“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.”

Hellen Keller

We have had a troubling summer in the Okanagan to say the least. The busiest tourist season I have seen in 14 years. A backward slide in our Covid recovery. And then the fires.

All of this has been heavy on all of us. But we are making it through as we always do. These things are not necessarily in our control but how we react to them is. And so I have been doing my best to adjust and adapt and stay positive.

Until last night.

As I sat on a patio having an early dinner with a group of friends, a little puff of smoke over my left shoulder caught the eyes of my companions. Along with most of the patio, I turned around to observe this little puff grow. Grow until we witnessed bursts of bright orange flames reach towards the sky with the angry and aggressive attitude that only fire can express.

It was frightening to see how fast this little puff turned into a full blow forest fire located seemingly directly above the town of Peachland and the homes that lovingly dot its mountainside.

By the time I reached home, the fire had expanded to another dangerous and encompassing nightmare. The winds fueling it along with the others already existing and uncontained. I witnessed water bombers track through the sky like highway traffic flows on the TransCanada.

I watched from my back yard as the smoke and red sunset haze filled my vision. And my heart began to break. I fought back tears as I thought of the men and women already exhausted from a summer filled with the battle against mother nature and all her fury. I fought back tears as I thought of families packing up to leave their homes. I fought back tears as I packed my own bag for ‘just in case’.

And I fought back tears from my own exhaustion of trying to stay positive in a time where there just seems to be no end to a battle we didn’t start and we can’t seem to end.

This is a trying time for all of us. We may occasionally lose the battle of staying positive but we must never lose the battle of staying kind. Being there for each other in our exhaustion and sadness. Reaching out a hand through our own tears to comfort a neighbor next to us that is fighting back their own.

It’s okay to cry for these times. It’s okay to stumble and fall. We have each other to get through this with. So please just be kind. Stop trying to place blame. Stop bashing the tourists for not knowing what we know. Stop berating the health officials for doing the best they can with the knowledge they have. Stop being unkind and start being helpful. Start being the solution and not the problem.

Be kind. Be compassionate. Be patient.

And be strong… this too shall pass and we shall persevere.

Ah the mid-life crisis. It’s been around forever. Experienced by so many. So what is this ‘crisis’?

We very easily reference this crisis when viewing a friend, family member or co-worker doing something out of their norm. Something no one expects of them. Whether it be leaving their partner, quitting a job, or maybe just buying that expensive and impractical sports car. We see this and we judge it. We tsk tsk it. And we label it a… ‘crisis’.

Personally, I don’t think that is fair. Is it a crisis to question where we are in life? To want something more or be hungry for adventure? To search for some excitement in a life where up until now, we may have been busy taking care of others and not ourselves?

In my opinion, this is not a ‘crisis’. It is an awakening. It is a realization that the best parts of our lives aren’t over yet. That we have so much more to do and see and conquer. It is an opportunity to face our fears. Take some risks. Live a little bit more and maybe fulfill a potential that we have long since forgotten about.

What we do when we come to this moment in our lives is not always the best choice. True. Buying a shiny red convertible that we can’t afford is not the right way to deal with it. If you can afford it, hey… no judgment here. Go for it. (And come pick me up for a road trip…) But it won’t fix what you are feeling. It won’t fill that void that you are feeling. It is only a temporary but happy little band aid that will eventually fall off and leave you looking once again for… something.

Instead, look a little deeper. Think about what is working and what is not. What is it that YOU need. Do you need to challenge your mind? Do you need to take better care of your health? Do you need to be more adventurous or learn something new?

The ‘crisis’ is that we don’t often look deep enough. It is that we make a rash decision and settle for that band aid and mistakenly think that it will solve our problems. We are an impatient species and have been trained to want everything now. A quick fix. A temporary happy.

Maybe if we just take our time and start looking at this as an awakening, it won’t be a crisis. Maybe if we realize that life is a journey right until the very last day and not just until we hit mid-life, maybe then we wouldn’t find ourselves in this crisis. But instead, find ourselves in a moment of wonder and excitement about what is up next. What is the beautiful next year or decade (or tomorrow) going to bring us?

