Planning For The Unexpected
You’ve worked hard to make your business a success. There may have been times when you gambled on a business strategy and won – but, for the most part, you stuck to the meticulous business plan that has been your blueprint for growth and achievement. Now, it’s time for a new plan. What would happen to your business if you were taken away from it, even temporarily? Would it survive? If you’re like most small business owners, the odds are that your years of careful nurturing and building could come tumbling down without your energetic hands on the reins – because you are your...
Read MoreCanada needs to get serious
Laurie always has such wise messages. I felt the need to pass this on to Island Woman’s readers. Trish Summerhayes Owner/publisher. Canada needs to get serious if it’s going to address the unprecedented threat to our way of life that is climate change. The least-expensive, simplest and quickest way would be to restore forested lands and coastal marine ecosystems so they sequester carbon. Vancouver Island and the Salish Sea offer some of the easiest and best pickings to be had anywhere, and we’re long overdue. Promised and re-promised for 20 years, the need to mitigate our...
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 MoreWomen-run marijuana group to launch Vancouver Island chapter.
As Trudeau’s promises to regulate the marijuana industry inch closer to reality, Canadian women want to ensure their voices will be heard. Women Grow, a professional network supporting female leaders and entrepreneurs in the cannabis industry, will officially launch its Vancouver Island chapter in early March. “There is a huge underground market right now on Vancouver Island,” said Gill Polard, the founder of Women Grow on Vancouver Island. “Women make up a huge part of that. They are veterans in the scene.” The female-oriented organization aims at connecting...
Read MoreSigns our Body is Giving us –
The standard answer from doctors to the question ‘’What is causing varicose veins?’’ is probably: Standing for long periods of time, pregnancy, age, being overweight, menopause, chronic heart conditions. Standing regularly for too long, especially on one leg, is definitely a factor. My mother had to put her weight on the left leg when working for hours on one specific machine. She had on the outside of that leg varicose veins, and needed at 84 years of age, a left side hip replacement. Therefore always put your weight equally on both legs. Always! BUT … there is something...
Read MoreWhat If ?
When I ponder the many directions I could take this article, I feel compelled to talk about our upcoming “Pink Day”, on February 24. Pink Day is the international day against bullying, discrimination, homophobia, transphobia, and transmisogyny across the world. This is a topic that has been speaking to me loud and clear for the last number of months. I have many poems that would fit well here, one is a new one, hot off the press but yet to be fully processed. I have also created a YouTube video show called “Tea with Carlie” and my first topic is called “Self-love: A Radical...
Read MoreMelanie Mark breaks barriers as B.C.’s first female aboriginal MLA
Melanie Mark, who once wrote of her shame at being native, has been sworn in as B.C.’s first female aboriginal legislature member – the latest chapter in a harrowing life in which she survived physical and sexual abuse. On Wednesday, drummers and dancers greeted the MLA for Vancouver-Mount Pleasant – one of two New Democrats who won by-elections this month. The other is Jodie Wickens, elected in Coquitlam-Burke Mountain. “Today just really cemented things,” Ms. Mark, a former deputy representative of B.C.’s Office of the Representative for Children and Youth, said in an...
Read MoreCourage To Be Vulnerable
When my girls’ father and I were neck deep in the dissolution of our marriage, I remember telling him how weak I felt for having allowed him to take such advantage of my patience, trust and forgiveness over our many years together. I really was struggling with how I had managed to let myself get to a place of feeling so small and unseen. As an intelligent and confident woman, it seemed unbelievable to me that I could have been so blind to what was going on right in front of me, never mind allowing it. To me, it was a sign of weakness that I couldn’t seem to stand up for myself and have my...
Read MoreFirst woman to lead B.C. logging group feels she has the chops.
