• For the Tool Kit

    • January 30, 2010 8:16 am

    Dearest Readers,

    From September 1995 to November 1996 I lived in Ireland. I’ve got lots of stories about that time, enough to fill a book (or five). I was in my early twenties and it was a great time of learning for me. (Never mind the Guinness.)

    In the last 3 or 4 months of my time there I was living and working in Dublin. I managed to get hired at a Spanish restaurant in Temple Bar, which is now a tourist Mecca but in the mid-nineties was just becoming the new local hot spot. The restaurant was owned by a man who was as Irish as they come and yet all the staff, except me and the Kitchen Porter, were Spanish.

    I was amazed to learn that there is a huge Spanish-speaking population in Dublin. Many young Spaniards move there to learn English. Many stay. At the time, many of them worked at La Paloma.

    One of my co-workers was a man named Pedro. He was the only man among a bevy of big-breasted, small-hipped, full-lipped, gorgeous Spanish women. Pedro had a good sense of humour and I was always glad when we had a shift together. He used to make me laugh.

    Pedro’s English was pretty good, comparably (a lot of the gals only spoke a few words), and whenever Pedro would hear me say a word he didn’t understand he would ask me to explain it and I would. He would then say, “Everyday a new word,” and smile with gratitude.

    Over the years, I’ve taken to adapting Pedro’s mantra for myself. Whenever I learn something new, something I did not know before, I say, in a bad Spanish accent, “Every day a new word.” I really mean “lesson”, of course, but it just doesn’t sound as good.

    Yesterday, I had lunch with a friend and she shared two amazing new tools with me. They come at a perfect time in my life, when I am having to be extremely vigilant about time management.

    The first tool is this: Do the hardest thing first.

    My friend and I were talking about to-do lists and I shared how I will often do everything that doesn’t really need doing first and then not have time for the thing that actually needs doing.

    I’m familiar with “first things first” but “do the hardest thing first” gives it a whole new spin. And although doing the hardest thing first makes me feel slightly nauseous I know it’s the key to time management.

    The second thing my friend shared with me is this: Only Handle It Once. OHIO.

    For example, if you click on an email, answer it right away; if you take your laundry out of the dryer, fold it and put it away; if you open a piece of mail, answer it now.

    OHIO, too, brings up the nausea. But it’s because I know I need it and I know it will work.

    Despite my fear of change, I’m actually feeling very excited about being given these new tools. Both of them are not entirely new strategies in my world but to have them presented in such a succinct, new way feels revolutionary. I’ve already begun to practice both.

    Every day a new word! (Or two.)

    Inspiring Message of the Day: There is always something to learn. I can overcome my fear of change by practicing a new behaviour knowing it will build my confidence and improve my self-esteem.

    Get Up Stand Up

    • January 29, 2010 9:37 am

    Dearest Readers,

    The other evening I went to see Night, a play by a theatre company called Human Cargo. It was created in Pond Inlet, Nunavut, and deals with the challenges facing the Inuit people in contemporary culture.

    The star of the show, Abbie Ootova, was a great pleasure to watch. Not only is she a natural actor, she has that thing of which stars of made: pure charisma.

    At the end of the play, Abbie’s character, who has been through the ringer with the accidental death of her mother by her father’s alcoholism and the suicide of her best friend, rises up with fists and shouts, with tremendous emotion, “Stand up Inuit people! Stand up Inuit youth! We have to be strong!”

    Although I don’t think the words are exactly right I think I’ve got the gist of what she said. The effect was deeply powerful. Though I enjoyed watching the play I had been unmoved up until this moment in the end when Abbie exploded with the power of her speech and spurt the tears came a-streamin’.

    The call to stand up and be strong, though particularly important for those who have been downtrodden by dominant cultures, must be heeded by all of us in the face of our fear. We all must rise up and overcome that which holds us back. It is our Greatest Purpose.

