Montreal Miracles

Barbara: Okay, so unlike Deb, my respite did not include Bobbies or castles or high tea or long discovery walks (or, for that matter, emergency flights home). But I had my own little adventure last weekend. I went to Montreal to visit my daughter for her 18^th birthday. And she welcomed me (us)! That’s right. She was happy to see me (us). And what a visit we had.

You know how some days or weeks (or years) are just filled with upsets and disturbances and shocks and tragedies, and some days or weeks just seem infused with a sort of magic? Such have these last few weeks been for me. It’s been one awesome or tiny miracle after another. And I am full of the kind of gratitude that comes from such loveliness. You know, where you kinda tear up every now and then because it feels so frickin’ good.

So to start, here are my Montreal miracles. First of all, our schedule was such that we had to drive 6 hours from Toronto and then get Michele from school and then get her home to change and then drive through Friday night downtown traffic to get to the restaurant where we were celebrating her birthday with her Montreal-based family (her grandparents). By some miracle of timing we arrived at her university campus at exactly 5:30, the exact moment she finished a rough cut of a film project she is doing for class, and just in time to be allowed access into the lab, just in time to meet the rest of her (talented and adorable) work-group and, MOST importantly, just in time to get to watch their masterful real-film film spooling through the old-timey editing board. The film was pure genius. The whole experience, truly amazing.

After that we took her home to change and for Phil to do some handyman fix-ups in her apartment and then we get to the restaurant … with not one minute to spare on our 7:30 reservation. Not only are my and Phil’s parents there, but we also get to visit my aunt—who lives across the country and who we rarely see—who was, as luck would have it, in Montreal. Her trip––her first in 18years!––completely coincidentally happened to coincide with ours. So on Michele’s birthday dinner, M was able to celebrate with not only her grandparents but her great-aunt as well. Man, did we have a wonderful night. We ordered one of those prix-fixe dinners where they just bring you dish upon dish without you having to do annoying stuff like flip through menu pages and stare at dish descriptions and pick and choose. We went to a great Montreal restaurant called Alep, and were served by a diligent, cheeky guy named Eric who took care of every detail before and during. The food is Syrian, which is much like Lebanese food but with different spicing. It is so so so yummy!

The next set of mini miracles is kinda ironic because Phil and I are spiritual but not religious. It all started when we went to visit Phil’s grandmother who is recovering in hospital from a fall. We got to connect with her and also with Phil’s uncle and aunt who were there and who we always love to see. 

Turns out the hospital is right beside the Roman Catholic church where Phil got his first first communion. Yes, first first. Apparently the Greek Catholic church where he was baptized as a baby didn’t count this communion, implied it didn’t take or something, and lo, the kid had to have a second first communion. (btw, Phil decrees the host at the Greek Catholic church as way better, not a thin wafer but real actual bread.) So then, after reminiscing about this old family history, a very good friend of mine (an angel, as it were) happened to be in town and I got to see not only her but to meet her beloveds for the first time after years of friendship, including her wonderful husband and her very good friend—a Roman Catholic priest … who began his life in the priesthood at, you guessed it, the same little church as Phil’s first first communion. It’s a small coincidence maybe (although Montreal has literally hundreds of churches, so not really so small a coincidence), but to me it felt hugely wonderful.

Lately they—these small miracles—seem to be literally everywhere I look. OR, everywhere I look I’m seeing—not coincidences or serendipity or chance—but benevolent miracles. I just wanted to share that with you.

Is it just me right now or are you also experiencing your own surprise of miracles?

Deb: Barb, what an amazing time you have had, filled with gifts and miracles. I have my own miracle to share. Looks like my Mother is not going to lose her leg to amputation. They did say “never say never” and she and we must be diligent, but for now she is safe. Even two days ago it did not seem so. To quote a lovely song from Rogers and Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song: “One hundred million miracles are happening every day."

The Biggest Little Decision

Barbara: The other day I was talking on the phone with my daughter (yes, I’m hanging in there) (she, btw, is flying high) about her course choices at university. She was contemplating how overwhelming and sometimes confusing the sheer volume was. And I found myself telling her that if she didn’t worry about opening herself up to new experiences, if she really paid attention, really listened, she might find herself learning something critical from even the most unlikely course, something utterly unexpected that could impact her whole life.

Later I told my husband about this discussion and he reminded me that he’d wanted me to watch the Steve Jobs video of his 2005 commencement speech at Stanford (you know, the genius behind Apple and Pixar and other such minor accomplishments.) So I did (and I’ve attached it at the bottom here), and within the first five minutes, Steve describes a calligraphy course he dropped into at college out of random curiosity and how that calligraphy course ended up informing the signature design esthetic at Apple (and, as a result, at all their competitors too).

I’ve made a lot of huge decisions in my life. I can feel the whoosh of that leap of faith in my gut. And those big leaps are great and important. But I started to count all the things that have come into my life thanks to seemingly random and innocuous events. And I realized just how many so-called little moments in my life turned into huge turning points.

For the sake of brevity, I’ll describe one—maybe my favourite. On a whim, out of creative boredom maybe, maybe just for the excuse of a girl’s night out, I went to a series of seminars with my dear friend, Angie. They were interesting and informative, but never ended up changing my life in and of themselves (there was no light bulb moment, no epiphanies, no major shifts) … until Angie and I found ourselves in conversation with a director looking for a project and a team to produce it. Angie happened to have a wonderful story idea that she threw into the mix—and a team was suddenly created, a film was soon born. Out of nowhere, out of nothing but chance and curiosity and, of course, creative flow. Now this film went on to be blessed with not just that one stroke of amazing synchronicity, but with many others as the cast, crew, and financing came together in probably record time for film world. Within less than a year we had wrapped production on a little indie film called Expecting that ended up touring the North American film festival circuit (and even won some prizes and accolades along the way), being made into a DVD, and still sometimes airing on Canadian television.

And the cherry on this cake of a story? That project is where I met and fell in love with Deb McGrath and Colin Mochrie. And while the film itself may be far from the buzz now, the memories and this friendship topped all my expectations. Not all our random conversations or crappy course choices will necessarily turn out to be that important, but I can say this: that random conversation certainly ended up changing my life. 

Deb: Barb, to remember that seed of a friendship, growing from such a time as 9/11 still amazes me.  Our friendship quite took me by surprise as you well know. I didn’t notice it at the first snap of the photo, but when I looked later at the picture, it was stupendous.





And thanks to Karen Frazier who just found the trailer for Expecting!