Life in General

As someone prairie born and prairie raised, there is a certain set of sounds I associate with the middle of winter. The squeak of the snow under your feet at minus forty degrees. The sound of the wind howling around the corners of the eaves in the midst of a blizzard. The electrical whoosh of the Northern Lights in the still of the night.

Today I find myself on the west coast, enjoying Vancouver, in the deep of winter – learning a whole new set of sounds. As I walk the sea wall around Stanley Park, I am intrigued by a cracking and clacking.

It takes me a while to realize it’s the sound of the crows picking clams off the beach at low tide and dropping them on the sidewalk. The shells crack as they roll, opening up to provide a tasty lunch for the inventive birds.

Now that’s a sound I’ll never hear in wintry Saskatoon.

REFLECTION: Where will you invest your time, energy and attention in 2009? What kind of frittering and wastage do you hope to avoid?

Oddly enough, a new website, dressregistry.com, has prompted me to ask myself just those questions. This site is devoted to helping people (mostly women I would guess) avoid  the ‘ultimate fashion faux pas’ – wearing the same outfit as someone else to an important event.  If, for example, you happen to be invited to one of the January 20th US Presidential Inaugural Balls (and I know you’re all dying to attend), you can register your dress for the event at which it will be making its debut!

Call me fashionably naive or disinterested, but to this opportunity, I find myself having two reactions:  Why bother and who cares? (more…)

The charming grandson, Ethan, was the center of attention through the holidays.

Cut and paste this web link into a fresh browser page, and you’ll be rewarded with a 2.5 minute You Tube video glimpse into Christmas as experienced by the little guy:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLE-T2xMBNQ

Hope you enjoy his exuberance every bit as much as we did.

In each of the last four years of Pause messages, I’ve ended the year with reflections on one key word. Peace, joy, love and hope have all taken a turn in the spotlight.

As an unsettling 2008 winds to a bumpy close, I’d like to invite you to focus on yet another powerful concept: grace.

Grace is often defined with words like elegance, beauty, charm. But, to me, those are its more superficial expressions.  

At a deeper level, grace is more about connecting to life’s richest undercurrents, smoothing life’s rough patches, and making life’s journey easier for ourselves and for those with whom we travel. In that light, grace is more about kindness and compassion.

I hope you enjoy reflecting on a few of my favorite quotes on grace. May you find many moments of grace and ease in the days and months that lie ahead.

Warmest wishes from my family to yours, for a peaceful year end and a prosperous and grace-filled 2009, Pat (more…)

REFLECTION: The way that services continue to evolve amazes me. Three cases in point.

1. The Katz Family Christmas Photo letter.  In previous years, it took hours and hours to cut and paste prints into the final collage. Then I’d drive the hard copy to the print shop, and return a couple of days later to pick up the copies. The process usually involved two road trips and a delay in the middle. 

Last weekend I created this year’s version using only digital images, emailed a pdf of the final product to the print shop, and an hour later was notified that 60 color copies were ready for pick up.  So much easier! (Yes, I know, I could just email to friends and family instead of printing at all; but call me traditional, I still like finding treasures in my mailbox this time of year and assume others might as well.)

2. New photos are afoot for my website and business materials. In previous years, the process involved three meetings: one for planning, one for the shoot itself, and a follow up meeting to review the results. (more…)

REFLECTION: If there was ever a time that called for optimism, this could be it. The media brings daily reports of disaster or potential disaster, and it can be a challenge to hold an optimistic outlook in the face of layoffs and nose-diving markets

That’s probably why  Price Pritchett’s book, Hard Optimism, called to me from the bookstore shelves. It’s an easy read – and Pritchett does a good job of positioning optimism as a not so secret weapon in creating a much more positive future. (more…)

I caught these signs on a recent business trip to Toronto (AKA – The Big Smoke).

The first sign, Crisis Station, was prominently featured on various pillars in an underground parkade at the exhibition grounds.

Oddly enough, the fact that there was a need for a Crisis Station didn’t do much to reassure me on the safety front!

The second sign appeared under the wall mount sprinkler head in my room at the Downtown Marriott hotel. In case you’re having trouble reading the fine print, it says, “Contact With Sprinkler Will Cause Flooding.”

Clearly there’s a story behind this sign – and I expect it wouldn’t have been much fun being there to see the situation played out!

Three weeks of European restaurant eating yielded a variety of experiences – some zany, some tasty, some elegant, some comforting, some downright amazing – and the odd ‘I don’t ever want to go back there again’.

It’s not my intention to give a play by play recount of the culinary experiences. I leave that to my much more food savvy husband Dave to explore on his Kitchen Savvy web-blog. ( http://www.kitchensavvy.com/ )

However, if you happen to be headed to France or Italy or Spain, these are a few of the places we enjoyed. (more…)

One of the things I love most about Paris is the pace. Sure, there are places where cars and scooters are whizzing by, the traffic is heavy, and folks seem bent on getting somewhere in a hurry.

However, there are many more places where people are ambling along arm in arm, soaking up the sun on a park bench, or lingering over a coffee at a sidewalk cafe.

I thought you might enjoy are few images I captured of Pausing in Paris. Enjoy!

Sunning In The Tuileries

Snoozing On The Passerelle Solferino over the Seine

Nodding Off Near Notre Dame

(Yep, same afternoon. Nope, not the same girls)

Doggin’ It At The Place De La Concorde