Choreographer's Cuisine

"You are good, and what You do is good..." Psalm 119:68a Starting Monday, December 1, I began my journey though my dyslexia.  I'm not sure what I expected but I know that whatever it was that I was expecting, it wasn't what happened. Carl and I started our day with a similar exercise to the one he'd done with me at my assessment back in July; the "close your eyes and imagine a piece of cake" one!!! This time, however, it went a step further. When I had my cake, he told me to put my mind's eye (visual perspective) in my finger and look at my cake from my finger's position...just like before. Then, he took my finger and moved it to a spot behind and slightly above my head. He told me to look at my cake from there. After I could see my cake from this bizarre new spot, he told me to erase my cake and imagine stings, one from each ear, and one from the middle of my head coming together in a point above and behind my ponytail. He told me ...

Left to right: Andy, Monica, Roger Roger, I will never forget the first ski night. You and Andy were such a great team. You were the first men who shared skiing with me. Thank you, my friend for giving me the experience of freedom first.  Flying down that hill at top speed (well maybe a little slower!!) with you and Andy, it felt like I didn't have a disability. You saw me for who I was. You never focused on the negative. You were always positive. Some of my favourite memories are when the three of us were on the chair lift together and you would tease Andy and I about this or that...and yes I know we teased back! You took it so well!!! Did you ever get an air-conditioned bathing suit to go with your heated coat?!! Roger you didn't just stay a skiing friend.  You came to my show with Propeller Dance the year we were at the Shenkman Arts Center in Orleans. It meant so much to me that you thought I was worth the ticket price and the long drive to Orleans. I remember th...

Have you ever wondered what your life would like if you had done things differently? What would you be doing if you'd gotten a different college degree? What would life be like if you married someone else? On and on. I often ask myself questions like these. What would my life be like if the trauma hadn't happened? Would I have gone to college/university? Would I enjoy dance the way I do? Would I be as close as I am to my family, both immediate and extended? Would I have the time I have to spend with my 10 year old sister? Would she even know me? The reality is I have a handicap. I'm in a wheelchair. God has allowed this to happen for a purpose. We do not know what His exact purpose is, but I am content. I have a wonderful family, I have had and have fabulous workers, I have been given remarkable opportunities with work including being chosen to choreograph a dance that had it's first showing last Spring. (See A Choreographer's Story for details on this.) The t...

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalms 139:13-14 I would like to invite you along on a journey. This journey will be unlike any you've ever been on. But any journey, like any story, needs to begin at the beginning. At the beginning of July, I had an appointment with a man who facilitates a special program called the, Davis Program, to help people who have dyslexia. When someone has dyslexia, it basically means they're disoriented. One cause of this disorientation is what's known as trigger words, words that don't have a picture, like the, and, as...   There are 216 trigger words. What the Davis program does is two-fold:  it helps the person orient by giving techniques to see things from a different perspective, and also has the person take those 216 trigger words and using a dictionary create a clay model of each...

I have no picture for this story. use your imagination!! ! On Monday my Cyrus and I had a little adventure. I take physiotherapy at a clinic on the second floor of a building in Bells Corners. It was a cloudy day and looked like rain as I arrived with Cyrus by Para Transpo. I realized I was half an hour early so I decided to take my beauty for a walk. As I walked down the road I had a sudden urge that I needed to try to get Cyrus to relieve himself before I went into therapy. So I entered a little park I'd seen on one of our other walks. I have to confess I  was doubtful he'd go. If it's a new space it takes quite a bit of persistent persuasion  to get him to go and most times that doesn't work. This makes taking him anywhere new kind of stressful.  Joy of joys he was able to relieve himself.  We went upstairs. My physiotherapist was ready for me. After therapy, I discovered a slight hiccup in my routine. The only elevator in the building was broken. I had ha...

I recently choreographed my very first dance. I'll admit to feeling overwhelmed  at times during the process, but I persevered.  I always knew I loved dance and choreography but as I choreographed this dance, something happened. As I told my colleagues a few weeks after the show, I don't think I've ever had so many emotional moments  in a year as I've had during this process. Why? I think it's because it was a real subject for many including myself.  As the choreographer, I was faced with some tough choices. Did I want to dance in it too? How vulnerable was I comfortable going? What did I want for music and which of Propeller's five musicians would be the best to give me what my dance needed? The question of whether or not to dance my choreography was probably the easiest one to answer. I decided to be in my piece for two reasons. First I COULD! God created my brain to be able to flip. This means I can be in a dance, while at the same time I'm watch...

