Choose Pleasant...

 

Hi!

Storm clouds never present themselves in the exact same way more than once. Sometimes, they are dramatic and obvious, immediately ominous, intimidating, striking fear the second they come into view. Others are more subtle, moving slowly, not so dark at first, seemingly harmless, even kind of a help, providing a little break from the beating sun. They take their time, and by the time you realize they're capable of destroying everything you hold dear, it's too late to find shelter from the storm.  

The silver lining is this, in the end, every storm loses steam and always give way to the light.

That's how rainbows happen. 

If someone or something continually tries to cast shadows on your wellbeing, physically, mentally, emotionally, it, or they, are not worth keeping in your life in any meaningful way. Those you spend time with should always leave you feeling lifted. The anticipation of their presence should bring excitement and joy, never anxiety and dread. 

Time is really the only thing we have. It is precious. It is limited. How, and with whom we choose to spend it should be weighed carefully. Your life should never feel like it's draining the life out of you. Yes, we all have to do things we don't enjoy to make our lives work, as I have yet to meet anyone who loves taking out the garbage, or scrubbing toilets. I don't know of anyone who gets a thrill from figuring a way through life's flat tires.

The unpleasantries that life throws at us without consent are stressful, but necessary to deal with, but that is what makes choosing where, on what, and with whom, we spend the time for which we do consent that much more important. 

Choose pleasant.

We all need to make a living, that's a given, but what you do to make that happen is a choice.. Choose pleasant. 

None of us work 24/7, explore your talents. Maybe you are a painter, and simply haven't given your brushes permission to glide along the canvas. Maybe you're a rock star, and you simply haven't allowed yourself to shine. Maybe you're a jewellery designer, but you simply didn't know until time and opportunity presented itself. Maybe you're a sculptor whose medium simply hasn't found you yet. Maybe you're a writer who simply hasn't found the key that unlocks the imagination that fuses the words to the page. 

There are those out there that crave the unpleasant. They see everything as ominous. Escalators, prompters, jokes, different cultures, marginalized people becoming empowered... the list is really endless. The ones who feed off this negativity need and want others to join them in their misery. They are horribly unhappy people and can't stand that others choose not to be.

I choose pleasant. New people coming to our country to raise families, get jobs, create businesses, help build up the workforce here, where our population is aging and people are having fewer kids. We need new neighbours. A lot! 

I choose pleasant. If someone accidently hits an emergency stop button, and the only down side is having to walk up a flight of stairs, I will choose not to fill every platform with pathetic victimhood, and turn a simple mishap into "the world is out to get me."

I choose pleasant. I will make my living in a place filled with giggles, and sticky fingers. I will spend time unleashing my imagination, hurling words on to the page with fury... only to rewrite them again, and again, and again, and again... you get it. I will spend my time making sure people have a great time, doing my absolute level best to create the uncontrollable urge to sing and dance in as many people as possible. 

I choose pleasant. I will carry on every kind of conversation under the sun with everyone I hold dear, sometimes laughing until we cry, sometimes crying until we laugh, both equally valuable. I will cuddle in for movie marathons, hunker down for board games, have all-night heart-to-hearts accompanied by cocktails, music and scented candles.

I choose pleasant. I hope you do too.

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P.S

Could you all do me a huge favour and hit follow on this page. It costs nothing, no one will send you annoying emails or messages, but it will do a lot to give me a hand. (I've had the misfortune of encountering a couple of flat tires, and this would go a long way in putting the air back where it belongs!)

Thanks!

Times, They Are A-Changin'....

 Hi!

Well, holy crap!

Who would have thought that along with the change of the seasons, with the change of the leaves from green to the majestic hues of crimson and gold, that the United States of America would be changing into a place where if you say things that merely fluff the dust of the Grand Cheeto, he will sic the licensing bodies, which apparently sit at his feet waiting for commands and approval like an abused rescue, on the rich who need official okays to become even richer?

The first and one of the most fundamental amendments of their very constitution, is getting stomped like a civil rights activist in the 60's. This is serious, and scary as hell. People shouldn't have to get stomped, arrested, thrown to the ground, or come under threat of the government to hang on to, or fight for, freedoms that are already, or should be by now, rightfully theirs.

