Saying "Yes" to Living!

After years of saying, "no" to almost every invitation to do anything, I am at last saying, "yes"!  For the first time in years, I have no real responsibilities.  The freedom is exhilerating!  It's as if the skies have opened up, and everything is illuminated by brilliant sunshine!   

I was telling an old friend this weekend, that I feel like a sixteen year old, with the whole world open up to me.  It's all so new to me: undiscovered experiences, and so much to learn!  I don't need a Valedictorian to tell me that the world is mine to discover...I'm already out the door!  

I've been thinking a lot lately, about what I'd really like to do with the next thirty or more years of my life...and where in the world I'd like to be.  Stay in Toronto, where I have many beautiful friends?  It's great to walk into a place, and have everyone call out my name, like Norm on Cheers.  I have meaningful relationships with my TO friends.  They've been there for me, and me for them.  We keep our spirits up, encourage each other, and have formed deep, lasting bonds.  

Maybe, I'll travel the world with my camera, following the Summer season, like a sun worshipping nomadic gypsy?  Or, follow in my Dad's footsteps, and take a luxurious ocean liner across the sea, or set sail for distant shores!  France, Italy, Ireland, Spain, and Greece all call my name...my full name...in capital letters...with an exclamation mark!

My heart and soul have always been on the Westcoast of Canada.  My true home is there, where the mountains meet the sea.  I have longed for the coast for nearly three decades.

I love Vancouver, with it's tree lined streets of cherry blossoms - ribbons of pink from February 'til May!  It is a garden city, with flower and vegetable gardens in yards, and on sundecks in every neighbourhood.  The parks are a floral photographer's vision of paradise!  The city's beaches are home to sun worshippers.  The sailboats and floating homes in the city's safe harbours, the seagulls and eagles soaring in the skies above, the world class restaurants, cafes, and farmers' markets, and wonderful places to walk or cycle, all make Vancouver a very liveable city! 

One of my wonderful Brazilian friends, has taught me the joy of  being spontaneous.  We'll be talking about doing something, and he'll say, "Let's go!"  And I'm there!  Just like that!  For a control freak, who plans, and changes plans, and plans again - this is life changing!

I live with three bright, vibrant, engaging twenty-somethings who go out at ten o'clock at night!  That's usually when I'm coming home from an evening out!  Even when I was a twenty something, I was home by midnight.  There's a whole other time zone out there, that I've yet to discover!

Last week, one of my extraordinary neighbours had free tickets to a ballet dress rehearsal with The National Ballet of Canada.  Normally, I would have thought about all the fuss of getting dressed up, and heading downtown, and just stayed home.  This time, I said, "yes"!  I actually had fun getting dressed up!  We attended an eye opening lecture before the performance...and saw three back to back ballets:  Paz de la Jolla, The Man in Black and Cacti.

I loved the tribute to Johnny Cash, in The Man in Black:  an ensemble of four ballet dancers in cowboy boots (honestly!), stomping, "square dancing", and line dancing, to Johnny Cash singing Lennon and McCartney's In My Life, Canadian Ian Tyson's Four Strong Winds, and Torontonian Gordon Lightfoot's If You Could Read My Mind, among other songs.  It was unlike any ballet I had ever seen, and I loved it! 

Paz de La Jolla, created by New York City Ballet Resident Choreographer and board member, Justin Peck, was a day at the beach!  Peck grew up in California, and quickly rose to fame with the New York City Ballet, a company founded by European George Balanchine, who sought to give his company an American "look and feel" with tall, long-legged, athletic ballerinas (I know this, because I attended the pre-performance lecture).

Peck has not strayed from the late founder's vision.  The dancers wore bright, neon Summer swimsuits, and volleyball beachwear, and their movements recreated the spirit of a day in the sun and surf.  As day turned to night, dancers in opalescent, diaphanous costumes moved like moonlight on the crests of waves. This week, the Toronto Star gave the ballet four stars!

This Summer, I too will be walking along sundrenched beaches, and photographing glorious gardens, as I head to the Westcoast for three wonderful weeks of being with old friends and new, doing things I did as a kid, and things I've never done before.  YES!!!!

Photographs Copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Incorporated.