A Year in the Life of Grief

So it is one year to the day since my dad died. It’s been a hard year, in so many ways.

A year in the life of grief

Partly (duh?) the grief. The heartrending missing of someone who was (is) so important to me. Oh the number of moments this year, especially early on, when I wanted to reach out and talk to him about:

some detail of life (like my cat’s silly antics, or that the cherry blossoms were out already)
some big news story (the triple crown winner, the Queen’s prof who got a Nobel Prize, the results of the national election all come to mind)
something that we had shared before so many times (a phone call blow by blow conversation about the election)
his advice on something (where to go when in Scotland, how to deal with stroppy tradesmen, what to do with conflicting work priorities)

And each one of those moments, leading to an outpouring of tears. Let’s face it, standing at his gravestone, asking, but not getting answers the way I can understand them … just doesn’t cut it.Read More >>>

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How to Be Open to Growth

Over the last number of months, truth be told, the last year, I have not been ready for, or in the space of growth. I have been in a wintertime – the wintertime of grief. Knowing that my father was dying, being with him when he died, and then grieving him once he was gone, took all of my spare energy. But now (hopefully) that the winter of my grief is lifting along with the winter of 2016, and as spring approaches, I’m moving energetically into a place of growth and new life. And it’s become so clear to me, that to open a space for growth, you need to be in the right frame of mind, you need to be ready. And at long last, I am.

So how do we create the right space?

01-How to Be Open to Growth

How to Clarify Your Dreams for 2016

If you read last week’s blog, what I’m about to say is going to make more sense (and if you haven’t, go back and read it, cuz I’d love for this to make sense for you).

02-How to Clarify Your Dreams for 2016

So you’ve read last week’s blog, you’ve gone within yourself to reflect, done all that work, and come up with this big list. These things you want to tackle and accomplish in 2016. These are things that you are excited about (and if something doesn’t leave you feeling that way, take it off the list right now! No “shoulds” allowed here. This is for you and your real heart). These items on your list need to be meaningful for you, give you a sense of passion and purpose, and fit into that sweet spot. And so if they do that, and the list is big (which is what I hope for you), you are going to be left with the question: Now what?Read More >>>

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A Time for Reflection

This is the month that it is the darkest time of the year (in the northern hemisphere, that is). It’s dark, cold, and our instinct is to go inside, cozy up by the fire, hibernate … and it’s the perfect time to go within yourself as well and be reflective.

01-A Time for Reflection Read More >>>

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CHOOSE Your Legacy

When we’re looking at choose, as it relates to legacy, I think there’s a lot of people that think legacy is just something that happens to you. When you look back at your life, you think “huh, what impact did I have? ” but like everything else, it’s something that you can get conscious about and make choices around. In other words, don’t let your legacy happen to you. CHOOSE your legacy!

03-Choose your legacy

In Honour of Remembrance Day

“They gave their tomorrow’s for our today’s.” This is an epitaph inscription I saw in Inverness, Scotland in the summer of 1989, and it has stayed with me ever since because of it’s clarity and depth.

02-In Honour of Remembrance Day

When I think of Remembrance Day, I am (and always have been) moved to tears, which catches me off guard, because I’m not a strong supporter of war, and so it feels funny to connect so strongly with a day that is all about remembering the people that lost their lives at war. Read More >>>

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What Legacy Will YOU Leave?

Legacy is one of those loaded words. We all know we’re supposed to want to have it (at least when we’ve worked our way up Maslow’s hierarchy to the top). But what is it, how do we create it, and how do we create a legacy that’s actually true to who we are, not just one that looks good on paper?

What Legacy will you lead?

It’s time to BYOB…

It’s time to BYOB… bring your own buddy!

It’s that person who supports you, cares for you, and loves you… and most of all this person will keep your feet to the fire and be willing to let you know when you’re off track.

So, who is your buddy? What impact has a buddy had on your life?

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#StepIntoGreatness – Create Your Roadmap

Today’s #StepIntoGreatness is about creating your roadmap!

Like with any successful journey, we need to have an idea of how to start moving toward the destination, or in this case the dream! In order for us to recognize the path to our dreams, we need to have clear markers along the way.

YOU are the one who gets to decide what those markers are, and how you want to celebrate achieving them.

I wanted to get this out yesterday, but technical difficulties coupled with challenging travel plans have waylaid my best intentions… so here, for your viewing entertainment (and progress along the journey of stepping into your greatness), is this week’s video – on Wednesday.

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#StepIntoGreatness – My Dreaming Response

Yesterday’s #StepIntoGreatness topic is so important and close to my heart that I’ve created a follow up… which is my response, I’m expressing my dream and actually saying it out loud! It feels super vulnerable and scary to be doing this, but I know great things will come from it.

I’m inviting you to join me in expressing your dream. I’d love for you to quickly film yourself talking about your dream and post it to the Facebook Page. If you feel like video is too much, please leave a comment! My goal is to have us all sharing our dreams and encouraging each other along the way.