    There is great healing to be done in all of us. Together we can overcome the collective wounds of our past histories. Let us stand up and be strong!

    Inspiring Message of the Day: I will rise up against my fear today. I will stand up and shout for my freedom from all that I am afraid of. I’m not alone!

    Good Timing!

    • January 28, 2010 12:13 pm

    Dearest Readers,

    In the middle of this past December, my parents sent me a gift package from their home in the US, which is about 2800 miles from where I live. A few days before the 25th, my mother asked if I’d received the parcel. I told her I hadn’t. Christmas came and went. No package. We passed through mid-January, a month since the posting, and I still had not received their gift.

    “Did you get a tracking number?” I asked my mother. She hadn’t.

    “Should I send you something else?” she asked me.

    “It’ll come,” I assured her.

    The day before yesterday I received a FINAL NOTICE slip for a parcel. (Don’t you love it when you receive a FINAL NOTICE and you haven’t ever received an initial one?) I sensed that this was the package from my parents.

    Yesterday I went to the post office to pick up the parcel. Sure enough, it was from my folks. On the customs sticker in my mother’s unique handwriting was written “one book”.

    When I got home I sliced open the box and unwrapped the silver Christmas paper. The book staring back at me? Wait for it: Decoding the Spiritual Messages of Everyday Life.

    Now if you did not read yesterday’s blog post, Eye See, please go and do so now. If you did, well, you might now be as amazed as I am.

    Think of all the things that had to happen for me to get this particular book on the very same day of that particular post. It’s absolutely fantastic!

    Inspiring Message of the Day: Trust the Flow. Everything is happening exactly as it should. If we can remember this in times of great struggle we can actually relax and let go of trying to plan everything ourselves. The Higher Plan is always at work!

    Eye See

    • January 27, 2010 10:17 am

    Dearest Readers,

    You know how clouds can sometimes take the shapes of earthly things? We’ve all seen the cloud that looks like an animal or an every day object. Yesterday I saw an eye.

    This eye was so big, it took up so much room in the sky and it was so real-looking, with the pupil and the upper lid clearly defined, the first thought that came to me was, “That’s the Eye of God.”

    It was about 8:45 a.m. and I was driving out of town to work at a colleague’s studio. The sun was just beginning to rise above the mountains. The nearest clouds were lit from behind with yellow light and a strip of hot gold ran across the length of the distant peaks, illumining their snow-covered edges. It was a staggering sight to behold.

    Then I noticed The Eye. It was dead straight ahead of me, the new morning light shining through its centre. I obviously had to watch the road but I couldn’t take my own eyes off it. I felt it looking at me.

    Have you seen Avatar? One of the lines that has stayed with me from the movie (paint-by-numbers story, stunning cinematic execution) is something the Na’vi, the big blue creatures who live as One with Nature, say to one another: “I see you.”

    This Eye in the Sky seemed to be saying just that. “I see you.”

    For me, believing in a benevolent, loving Force of the Universe is one thing. Believing that this Force knows me and supports me unconditionally is another. It’s the difference between faith and trust.

    The more I have practiced trusting the more I have been shown that I have reason to trust. It’s that simple.

    You might say, “It’s just a cloud,” but when one’s prayer is, “Show me your Presence,” it’s fun to believe that a big giant eye shining in the sky is the answer.

    Inspiring Message of the Day: When we keep our eyes and our ears open to the spiritual messages, an everyday object can become a Power symbol, which can then serve as a reminder of Higher Guidance.

    Brevity is the Soul of Wit

    • January 26, 2010 8:37 am

    Someday, when this blog becomes a book called Inspiring Works: 365 Days a Year, you, Dearest Readers, will get to this page and say, “They let her get away with that??”

    Inspiring Message of the Day: Sometimes, when we are so busy that it seems like there are not enough hours in the day to get things done, we need to create little shortcuts to get through it!

