Arvind here in a wintry London, still on a high after the historic win by Mr Obama last week in the USA Presidential Election race.

Ever since last Tuesday night, three key words keep coming back to me - Yes, We Can!

Like many people globally, I stayed up till late on Tuesday night as history unfurled. If you haven’t yet seen Mr Obama’s powerful acceptance speech, then where have you been, flower smeller?!

Grab a cup of your favourite brew, settle down and click on the above video clip. It lasts just 18 minutes or so and it is sure to inspire you. This is an incredible experience of oratory power and speaking from the heart.

You can also read the whole transcript of the speech here on the BBC website.

The message from Mr Obama is clear - Yes, We Can!

Wherever we are on our life journey and no matter what challenges we face in our life, it is possible to make things better. When we change our own little world for the better, the whole world gets better.

We can also broaden our horizons and see how we can all contribute to the world and make a difference in our way, small or big. GO! Smell the flowers is on the way to become THE alternative community for health, inspiration, media, food, people & places. Right?

Never give up hope and never lose sight of your dreams - what would have happened if Mr Obama had lost hope whilst he was growing up as a young boy in a trying environment?

You don’t have to aim for world changing things, start in your own back yard and then work from there.

So here are some questions for all of you to look within and answer.

What can I do?

What will I do?

When will I begin?

Please do share

November 11th (besides being the day before my son’s birthday) is Remembrance Day in Canada. I remember growing up as a kid I would really think about this day. Both of my grandfather’s would tell me their stories of the war…and even though they were so different I couldn’t help but hear the stories over and over. We used to have to go to school that day and it wasn’t a holiday like it is now. We would have an assembly where they would play a trumpet and we would say the poem In Flander’s Fields (by Lt.-Col. John McCrae). It’s funny how after all these years I can still say it off by heart.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Tomorrow, Remembrance Day will take on a whole new meaning for me. My brother left for Afghanistan in September. I think about him every moment of the day wondering if he’ll be alright. I don’t like listening to the news because I don’t want to hear how another Canadian soldier has been killed and hold my breath until I find out it’s not my brother.

I thank all the people who fight in the war to protect me. I thank the families that wait for their loved ones to come home. I thank God that my country is free.

What do you think you should remember more often but don’t???

The Soldiers at Lauro

Young are our dead
Like babies they lie
The wombs they blest once
Not healed dry
And yet - too soon
Into each space
A cold earth falls
On colder face.
Quite still they lie
These fresh-cut reeds
Clutched in earth
Like winter seeds
But they will not bloom
When called by spring
To burst with leaf
And blossoming
They sleep on
In silent dust
As crosses rot
And helmets rust.

- Spike Milligan

Its Remembrance Sunday, this weekend here in the UK. A day traditionally put aside to remember all those who have given their lives for the peace and freedom we enjoy today. It’s marked by wearing a mock up of a flower - a poppy! as we’re encouraged to wear our poppies with pride.

I know that it’s important to remember this day, a day of respect and a day to honour our soldiers and a day to reflect on the sacrifices offered by generations before us. Even, to remember the soldiers that are out there fighting for our futures presently.

Yet, I don’t know anyone that has fought in past wars. I understand the sacrifices that have been made and the liberty that is allowed me today but I still don’t know anyone.

As of a couple of years ago there were only 100 WW1 vets in the USA, 15 in France, 4 in Canada, 1 in the UK and none in Australia and New Zealand.

So how important is it to remember? And if it is, why?

William Lund sums it up quite nicely for me, ‘We study the past to understand the present; we understand the present to guide the future’.

Feel free to tell me about your war heroes and why its important to you to remember.

Mighty Morgan here in New York, U.S.A!

It’s been a while since I last frolicked in the garden…one reason being that during my last post I had found out that I was pregnant with my first child. I have never had the experience of being pregnant, so it’s all quite new, exciting, nauseating and thrilling as the months keep gaining onto my ever expanding mid line.

Something that has hit me hard is the absolute NEED to clean out the house and get everything ready for the arrival of the baby in a few months. Normally this would be no problem to me, except one minor little detail, all that needs to go is not mine….it’s my significant others; he is a collector of junk. Bits and pieces of odds and ends, things of the past and objects forgotten. Most of which he doesn’t even realize he possesses until it is come across during a cleaning spree.

I myself used to also be a collector of my past; tucking away small memories and days of my youth into boxes marked with black marker “Do Not Throw Away”. I never really understood why I shoved aspects of my past away into cluttered closets and made a decision a while back, that I would no longer allow pieces of my past to linger in the present. What I still hold onto are a few items that I hold dear and that I honor, not by shoving them into boxes to be forgotten about; but out in the open to allow myself to remember what they represent.

Any one else here struggle with throwing away things of the past? If so, have you ever wondered what compels you to hold onto it all?  Please do tell!

So, the election was won by Barack Obama…I am so happy! And even in Canada we waited by our TV sets for the news. I had written a lot about the election so I was kind of invested in the result.

The only really sad thing is that Prop 8 was passed. This means that all marriages in the state of California would be limited to men and women only. Ellen Degeneres and Portia DeRossi just got married in August and because of this their marriage will become null and void.

I have to admit that a year ago if I would have heard this I would have cheered. I didn’t agree with lesbians and gays being able to be married. I thought it was gross really. Why can’t only men and women get married and the gays and lesbians just forget it.

But a funny thing happened. I got to know a couple of lesbians and gays through their blogs. And now even one of my best blogging friends is gay. He really showed me that they are human like anyone else. Why can’t he have the right to marry his partner? They love each other and they want to be able to show each other that love.

For a country that has gone so far in being open-minded and electing a black President, why can’t they be open-minded and let people get married to the people they love?

I know I am just asking for it, but I’ve been in a heated discussion on my own blog about this exact topic. So would you vote yes or no on Prop 8 if you had a chance? (Yes being that you don’t agree with same sex marriages, and no that you do agree with same sex marriages.)

Here in Southern California, it has stopped raining periodically and we are expecting 82 degrees as the high.  But, the kitchen may be the warm place tonight for the U.S. as it is National Men Make Dinner Day. 

At first, I thought what another silly awareness day, but I started to think.  Cooking and providing food for someone else especially your significant other is a wonderful way to nurture them and say, “I love you.”  Food nurtures your marriage/partnership/friendship garden and makes the flowers really blossom (smile) and your body.  Coming from a woman’s perspective, one of the most touching things that my husband does, sometimes, is make dinner for me. 

I hope that this inspires you to do this today or any other day.  So, here is the challenge to all of you who don’t cook for your significant other.  Celebrate your relationship with National Men Make Dinner Day.  Information provided below is from the Official National Men Make Dinner Day.

Official Rules…

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