It’s all in how you look at it. How you label it.

Do you want to have a crisis? Or do you want to have an awakening?

You chose.

“People may call what happens at midlife ‘a crisis,’ but it’s not. It’s an unraveling – a time when you feel a desperate pull to live the life you want to live, not the one you’re ‘supposed’ to live. The unraveling is a time when you are challenged by the universe to let go of who you think you are supposed to be and to embrace who you are.”

Brene Brown

“Argue for your limitations and sure enough, they’re yours.”

Richard Bach

Do you know your limits? I mean, do you really? If your answer is yes, I have another question. How do you know?

We all have limits but most of us don’t actually know what they are. We set them prematurely so that we can feel safe. Protected. We confuse our limits with our comfort zones and we let fear dictate what we can and cannot do without actually trying. We don’t even think about it. We just convince ourselves that it can’t be done. That we can’t do it. We set our boundaries and live within them.

Let’s define boundaries. Boundaries are a line that marks the limits of an area. For example, the limits we set with other people and which indicate what we find acceptable and unacceptable in their behavior towards us. These are good boundaries. Good limits.

Let’s look at another area. What are the limits you have set for yourself in regards to your career? Is that last promotion all you will ever need? Is your business doing everything you dreamed it could do? Or do you want more but your afraid to rock the boat… take a risk?

Limits are hard to find as we all know that when we push past them, we can get hurt. We can fail. And this applies to all areas of our lives. Our personal relationships, our careers, and most certainly our dreams.

Have you ever felt the sting of failure by pushing past your limits? If your answer is no, then the answer to that first question is also, irrevocably… no. You don’t know. You can’t possibly know your limits unless you have actually pushed past them. And that’s fine if you are okay with that. But at least be honest with yourself and answer the question truthfully. Accept that and live happily within that acceptance. There is nothing wrong with it.

But.

If you are not happy with it, change it. Find those limits. Challenge yourself to get that promotion or start your own business. Write a song and share it. Take a risk and fall in love. Fall down 50 times learning how to wake surf. Write a book.

It is only once you have pushed past your limits that you can define where those limits are or should be. Only when you have felt the hurt or disappointment of something not working out that you can know where the lines need to be drawn and the boundaries need to be placed. If you have always lived within them, you don’t know how far they can be pushed out. How far those boundaries can expand.

Let’s define boundaries again. A line that marks the limits of an area defined by the lessons you have learned through having the courage to try harder.

So know your real limits. Push that boundary.

Find it. Shove it. Create it.

Then do it again.

Home
[hom] noun

a gathering place for family to join together in laughter. the one place you will always be surrounded by those who love you. a place or feeling of belonging.

I just returned from a road trip traipsing across the prairies with multiple stops in Alberta and Saskatchewan. It was rejuvenating. It was gratifying. It was exactly what I needed.

Recently I have been doing a lot of thinking about where I am at. Not just in life but geographically. I love where I live but I am fortunate to be at a place in my life where I have flexibility. It is never as easy as just picking up and putting down but there are always options if you want to look for them.

And so I decided to go on a road trip. My family is mostly in Saskatchewan and I was due for a good long post-pandemic visit. Plus my wonderfully young dad just turned 80. So what better reason to pack up the car and hit the road.

And hit the road I did. Stopping in old stomping grounds in Alberta. Reconnecting with friends who I have missed terribly. Seeing changes in a city I spent almost 20 years in and yet feeling like I never really left.

Then through the fields along the straight and flat Saskatchewan highways. The beautiful skies and gold canola keeping me company the whole way. Passing through little towns I have long forgotten about.

Spending time hiking, kayaking, boating, climbing (yes.. Saskatchewan has a hill), camping, and of course a little pool side chilling. And through each stop and each adventure, I took notice. I didn’t just look. I absorbed. I felt the sun. I felt the wind. I felt the heat and the chill. And of course… I felt a few mosquitos.

