Sometimes, unaware, I catch myself complaining. It happened to me last night as I’d gone out to shoot the sunset. I was missing my bokkie. A stubborn layer of clouds was
obstructing MY horizon and dimming what I had hoped would be an explosion of airborne colors. And there were too many people on MY beach - well behaved, mostly quiet and enjoying a beautiful end to the day, but too many of them. So I snapped a few pictures and went back home without touching the fancy drink I had brought for myself, and which I drank sitting next to MY balcony instead - not on it because the bloody pigeons are winning the battle and covering it with an effective layer of guano. Effective, I say, because it turns the balcony into a stinky minefield for me, and a happy playing and breeding ground for them. Whoever was criticizing pigeon-dislike recently should be tied up and rolled into said layer until he understands the ridiculous stink of his pompously futile discourse.
But then, at home, sipping on my Ice Bet while I glanced at the sunset pictures which turned out to be quite nice, 
it suddenly dawned on me that I was an idiot. Yes, you might have known that about me for a long time, but for my part I frequently lose sight of such a trivial fact. There I was, bitching about nothing and less, standing in the middle of a little paradise, my mind filled with the presence of a beautiful freckled angel.
Understand this: I live in an extraordinary place. From my balcony, I see the ocean. The beach is located exactly half a block away. In the morning, I am woken up by the cry of seagulls. If I walk lazily 10 minutes further, I get to a park that is arguably North America’s largest urban green space, and certainly the most stunning. From home, I have 30 km of uninterrupted waterfront running/biking paths available to soothe both bored pleasure and addicted running needs. So my nearly daily encounters while running are raccoons, swans, harbour seals, turtles, eagles and 
balanced stones. A little over an hour by public transit takes me to bear country, lush temperate rain forests, wooden suspension bridges, pristine mountain streams and peaks that remain snow-capped most of the year. Killer whales are roaming not too far to the south. Cougars to the north. Yet within five minutes from home I have groceries, liquor, drugs, food, movies, transport and restaurants. I can walk to work in 35 minutes. Actually, there’s nowhere downtown I can’t walk to. And there are flowers everywhere.
Yet I bitch. Is it human nature to always want more? Probably so. And to be honest, I will soon get it. But the fact remains, this.is.extraordinary. So I do my best to cool my head and appreciate it all as one does of an ephemeral bloom, long awaited, sudden, intense and so short-lived, yielding its glory to the distant glow of memories and expectations of what’s to come next, all over again. The seeds will have traveled to new grounds. The bloom is always different. The awe remains.
But you see what you’ve done, now everybody wants an otter... If only I could find mine again... »
« ouah, c’est extra!! j’aimerais bien savoir faire ça :) superbes photos!! »
Date of comment: 2006-06-28 08:56 •« Au delà de l’aspect artistique et génial de ce qu’accomplissent ces ‘vertical dancers’et de tes photos hallucinantes, une question désuette: ‘C’est vraiment à Vancouver que tu as ce beau ciel bleu??’
Et il paraitrait meme qu’il a fait 34 degrés??!! Mais c’est le paradis ou tu vis or what?! 
»
Date of comment: 2006-06-28 12:48 •« MissLulu: bijour
Long time no see. Merci, et moi aussi j’aimerais bien savoir faire ca...
»
Date of comment: 2006-06-28 17:13 •NYA: eh oui, malheureusement pour certains dans l’Est il pleut
A Vancouver par contre, le soleil nous harcèle depuis une semaine... Mais “paradis”, je ne sais pas... En fait je dirais qu’il n’y a pas de bon ou de mauvais temps. Moi si je devais résumer ma vie aujourd’hui, avec vous, je dirai que c’est d’abord des rencontres, des gens qui m’ont tendu la main, peut-être à un moment où je ne pouvais pas, où j’étais seul chez moi. Et c’est assez curieux de se dire que les hasards, les rencontres forgent une destinée parce que quand on a le goût de la chose, quand on a le goût de la chose bien faite, le beau geste, parfois on ne trouve pas l’interlocuteur en face, je dirais, le miroir qui vous aide à avancer.
Alors ça n’est pas mon cas comme je le disais là puisque moi au contraire j’ai pu et je dis merci à la vie, je lui dis merci et je chante la vie, je danse la vie, je ne suis qu’Amour!
Et finalement quand beaucoup de gens aujourd’hui me disent : “Mais comment fais tu pour avoir cette humanité?” et bien je leur répond très simplement, je leur dis que c’est ce goût de l’Amour, ce goût donc qui m’a poussé aujourd’hui à entreprendre une construction mécanique mais demain qui sait, peut-être simplement à me mettre au service de la communauté, à faire le don, le don de soi...
« LOL.........
Comment ça fait plaisir! »
Date of comment: 2006-06-29 00:05 •« ptdr !!!!
Date of comment: 2006-06-29 21:59 •Je daanse la vie !
bin nous on y etait samedi soir, on a vu le debut, ou la fin je ne sais pas, mais on a rate tout ca. Ces photos sont magnifiques ! »
« j’aimerais qu’ Edouard Baer (le scribe
Date of comment: 2006-07-05 10:31 •d’Astérix et Cléopâtre) ait lu et entendu avec les oreilles du coeur et
de l’humour ce morceau d’anthologie
magistralement recréé à Vancouver l’envoûtante. »