Day to day drudgery can numb us to the every day glory that surrounds us. We get up, we make our way to our work, we work, then we make our way home. For many of us, home is where we stay, mostly due to being wiped out by our work. Weekends are spent errand running and if you’re lucky, squeak out some fun. I live and work to travel (and of course to do my pottery), it plucks me out of the drudgery and flings me into a totally different reality, snaps me out of my coma. As I get closer to my next trip (see right for exact # of days) I have been wrapped up in getting through the xmas madness and feeling panicky at how fast flight day is rushing up to meet me. The rain and cold and grey and exhaustion has been getting to me. But for some reason today something shifted in me.

Five days a week I ride my bike to work. The only thing that stops me is snow and that, mainly because of car drivers – they have a hard time not ploughing into me when conditions are perfect… I don’t want to tempt fate by introducing ice into the mix. As you can imagine there are times, mostly in the winter, in the rain, in the dark, that riding home is daunting, to say the least. Honestly there have been times when I am so tired I swear I could just tip over and sleep.

In the midst of all this misery I am hit with a bolt of insight, don’t ask why – no idea…. but I will take the gift. And a gift it is. It is the realization that I get to live my drudgery in the middle of paradise. In a city where so many people from around the world are so in love with. Vancouver has been on “Best Place To Live in the World” lists so much they could just name them the “Vancouver Lists”.

I house/cat sat out in Maple Ridge for a week a year ago and commuted into town for work.  I was SUCH a whiner! I was just gob smacked as to why anyone would do that every day. Shut up! What a soul-sucking experience, crawling along grey asphalt, 5 inches (or less) from the bumper in front of me. 40 minutes each way.  Really? Why?

In contrast every day I get to drink in some of what is best of my city, False Creek, the Marinas, Yale Town, Granville Island, the beach. Even in the grey wet that is winter here, it still kicks ass! 20 minutes each way, 1/2 of which is on the sea wall. Even if I am not always cognizant of it, I am sure that the beauty still impacts me positively.

So today I stopped along the way to and from work and took pictures and really really really looked. And tried to imagine what visitors would see and feel. I was inspired. I am one freaking lucky sod. I get to travel to some of the world’s most amazing places AND I get to live in one!

So check out my pics and let me know what you think. What does your daily drudge look like?