Erin's Journals

Just a thought… As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. [John F. Kennedy] 

Hello from beautiful Blue Mountain Resort. I was fortunate to be invited here to emcee a three-day event for the Ontario Association of Cemetery and Funeral Professionals, and today I’m delivering my “Reclaiming Joy” keynote.

(Email me at erin@erindavis.com if your company would be interested in this speech, which – as I told you Monday – was extremely warmly received in London, Ontario last week.)

Argos legend Mike “Pinball” Clemons was one of several outstanding speakers yesterday and he even still had that “new GM” smell, having just been named to the position the day before! What a human dynamo he is!

The last few days have been filled with information, fun and deep conversation. I’ll be honest: when I walked into the trade show on Tuesday night and saw an open coffin, my heart skipped a beat.

But I was reminded that this all a part of life – everyone’s lives – and the people who’d gathered here are dedicated professionals whose goal is, to quote “Hey Jude,” to “take a sad song and make it better.”

I’m excited to be embarking on this new chapter that’s been born out of Mourning Has Broken; the book, as I know, will come and go (with a soft-cover version coming in February; the audio book is already available as, of course, is the hard cover) but the message, and the ones that I’ve received as a result of having written it, are worth sharing – and hearing.

This evening I’ll be joining a new friend from our last AMA cruise at her home, along with some 30 Probus club members who have read the book. It promises to be wonderful and don’t forget that my offer to do book clubs via Facetime or Skype still stands.

It’s been a wonderful 11 days since our arrival in Ontario. And this weather? Just pinch me! It’s like Mother Nature is making up for the white knuckle driving we endured during the book launch back in February. The leaves here in Collingwood are absolutely glorious and the people at OACFP have been as warm and welcoming as we could have hoped.

Ottawa was incredible, as I told you Monday, and we’re just so tickled to be Grama and Granddad Banana to this sweet little munchkin.

Jane’s initial due date was October 11 – tomorrow – which is Colin’s fifth birthday(!) and thankfully the baby gods had different plans when she arrived September 30th. How lovely that they’re both Libras (just like me). We so look forward to seeing even a few weeks’ change in her when we visit again just before Hallowe’en.

Before we left the Nation’s Capital, I was invited to drop in for an interview on CTV Ottawa’s “Your Morning” program. Here’s a link, if you’re interested.

Prior to our arrival in Collingwood Tuesday, Rob and I had the pleasure – the pure joy – of spending an entire 24 hours with our dear friend Mike Cooper at his place up north.

As you’d totally expect, Mike’s still adjusting to life without his soulmate and we spent hours upon hours talking about Debbie, laughing at memories we shared and just holding each others’ hearts close. (We shot a video that captures some of the fun, talking about the October 2020 AMA cruise, and it’ll be uploaded here soon – so keep watching for it.)

I know that our visit was as good for Mike as it was for us; just seeing him and Rob reunited, picking up with the laughter and hugs where we left off last time we were together was such fun. Oh, we love that man (and are seeing him down south in December…and can’t wait).

As this incredibly gorgeous Ontario fall week continues, we’re filled with the gratitude that the impending Thanksgiving weekend suggests. I’ll have a journal for you on Tuesday.

*If you were planning to come to the Nov. 1 dance in Markham, there has been a cancellation and ticket purchasers have been contacted. We’re most disappointed and hoping there’ll be another “oldies” dance before we’re ALL oldies.

In the meantime, as we fly home tomorrow and get set for a very busy upcoming week in the Victoria area, I wanted to take this time to thank you. For being here, for offering such incredible kindness and for inspiring me in ways you can’t possibly imagine.

Take good care, have a lovely Thanksgiving and please enjoy posts at my Facebook page until Tuesday. And thank you. I can’t say it enough.

Just a thought… It is what it is, but it will be what you make it. [Author unknown]

Well, here we go – from a trip yesterday across the water by ferry to a flight back to Ontario Wednesday, this week has just about everything. (And yes, we took a train and a bus to where we were going Sunday, too). I do love to travel, especially when it’s to do work that gives me such joy!

Shot this last night from the bow restaurant on the ferry. As I did, I remembered Sunday night traffic coming home from the cottage. This time I was returning from “work” at the end of a weekend and, oh, the view was quite different too, wasn’t it?