For years I have been so in love with the Okanagan that I never thought there was anyplace else to be. I became an Okanagan snob. Truly. I am an outdoor person so it is an obvious place for me. And I do still love it. I love every mountain, every lake, every ridiculously large spider that crawls near me.

But the past two weeks something unexpected happened. I fell in love with the prairies all over again. My snobby attitude took a hike and allowed me to see everything with an open mind. An open heart.

It caused me to really stop and think. I still don’t know where I want to be or when. My five year plan is and likely always will be unknown. No one can predict that far ahead. But I realized that it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter where I am or where I go. I will find something to love. I will find beauty and peace and adventure. I will because I look for it and that is who I am.

And I did look for it. And here’s the biggest and most important take away… it doesn’t matter where because the surroundings are only a small part of the beauty that encompass us. Because the most beautiful thing of all that surrounds us is the people we are with. It is most striking in the smile of your mother. The arms of your father. The stories of your siblings. The laughter of your friends.

It doesn’t matter where you are standing. It only matters who you are standing there with. Home is not about where. It is about who.

For me, it doesn’t matter where I chose to go or where I will be in 5 years. Home is in a person, not a place. And I am so lucky to have so many homes.

Thank you to my many homes. You are my beautiful.

Remembering the 215 Indigenous Children that never made it home.

I am struggling to write this one. I want it to be perfect. My intent is not to offend anyone. I only want to encourage everyone think. To have compassion. And I want to keep the awareness of this story in peoples minds and hearts for as long as I can.

I read a book a few years back titled ‘Indian Horse’ by Richard Wagamese. It is a story about a native boy who survived the residential school he was forced to attend. It was my first knowledge that these residential schools even existed.

I was angry when I read this book. But just a little. Because I still didn’t understand the magnitude of it. It was in the past and there was nothing I could do about it now so basically, I could ignore it. And after all, it was just a book.

And I didn’t recall learning anything about these schools through my formal education so it was easy to put it out of my mind. I dawns on me now that it is possible I didn’t learn anything about them when I was in school because they were still open. That is how current this story is. And that is why I wanted to write this.

Because this is not hundreds of years ago. This was in my time.

I don’t view myself as a racist or prejudiced individual. I think of myself as not much different than anyone else around me so this is hard for me to admit but here it goes. The truth is, I am not innocent. I have been heard saying things like, “I didn’t take anybody’s land so why am I paying for it”… “None of this is my fault so why should it affect me”. My attitude was one of complete ignorance and indifference. And I am ashamed of it now.

Because recently, everything changed for me.

When they discovered the remains of 215 children buried at a Kamloops residential school last month my heart hurt. 215 CHILDREN. Children that were taken from their homes and forced to go to a school where they suffered and/or witnessed unthinkable abuse. A school that was in full operation until 1969 and as a day school until 1978.

1978. I was eight years old when it closed. Eight. These children could have been playing in a playground at my school. They could have been my playmates or my parents playmates.

This is not hundreds of years ago. This is in my time.

And I, like so many people I know, have had the ability to ignore any concern for the challenges that indigenous people face today. People that lived through and survived these abhorrent schools. People that lost loved ones in these schools. Lost their children.

These people suffered an incredible trauma and like any person that suffers from trauma, they learn to cope as best as they can. And sometimes that best is not so respectable. But why do we treat them differently than our own loved ones who may be using unrespectable coping methods to deal with trauma? Why do they not deserve our compassion just as much as a family member or a friend suffering from PTSD?

And why do we judge them so harshly? I have heard people ask what indigenous people have contributed to society? Well, what have you contributed? Really. And if you know someone close to you that suffers from trauma, PTSD, alcohol or substance abuse, or any other debilitating disease, ask yourself what have they contributed?

So I ask you please to stop and think about this a little bit more. Really think about this. This is not hundreds of years ago. This is now.

This is in my time. Your time. Our time.

We need to keep this story going. We need awareness. We need compassion. We need change.

“Interaction with others opens up new and exciting possibilities. Meeting people stimulates our minds, gives us energy, leads to more new encounters and infinitely expands our life and our world.”