    You Just Might Get It

    • January 25, 2010 7:17 am

    Dearest Readers,

    “Be careful what you pray for.”

    Surely you’ve heard this expression. It means you might just get what you ask for and, in some cases, that can mean you will be challenged.

    A few years ago, I read a great article about Jim Carrey in the New Yorker. He is a pretty spiritual guy, which some people may find surprising, and he was talking about prayer and meditation. He said, “When you pray for wisdom you get your butt kicked.”

    Why is that? Because the only way we become wise is by learning from our mistakes. Experience is the greatest teacher of all.

    As many of you know, I pray for courage. A lot. And do you know what I get? Opportunities to practice walking through my fear. AKA some pretty serious butt-kicking.

    How else can I become fearless? I always say the healing path does not work by magic. It works by work.

    We have to do the work if we desire the reward. I have to walk through my fear if I desire courage. It’s that simple.

    One of my fears is the fear of disappointing people. Believe me, the last thing I want to do is create a situation whereby I have to conquer this fear. But guess what, folks? I am currently living out the aforementioned situation. Did I create it? Certainly not on purpose.

    Be careful what you pray for.

    The good news is that I am riding it out. This is where the tool of spiritual perception comes in. If I see it from a spiritual angle, namely that because I am committed to fearlessness my fears will manifest in order to be conquered, then I can handle anything that comes down the pipe. It’s all for a Higher Purpose.

    Not easy. Scary. Uncomfortable. But worth it. So worth it!

    Inspiring Message of the Day: I am willing to see the challenges in my life from a spiritual angle. Challenges arise to teach me exactly what it is I’ve set out to learn. When I recognize this Truth, I can overcome anything.

    How it Works

    • January 23, 2010 8:56 am

    Dearest Readers,

    This is how the Higher Power [or Cosmic Consciousness or the Life Force Energy or the Universe or God or whatever word(s) you’re comfortable with] works:

    The sh&% hits the fan and terror strikes.

    I pray: Help me, show me, guide me.

    I go to the Grace Cards. I shuffle and cut the deck.

    The card on the top of the cut pile reads, “Patience: Trust in Divine timing. Your future holds something far greater than your past.”

    I look at the card on the top of the pile proper and it reads, “Affection: Love yourself. You are the ultimate act of creation, fashioned by the hands of a Divine Artist.”

    The card now on top of the cut pile reads, “Relax: Breathe. Everything is happening exactly as it should be.”

    I go out. I meet some friends. One of them reads from a book of daily meditations to start a discussion.

    The reading says, “As always, we have a choice in how we will approach life’s challenges. We can dread and avoid them as threats to our serenity, or we can gratefully accept them as opportunities for growth.”

    I come home. I bawl my eyes out, shedding the fear, getting it out of my body. I rise up, willing to move forward, ready to walk fearlessly into the unknown.

    After a good night’s sleep I awaken, alive and well, with the gift of another day ahead of me.

    This life, friends, this journey, is a process of learning. We don’t do it perfectly and some days are better than others. So glad you are there! Thank you.

    Inspiring Message of the Day: I trust that there is a Higher Purpose to my life and if I ask, I will receive the Guidance I need to continue moving forward in its fulfillment. I will practice gratitude no matter what happens.

    Say it Today

    • January 22, 2010 9:50 am

    Dearest Readers,

    Someone I’m working with on the Big O Project told me he loved me yesterday. This is not a person I know very well, we’ve only had he opportunity to work together a few times but as he and his group was leaving he shouted, “I love you, Celia!”

    Though surprised to hear him say it, I shouted back without hesitation, “I love you, too!”

    Driving home I felt so darn happy I can’t even tell you. I’d had a day of overwhelm and at one point during the afternoon I was feeling so numb you could have poked me with a stick and I wouldn’t have felt it.

    After making an outreach call for life support I felt better and headed into the evening session with the group to which this person belongs. We had a challenging but fruitful session and I was in pretty good shape. But this person’s “I love you” filled me with profound joy and opened my heart back up.

