Connecting and Community

It's a very exciting time in my city. It's opening ceremonies for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Our city and country has banned together to represent and share in this monumental lifetime event. Its almost impossible not to feel pride to be a Canadian and why should we not? we are so blessed to be Canadian and all that it represents. Last night I had the opportunity to be invited as a guest to one of aboriginal shows featured for the Olympics. The band's name is Black Arm Band from Australia. http://www.blackarmband.com.au/ They played along with the 33 members of Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and Canadian Jazz section. It was an amazing storytelling emotional evening. The whole night was featured around aboriginals and indigenous communities and their stories. The Australian band was invited by our Four Host Nations people. It was so beautiful to see the four different First Nation's bands all connect together in the spirit of the Olympics and to invite another group to share their story. It was a beautiful web of connecting and sharing as a community.

The topic of community has come up more than a handful of times this last month and I knew I had to write about it. I have a friend at work that is in a drumming circle and every time she has class, she comes back re-energized and full of life. She feels connected and part of her drumming community. I have another friend that has committed to a 30 day yoga challenge and she loves it so much that she's going for her 2nd month now - so she's going for 60+ days of yoga. I see the light in her face by participating in her yoga community.

We are all connected in one way or another. By work, friends, family, the variables can go on endlessly, however how we CHOOSE to connect as a community is a by conscious choice. What I have learned is that we all need to connect and feel like we are a part of community, no matter how big or small. Its part of our ancestral ties, we yearn to be connected. I think this is part of going back to basics and getting connected again with our brothers and sisters, however that may look like for you individually. This is what the world needs right now. I ask you to take some time to ponder your connections and community and see how you can expand on your current ones and maybe step out of your comfort zone and grow your community and then tell me about it! I'd love to hear all about it.

I'm personally expanding my community this week. My good friend Cheryl and I will be leading our very first vision board workshop for a group of young women ages 10-16. My 13 year old daughter and 2 of her friends will also be participating. I'm very excited to connect with these young women.

Shiny and New Year - Welcome 2010!

I took the month off of December from blogging. I commit to writing once a month, by starting my blog on the 15th of each month. That will ensure it's complete and ready to send to all of you by the end of each month.

Well...new year, new decade and a rare blue moon. So many exciting pieces to this new year. I wish you all a very successful and joyous New Year. 2010 feels different to me as it does to many. Doesn't it feel different to you as well? There were so many challenges in 2009 as well as many groundbreaking events. I think 2010 was much anticipated and welcomed. During my chill time in December, I started to think - how is this year going to be different for me? both personally and professionally. I thought if I just go along with the ride of energy and think 2010 is somehow going to be magically different just because it's a new year, decade or any other reason, I'll be sadly disappointed at the end of 2010 and wondering where did that year go? 2010 for me is about creating a plan, taking action and enjoying the fruits of my labour. It's all about energy, no matter how we dice and slice it. Its all an exchange of energy. So I'm committed to taking action. As you can see in my starting paragraph I committed to starting my blog on the 15th so that it'll be done by the end of the month. I've taken the time to plan my year with specific intentions. I have monthly contributions with my good friend Cheryl and we will give back either with time or money back to the community. I can see on paper how this year is developing and its already making a huge difference in my life and others. I've also secured a domain for a non profit organization that I will be creating, doaworldofgood.org where people can come together and do good acts and join forces to make this world a better place and bring the energy to a higher consciousness and level. A site to be inspired and contribute globally.

So that's it folks - its all about energy. Mine and yours, how much do we want to put in to our day to day tasks, as well to our bigger projects. How much energy are YOU going to exchange in 2010 and how will that look like at the end of the year in reflection?

Green Christmas

Okay, I know that Halloween is just over and now I'm already thinking of Christmas. But I am very excited about Christmas this year and do you want to know why....of course you do! It's because I'm going green this year and I want you to be excited too. What that means for me is:

No purchasing of presents (only handmade items and only if I really feel compelled to give. There are so many other ways of giving, spending time with loved ones, baking cookies, or donating my time at charities. Since there will be no presents, I won't be bothering with wrap, tape or gift boxes either. I will not be sending Christmas cards, imagine how much waste is created on just cards alone? just imagine the dumps with everyone's cards in them, what a waste. I think I'll stick with Christmas emails instead. So this year really is a time to celebrate. For me its my understanding of a true traditional Christmas, going back to basics of what Christmas means for me. Being grateful for what I have, and thinking of others, and spending time with loved ones. I've already had my conversations with friends and family about having a green Christmas. It was such a delight to see how freeing it was when permission was given to them to not buy, or spend resources on a holiday that many feel so many added pressures. I can honestly say this is the first time in my life that I truly am looking forward to Christmas in an entirely different way. I invite you to participate in any way you that you can in having a green Christmas.