Jacqui Beban is used to being the only woman in the room. Practically since birth, she has been exposed to the male-dominated and macho logging business. And last month she became the first female president in the 73-year history of the organization that speaks for the B.C. coast’s forestry industry. Nanaimo-born Beban, 40, was vice-president of the Truck Loggers Association for two years before her Jan. 14 election as president, for a two-year volunteer term. The non-profit represents more than 450 companies including independent sawmills, industry suppliers and independent harvesting...
Read MoreThe Power Of Words
My client had just finished describing a situation and I posed the question, ‘How did that strike you?’ That was 30 years ago and I’m grateful my clinical supervisor cautioned me that my choice of the words ‘How did that strike you?’ made it a leading question; ‘strike’ assumes a hit, an offense. It is not an open question. Words can have an aggressive quality and sometimes this is an important, almost desirable, trait. In his book, The Brain’s Way of Healing, Norman Doidges quotes prominent health professional Abraham Fuks on the use of language in medical practice:...
Read MoreOpportunity Knocks
I recently presented on my 7 Pillars of Happiness to a wonderful group of South Cowichan seniors. We all had a great time discussing happiness and why it’s important to think about and practice it (but NOT chase it!) at any age. And I made a new friend at this presentation too. Terry. Great fellow! From the moment I arrived and sat down (beside Terry), he seemed like such an easy person to talk to. It was as if I was supposed to sit next to Terry. We started to connect immediately. Terry shared a couple of stories about his career and how he was drawn to educating and helping others. We all...
Read MoreNanaimo women introduce tokens to help feed homeless.
Nanaimo may not have a subway system, but two women are hoping their token program goes a long way for the community. Cheryl Prince, co-owner of Prince Acres farm and a registered nurse, and Liz Kawahara, a Vancouver Island University student, are the organizers behind a new initiative that focuses on sharing healthy food. It is about to be implemented at one downtown restaurant. Beginning in a matter of days, individuals will be able to purchase a small plastic token from Gabriel’s Cafe, which can then be redeemed at a later date for a bowl of soup. The idea is intended to help out the...
Read MoreReflexology For Winter
Officially the days have become longer, but we are still in the winter months which means that certain parts of our bodies are taxed in different ways. Our habits change as we slow down in winter in order to build ourselves up with new resources for spring. In Chinese medicine, the winter season is ruled by water; this is considered the most Yin (feminine) season. The organs most affected during this time are the kidney and bladder. The Chinese believe that vital life energy – Ch’i – circulates in the body along meridians. In mapping out reflexes along meridian lines and through...
Read MoreB.C. Cancer Agency expands digital mammography service for rural women.
The B.C. Cancer Agency has upgraded two coaches from its mobile fleet to offer digital mammography services for women in rural and remote communities in the province. The agency says the digital upgrade provides more efficient services by using secure, wireless networks to send images for analysis. The coaches have also been upgraded to offer a more comfortable, private service for women. The two coaches were blessed by elders from the Musqueam First Nation on Monday morning. “[The blessing] helps with some of the healing that will occur in these vehicles and will increase the...
Read MoreCat Bathing as a Martial Art
Some people say cats never have to be bathed. They say cats lick themselves clean. But, sometimes kitty does smell or their owner gets an idea that they should be bathed. When that day arrives at your house, here is some advice you might consider as you place your feline friend under your arm and head for the bathtub. Know that although the cat has the advantage of quickness and lack of concern for human life, you have the advantage of strength. Capitalize on that advantage by selecting the battlefield. Don’t try to bathe him in an open area where he can force you to chase him. Pick a...
Read MoreSingles Buying On Gabriola
Should I? Should I? Why not? I did! And here are a few pointers about buying on Gabriola, single or not. I’ll admit I was green about the edges; completely taken with Gabriola; totally unaware of country-life in a rural community, much less an island. I won’t go into the cushioned, city-girl lifestyle, 24/7, but you get my drift. And yet, I knew this was for me, moving from the city to the country. Couldn’t be all that different, I mused to myself. Just a bit more ‘hands-on’. What does it mean to be a steward of your own land? It sounded more ethereal than down to earth or real....
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