WyzWmn's World©

once upon a time
I served a Canadian MC’ing event
called the Ride for Sight

it was an annual fundraiser for
the Foundation Fighting Blindness
Canada
I was the BC Provincial Chairperson

in that capacity
as a fundraiser for the event
we held (over the 4 years I was chair)
several charity BBQ’s
in conjunction with M & M Meats

the first year we held the BBQ’s
I had assistance from the local SCRC chapter
of which I later joined, became an officer, served
and left

at the first BBQ held here in Victoria
I had occassion to meet an elderly woman
named Daisy

Daisy had very bad arthritis
and came out to tell me
that she’d not sat on an MC in some
70 years

“why” I asked

“well” she said
“once upon a time
a fellow took me for a ride
on one of them there
Harley Davidsons”

she paused and winked

“I thought he was quite a
nice fellow but my dad
would have torn a strip offa me
if he’d have found out”

“so why didn’t you go again”
I asked

“well he took me miles and miles
out into the country on this old dirt road
and then he just stopped
and he turned around and told me
I’d have to kiss him if I wanted a ride home”

“oh my” I said, “what did you do Daisy”

“why I slapped him and walked nigh
onto 6 miles home” came her reply

I asked if she wanted to sit on the Pickle
and she allowed as she’d like to try
so with a little wrangling her
grand daughter and I
got her in the driver’s seat”

meet Daisy….

(click on the picture to make it big enough to see Daisy’s face – delighted!)

thanks Gator for sending me these pix
it’s great to wander down memory lane…

with all the going’s on
over the past year

and the incredibly cruddy
response my body has had
to stress

I’ve come to understand
that life is really too short
to carry on with grudges.

I’ve had not one but a couple
of very hard health smacks
in the last year
one of which I had a genetic
predisposition to but is
exacerbated by stress

and the most recent
the result of a childhood virus
that lays dormant in your body
until your stress levels get to the point
where your body says
“I don’t think so”
and all hell breaks loose

which of course
exacerbates all the other illness’
that compromise my immunity

I honestly thought
that I’d got to the point
where I was dealing with the losses
in my life
but
apparently I was only fooling myself

I’ve been shocked and saddened
by some people that I know
over the last year or so

and I’ve been reminded
again and again
that my priorities
are not necessarily
those of others

I’m not a christian
so I don’t have the same kind of
relationship with forgiveness
that christians do

but what I do have
is a faith in humanity
to eventually come round
to seeing
the good
and striving for it.

I truly miss
some of the relationships
I’ve lost over the past year
and that makes me sad too

I now wonder if it’s that I’ve lost friends
or if they ever were to begin with?
when I see pictures of them now
and I am struck dumb
with sadness
and understand….
what a waste.

This I’ve also come to understand….

life’s too short
and I need to find a way
to get back to living
as opposed to this
shell I’ve become

I said this to a friend yesterday
“having the courage
to stand by your convictions
doesn’t make you popular…
it simply makes you
able to face yourself in the mirror.”

have I reached a crossroads?
and discovered that it’s time
to make some life changing decisions?

I wish….

I just wish I didn’t
that’s all.