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Searching for direction
There’s a lovely little inukshuk that sits on my desk at home. It’s not really meant to be there – it was bought as a gift for a friend who I didn’t connect with this past summer. I look at it sometimes, searching for direction. Maybe because it wasn’t for me, it’s not giving me any answers. Inukshuks are a quintessentially Canadian stone figures, although they can be found throughout circumpolar countries. Used by Canada’s native Inuit people, they are monuments of raw stones that traditionally show that someone had been there – or that you’re on the right path.… Read more…
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Recapturing Christmas
It gets harder every year. With every season that passes, life gets busier. There’s more to do, more to deal with, more chores that need to be done, more activities that kids need to be shuttled to and from, more stress at work. It gets harder every year. Gifts and gadgets on Christmas wish lists are more techy and more expensive. With family becoming more spread out, it’s harder to stay close and to know what is the right present for the right person. Commercial Christmas songs ring out and decorations appear in the stores earlier and earlier, starting the… Read more…
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Random thoughts from a self-enforced moment of quiet
Are you strapped in? This week begins the “OMG, it’s less than a month before Christmas” panic that seems to afflict people – and especially mothers – throughout the land. The perfect joyous season our friendly advertisers bring us also results in a lot of stress and anxiety. There’s so much to do, so many places to be and so many events to attend that it can all feel a little overwhelming. This year, it seems particularly stressful. December is a whirlwind of Christmas concerts – between my daughter and I, our performances number close to 10 over three weekends.…
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Looking back – way back – at a big adventure
It seems impossible to believe that it is 30 years ago to the week that I started a grand adventure. A scared 18 year old, I boarded a plane on my own, first to Frankfurt and then on to Istanbul, Turkey. I was headed off on a year-long Rotary Youth Exchange Program, preparing to live with another family and go to high school in a country I had only learned the location of some six months earlier. Nervous “Inbounds” in Istanbul: Sept. 1985 The process of being selected to be an exchange student was arduous. The application forms, multiple rounds of… Read more…
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Countdown to chaos
I’m reveling in my last few days of quiet. Not that my kid-free month hasn’t been busy and full – it has. But it has been nice to take a break from 24/7 parenting of teens. Making order from chaos! I’ve been out with friends – restaurants and back yard parties. I’ve strolled through farmers markets and malls. I’ve cooked fish and other seafood for many times, and I’ve even had popcorn for once (OK, maybe twice!) without worrying about what message I’m sending. A business trip gave me a few hours to wander in Montreal. I’ve spent more than one Saturday morning… Read more…
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It’s quiet…very quiet
I’m sitting in my back garden with a glass of icy cold lemonade, listening to the sounds of a lazy summer afternoon. Apart from the buzz of the cicadas, It’s quiet. Eerily quiet. It has been for a week and it will be until the end of the month. Two years ago, I finally managed to get all my kids away to camp at the same time for two weeks. That first year, I immediately got on a plane (literally that evening!) and enjoyed some long-awaited time just for me. Of course, that blew the budget so when the miraculous… Read more…
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The glamour of business travel
I don’t know who it is that spreads the wicked rumour that business travel is exotic, but if it’s supposed to be, I’m clearly doing something wrong. Admittedly, my travel is is usually little and too far from glamorous places. A night here or there in small-town Ontario, or if I’m lucky, to another province, all I get. So what could possibly go awry?Plenty, it seems. I don’t think I’ve had a single excursion out of the office without a story to come home with. One evening at a conference, I was woken by someone slipping a piece of paper… Read more…
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Filling the metaphorical bucket
A Facebook friend recently drew my attention to a New York times piece by David Brooks, who wrote about his moral bucket list. As I read the opening lines and paragraphs, a chord was struck. Brooks writes about meeting people who do valuable moral work and that despite achieving a reasonable level of success in his career, he hadn’t achieved the generosity of spirit he wanted to – resume virtues vs. eulogy virtues. Ding, ding, ding. Bells went off in my head. My own midlife crisis (and maybe this entire blog project) is born out of that same feeling – that I want to be… Read more…
