Lawn to Food
It’s a very unsuspecting location to find Lynda Smith’s business. In the middle of a Comox neighborhood where homes sit on lots not much larger than a quarter acre, an active vegetable farm is in production year-round. Lynda, founder and operator of Lawn to Food, is immersed in a small business that not only brings fresh, organic and plentiful food to her family’s table, but allows her to educate and coach others to do the same all while sharing the fruits of her labour for others to enjoy. “We had always gown food but I was always the one doing it and the one preparing it and I...
Read MoreWhy a Retirement Community?
Are you are no longer enjoying cooking? Not eating properly? Or maybe you’re lonely and having a hard time getting out of your home to visit. Are you feeling isolated…or bored? As a ‘tour guide’ for a seniors’ home, I find that many people have at least one of the above concerns. Another big concern for some people reaching the age where they are considering a down size is what seniors homes used to look like. They are remembering the facilities that used to care for their own grandparents or parents. Thankfully we have come a long way and there really is very little, if any,...
Read MoreAn Accidental Pilgrimage
Rose Spit was on our list of adventures, and we were running out of time. A few days before, we were blessed to have been two, of a dozen hearty souls who shared a zodiac expedition through Gwaii Hanaas to the site of Sgang Gwaay. But that is a story for another day. My traveling companion, and sister, and I had been asking around Massett for a couple of days, hoping to find a ride out to the spit. There were a few possibilities, but nothing actually firmed up. We were told that Rose Spit was a 15 km return walk. We could see it in the distance. How hard could it be? We would be challenged,...
Read MoreVancouver 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 MoreYour Flashlight
Spring is with us and the days are brighter. This makes me think of a poem that I recently wrote called “Your Flashlight”. I performed it at the Spiral Café in Victoria, and you can check it out on You Tube if you like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL_FqK0zIDc I am thrilled to announce that I have been writing with Island Woman Magazine for nearly two years now. Whenever I meet a new audience, I begin in a safe and easygoing manner, and then I begin to unleash myself more and more. It occurred to me, a few weeks ago, that I have yet to fully unleash, or even step it up a...
Read MoreToo Far From The City
Did I hear you utter under your breath, “Too far removed from the city for me.” I know you’d be gobsmacked with our “Gabriola emergency services infrastructure”. And, this is what I’m going to call it because moving here without much thought to what would happen if: I locked myself out of my house, out of my car, the campfire got out of control, found my neighbour running down my driveway with his hand slit open from his band saw, hadn’t heard from my elderly neighbour for weeks, witnessed through the autumn mist a crush of Highland cattle herding themselves down Burnside...
Read MoreHow to Find Help
Are you confused or unsure about what kind of help you or your aging loved one is eligible for in the community? Congratulations! You are among the many Canadians who find navigating the healthcare system overwhelming and even a little scary. Many caregivers find the co-ordination role (similar to that of a case manager) the most stressful part of caregiving even though it takes less time than providing personal care or helping with other household tasks. Let’s say, you think your Mom or wife is showing signs of memory loss but you aren’t sure if it is serious. Or you aren’t...
Read MoreHolistic Healing and the Mind
Holistic Healing: Exploring the ‘Mind’ Aspect of the Body/Mind/Spirit Connection Holistic Healing and the Mind The Mind encompasses a huge part of our experience – far more than we are often aware of. It is the Mind aspect of ourselves that controls our inner landscape and which is reflected in our outer experience. Our perception will be coloured by our thoughts, beliefs, emotions and past experiences and will impact the health of the Body and the spiritual direction we take. Holistic Healing must take into account what happens in the mind. What is Mind? The Webster’s New...
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 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 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 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 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 MoreNew Today
As a new year comes to pass, I am filled with great vision and inspiration. Our world is becoming new before our eyes and we have the chance to co-create in this amazing time of shifting. It may feel turbulent and uncomfortable, but I hope that you will find empowerment in knowing that as you change, you change our world. What if your new year’s focus was to love yourself? Can you step toward better self-compassion and self-nurture? We are taught about taking care of others – service, good will and charity – but very little is mentioned about how to care deeply for ourselves....
Read MoreNew Sense Of Hope
As we approach this Christmas, I am increasingly aware that there is a new sense of hope, not just on the Island but across Canada. For years, we have been led to believe that we were under the constant threat of potential violence by terrorist. It became omnipresent. Fear feeds on itself. That feeling changed in an instant as the results of the federal election were announced. Fear was immediately replaced by an overwhelming message of renewal. Smiles and hugs replaced scowls, threats and isolation. Human warmth and compassion returned to our national leadership. Hope and the feeling that we...
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