and grab 8 tomatoes, 5 avocados, 1 bucket of tofu, 3 green onions, cucumbers, fruit salat and toilet paper. i use my hands, head, shoulder and arms to balance all the things will scrubing the floor on my way up. that's what i call multi tasking.
what i like most about the job is actually interacting with the costumer. that's what i really enjoy. by now the machine that is used to ring people through and i are on a semi-peaceful stand. before i would put things in and order stuff and it would just not do it or do sometung differnet or i wouldn't do it the right way and had to do it all over again while people were waiting in line. that is fun. and then all the different ways to pay. in the beginning i would look over my shoulder and check if the costumer has cash on her and if so i would run her through. if not and she was holding a credit card i would simply turn back to my dishes and ignore her working ficiously. casue there are different ways to handle the different cards. visa is dfferent from debit. one time you have to put the end in forst and then slide it through the other time you just need to slide it through twice.
oh well. my time here is almost up.
i am sending you all love and peace.
today to my sister in vietnam and my opi whose birthday is today. and to stream for being so wonderful.
jewels

abundance of happiness

dear friends and family,
I am sitting on the 2nd floor on Meadowview, Norah Jones is playing in the background, I am on the balcony overlooking the backyard. a wind is blowing and it smells like rain and thunderstorm. the sky is white and the trees are dancing in the breeze. I am happy. I walked Auma, the husky this morning and while we were exploring the park near by I suddenly couldn't help but smile! I just love the time before the rain starts to fall. the air smells sooo good and feels so soft. almost like it is touching me gently, kissing and embracing my body. mhm, feels good.
i am off today. that feels good too.:) I was looking at a room yesterday. Sue, the woman who will be renting it out to me made a really cool suggestion. I could come over and stay for a while and see how it feels. So I will be moving in on Thursday for a couple days/week. She has Parkinson and attends a special treatment. She doesn't take any medication but rather follows a chinese medicine treatment plan. I like her. The street she is living on is pretty cool and there are lots of interesting people. We'll see.
On Saturday I attended another poetry slam event and this time I performed one of the pieces I write myself. That was amazing. I missed being on stage. I missed performing. It felt so good. And once I was done and back in my seat I just wanted to go back up and do another one.:) It is very interesting to listen to all these different people and their views and opinion. Some of the people who perform really have a good feel for language and they can play with it really well. I love how language can be so beautiful. I almost wish sometimes I could drink the words cause they sound so sweet and wonderful.:)
Anyway, I am sending you all my blessings.
Today for my little sister who is flying to Vietnam in 4 days!!!
And for stream and tania for just being awesome!!!
Love you lots,
Jewels

wonderful sweet Rowan!!

meadowview - summer - sun - blue sky - breeze

hello dear friends and family,
I am enjoying a work-free friday afternoon in the backyard of my current home - meadowivew. the sun is shining , there is a breeze and i am sitting in the shade of a beautiful old and tall tree. it smells like summer and heat and summer holidays. i kept thinking this morning while picking beans that this is how a perfect day in france (hello dear la tranche fans..:)) would look like. relaxed and beautiful. i was volunteering this moring for a local project called 'backyard bounty'. it is a farm with no land. at least not in one spot. people sign up who would like to gove some of their backyyard land to this prpject and then the project turns that space into beds. it was my first time today that i volunteered and it was just so nice to be back on the land and in nature. while i was picking purple beans i was remembering last summe. the smells of the purple bean plant brought me back to vancouver island and whole village. so many good memories.
greetings,
jewels

our journeys

dear friends and family,

days pass and become weeks and then months. it has been a month since i moved to guelph. and so many things happened. as i kinda watch the changes and events happening and shapening my life kind like a observer i feel relaxed and safe. i trust. sometimes that feeling is stringer sometimes not. i was honered to attend a memorial service for june gilbertson the woman i house sitted for. june and michael and her their daughter meggan went to ireland to see their relatives. june has cancer and while in ireland her health started to get worse and they decided to come home earlier. so i had to move out and over to mary-kate and her husband mike's place. mary-kate is their other daughter. while on the way over here june died on the airplane. half-way through heaven in the sky over ireland the counrty where she was born. i cycle closes. it was amazing to see and observe this family grief and at the same time celebrate her life. june touched so many lifes and all these lifes all these people came by or called or wrote as soon as they heart the news and shared their stories with june. it was very sad and there were many tears but at the same time that time was so full of love and passion for life and for june. last sunday was the memorial service and it was the most beautiful service i have ever attended. full of june, love, friendship and life. celebrating a woman's journey with all the people she has touched. and there were many. we cried and laughed together and it was so amazing. and so inspiring. it gave me another confirmation to lived this life, my life the way i like it and to the best i can do. i thought to myself i'd like to have people say the same thing at my memorial service. that i lived in community, shared, helped, inspired, hugged and loved. and embraced life and nature and the universe just like june. so my j in jewels or julia as my family knows me stands for june. as a loving reminder and to remember that i have a purpose.

so now i am house sitting for ben and christy as well as mary-kate and mike who are all living in the same house. they are all gone. ben and christy to ireland and mary0kate and mike on a canoe trip.

i am looking at different rooms at the moment and it is great as the whole community seems to try to help me find a spot i like. it is a challenge sometimes to remember to trust and simply surrender when these thoughts come up trying to convince me that i should have a room by now or it just won't work out. but it will. i will see another 2 tomorrow and i am emailing with another 2 people. i will be working saturday and sunday but will have off monday  and tuesday becuase rowan is also canoeing. so that gives me time to look at the different rooms.

how is my job? well, dishes seem to get dirty every time i enter the room and well they keep getting dirty until i leave the kitchen...;) i know my way around by now and also know the other people who are working there and they are fun. it is still very busy and i am not sure how long i will be doing that but we'll see. 

sending you all love and passion for this beautiful life we are all invited to live!

hakuna matata - that is for my friend jule who just started her time in africa. for a beautiful time there and an amazing experience!!

jewels