Some pleasures 4


Pleasures surround.  Pleasures abound.


It was a pleasure to share dinner with a friend and her husband and cousin on the occasion of his birthday.  (The lamb, rice and asparagus was de-li-cious as was the cake, company, and ambience.  A rainy Saturday night is a great time to share dinner with close friends.)


It was a pleasure to meet you, Maggie Anderson, author of Our Black Year: One Family’s Quest to Buy Black in America’s Racially Divided Economy.  The pleasure was in finding a kindred spirit, someone with whom I clicked instantly. Who knew I had a friend living her life in another city with so many parallels to my own? Weshare a commitment to conscious consumerism and supporting black businesses.  Read about Maggie’s Empowement Experiment.


It is a pleasure to read you, my Australian blogging friend, Lilly, of Lilly’s Life.  We are a culture and many continents away from each other and yet, I relate to everything you write, most especially your humor and your outrage (check out her post about trying to read Fifty Shades among many others).


It is a pleasure to surprise the two of you I met during a networking occasion with follow-up notes.  A pleasure to me to remember to do it and I assume a pleasure to you to know that someone took the time.


It is my pleasure to send my wee-cousin a surprise mailing  of a series of books about a girl named Anna Hisbiscus, who lives in “Africa, amazing Africa” with her extended family. 



Anna Hibiscus lives with her mother, who is from Canada; her father, who is from Africa; her grandmother and her grandfather; her aunties and her uncles; lots and lots of cousins; and her twin baby brothers, Double and Trouble.There are so many people in Anna’s family that even she cannot count them all.” (Anna Hibiscus by Atinuke, published by Walker Books)


I will mail them one at a time, in order, and hope she loves the character and her adventures (including a trip to see her Canadian grandmother).


It is a pleasure to share great theatre with friends.  Thank you SpeakEasy Stage Company for your production of The Motherf**ker with the Hat and Huntington Theatre Company for your production of Good People.  These plays entertain, provoke, and transport.  The writing, acting, sets and music were all superb!


Each fall it is a pleasure to meander among the brick-paved sidewalks in the Highland Park neighborhood crunching through the carpet of leaves and kicking acorns.  This is the first section of Boston I lived in and I love the beautiful old houses and buildings. I started in John Eliot Square, ambled onto Highland Street, turned on Cedar Street, and crossed Washington Street to Dale Street with a stop at the Washington Park Mall to Frugal Bookstore (where I purchased the Anna Hibiscus Books). I thought about my teenage self and my newly married self who used to push shoulders with my two small babies through this same neighborhood.  It was lovely.  It’s not a very long walk but the longest for me in a while.  I’ve said it before – each season has its reasons but I love fall most of all.


It is a pleasure to have friends and colleagues who come out and support my efforts repeatedly.  Thank you all.


It is a pleasure and a blessing that at this moment, there is nothing going on with me that money wouldn’t fix or mitigate.


Pleasures surround.  Pleasures abound.


 


 


About Candelaria Silva

Candelaria Silva-Collins is a marketing, community outreach and programming consultant; writer; and trainer/facilitator who lives in Boston, Massachusetts. She has designed and facilitated workshops on a wide variety of topics including communication, facilitation, job search skills, team building, and parenting issues. She currently coordinates the Community Membership Program of the Huntington Theatre Company. Her work as Director of ACT Roxbury was profiled in several publications, including The Creative Communities Builders Handbook. Candelaria’s children’s stories, short stories, essays and reviews have been published in local and national publications and she is an active blogger. Her publications include the booklets, Handling Rejection; Pushing through Shyness: Networking Tips when You’re Shy, Slow to Warm Up or Just don’t Feel you Belong; and Real Questions about Sex & Relationships for Teens: A Discussion Guide for Parents. She has served on the boards of Goddard College, Wheelock Family Theatre, Boston Foundation for Architecture, and Discover Roxbury. She is currently Chair, Designators of the Henderson Foundation.

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4 thoughts on “Some pleasures

  • Lilly

    Wow. I am shocked and very, very humbled to appear in your post. I am really touched. Thank you. I am no writer and I feel privileged to have you come by and leave such heartfelt and brilliant comments that always make me think. The world is such a small place when all is said and done. I feel absolute pleasure coming by here and even moreso to find this. Just speechless. And thank you for the reminder to focus on the pleasures and blessings we have.

  • Candelaria

    Hi Lilly,  You are a gifted writer with an affinity for stories and blog posts that are entertaining, informative and motivating.  I tend to be too serious but I’m working on that.  I’m glad I was able to give you a nice surprise and if I left you speechless well – that would truly be a first for Lilly.    Be well.

  • Peggy

    Candelaria I have been telling Lilly for a long time now what a brilliant writer she is and encouraging her to seriously take her writing further, which I think she is doing.
    Your posts always give me food for thought and give me that little push I sometimes need.
    Namaste
    Peggy ♥♥♥