    When a person says, “I love you,” it’s like water in the desert.

    Inspiring Message of the Day: I love you!

    A Day in the Life

    • January 21, 2010 9:27 am

    Dearest Readers,

    Last night I went to see a piece of theatre called Clarke and I Somewhere in Connecticut by Theatre Replacement. The show, which I’ve been hearing about for a couple of years through various channels is now on tour and came to our fair city for a short run.

    In the play, a multi-media meditation on identity, copyright and ownership, a man finds a suitcase full of photo albums and travelogue-style writings and decides to create a theatre piece.

    During the show’s development, he seeks out the family in the photographs to get permission to use the memorabilia and he runs into all kinds of legal issues and roadblocks. These trials and tribulations are woven into the storytelling of the piece.

    What struck me most about the work was that the creator of the piece cared enough in the first place about the contents of the suitcase to want to use them in some way to create art. To him, they were something so special, so beautiful, and so deeply weird, that he was compelled to go on a massive quest to be able to use them.

    This got me thinking about the art of a life. If I pass someone on the street that person means nothing to me. If I were to examine his/her individual life through photographs and journal entries I would see that same individual in a deeper way.

    When I am super-busy and wrapped up in my own life I often do a little exercise to help me get out of my self-centredness. I look at the Big Picture.

    I remember that there are 6 billion+ people out there and every single one of them has a life as full as my own. Every single person is dealing with the details of his/her existence in the best way he/she knows how and probably feels that whatever is going on for him/her is monumental in some way. Every single person’s life has meaning and depth.

    What this kind of thinking does is remind me that nothing in my life is actually that monumental. My details are no more or less important than your details. My life in photographs would be as rich as your life in photographs. The actual content of the photographs, what is happening, where it’s happening, is irrelevant. The scope of a life is not.

    This is what last night’s show embodied for me. The appreciation for the scope and art of a life.

    Inspiring Message of the Day: Take a picture of yourself in a seemingly boring or mundane situation. Imagine someone looking at that photograph in the future. Imagine that person recognizing the scope and depth of your life from that image. Now embrace the scope of your own life today and do the same for others.

    In Progress…

    • January 20, 2010 10:33 am

    Dearest Readers,

    When I was 18 years old I worked at Mountain Equipment Co-op in Toronto. It was a really fun place to work because the staff were all outdoor-loving people who really lived the life they were selling.

    One of our products for sale at the time was a t-shirt that said, “I don’t care what you think.” There were more than a few of us who bought one and wore it to work. That t-shirt made me feel cool. However, I always felt like a liar when I wore it because in fact, deep down, I did care what you thought of me.

    About ten years ago, when I first got on the healing path, a woman said to me, “What other people think of me is none of my business.” She was giving me a tool to counter the self-centered mind, the fear of other people’s judgment, the people-pleasing perfectionist.

    For years I have worked on letting go of what other people think of me. I’ve made great progress but I find it hugely challenging. It’s especially difficult when critics say what they think of me in newspapers. Not only do I have to let go of what the critic thinks about me but what all the readers are going to think of me after they read the piece!

    I’ve recently heard some criticism around the fact that I’ve hired a composer from outside the Yukon to co-write a Yukon Anthem for the Big O Project. It doesn’t matter that I am the co-writer and I was born here, it doesn’t matter that this person loves the Yukon with all his heart, it doesn’t matter that the majority of Yukoners are not “from” here anyway.

    It doesn’t even matter that the song is called “Live in Peace”!

    None of this matters to the critic. To the critic the song is crap because the composer is from Toronto.

    “What other people think is none of my business.” Folks, I’m a work-in-progress on this one today.

    Inspiring Message of the Day: I’m doing the best I can with what I’ve got. We can’t please everybody! If someone doesn’t like who I am or what I do I will remember that it’s none of my business and I will do my best not to take it on.