Word Vancouver was held yesterday. Like Toronto’s Word on the Street, it celebrates authors and those who love to read and I got a chance to do the latter when I shared an excerpt from my book, Mourning Has Broken: Love, Loss and Reclaiming Joy. (Luckily for me, the October Reader’s Digest Canada includes an excerpt of my book as their Editor’s Choice, so I simply read what was literally the Reader’s Digest version!)

My favourite part, besides seeing our dear friend Michael Bentley from SierraSil (which I still take and love)…

…was hearing another bereaved mom share from her book. Becky Livingston wrote The Suitcase & The Jar about her life after losing daughter Rachel to a brain tumour. Becky travelled the world – picking up where her 23-year-old daughter’s dreams left off – and took with her some of Rachel’s ashes.

While I haven’t yet read this book, published by Caitlin Press and available on Amazon.ca, I greatly look forward to it; we swapped books when our shared reading session was over!

It was a one-day in-and-out trip on the ferry to Vancouver and today we’re at home getting ready to hit London, Ontario (and then Ottawa) later this week.

I’ll fill you in Thursday as to what we’re doing, but before we get too deeply into October, there are a few things about which I’d like to remind you.

I hate to use my journal to “plug” things, leaving the “What’s Up” section of my website to keep you abreast. But these are time-sensitive events and I’ve long promised I’d mention them. So bear with me – I promise Thursday’s journal is going to be BIG.

First off, it’s now almost exactly a year until our exclusive Ama Waterways cruise from Switzerland to The Netherlands. Our HOPE is that we can book this luxurious river boat entirely with our friends and that Mike Cooper and I can host you for a couple of his fantastic Coop’s Classics dances.

We can take over the dining room, bar and tours – just the group of us – and have a time I promise you’ll remember forever. Here’s the thing: our friend Gerry at New Wave Travel has a cut-off date in just two months, for the bookings to be secure. If we don’t have the entire boat booked, the cruise will be opened up to others to join us. 

Now, don’t get me wrong; we had a fine time with the folks who watched with bemusement as our fun group had a big ol’ party on the AmaStella last spring during our Tulip Time cruise. But wouldn’t it be fantastic to make it all just us?

If you have any questions at all, Gerry is a wonderful guy (we’ve booked travel with him for years) and is a no-pressure, tremendously patient and helpful man who’ll aid you in any way he can. Click here to email him and he’ll be glad to provide details.

Please, if you’re considering this trip with us next October, do book your cabin now. We really want this to be an exceptional and intimate experience for everyone. 

And while I’m filling you in on the fun stuff coming up, you may have heard that Mike and I are hosting a Hallowe’en-themed dance to benefit Markham Stouffville Hospital on November 1st at Le Parc in Markham.

We’ll have food, prizes, costumes (only if you like to dress up) and GREAT music just like Mike and the boys used to play at the Old Mill. And we promise you a terrific time – whether you want to tear up the dance floor or just enjoy the music and great company!

Book a bunch of friends; there are rooms at Le Parc as well as other nearby hotels if you choose to make a night of it. We’ve had a ton of inquiries since I first mentioned it here on my website, so don’t miss out – you can get ticket info here. If you have any difficulties with that website, you can contact Catherine Ortiz at cortiz@msh.on.ca or 905-472-7373 ext 6606 and she’ll be delighted to help you out.

Well, that’s it for now – I’ve got a lot of packing to do as we check our lists, gather our wits and get set for the first of two exciting trips east before we take a winter to relax.

Speaking of relaxing, if you were wondering what I did for my birthday, you might like to know that I had a massage and then 90 minutes in this float tank…

Later, we enjoyed dinner at a beautiful spot that afforded us views of a glorious sunset.

But most of all, it was a day of gratitude and serenity – exactly what I hope to enjoy a lot of in the coming months. And what’s not relaxing will be fulfilling and enjoyable – just the perfect mix, I’d say, wouldn’t you? 

Thanks for coming back and I’ll be here on Thursday.