Have you ever really looked at a blurry photo? If you're anything like me, looking at a blurry photo makes you want to quickly look away. Or better yet get rid of it!! I was going through my store of photos on my phone the other day. and came across one of my cat, similar to the one above, that was out of focus (not quite as much as the one above though!) You could tell what it was, but some of the details were missing. It all of a sudden hit me that this is how we see God. When we first accept Him, our vision of Him is blurry. We can tell Who He is, but the details are missing. We accept the truth of His existence, love, power, kindness and holiness; but we see each one of these things dimly at first. Sometimes when we're looking at God and the things He is doing we see so out of focus that we just want to give up and turn away like when we are looking at a blurry photo. As Christians, we are told to seek the Lord with all our hearts and search for Him as we wo...

One word. That was the assignment from church. We were encouraged to ask God for one word for this year. The word I've received was perseverance. Little did I realize how perfect that word would be this year. I recently got a pair of full leg braces.My physio therapist recommended them because she has had great success with them with someone else. However, my feet aren't your "normal" feet. Apparently this other person has feet like mine (extremely high tone) and they worked. Sigh. Yes, I'll try them in therapy. PERSEVERANCE!!! My new braces and shoes. Scripture mentions perseverance. In James 1:2-4 it says, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,  because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." We all face things in our lives. As we go through whatever it is that we go though day to day,...

It is the art of creating and arranging dances. The word is derived from the Greek for “dance” and “write,” reflecting its early meaning as a written record of dances   Choreography is a beautiful thing. Who would like to go see a dance where the dancers weren't structured? I know I wouldn't like that dance too much, it would be absolute chaos. Even in an improvisation score, there is structure, the dancers are given a concept to explore, a movement phrase to play with, or sometimes even a specific movement task to do.Within these three examples, improvisation can happen, and is even beautiful to watch.  Choreography can be created in three ways.  You can come with a set choreography in mind and teach it to your dancers  You can give your dancers ideas and let them play with these ideas for a bit and start creating your dance based on what you see and like.  You can combine the two above ways I have recently created a dance. I primarily used the...

"Man's best friend." To be honest I never really understood that saying....until Cyrus came along! I believe Cyrus is a gift to me and my family. But I wonder if God had more than one reason in mind when He created dogs. I wonder if dogs can teach their owners things just by being the dog God created them to be. My Cyrus is so happy. He was described to me as "happy go lucky" before I even met him the for the first time!!! And that is truly who he is. He always obeys with a wagging tail and perky, happy ears. He's always CONTENT. I know I'm not always like that. I have my moments of frustration, my moments of anger... But the truth is, that's not healthy. It's not healthy physically and it's not healthy spiritually. I want to be content like my Cyrus. I want to look at each new day the way he does, as an adventure!! Eyes can tell a lot. Whether they're the eyes of a human, or the eyes of a dog. Eyes do communicate. I look into...

Thursday was FUN!!! First, Cyrus and I went to pick up my new braces. I had braces before with a negative experience but at the reccommendation of my physiotherapist we are trying again. One of the differences with these braces verus the old ones was that they are built up at the heel. If we can make them comfy, they will make transfers easier on my caregivers and the people at work who help me in and out of my chair, because these braces actually have grown me a few inches!! This is very exciting!! Then, my trainer for Cyrus came out to the house. We asked the center, two months ago for a new Halti, (the thing around his nose) as the one I had been using was wearing out. The one she brought out yesterday, at first glance appeared the same as the other one, but when I  put it on him yesterday it appeared to fit him better and wasn't as flimsy. This discovery was, for me as a dog owner, very exciting. One of the many things that was said to me during my three week training p...

Why dance?  Dance is everywhere in Scripture. In Psalms 150 it tells us to "...Praise Him with harp and lyre. Praise Him with timbrel and dancing..." For me dance has always been a very important part of life. I believe dance was engrained into my very being by my grandfather, who, I'm told danced me for hours around the living room when I was a baby trying to get me to sleep. (I'm told I was a hard baby to get to sleep!) As I have gotten older dance has inspired me and has become a way of expression when I can't find the words. I have also tried other art forms, but dance and poetry are my two favourites. As I am learning the art of choreography this year from my bosses, I am recognizing that my life has been choreographed by the Great Choreographer, Jesus Christ. Every person who has come into my life, every situation I have found myself in, even my trauma, was choreographed into my life. And He's not done choreographing yet!! I've been told  by a...