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LIVE AND BE PRESENT. LET GO OF...

I embarked on a journey of self healing, discovery, and learning. It was amazing and it left me knowing that my purpose on earth is to share what I learned with other mothers.

Carlie Kilduff

THEN LIFE STOPPED ME AND SAID..

This was the beginning of my ‘work’, it seems; to go, to see, to feel, to meet; to listen, to document and to learn. It was a constant seeking of understanding of all our variations in how to live wisely, under disparate conditions, in all of our amazing eco-systems—separately and in dialogue with each other.

Astri Wright

...BUT MAYBE IT WOULDN'T SOUND THAT SILLY...

What am I going to do now? That question had been dogging me for months. The years after my mother’s death had been ones of transition. My husband and I had moved from the urban mainland to a rural island.

Leanne Dyck

MAKING A DIFFERENCE...

I grew up in northern Ghana in West Africa, in the heart of what could be called the global shea butter capital.

Gifty Serbeh-Dunn

FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS

Dreams are an essential part of the human experience. Dreaming is the ability to see beyond our present circumstances and to envision something better: something that connects with our own heart and spirit.

Carmen Waterman

NEW EDITORIAL

UP AT 3am FOR A DOSE OF ... REALITY

Over the holidays I did what many of us do around that festive time of year; gave myself permission to eat more sugar, forgot about the importance of roughage and ignored the fact that eggnog probably doesn’t have much egg in it.

Johanna Socha

CAREFUL WHAT YOU PLAN... PART I

The paths I have taken in my life have had many twists and turns, as life does, and some days it just blows my mind how things have turned out so far. Careful what you plan, none of it may go the way you think!

Elaine Lakeman

CAREFUL WHAT YOU PLAN... PART II

Shortly after our arrival in Lahaina, Maui, my girlfriend found herself a boyfriend. Within a week, at her suggestion, we dumped the apartment we were renting and moved in with him. Being younger and quite daft, I just followed along. They slept in his bedroom, generously giving me the old, dusty couch in the living room, which I shared with a giant black spider I called Fred, who sat on the wall and stared at me till I went to sleep.

Elaine Lakeman

CANCER AND BEYOND . A PERSONAL JOURNEY . PART IV

Terry Dance-Bennink

CANCER AND BEYOND . A PERSONAL JOURNEY . PART III

Terry Dance-Bennink

BETRAYAL . CHAPTER 1

Kate Larsen

BETRAYAL . CHAPTER 2

Kate Larsen

CATCH UP WITH PART 2's

PART 2

REAL STORIES

THE WAITING GAME

There are so many ribbon campaigns now–green, white, yellow, purple and pink and because I am becoming cynical, most of them are losing some currency with me. But the pink one still pierces.

Nancy J. Wood

GETTING UNCOMFORTABLE

The notion of becoming more comfortable with getting uncomfortable has shaped my world into a magical place.

Emily Madill

CALMING THE INNER BITCH

The only thing that can get in our way is ourselves, and only we can challenge the inner bitch.

Allison Rees

DOING IT THE HARD WAY

“…but what really got me fired up was when he told me I had three things working against me…” Do what you love. For some this comes easy, for others it’s hard. Working to pay the bills is a reality, but what if that work was something you enjoyed? Don’t settle. I see people taking jobs for the wrong reasons, like higher pay levels, but sacrificing happiness. I was five years old when my parents bought their first house.

Sybil Verch

MY TWO CENTS WORTH OF...CHATTERBOXING

Almost every one of my report cards in primary school had the word "chatterbox" in the conduct section. I did then, and do to this day, talk a lot. I talk to pretty well every person I meet - in a store, on a bus, in an elevator, wherever...

Beverley Mallette

GET YOUR SHRIEK ON

There’s this thing that women do. You’ll never see two men doing it; but you’ll often see large groups of women doing it; sometimes you’ll catch a lone woman on a phone doing it—apparently all alone. But she isn’t alone; on the other end of that line, there’s another woman doing exactly the same thing.

