With Glowing Hearts: Olympic torch relay

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.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Olympic Spirit

What kinds of things did you see of people embodying the Olympic Spirit? What were some of your favourites?

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."

The joy on both of their faces was priceless, tugging at my heart strings and tears welling up in my own eyes.

(quote and photo from National Post, February 15, 2010)
There are lots of untold stories.. what did you witness?

What does it all mean?

What did it mean to you… emotionally, intellectually and spiritually? How did your experience if the Olympics make you feel?

Leading up to the Olympics, my interest was ambivalent. I was interested and excited to some degree. I didn't follow the torch relay. My niece had an opportunity to actually hold and have her picture taken with the torch in the Toronto area when it was passing through Toronto on its journey to Vancouver. Again, I was thrilled for her, but for me, it still did not excite me.

It was not until I saw the torch pass through in New Westminster BC that I felt this incredible excitement and joy and love fill my entire being... as if the flame ignited my own heart and soul. That total feeling of bliss stayed with me throughout the Olympics and Paralympics.

I felt at one.. with myself, my community, the world.

I felt myself wondering… ”What would it be like to live in a world that was like this all the time and to have those feelings all of the time? Is that even possible?

What do you think?