Daisaku Ikeda

Let’s talk about the back to the office debate. I am noticing article after article about the positives and negatives of going back to the office environment. Poll after poll about who would prefer to continue working from home and who wouldn’t. Is productivity up or is it down. Do managers want to micro-manage or are they happy leading from a distance.

And then there is the anxiety. How many people are suffering from anxiety about going back to the office. Does going back support or hinder our mental health.

All good information. All good points.

But what I haven’t read about is the social aspect. It could be out there… I just haven’t seen it.

Pre-Global Pandemic, I had a lot of conversations with people about the younger generation growing up with social media and smart phones and consequently, a lack of live social interaction. These conversations always ended up with concern for a lack of social skills and ability to interact with others.

Have we forgotten how important this is? Are we suddenly not concerned about it?

I am not saying we all need to go back to working in an office. I am just saying that maybe we need to think further on this. And if productivity is up with working from home, does it come at a cost?

Last year I decided to leave my place of employment. A job where I had to go to an office daily. I now work from home permanently and I will honestly admit, it is hard. I have learned to make a point of ensuring I do not have 2 days in a row where I don’t leave the house. Whether it is for client appointments or dinner with friends or simply running to the grocery store.

I need people. I need social interaction. Now, I know I am an extrovert so it is important to me. But I truly believe it is important to everyone. I believe no matter how extroverted or introverted you are, we all need people.

We need to look people in the eyes and see them. Not through a screen but live and in person. We need to laugh with each other. Share with each other. Be with each other. And yes, even hug each other.

So maybe we will lose a little productivity standing around the water cooler talking about our latest Netflix binge but… maybe not. Maybe that water cooler time will energize us and fuel us to be more creative. More focused. More productive.

Just my two cents.

“Some people see things as they are and say “Why?” I dream things that never were, and say “Why not?”

George Bernard Shaw

Imagine a life without imagination. Hmmmm…… wrap your head around that sucker for a minute. But stick with me.

We often talk about daydreamers as though they are flaky. Flighty. Head in the clouds kind of people. I am a daydreamer. Always have been. And yes, sometimes I get caught up in drifting off to another place or another time where maybe things turned out differently. A little mind vacation from everything that is going on around me.

No problem solving. No responsibilities. Just drift. Otherwise known as ‘la la land’.

But some days instead of ‘la la land’ that little mind vacation turns into a dream waiting to form. An idea taking shape. A life waiting to be lived.

Or in my case, a book waiting to be published. Some days my imagination goes to work for me and all sorts of things fall into place. A clear path develops. It doesn’t let you skip the work you need to put in… no no no… it’s not that easy. But it is exciting!

So give your mind a little break and your imagination a chance to explore. Stop stressing out about finding all the answers and solving all the problems. Just drift. Let your mind, heart and your soul wonder around for a bit. Take a whiff of this and a taste of that.

Some of it might be bitter and some of it might just downright stink. But what if some of it doesn’t? What if some of it wakes up your senses like nothing ever has. What if that imagination can become your reality?

After all, maybe your imagination is your true reality, not your escape. Give it a chance. Take an imagination vacation. See what happens.

Dream things that never were and say why not?

“A ship is safe in harbor, but that is not what a ship was built for.”

William H Shedd

There has been a lot of positive meme’s and quotes and images out there over this past year. One of the most common that I have seen and read is to be grateful for what we have. Practice daily gratitude.

Be grateful we can still go out. Be grateful for your health. Be grateful for your loved ones and their health. Be grateful for your job, your home, your living situation…

Be grateful for what you have today.

Can I confess something? I am getting a little sick of being told to be grateful for what I have and can do today. I feel like I am being told, don’t rock the boat. Don’t push too hard. Let the universe provide.

Guess what… the universe does not provide unless you rock the damn boat. Just sayin.

I am grateful. I really am. And I do practice gratitude daily. I am not saying we shouldn’t so don’t get all huffy and puffy at me. All I am saying is, I won’t let it stop me from wanting more. I feel like all this hype about being grateful and practicing daily gratitude is just making me feel guilty and ungrateful for wanting more. Because I do want more. I will always want more.