Here are some creative ways to enjoy Christmas without the waste:

1-Get a living tree and make sure you recycle in the chipper after you're done or buy a potted tree and replant in the garden after wards
2-Don't use plastic/paper plates
3-Use recycled wrapping paper if you must or be creative and make your wrapping paper out of newspaper or recycled paper
4-Give experiences, not gifts
5-Use efficient LED tree lights
6-Reuse your old carrier bags when shopping or use a cloth bag or a bag for life.


What Christmas Means for the Planet

If we don’t watch our consumption over the holidays, it can mean real consequences for the environment. Recycling is the best way to show your environmentally friendly Christmas spirit.

1. Without recycling, up to one billion Christmas cards and as much as 83 square kilometers of wrapping paper could end up in landfills

2. Excessive consumption will kill the planet. It is estimated that the pollution from the manufacturing, transportation, use and disposal of Christmas gifts is greater than that caused by automobiles each year

3. Christmas lights left on for ten hours a day over only twelve days will produce enough carbon dioxide to inflate 12 balloons

All these damaging effects can be avoided if everyone pays attention to consumption over the holidays.

Your Heart Knows What is Beautiful

As I gaze at my beautiful 13 year old daughter Sofie, her skin is smooth, her eyes are so bright and hair so shiny. I reflect on my own journey of aging and ponder the concept of beauty. Beauty is such a personal matter of opinion. In different parts of the world, there are such contrasts of what beauty should look like. In Africa, women wear long metal plates that basically stretch and elongate their necks so they have a giraffe like features. In Maurita, they find larger women ideal and no self respecting Mauritian man would marry any woman that was skinny in comparison with our North American ideal where you can never be too thin or rich. In Asian culture, flawless, pale white skin is the ideal. In Brazil, it's the ever longing search for a perfect nose, plastic surgery is rampant everywhere in South America, especially Brazil. Women as young as 16 are getting plastic surgery procedures.

In fact in most of these cities, they start the "ideal" of beauty at a very young age, sometimes as early as 5 or 6 years old. These beauty ideals are forced upon their daughters, so that they will have the most opportunity as they get older to be beautiful and be attractive to men and possibly marry. It's what was done to them and what will continue to happen to their granddaughter and so on and so on. Don't get me wrong, I am not blaming the mothers, its what they know and they are trying to give their daughters the best chance they can, really no different than what I am doing as a mother. Especially in some countries where marrying a man is really your only survival mechanism.

I personally think knowledge is beautiful and what I understand from my own journey is that beauty is not just from the eye of the beholder but what we are taught, told and what we pass on to our daughters, and others we come in contact with. I'd like to set an intention for all of us, to start telling ourselves and others what we feel is beautiful. I won't even begin to tell you what or how that should feel like, that is completely up to you. Make up your own ideals of beauty. Instead of looking with your eyes and accepting what is told to us to be beautiful by the media or by society. Feel what is beautiful, feel it deep within your heart, I think if we all start feeling beauty instead of trying to create it, we will all be in a much better place in the future.

What are you practicing for?

Last few weeks I've been thinking of the word "Practice". In the dictionary it refers to it both as a noun and a verb. As a noun it is described as habitual or customary performance or repeated performance or systematic exercise for the purpose of acquiring skill or proficiency: Practice makes perfect. Makes sense right?

As a verb the word practice means to perform or do habitually or usually: to practice a strict regimen or to follow or observe habitually or customarily: to practice one's religion.

Whether you use the word practice as a noun or a verb, to me it is the same thing. I find it very interesting that as human beings we are constantly practicing whether we are conscious of it or not. We may practice not smoking, or practice going to the gym, or practice financial freedom. What dawned on me is the word practice in itself is so sacred and important and what I did not realize is that EVERYTHING we do is a practice. How we treat each other, what we put in our mouths, how we think and feel. I think if we all took the approach that each activity that we do or not do is a practice and take it on as an important ritual. This way of thinking will change everything we do. Why is it just our yoga or meditation is a practice? I want to take the same sacred attitude and discipline towards my relationships with my family as I do with my exercise practice.

So I leave with this month's departing words and thoughts - What are you practicing for?

Instant and Immediate Change Now - YOU have the Power!

Everyone gets chain email every day in their email boxes. You know the kind, that go on about rainbows and fairies and for the most part, I don't even open them. They always ask you to send to 10 of your friends and you'll get some sort of good luck etc...Well one day, my friend sent me this one and something in the title made me want to open this specific one. I didn't open it right away, in fact it was days before I went back to open it. It's called "The Wooden Bowl"

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The Wooden Bowl

I guarantee you will remember the tale of the Wooden Bowl tomorrow, a week from now, a month from now,
a year from now.

A frail old man went to live with his son, daughter-in-law, and four-year-old grandson.
The old man's hands trembled, his eyesight was blurred, and his step faltered

The family ate together at the table. But the elderly grandfather's shaky hands and
failing sight made eating difficult. Peas rolled off his spoon onto the floor.
When he grasped the glass, milk spilled on the tablecloth.

The son and daughter-in-law became irritated with the mess.
'We must do something about father,' said the son.
'I've had enough of his spilled milk, noisy eating, and food on the floor.'

So the husband and wife set a small table in the corner.
There, Grandfather ate alone while the rest of the family enjoyed dinner.
Since Grandfather had broken a dish or two, his food was served in a wooden bowl.

When the family glanced in Grandfather's direction, sometimes he had a tear in his eye as he sat alone.
Still, the only words the couple had for him were sharp admonitions when he dropped a fork or spilled food.

The four-year-old watched it all in silence.

One evening before supper, the father noticed his son playing with wood scraps on the floor.
He asked the child sweetly, 'What are you making?' Just as sweetly, the boy responded,
'Oh, I am making a little bowl for you and Mama to eat your food in when I grow up.
' The four-year-old smiled and went back to work.

The words so struck the parents so that they were speechless. Then tears started to stream down their cheeks. Though no word was spoken, both knew what must be done.

That evening the husband took Grandfather's hand and gently led him back to the family table.
For the remainder of his days he ate every meal with the family.. And for some reason,
neither husband nor wife seemed to care any longer when a fork was dropped, milk spilled, or the tablecloth soiled.

On a positive note, I've learned that, no matter what happens, how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.

I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles four things:
a rainy day, the elderly, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.

I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as making a 'life..'

I've learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance.

I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands.You nee d to be able to throw something back sometimes.

I've learned that if you pursue happiness, it will elude you
But, if you focus on your family, your friends, the needs of others,
your work and doing the very best you can, happiness will find you

I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.

I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one.

I've learned that every day, you should reach out and touch someone.

People love that human touch -- holding hands, a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.

I've learned that I still have a lot to learn.

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The following night, as usual my husband and I walked our dog Lucy. This particular evening I saw an elderly Asian man, struggling to get out of his wheel chair at the park. Something drew me to see if he needed help. I went to him and asked him in Chinese if he needed assistance. He said no in an abrupt way. I said okay, and went on my way. The next day, I saw him again at the park, and I went and said hello to him again. He was more approachable this time. This continued for the week, every time, our conversation lasting a bit longer and we got to know each other more each time. I told him about my family, and how my mom was also struggling with her walking and that I would bring her next time to meet him. The following day, I brought my mom to meet him. The man in the park then told my mom, how happy he is to see me every day and how he looks forward to our talks. He says that most people just ignore him because he's old and in a wheel chair. He said it touches his heart to know that I took the time everyday to get to know him. He even brought me a bag of plums as a present. My mom then told him that I have a huge heart and that I've always been like that. This was a huge surprise to me, I never knew my mom felt that way about me. This entire process was such a huge awakening to me, because in this moment. I realized that just by my friend sending me that email story - the wooden bowl and by the actions I took by thinking, feeling and doing. Lives were changed - instantly. We do not know the impact we have on others, by what we say, do or feel. But what I do know is that we do have the power to impact lives on such powerful levels.

We are constantly talking about change and how we want to see change in the world and how we are awaiting for a better time and place. The fact of the matter is that YOU are the change you are waiting for in this world. It begins now, with how you think, feel and do. Isn't that exciting and fabulous?

Here's my August challenge to you. Go speak to someone that you wouldn't normally speak with, break out of your comfort zone. Do something nice for someone you don't know and see what happens. It'll fill your soul and make your heart sing and ultimately make this world a better place for all.

Conciousness

I was chatting over the weekend with some friends on the topic of consciousness and sustainability. My friend is a warden for inmates in prison. She kept saying we live in sick world. I can understand how she may feel that especially given the environment that she works in. We went on to discuss how basically we live in a world where most of us are asleep or anesthetized to not feeling anything. We are in instant gratification mode and only want new things without really thinking of how it impacts the earth or each other, which in the long run affects our quality of life and our children and their children. Now listen, those that of you that know me, know that I'm not a tree hugging hemp tshirt type of girl. You know I love to shop and I have more shoes than Carrie from Sex and the City. But we all have to start somewhere and I think when we live unconsciously, whether its not respecting mother earth or taking action to live in a more present mindful state, we all lose. Each and every one of us has an impact by what we do, say and think. That's really powerful. When we are aware of that and make more conscious decisions we all participate in making this world a healthier place both mentally and physically. So do your part, think about where your food comes from. Walk to the grocery store instead of driving. Recycle those wine bottles, there are a million ways to help out, it just starts with being awake. Will I continue to buy shoes.....what do you think?