Port McNeil, BC
THis was an insane idea, but that is the nature of my travel schedule these days. It’s late – almost 2 in the morning – and I’m awake because I’m still a little buzzed from having driven this trip tonight. It’s bad enough to drive have the length of Vancouver Island, but crazier still to do it with a six hour flu and starting the whole trip at sundown.
For whatever reason this afternoon I developed a pounding headache in the middle of a little Open Space meeting I was facilitating for our learning community on Bowen Island. I got a little healing from my friend Roq and popped an advil before lining up for the 5:00pm ferry from Bowen to the mainland. On the ferry ride over, I could barely gape in awe at the colours of the sky because my stomach joined in the fun. It was most comfortable for me to stand leaning against the wall with my belly, in a state of half sleep.
Once I reached the other side, I turned around and lined up for the ferry to Vancouver Island, grabbed a shot of espresso from Blenz in Horseshoe Bay (meh) and then borded the 7pm boat to Nanaimo. On that trip whatever it was that was bundled up inside seemed to just dissipate, and I was clear and calm and quite concentrated actually. I did a little work on the ferry, resigned myself to a super of apples and oranges and had a cup of tea.
When we arrived in Nanaimo, I put Carmina Burana in the CD player, crancked it and headed up island. I was completely in flow and stayed alert for the whole 3.5 hours it took me to rocket through the mountains to Port McNeil. There was hardly anyone on the road at all – I passed probably less than 12 cars between Campbell River and Port, and I was lucky enough to see an elk meandering along the side of the road. Lucky too that he was on the OTHER side of the road. Halfway through the trip I switched disks and cranked my friend Moritz Behm’s CD called “Beauty” which is one of my all time favourite road CDs. It never leaves the road trip case.
I pulled in to the Black Bear Resort (it’s a motel on the edge of town, but comfy enough and the young woman at the counter stayed up past her 11:00 closing just for me, so yay to them for great service) at 12:30 feeling clear and refreshed, as if I had been meditating for the past 7 hours, and indeed I had. So under good conditions, even at night with patches of fog but a three quarters moon illuminating the snowy clearcuts, it’s 1:30 to Campbell River from Nanaimo and 1:50 to Port McNeil from there. And that’s good time, within the legal speed limit…mostly.
Later this morning, I’ll be up early to catch a ferry to Alert Bay, where more adventures await. Amazed though tonight at how solid everything is. Maybe that guy Roq was working more than just a little headache healing…
[tags] Vancouver Island, Port McNeil[/tags]
Victoria BC
Wrapping up my week’s worth of work here in Victoria. Three good meals have been had in the past few days:
- Yesterday we ordered in lunch as we were really humming on the work. One of the staff went took orders for The Noodle Box. They only have 12 or so items on their menu, and eight different ways of spicing it. Go for the Spicy Peanut Noodle Box spiced medium plus. Yummy.
- Two days ago lunch at the down to earth Cafe Mulatta in James Bay, where the jerk chicken comes with a nice concoction of rice, beans and coconut.
- And dinner tonight with my friend Patricia Galaczy at my favourite Victoria restaurant, reBar. It isn’t the best food in town but it’s healthy, largely local and organic and the place has a nice vibe. They treat food like it should be treated – as nourishment and sustenance. They have a phenomenal juice bar, with a special juice everyday (strawberry kiwi fennel, tonight) and the specials are always good. Tonight I stuck with the tried and true Monk’s Curry bowl, which is basically a veggie stir fry on a bed of noodles with a great coconut curry sauce.
Tonight is absolutely still. I made a podcast of the quiet on the harbour tonight but I have some problem with my USB cable for my voice recorder so it ill have to wait.
[tags]victoria, rebar, cafe mullata, the noodle box[/tags]
Victoria BC
I love a space with a brick wall in a space. Tonight at Ferris’ Oyster Bar with a couple of friends for dinner, I kept noticing how that wall lended its presence to the space, as I enjoyed a beautiful and tasty rice bowl of vegetarian potstickers and deep friend tofu. I was noticing all day how details do more than they seem capacble of doing. The stillness permeating the inner harbour as the water stayed flat for a second day in a row, the signs on the busses that say “Sorry…I’m out of service.” Something about that “Sorry…I’m” part that makes the whole downtown core a little more friendly as the post-rush hour busses deadhead back to the bus garage.
We were locked deeply in design conversations today, and we went through six design tools from the Art of Hosting, all of which I taught and we discussed as I harvested them all on this diagram.
The tools that are elucidated here include the following:
Attention to the details of design led us into an incredibly deep conversation about the work we were doing, working at a whole different level. The quality of attention flowing from the presence lingering from good design…
[tags]ferris’ oyster bar, victoria, design[/tags]
Victoria, BC
It’s dry here tonight, on the south end of Vancouver Island, and I sat on the balcony of my hotel room looking out over the Inner Harbour, watching a mixed flock of cormorants and common mergansers fish for shiners around the houseboats of Fisherman’s Wharf.
I really like this city. Tonight I took a walk around James Bay, an old Victorian neighbourhood consisting of tree lined streets and houses of every imaginable shape and size and age huddled up against apartment blocks and the hotels along the harbour walkway. It has been raining, a steady rain in an ever brightening sky, but tonight it is just calm and warm and quiet.
Ate lunch today at the Heron Rock Bistro. Unremarkable crab salad sandwich, made all the more so by the fact that I had ordered a wild salmon sandwhich. And a weak shot of espresso. The best espresso in this town is at Cafe Macchiato on Broad Street. That is the definitive shot of espresso around here. Prove me otherwise.
Working with groups, I sometimes experience a kind of stillness where I think people become more present to that subtler and deeper sense of connection and belonging. It’s the sort of silence that transcends the efforts of efficiency experts.
The above is a photo of a rock I balanced on the rim of the crater of Halekala on Maui last week. I think this captures something of what Johnnie is talk about.
(more of my rock balancing efforts here)