What is wrong with that?

I work damn hard to have all the things I have to be grateful for. And I will work damn hard to have more. And I am not just talking about material things. I am talking about community, confidence, abilities, knowledge… Everything I have, I have earned.

The universe only provides if you get up and go out and grab it. Take risks. Be brave. And don’t just do this today. Do this every today. And don’t you dare ever feel guilty for it.

So namaste as much and as long as you want. I’m going to go out and look for more things to be grateful for. I’ll catch you later…

“If you look good, you feel good, and if you feel good, you do good.”

Georges St. Pierre

I love shoes. All shapes. All sizes. All functions. I am rather grateful that I have feet shaped like a duck and have a tough time finding shoes that fit. If I didn’t, I would have a shoe inventory worth more than my car.

It’s also one of the first things I will notice on others. Now maybe I notice shoes a bit too much but I’m short and they are close… and it’s probably why I rarely notice a light fixture. Go figure.

But here’s the thing about shoes for me. They reflect my mood. Feeling business-y (it’s a word)? Nice solid pair of wedges. Feeling risky? Strappy heels… maybe in a fun color. Rambunctious or goofy, sneakers. Feeling blahhhhhh… sliiipppppeeerrrssss… You get the idea.

Here is the other thing I have learned about shoes. They complete the outfit. And the outfit completes the person. I’m not trying to be a fashion expert or turn this blog into fashion 101. Nor am I trying to judge anyone else’s fashion choices. So let me try to explain this particular ramble.

I have worked in a lot of different industries. From hospitality to marketing to construction. I have covered a lot of basics. The thing I have found most common between all of them is that your success depends on how you present yourself. If you wear slippers to work (or pajama pants to Walmart – there I said it), well guess what… you are not going to earn a whole lot of respect.

My last 2 jobs, I worked in construction and renovation. In both cases, I was in a sales and supervisor role and was often required to be on a work site among tools, dirt, paint and pretty much any kind of yucky stuff you could dig up.

I still wore nice shoes.

But it wasn’t about the shoes. It was about how the shoes made me feel. Confident. Qualified. Professional. It set me apart from the guy walking in with paint splattered 10 year old sneakers with a hole in the toe. And guess who usually got the job.

So here’s the thing. Today when you go out… whatever it is you are going out to do… head up, shoulders back and put your best shoe forward.

Today… kick ass with a nice pair of shoes.

“Feelings are just visitors, let them come and go.”

Mooji

This past week I have had two people I care about have to go to the bedside of someone close to them because they are sick or dying from alcoholism. And it hurts my heart.

Not only for my friends but for their loved ones suffering the illness. I do drink but I am not an alcoholic so I cannot speak of the suffering they are enduring. Nor can I say what caused them to become so dependent on alcohol or the power it has over them. There are many factors that can increase the risk of alcohol and substance abuse and a lot of resources that can help explain them.

What I can tell you is my own experience with drinking to stop feeling. I did this. I have been at some pretty low times in my life. And some of those times I will admit, I turned to alcohol. I just wanted to stop feeling sad. I wanted to stop feeling. Period.

But eventually I got tired of that. I realized it only made me feel more. More sad. More hurt. It wasn’t a fix for my depression, it was a cause of it. And so I stopped drinking for the purpose of trying to stop feeling.

And I started to feel more. I started to embrace the sad and the angry and the happy. Our emotions are part of us and they have a place in our lives. In our days and our moments. Trying to force them away or ignore them will never work. Ever.

I am not an expert on alcoholism and I will never claim to be. As always, I can only share with you my own thoughts and experiences and hope that someone out there will get something positive from them.

And to that person, I hope that the next time you feel to much and you want to drink to stop, think. Think about the best way to make that feeling stop. Because the best way to make it stop is to have a clear head and let that feeling run it’s course. Let it shape you and make you stronger than you already are.

Please. For yourself and for those you love. Please.