Welcome to With Glowing Hearts
Welcome to our With Glowing Hearts blog
This blog has been created as a place to capture the essence of the Olympic Spirit and, through shared insights, attempt to discover what exactly happened during those days of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and Paralympics.
Many of us experienced a warm and fuzzy feeling of joy and happiness as our hearts swelled with pride, while others were moved to spontaneously break out into an inspired version “Oh Canada”. Canadian flags and red & white were everywhere. Everyone was smiling and felt a sense of unity with one another unlike anything experienced before.
What exactly happened? Were we all undergoing some kind euphoric mind alteration… or perhaps it was a few too many “brewskies” or too much fresh air, as people swarmed the streets of Vancouver from dawn til dusk and well into the night?
What was “it” that actually happened?
That is what I hope to discover…together with your input. I invite
Olympic atheletes, volunteers, torch bearers, international tourists, Canadians, Aboriginals and Vancouverites - whether you watched and felt the Olympics at home or were physically in Vancouver - to share your experiences, insights and thoughts about your Olympic experience. Share your stories and encounters…peak moments, reflective thoughts ... anything that will help give a coherent expression to the magic and energy that we all felt (and hopefully are still feeling ) during this time.
So hopefully… we can do “it” again and we can hang on to “it” and use “it” to make a better world. Hopefully… our “Glowing Hearts” will continue to glow and spread love and happiness into our world.
In addition to your very appreciated input, we are hoping to discover the many other elements that were a part of the Olympic games both seen and unseen; noticed and unnoticed that played a contributory role in this. We will explore the unique expression of the human spirit; our connectedness to each other and the other nations; the overwhelming sense of good will and peace that pervaded the games…”the energy”. We will delve deep into the symbology that was used to symbolize Canada but also create a sense of magic and wonder such as the giant polar bear or Aurora Borealis in the Opening Ceremonies.
Below are some questions to start you off. Feel free to use the questions as a guide to help direct your thoughts or just “wing it” and write whatever comes to mind.
My intent is to form all of this into a book. If you prefer to write to me directly about your experiences, please contact me at
sue@suestudios.com.
Please email me photos of homes decorated in red and white that we can post on this blog!! Let's see how Canada celebrated their Olympic Spirit.
See photos collected so far.
Thank you.
One of my favourites was seeing Alexandre Bilodeau hugging his brother, Frederic, after winning his gold medal in moguls. Alexandre said "growing up with a handicapped person puts everything in perspective. He taught me so many things in life. My parents did, too. I have everything on my side."
On a sunny Sunday my sister, brother-in-law and my 6 year old niece Hannah, and I, were all dressed in our Olympic gear and we headed downtown to see the Olympic torch and have a fun family day.
ReplyDeleteHannah loved the Olympic pins and she was trading like a pro. At one point as we walked along a very crowded street, she stopped and with a look of absolute horror on her face, she said "Oh No...I've lost the backing to my favorite pin"
I called ahead to my sister, "Hang on Hannah's lost the backing to her pin" and suddenly an amazing thing happened.
All around us, people stopped in their tracks and started looking on the sidewalk. There were red & white covered Canadians, Red White and Blue Americans and even a few Europeans. All searching the sidewalk for a little girls backing to her Olympic pin.
Suddenly we heard... "I found it!" And a lovely lady with a southern accent handed Hannah her pin-backing with a big smile and "There you go, honey"
Everyone smiled and laughed, and then the street started to move again and we all carried on with our day.
I walked away in amazement. I've walked the downtown streets many times in the past, when no one makes eye-contact, or even seems to notice there are other people beside them. But the Olympics were different.
For 10 -12 people to stop everything and help a little girl find her lost pin-backing...without even being asked...it was a beautiful moment of people coming together in a spirit I've never seen before.
Jenny Daly
Maple Ridge BC