Living the dream...defining the dream and living it - April 11, 2011

"[Spring] is in the air, everytime I look around." (by John Paul Young)

Spring feels like it is finally here in Toronto, tdot, El Toro and I'm bound and determined to enjoy it. The winter blues or blahs should be melted away with the spring sunshine the way the sun has melted leftovers of winter-snow! As the gentle rains falls and washes away the dirt and trash left by mounds and heaps of what was once clean, white snow, so should the spirit of Spring and Easter wash away whatever dregs and leftovers need to be washed away from your spirit and soul.

Every morning I am greeted by the sweet sounds of Machel Montano's "Advantage" as that is the first song on the soca CD I bought myself at Maracas Bay a few weeks ago. Was it only a few weeks ago (a month and 1 day today I returned) that I was basking in the sunshine of a Trini Wednesday after an adventurous and whirlwind Carnival? Read more about my adventures during Carnival in my travel blog - Tastes, Travels and Thoughts by MLG The energy of that vacation adventure still motivates me to wake up in the morning, find joy in every moment and discover my passion.

Taking advantage of the stage or life as you know it is a mantra I have to share. It is time to take advantage of every G0d-given moment, talent and door that beckons. Time to take advantage of life. I hear Machel's music and though it is meant for dancing and wining and enjoying, I can't help but read into it. Just like Kes the Band's Million Dollars. I may not have won a million bucks or even $10, (I, like the rest of you, have to work hard for my money) but I feel like I'm worth a million. Beautiful! How can you resist being inspired?

"And I feel like, I just won a million dollars!" What a feeling! If we could capture this feeling and bottle it, it would be worth just that. Every time I go away to a foreign country or back home to Trinidad, I enjoy myself so much and I am uplifted I feel like I am taken away to another plane of existence where anything is possible. Barbados, Las Vegas, Trinidad, England, France...every place I've been to has inspired me to be more, to do more. Seeing how other people live in another part of this city, my country or the world opens your eyes to the other, the possible and the potential.

"This year I moving fearless." Are you? Am I? There is so much in life I want to do, say, write and all before things change, buckets are kicked or I change my mind. Fearlessly. I am encouraged by these experiences to be fearless in my approach to the dream. Dreaming without fear and living the dream as best I can, bravely. What is the dream? Only God and I know and I endeavour to find out if His dream and mine are the same.

I encourage you to set about dreaming, to try and figure out what you are meant to be doing on this planet or at least to daydream about what you would like to do on this planet. It is an exercise but it is totally worth it. I dreamed of playing big people mas in Trinidad and have been saying I would go for years (literally, I've been fantasizing about this since 2005). And I did it! Finally! I felt good, looked good and I must say having a goal or dream helped me get healthy and fit. I will continue to eat healthy, do Socacize boot camps, go to the gym and train with my trainer because Rio's Carnival is calling my name!

I finally have a crew! Loving the life lived with friends - Caribana - Aug 7, 2010

Yes, indeed, I finally have a "crew". Let it be said that 'you reap what you sow' or 'you plant a seed of knowldge and watch it blossom into a tree' or 'watch what you say or wish for because you might get it'. Two years ago, I wished for a crew and I said to the crew I hang out with for Brooklyn's Carnival, that I would have a crew and that their crew could hang out with my crew one day.

Then it happened. I got all my girlfriends together to celebrate Toronto's Caribana at "Glow" and before I noticed, there were eight of us women going out together to have a good time. Eight! A real crew! Wow, it was awesome. We had so much fun at the pre-party, the club, there was no need for an after-party! It's not that I don't have friends to hang out with but at a certain age you end up hanging out with one friend at a time, thereby giving each friend 'quality' time. Some of your friends serve different purposes in your life: confidante, helper, foodie, movie-goer, counsellor, listener, talker, etc.

Dis crew was for the party and strictly for enjoying life. We, well, I for sure did, put away the everyday, regular things in life and let loose to have fun. We were not those bankers, communicators, writers, teachers, professionals by day because it was night and we were women, girls, ladies out to have a great time with each other. Fabulous! We had fun at the club, it was great, they played non-stop soca music and we saw Machel Montano (http://www.machelmontanohd.com/) perform live!! We did more, we hung out at the Caribana Parade, I hung out with family, we partied some more. We rested. It was good.

Back in 1997, my crew was three of us, a small, tight crew of a sister and a friend. Back then, we saw Machel as Xstatic! at the Westin Harbourfront Hotel and it was still awesome! A verifiably magnificant experience. Now, the sister has a husband and babies, my friend and I are out of touch, yet things haven't changed for me. They have and they haven't. (Dat's another story!)

One thing I've noticed, even among my new crew, is that life experiences may try to change us, morph us and derail us but at our core we are who we are. If you are a fun-loving, attention-seeking, adventure-thriving kind of person like myslf, no job situation, relationship breakup, loss or grief is going to drown you. You will probably tumble a bit amid the waves of change but you will eventually find your feet and stand firmly in your own understanding of self. So whoever you are contemporary, renaissance man or woman, thrill-seeker, lover of life, a person of calmness and serenity or a person of calamity and chaos, you are who you are. I won't try to change you and I don't think anyone else should. You are who you are and you will be the best you can be when you learn to accept and understand that.

I've realized I am now more me than I have ever been. I could probably be more myself in a future life, but for now, right now, I am exactly myself with all my perfections and imperfections, motivations and aspirations, abmitions and conditions. I'm not even trying, I am just being. I've learned that I am not my situation, as my Dad would say, "it is what it is". Exactly right, "it is what it is", but I am who I am.