Contest winner is going to Sicily

Contessa Vacations gives away vacation week for two

Colleen Cole from Brampton, Ontario is the lucky winner of our popular contest to win a culinary and cultural vacation in Ragusa, Sicily.

Colleen is marrying John Sinipoli in October, and now has a ready-made honeymoon dropped in her lap. Not surprisingly, she is thrilled to twitters! This baby boomer is off to Italy, a dream come true.

This is what she told us, once she’d calmed down from the excitement …

“I can’t express how excited I am to have won the week in Sicily! The food, the wine, the excursions we will be taking into the country visiting dairies and olive groves, and the nightly cooking classes, I don’t know which is more exciting! This will be the best wedding present ever! John and I are getting married in October, and I am pleased to tell you that we will be enjoying this week as our honeymoon! Thank you so much!”

Colleen and Tempo Toronto thank Contessa Vacations for this amazing prize. Colleen will let us all know about her fabulous trip in the fall.

Running on Faith

Intuition prevails

I chose to celebrate the arrival of Spring with a jog – stretch my legs, smell the earth, hear the birds cheering on the warming weather. Having just attended a business meeting prior to my jog I still wore my treasured dangly earrings. Deciding to run in style this day, I left them on.

Just six paces into my run, I realized I had been optimistic. Now the earrings were no longer dangling sensuously on my neck, but banging distractedly and definitely in conflict with the rhythm of my feet and heart. I removed them and carefully placed one in each pocket so they wouldn’t damage each other.

My run was invigorating. I lost myself in the beauty of the wildness around me. After completing my circuit of about a mile, I reached into my pocket and realized one of my earrings had leapt out during my unnoticed.

I was not concerned. I knew I could retrace my steps and the bright green charmers would be easy to spot in the still-brown earth and vegetation. An easy task awaited me. Bonus …I got to run another lap of my circuit. This was definitely win-win.

Off I went, glad for the motivation to prolong my run. Being an analytical woman, I carefully planned my route around the field. The lost treasure had been in my right pocket, so I positioned myself towards the left of the trail to give me the best viewing angle of the ground I had covered. After carefully retracing my route, my earring remained unfound and free. I thought about this, puzzled that it hadn’t been so easily located in my oh-so-methodical search. I considered that it just didn’t want to be found, and contemplated resigning myself to its new found freedom.

But, I love that earring. As well as being beautiful, it has great sentimental value. All my spiritual teachings came to me in a flash. Use your one point, that centre below the navel where our intuition and fibres reside. Trust your intuition, I told myself, that Inner Knowing. Let go of the thoughts in your head.

I began my third lap of the field, this time with an empty mind and my focus on my fibres, asking them to take me to my earring and trusting in the outcome. My steps were unhesitating and within minutes I was standing over the lostling. I lovingly scooped it up.

Gratitude immediately filled me and I laughed aloud. Not at having found the earring, but for having faith that my inner knowing will always take me to places where my mind never can.

by Silver Willow