Just a thought… And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make. [Lennon/McCartney]

You’ll notice today a brand new website. The company working on this (and our previous site), Graymatter Marketing Solutions out of Pickering, has collaborated closely with us to give us what we want and need, both for us and for you, as a visitor. We hope there are no hiccups, but we’ll be working together to make it the best it can be; one change will be the availability of past journals prior to 2018. If you want to refer back to something, just email me and we can locate and send it to you as needed. Rob and I hope you like what you see.

If you had trouble getting here today using a favourite link, I’m afraid your old link probably won’t work. The new site is laid out differently, so you’ll have to set up a new favourite link. I’m very sorry for any frustration you may have experienced.

We’ve added a bunch of events coming up this Fall in the ‘What’s Up’ section. I hope you’ll check it out; it promises to be a busy season! 

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First off, a Happy 50th Birthday today to Abbey Road, what to me is the Beatles’ finest album. Yes, there’s plenty of competition (even in our household at times) but “Golden Slumbers” (from the famous Medley on side two which closes with “The End” and the line above), will always be a song that means the world to Rob and me. So much so that we had the lovely Dan Clancy sing it at Lauren’s funeral. Yes, that special.

Golden Slumbers fill your eyes

Smiles awake you when you rise

Sleep pretty darling, do not cry

And I will sing a lullaby….

Here’s to music that is ageless (the song’s lyrics date back to the 17th century) and a band whose creations provided the soundtrack to our family’s story – and always will.

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From Abbey Road to Downton Abbey – and into space – I wanted to share with you some thoughts on a couple of movies you may be considering seeing this weekend.

I’ll jump ahead (into what’s called the not-too-distant future) to Ad Astra, an $80 million space thriller that stars Brad Pitt. What some might have expected to be a lot of “edge of your seat” was more of a slow-paced study and, like another Pitt flick, Tree of Life, it must have gone over my head. (That alone should guarantee it at least nine Oscar nominations.)

Slow paced and unengaging, its most redeeming factor is its study of the damage done by toxic masculinity – or so other, smarter reviewers have said. I just didn’t get it and I’m not ashamed to say so. We even paid extra for IMAX, which may add to the sting of not having loved the film.

As we lined up for our snacks on Friday prior to Ad Astra (which is Latin for “to the stars”) we saw people who were a lot older than Rob and I, tickets in hand, strolling towards the theatre showing Downton Abbey. I remarked to Rob that the movie, a continuation of the hit British TV series, looked to be doing brisk business during its matinee debut.

Just how brisk, we would find out when the tickets were tallied on Sunday: Downton Abbey won the weekend box office with $31 million US, compared to Ad Astra at $19.2 million, and Rambo: Last Blood (sadly, not about menopause – and I just wish I’d come up with that line) with $19 million.

About the movie: it’s a delight. Maggie Smith steals every scene she’s in and delivers her barbs and one-liners with more dryness than a James Bond martini.

Almost the entire TV cast has reassembled for a story that, while it has plot holes you could drive a ’28 Rolls Royce Phantom through, delivered exactly what audiences wanted: more of the Crawley family and their upstairs/downstairs adventures. The King and Queen are coming for a visit! Grab your pearls and get ready to clutch!

We had a really good time. Laughs, tears, romance and suspense, plus all of the comfort of a warm cuppa on a fall day. No wonder exiting audiences gave it an A rating (compared to B- for Ad Astra).

But here’s what gave me the warmest feeling of all: a headline in The Hollywood Reporter that said “Baby Boomers Flex Their Muscles.” A movie in which no one got shot (despite a bit of a close call), there were few (if any) CGI or special effects and the closest we got to a swear word was “bloody” (for which the utterer was admonished!), killed the competition.

And why? Because those of us who are not 15 or 25 or even 35 were given a movie we could go to. THR tells us that more than half of the ticket buyers for DA were over 45 years of age and more than half of those (or us) were over 52.

So, keep buying tickets to movies you want to see and tell those who decide what gets made and what doesn’t that you’re more than willing to shell out your money for a good story. Oh, and yes, there’s already talk of another Downton Abbey movie. Because, well, why not?

If a Batman villain can be resurrected 19 times (or whatever), then who’s to say we can’t keep propping up the Crawleys until Princes George and Archie come looking for girlfriends?

Have a lovely weekend.