Home For The Holidays
The Christmas season is not my favourite time of the year – all the frantic hustle and bustle. And yet, underneath all the parties, shopping, baking and decorating, there is relief for many that ‘I am not alone’. Christmas is a lonely time for many people because there is such an emphasis on family, and the busyness is a great cover for that loneliness. Those who are not with family often feel left out and depressed. But for those who do have family, it can sometimes be even worse. When I was a kid, I remember the excitement of ‘the big day’ and the anticipation of the turkey...
Read MoreGifts I Want
The holiday season is with us and it is my passionate desire to share with you a poem that I wrote at this time last year. The holiday season has not always been easy for me. I find myself overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle, the downtown driving and parking, the commercial focus of gift giving frenzy, and the overall assumption that everybody is happy and well prepared for Christmas. Not everybody celebrates Christmas and not everybody feels merry in December, and this is perfectly alright if you ask me. I prefer the things that are much more simple and wholesome, like kindness, presence...
Read MoreMirror Mirror On The Wall
In my work as an Energy Healer, I am honoured to witness the releases my clients experience in the work we do together. Old ideas of who they are, or who they need to be for others, and all manner of self-limiting belief patterns literally fall away as they connect with what is actually true for them. I know the value of this transformation because I have witnessed this process within myself and I am so grateful for the integrations and releases I have experienced. One time, a dear friend of mine – through her deep knowing of me and her honesty with me – helped me to understand...
Read MoreAge Intelligently
Warmland Community Policing put on a successful Seniors Safety Fair event this past week at the Island Savings Centre in Duncan. Representatives from various seniors programs and services were represented. Nurse Next Door was there with friends from our seniors services network – our ‘Intelligent Aging’ group. One of the fun ideas was a passport to visit each of the booths, where the passport required an answer to a pre-selected question. Our Intelligent Aging group chose an important question – ‘How do you age intelligently?’ If I were to ask you that right now, how would you...
Read MoreThis Is Not A News Item
I have always liked clicking on the news at 5 or 6 pm and seeing what is happening off our small island in Canada. A while back, there was a horrible earthquake in Nepal that killed thousands and injured more. And while I might have seen this as a problem ‘over there’, my sister was in contact with many of the survivors for months and even still, having lived for 20 years in Kathmandu. This is not a news item. A whale watching boat capsized near Tofino killing six and leaving Jamie’s Whaling Station to wonder what went wrong. This might have been something too distant to touch us in...
Read MoreHandcrafted Masterpiece
Autumn Greetings Island Women! This is my favorite time of year. I love the colors, the leaves, the crisp air, warm sweaters, toques and most certainly, I adore a warm mug of tea. Autumn brings an invitation to dig deep if we choose to, and investigate aspects of our journeys that we might need to let go of. As the trees shed their leaves, letting go of old in preparation to receive new birth in spring, we too can see our lives this way. I encourage you to consider what you are ready to release. What can you let go of now? How might this surrender feel? I assure you that this process is not...
Read MoreMeeting In The Middle
Last month, I went through a profound shift in the way I view my relationships. I have recently been certified in Access Bars®, a healing modality that facilitates a release of blockages by gently applying pressure to 32 specific points on the head. Every one of these points corresponds to some aspect in life (control, creativity, awareness, etc). Since being introduced to this in April of this year by a dear friend, I have had the most amazing revelations about the way I have been conducting myself in life. When I was 17 years old, I met my future husband. It was love at first sight – a...
Read MoreControlling Your Own Happiness
In our last column, The Relationship to Happiness, we wrote about the main contributing factors to happiness, from an “interests” point of view, and how we use these factors to support a happier experience for our senior home care and home support clients. This month, we’d like to focus on what scientific research suggests controls our happiness from inside. This information comes from a relatively new and modern branch of psychology, called ‘positive psychology’, which uses scientific research and intervention to aid in the achievement of a satisfactory life – rather than...
Read MoreForgiveness: 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 MoreHave A Good Day
The summer fun has swept me away and it suddenly occurs to me that September is just around the corner. This can be a challenging time of the year with school starting up and the very sudden and stark change of weather that comes with the onset of fall. This happens to be my favorite season as it is full of new beginnings, rest, cozy sweaters and warm beverages. Welcome fall! I must admit that I have a favorite little experiment that I often engage in. As my days unfold, I try to catch people with direct eye contact, even just for a second, and offer them a smile. It is amazing how this...
Read MoreGuatemala’s Banana Project
Bananas really are amazing. They are the perfect nutritious snack food wrapped in their own sanitary packaging. They have 110 nutrient-dense calories and are pure and safe enough to be a baby’s first solid food. Bananas are low in fat, cholesterol-free and a good source of potassium, dietary fibre and magnesium, as well as Vitamins B6 and C. The residents of Chuk Muk, Guatemala are incredibly fortunate that this power food grows in their sub-tropical climate. If the village had a slightly higher altitude and was not situated on a lake, they would not be able to grow bananas. In Chuk...
Read MoreWish Want Create
This is such a special time of the year, wouldn’t you agree? I love how the light looks and feels in the middle of summer. We have had one of the hottest summers on record and the weather couldn’t be better here in Victoria. It’s a time for sitting in the grass, watching the clouds go by and finding the hidden shapes within. My mother would say it’s the best time of the year for wishing on dandelion seeds. Have you ever done this? Pick a stem of dandelion with all the seeds still attached. Try not to knock any of them off as you bring the stem up to your face. Take a deep breath in,...
Read MoreVanessa’s Gabriola Vacation
Gabriola vacation with Vanessa. Admittedly, I was at 6’s and 7’s when the time came. It was Friday, July 10th. “What does she like to do?” I asked my son, Matt. “Oh, Mom! Everything. And, she loves the beach.” Quick hop and a skip, hugs, with smiles and laughter all around and I, being her grandmother, scooped her up. The anticipation of my seven year-old grandchild for the weekend was something we’d been looking forward to and here we were, finally. A backpack hoisted, way too heavy for whatever a little girl needs for the weekend of all of 2½ days, and off we trundled to my...
Read MoreA New Line In The Sand
Wow … what a week. I had experienced some unpleasant energy over the last week and thought I would check in with others to see if I was alone. I wasn’t. Many people I knew, including myself, had experienced something fairly unpleasant and yet indefinable at first tinder. As the flame grew and then dampened, it became clear what the common thread was. Boundaries! No matter how old we are, how many experiences we have had or how clear we believe we are, there is always a need to revisit and redefine our boundaries. Personally and professionally, these change over time. New...
Read MoreThe Relationship To Happiness
We love making our senior clients happier! One of the main reasons that we offer home care and home support to seniors is to keep seniors healthy and happy where they want to be – at home! But it’s more than just supporting their goal of aging at home. Outside of the basics like living conditions, safety and health, there are some additional components indicated in modern literature as cornerstone pieces for happiness. Among the most prominent are growth and learning, practicing gratitude, travel and adventure, and relationships. Growth and learning are ever popular, even somewhat trendy....
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 More