Blog or white ... because it never is.

I believe in and respect the power of the universe.  I believe the universe is sending us messages all the time.  It is up to us to listen and interpret the message.  Last night, I couldn't sleep.  For some reason, I was irritated by this.  It is actually quiet natural to feel irritated when you have an occasional sleepless night.  However, for me, it is the norm.  I can't sleep most nights.  But, for some reason, I was irritated by this.  I think because it came after a full day of irritants.  Nothing in particular happened, but everything irritated me.  My sweetie would look at me the wrong way and I would express my irritation.  And, it was one of those days, that every way he looked at me was the wrong way.  Yet, I was equally irritated if he did not look at me.   I knew I was choosing to be a Debbie Downer, yet, couldn't manage to "positive affirmations" my way out of this funk.   Ab...

Looking back, Grade 7 was one of the sadder years of my life.  I started Junior High School and realized how shy I was.  In my 6 years of elementary school, I attended the same school and knew  everyone my age.  I was comfortable with all of them.  Now, I was in Junior High School and students from two other schools became my school mates as there was only one Junior High School in my small town.  I was too shy to make friends.  I was also very sad.  My parents had sold the house that I loved and we were living in a new town house complex.  I did not like anything about it.  My father was retired and they decided that they didn't want the responsibility of home ownership.  The town house was to give them the freedom to travel.  My bedroom furniture did not fit in one bedroom as the rooms were so small.  I basically had my bed in one room and my dresser, my chest of drawers, and my desk in another room.  My desk wa...

A secret report involving Toronto police culture has been released/leaked to the media.  It interviewed 800 volunteers with the Toronto Police Service to gauge workplace culture with a view for making changes.   Changing a workplace culture is very difficult, but it can be done.  It is very difficult because a workplace culture is very ingrained and is the result of strong leadership, weak leadership, or the absence of leadership.  Often a new leader is hired with the express purpose of changing a workplace culture.  That is likely not going to work out well.  Sometimes leadership posts some new company values and expects that by doing so, workplace culture will change.  Workplace culture took years to develop and developed that way for a reason.  Think of a positive relationship in your life and think of a negative relationship in your life.  Both of those relationships didn't become that way over night.  A positive relationship...

Hope is the dream that we have when we are awake. Hope is the one thing we all have in common.  We are all breathing, we are all living, we are all dying, and we all have hope.  Hope that tomorrow will be a better day.  Some hope that they win the lottery.  Others just hope for sunshine.  Others hope for a call from a loved one.  Some hope to read some good news.  I hope that fairies will come into my home in the middle of the night and clean.  I also hope that I will drop 50 lbs overnight.  Even though I know it is doubtful, I still have hope. We can always think of that ant, you know that little old ant, thinks he'll move that rubber tree plant.  Anyone knows an ant, can't move a rubber tree plant.  But, he's got high hopes and "oops, there goes another rubber tree plant." What happens when you lose hope?  What happens when you are so pessimistic that you can't see anything positive on the eve of Canada Day? Canada...

Today is the first official day that one can declare themselves a candidate in the Mayoral and Councilman election in my city of Winnipeg.  This has been a great year so far for our city mostly because of the success of the Winnipeg Jets.  Our playoff success has made us believe that we can succeed and we celebrated together through some amazing street parties, with minimal incidents.  I have a friend who will be lining up in a few short hours to declare himself a candidate.  I am so excited for his journey.  He has already learned so much and I know he will continue to grow and learn with the experience.  I am saddened that I only know one candidate.  Of course, I want my friend to win by a landslide and I can't even vote for him as I don't live in his Ward, however, civic elections are notoriously poorly contested and voter turnout is also not high.  Maybe it will be different this year as people are feeling more pride with the Jets. ...

Trump has been raging about a trade war with Canada for a while.  We have put up a brave front that we are not scared of his bullying.  That we are a great country and that everyone wants to do business with us so "bring it on".  That we have the moral authority on our side and we are ready.  We are not concerned with what that blow hard says.  Unfortunately, we may actually have something to be concerned about.  There are subtle little signs that we may not fully realize what we are getting into.  Our local cost of living seems to be increasing.  All bills seem to be going up for some reason.  It is starting to add up.  Interest rates will be rising.  The former Kinder Morgan pipeline, now the Canadian Govt pipeline seems to be a big disaster.  Every second day, Canada Revenue is putting out news releases.  Earlier this week, this said they had something like $4.6 Billion in outstanding taxes due to be collected but...

I used to think being a mother-in-law must be the hardest job on the planet.  I based this on personal experience.  I have had two mother-in-laws and both of them were difficult for me to have relationships with.  Both are nice ladies, and let's face it, I'm adorable, so it had to be the role of mother-in-law that was making things difficult.  So, I was very nervous about having my son-in-law holidaying with us for a week.  And not just any week.  This past year, my son-in-law got his first "adult" job, one with good benefits and a pension plan.  So, this was his first "adult" vacation.  I felt a lot of pressure.  This was my first extended test as a mother-in-law.  I didn't want him to go back and tell his co-workers about his monster mother-in-law.  When I went to pick them up at the airport, there they came down the escalator.  My Princess, my grandson, and my son-in-law.  I realized I was equally happy to see all o...