This is The Year to Begin Again

This is The Year to Begin Again

Nov 6, 2020 | Spirituality & Peace

This is so the year to begin again.

In the beginning of the pandemic, I stopped planning. I released control and made the decision that I was done with any more than what was happening in the next 24 hours.

I committed to myself that when things got unreasonably rumbly I would: stop, breathe and commit to just the next hour and then the next and then the next until sleep came and a new day happened.

It was difficult to relinquish the control that I thought I had in the first place but never did. Once I understood that there was very little I could do about the fact that there was no more school for my children or even a job for myself, I shifted the space of understanding everything that WAS available to me.

I found peace there. I started asking myself “What can I do?” instead of being angry about what I couldn’t do. It has made all the difference in my ability to maintain my sanity. This will not be the year of big victory, but it can still be the year of small wins if you let it.

This Year I Tried to Grow a Garden

This Year I Tried to Grow a Garden

Nov 6, 2020 | Health & Wellness

This year I tried to grow a garden. There is something so amazing about the idea of a seed becoming something that we can actually put in our bodies to nourish us.

I ordered organic soil, I tilled and mulched and planted, and then with deep amazement very little grew. Gardening is hard, this year is hard.

We have been planting so many things that are just not coming up. I planted a spring break to Miami, the city with the largest COVID outbreak at the time when we were supposed to get on a plane. I planted a trip to see my cousin. I planted the seed that I return to Canada every Christmas which seems unlikely to grow even though it has for 41 years, year after year.

We pulled up the garden. I had fun, but I pretty much failed, then my 10-year-old came in with this little guy and proved to me that sometimes things that we plant can be lost or forgotten and it doesn’t mean that they aren’t still there, growing, just under the soil waiting to emerge. Plant anyway.

There is Our Perception and Then There is Reality

There is Our Perception and Then There is Reality

Nov 6, 2020 | Health & Wellness

There is our perception and then there is reality. This photo of my son Jack is the perfect example. There is another one where he is sitting perfectly in my lap, hands crossed all Glamour Shots, but this is the one I put on social media. This is the truth of two-and-a-half, isn’t it parents? 

With the advent of social media, we are now able to mask up (no pun intended) and be whoever we want the world to see. In my high school years, there was so much talk about photo filters and photoshopping models and actors to create completely unrealistic and unattainable beauty goals. Now, we have these filters at home for just about anything and false webinars to help us to create unrealistic life goals. In this time of difficulty, we have a responsibility to lean into telling our own truth. People relate more to the Mom who is struggling or the coworker who is overworked and overtired telling the tale. When we filter everything we lose the opportunity to allow people to get to know the real us. We trade who we really are for who we think people desire or expect us to be. I wanna know you, the real you.