Vancouver Island, 1941
There were four crockery barrels on our back porch. I was four years old. We all had jobs. My job was to get things from the crocks. One held eggs preserved in water-glass; one was filled with oolichans (eels) in salt; one, my mother’s concoction of lye, oil and I don’t know what, which was the soap used for dishes, the floor, the laundry, the dog and our Saturday night baths in the tin wash tub; and one, goose grease, the salve of all bad things from cut fingers to leg-aches and whooping cough. When I see an episode of the TV show, “Survivor,” featuring people touching or...
Read MoreB.C. Seniors Advocate
B.C. Seniors Advocate is reinforcing the need for seniors in the province to file tax returns, even if they think they do not make enough income to file. “There are many subsidies available to seniors that are based on income tax information,” said Isobel Mackenzie. “If seniors don’t file their taxes, low-income seniors in particular may be giving up opportunities to access subsidies which can make significant differences to their lives.” The importance of filing taxes was highlighted in a recent case where the Federal Government found that 83,000 Canadian seniors, 13,000 of them in...
Read MoreEstrogen & Progesterone
As the level of wisdom appears to increase for women over the years, (aka aging), the level of estrogen production gradually begins to decrease. During a woman’s reproductive years, estrogen and progesterone levels are programmed to support the possibility of reproduction. When estrogen, progesterone (and testosterone) are in the groove, they are in a harmonious balancing act. The amount of each hormone produced depends on a complex feedback system to the brain. Stress, and diet affect that feedback mechanism and it can throw that hormonal dance offbeat. The role of progesterone is critical...
Read MoreOne Small Step, One Giant Leap
Society President Takes Three Month LOA for Community & Country, February 29th CEDAR – As a gift, to celebrate the 150th birthday of Canada, the president of a small non-profit society plans to give something he values almost more than anything else, his time. “This is the anniversary of our country’s founding, as well as a decade of great challenges throughout our society,” says Laurie Gourlay. “I wanted to be able to look back on my life and say that I tried to make a difference for the betterment of my community, as well as myself and my family. And when I...
Read MoreHappy Hormone Health
Nutrition and hormone balance is one of my favorite subjects because not many people realize that we can use our own mouth to send a message … not that kind of message. The food you eat sends messages to your hormones. Hormones are the messengers for all functions of the body, from heartbeat to libido. I’d like to think the Cabernet I so enjoy is speaking to me in sultry passionate whispers … A diet that is high in refined carbohydrates (white bread and rice, alcohol, sugars of all kinds, or straight up candy – to name a few) sends some messages to our hormones that are not very nice....
Read MoreHolidays In The Workplace
Tis the season for celebrations … What better way to thank your employees for their contribution to your business over the past year? Well-planned festivities can be a great way to not only recognize your staff for a job well done, but also to boost morale, encourage collaboration and increase team building. Unfortunately, even the best intentioned employers can open themselves up to liability issues if they don’t consider the impact that an office party can have when things go awry. It has become common for employers to cut back on their seasonal parties, not because they don’t want to...
Read MoreStress Is An Inside Job
Taking care of your health through the holidays will help you to cope with the stress that is sometimes associated with this festive season. Well look no further than your kitchen cupboards because there are many proactive steps you can take to have a healthy and happy holiday season. Although we can’t always control the external environment, we do get a say when it comes to our response – particularly to stress. It is our response that has the greatest impact on health. When we experience a stressful situation, the “fight or flight” hormone called cortisol is released from the...
Read MoreWhy Teens Use Drugs
Understanding why teens use drugs is key to preventing addiction. Despite the best efforts of parents, educators and awareness groups, drug abuse remains a core problem for young people. While most who try drugs once or twice don’t go on to develop substance addictions, those who do may suffer from life-long problems. These problems have never seemed more pressing, amid fears that heroin addiction is on the rise in Vancouver, particularly among the city’s young people. In particular, this stems from a recent rise in the number of teens abusing prescription opiates, and the fear...
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Forgiveness: The Key To Healing
“Resentment is like drinking poison and expecting your enemy to die.” Nelson Mandela “Forgiveness is not something we should do to be “good”, but as a crucial skill in pursuit of a healthy, fulfilling life.” Megan Feldman Bettencourt Most people think of forgiveness as being magnanimous enough to look past a grievance or fault. Let’s say, for example, that you and your friend John are supposed to meet for coffee at a trendy café at 1:00. He shows up 25 minutes late without offering an apology, and sits down as if nothing has happened. You are seething inside because you feel...
Read MoreMinding Your Manners At Work
If you find yourself thinking that things at work are too casual these days, you may be right – but you may also be showing your age. On the other hand, Millennials could learn a thing or two from their senior co-workers in how to conduct themselves in the work world. Business etiquette – whether at the company picnic or in the office – is something that everyone should abide by to ensure that professionalism is maintained at any occasion that involves your colleagues and supervisors. Most companies have policies and procedures to deal with the big ticket items such as Conflict of...
Read MoreLittle Boxes
The world puts things into little boxes. Little boxes with labels; sorted by usefulness or normalcy so that it’s easy to understand what is going around us. These boxes compartmentalize the world into digestible packages; framing what we know, who we are and how we interact with the world. Boxes, categories, classes, they all mean one thing; a limitation on our potential, our self and our connection to the world around us. In my life, growing up on Vancouver Island, going to school in Burnaby and returning as a small business owner to Central Vancouver Island, I have never had much success...
Read MoreSaving Lives Every Day
If someone had told me a year ago that I would be helping to save the lives of Canadians on a daily basis, I would have never believed them. Yet, here I am a year later, and that is exactly what I do. Three months ago, I became the Vancouver Island Volunteer Resources Coordinator at Canadian Blood Services. I am responsible for recruiting and training new volunteers, as well as managing the nearly 500 existing volunteers on Vancouver Island. It’s a tall order, but completely worth it. Every day I get to go home knowing that my contribution helped get the gift of blood to patients in need....
Read MoreHiring a Great Employee
So you are ready to hire an employee … simple, right? Put together an ad and choose from the resumes that come in – what could be simpler? Think again. If you have your own business or are in charge of hiring for an organization, the steps you take to hire a great employee will determine the success of your business going forward. Make sure that you have a job description so that you know exactly the type of person you want to hire and the specific skills that are required for the position. This can take some thinking but it will be well worth it in determining your candidate’s...
Read MoreRommy Verlaan’s Heart Song
It is a haunting sound, ancient as the peoples who lived out their lives in the forests and on the plains of the North American continent thousands of years ago, a plaintive call of eerie beauty, evocative both of human longing, and of the dark, sweet mysteries of nature itself. This is the sound of the North American native flute, and it is a sound you can hear today, deep in the heart of the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island. It seems natural that these flutes should be made here, in the ancestral homeland of the Cowichan peoples, a land of forests, rivers and lakes. Here the sound of the...
Read MoreA Spiritual Journey
Over the years, we begin to think about the journey we are on and what brought us to this place in our lives. For all of us, trying to find our best selves and at the same time being part of the whole, the journey – like every journey – begins with a single step … that moment when for some, we instinctively know there is more than this physical world. For others, it can start with the question “is this all there is?” We have had so many wonderful teachers on this earth plane, from Jesus to Buddha to Lao-tzu, and many more. From each, we have had powerful messages of...
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