Linda Irvine

THE WHY ... AND THE SEARCH FOR ANSWERS

There are so many questions I ask myself over and over each night as I lay my head down to sleep. Well I am going to try to figure out the answers to those questions as I begin this new journey into writing. They say what better way to figure out a problem than to put it in writing to see if it really is a problem, or (as I hope) the beginning of a new path in life.

Brooke Sackett

GENERATIONAL WISDOM

Have you ever heard or been almost ready to say, “When I was young...?” Cue the eye rolling! The “old oak bucket syndrome” is rarely welcome in a generational discussion.

Rhonda Todrick

ARE YOU ADDICTED TO TRAVEL?

Instead of “How are you?” do your friends ask, “Where have you been?”

Donna Marie Lynch

HIGHLANDS GAL

Personal history is about saving our stories before it’s too late, so that generations to come will know who we were and where they came from, and to give them a personal, meaningful understanding of history.

Pattie Whitehouse

A TRANSFORMATIONAL LIFE

First, I made my recovery my number one priority and nothing else mattered. I decided that my life meant something to me, and I held onto my chair for all it was worth. I knew that my hard-wired coping and thinking could get me into trouble.

Germana Rovinelli

LIFE CAN CHANGE...

In 1996, the man of my dreams entered my life. He embraced me for who I am, my kids and our animals. Ron, a father of two, dared me to allow myself to dream again. One of the first questions he asked was, “What have you always wanted to do?”

Janice Hayward

It All Makes ECO Sense

What does this mean for the future … my future, my kids’ future, my human community and my ecological community? These are complex, interconnected issues with no simple solutions. I believe that it is our role and responsibility as women to become fully engaged in the creative design possibilities for the time ahead. Whatever our individual gifts are, we need to apply the female perspective to co-create an equitable and ecologically sustainable future based on sharing, car

Ann Baird

IS IT JUST ME...

…or are people less polite than they were 10 years ago? That’s the question I have been asking people lately. Turns out I am not alone in noticing this downward societal trend.

Sarah Daviau

WHAT'S REALLY WAITING FOR US?

The retirement to do list had started at least 10 years before, and every time I was overly stressed or it was a beautiful day, I would think to myself, Just wait … it’s coming!

Dona Anderson

THE EBB AND FLOW OF CONFIDENCE

...it has occurred to me that without the ebb of confidence, we would never experience the joy of the flow of it.

Beth Cougler-Blom

MUSINGS ... STRONG WOMEN CAN MAKE ANYTHING HAPPEN

“There will always be skeptics and there will always be opinionated people, but to do what you truly believe in, is an accomplishment which very few people can actually take ownership of.”

Joyce Bezusko

AT LEAST I DON'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE...

Sometimes I think its best to tell yourself you don’t live where you live. You have more adventures that way, and you can always leave town.

Catherine Moffatt

EDGE-DWELLERS...AND PEOPLE LIKE ME.

Two thoughts ran through my mind like fire through pine beetle surrendered forests; the first, quickly delivered inside my own laughter sounded like, “He’s poking fun at me!” the second, as quickly delivered with a stun similar to the emotion carried by a falling tree was, “My ancestors are poking fun at him!”

Nancy E. Brown

I AM FOREVER DRAWN HOME

I can still hear the crickets, and the woodpecker with the bright red cap that hung out by the old school for as long as I can remember. The tide is low; the smell of seaweed is intense. The huckleberries are so vivid in my mind’s eye that I’m sure I can smell them, though I know they have no scent.

Fran Hunt-Jinnouchi

SO WHAT'S WRONG WITH BEING...JUST A MOM

It is truly wonderful what has been accomplished by and for women in the last century. Equal rights and opportunities at home, in society and in a career setting. We have come so far that it seems being a stay-at-home mother is an exception. Double income families have become the rule, and we have shaped our society and education to fit that choice of lifestyle. At the same time, life has become expensive, especially in a city like Victoria, to the point where having a doubl

Elaine Smithers

MY SON'S ADDICTION...A MOTHER'S STORY

I’ve heard it said that addiction is like playing Russian roulette; No one knows when they take that first drink or do that first drug, if they have the addiction gene or not. They do what many people do socially in society with no repercussion. Nothing happens to them. But someone with an addictive gene does the same thing, and they are addicted.

Louise Chabros

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: