BEAUTY IS EVERYTHING

I have been slogging away for 12-14 hours a day on location in Kitchener Ontario working on a reality tv series. Our production office is in an unfinished part of the building: dusty, bare studs on the walls with thick black cable snaking through to power us up. I am beyond wondering what I am doing making reality tv: I took the job knowing it was a good paycheque. This doesn’t mean I don’t give it my all during those long days and my shortened weekends filled with emergency work calls and emails. I do and I am exhausted with four more weeks of shooting to go.

This Friday, after a week of frigid temperatures and regular downpours, we went on location to the Elora Gorge, about 30 minutes from Kitchener. Obsessive weather checks told us that the day would be cloudy, but likely not rain. It was foggy when we arrived before 8am, but that soon burned off and we were in glorious sunshine! From the moment I got out of my car, the smell of damp cedars filled my every breath and I knew I had done the right thing to come on location. The leaves were the pale delicate green of spring that lasts only a very short time until the sun and chlorophyll deepens them into rich tones. The water was high in the gorge and came gushing through. It is a glorious place and I thought, “I must bring Glen here in August.” Beauty is everything.

Layers of warm clothes were peeled off and our day of having seven women, who had never rappelled, scared out of their wits, ease themselves over the edge of a 60’ cliff went smoothly and I was glad I left our grungy office behind.

Rather than hire a film caterer, I insisted we book lunch at the Elora Mill—the choice was eating food trucked from Toronto and served on utilitarian tables and chairs in the hockey arena or eat in a 150 year old restored stone mill overlooking the rushing waters of the gorge. There was no choice. Hearing the oohs and ahhs of the crew as they entered this gorgeous space made me proud of the decision I’d made. Beauty is everything.

Nights in Kitchener are spent in a faded old downtown hotel that has gone through various half-hearted attempts to spruce it up. Although I’ve stayed in $2/night hotels when backpacking through Asia, I have never found a place so depressing. I prefer to stay late at work and head back to the hotel with as little time before bed as possible. When I get home on Friday night, my bed wearing its cheerful set of pink and green polka dotted sheets feels like heaven. Beauty is everything.

As if Glen and I are not busy enough with our marriage plans, me working silly hours and he having become an independent consultant two weeks ago, the house sold this week! We agree that after the log jam of hopes and plans put on the back burner by his never ending divorce, the Universe is working in overdrive for us to catch up. Glen wrote a very touching blog about my sweat equity invested in the Emmarentia house. It talked about my attempts to bring it closer to a sense of beauty having paid off, but what it really was about was the beauty of the shared love we have created. Beauty is everything.