What the hell is going on South of the 49th? It has gone from batshit crazy, senile, racist arrogance with hints of "wouldn't it be cool if I was king?" vibes to  "If you dare say anything that offends great Leader you will be silenced, or disappeared." 

They aren't just words anymore, and the institutions that are supposed to be protecting their constitution are actively participating in its demise. If not by working whole-heartedly toward authoritarianism, by silent compliance, and utterances of "concern."

I hate to break it to you, but thoughts and prayers aren't going to correct the trajectory of this insanity any more than it will fix your gun violence epidemic. 

Peaceful, civil defiance on a scale massive enough that it can NOT be threatened into extinction is the only way.

Ask yourself, what would John Lewis do? What would Rosa Parks do? What would Martin Luther King Jr. do? 

Authoritarianism has a playbook. It's evolved over the course of history to become more efficient, but the outcomes are the same. 

Successful activism also has a historical playbook, that has had a heavy hand in making huge strides in equality. Are any of us truly there yet, no, but none of us want to see anyone lose ground. Racial, gender, LBGTQ+, children, workspace, the rights, and the strides made toward them, rely first and foremost on the freedom to express truth to power without threat.

Without freedom of expression, nothing else moves forward, but everything slides backward.

Once freedoms are relinquished, the fight to get them back is long, arduous, and in some cases lost completely.

 

You can't let them slip away from you.

For those who worship the Grand Cheeto, and think this is awesome, think ahead. If one leader, your leader, can wield this hammer, so can the next, who may not share your point of view. Maybe fox news gets its license revoked in the next round, maybe they come after evangelical churches, maybe they throw Don Jr. in jail for his Paul Pelosi halloween costume. 

Don't ever forget that the pendulum swings both ways, and always gets to the other side. 

Guardrails are important.

The rules, or lack thereof, that are applied now to the person in the Whitehouse, will also be at the disposal of future residents whether, red, blue or purple. 

Back to the top and my original question...

Who would have thought all of this would be happening if Cankle Man got into office in 2024?

Absolutely everyone who isn't in the cult. Worldwide. We all saw it coming. 

This shock is no surprise. 

The surprise comes in the complicity. 

We are cheering for you, neighbour! Save what you've built! Don't let Jeff Epstein's bestest buddy do to you what he continues to try to do to the survivors of that disgusting horror. Don't let him continue to try and break you down, and destroy your spirit. Like those warrior women, fight back, be bold, be as loud as you need to be until justice is served. 

You got this.

I know Canada has its issues, and we are not perfect. I mean some of that MAGA koolaid has seeped north of the border, as we have some who want to ban books, and push hateful things, but, in our defense, we didn't elect that ideology into the office of Prime Minister.

I'm thankful every day that more of us see the MAGA mindset for what it is than not. 

Here's hoping it stays that way. Because, if not, all you have to do is look to the South to see where we would be heading. 

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On the Horizon...

 

Hi! 

So, a few days ago, someone who incessantly spouted hateful ideas, perished, literally, while promoting the very thing that took his life.

I don't condone any kind of violence. I think the death penalty is barbaric. But, I also don't believe, no matter how someone passes, that their death, in any way, erases or changes the things they did while they walked this earth.

If you spew hate, bigotry, and misogyny over every platform you can find, influencing gullible, vulnerable people to believe in that garbage, the world need not pretend you were some sort of hero once you are gone.

My heart breaks for his children, they are just babies. But so were the kids cut down in yet another heartbreaking school shooting in Denver that very same afternoon. 

The fact that some want to turn this guy into some kind of martyr makes my stomach hurt. 

When thoughts and prayers are the only actions taken, nothing changes. 

This guy rode a horse so high, he couldn't see the ground. He carried religion and morality in the same hand, trying desperately to force them to meld. They don't, they can't.

If your religion fills you with the remotest sense of superiority toward others, in any way looks the other way while evil plays in the shadows, or encourages you to do anything short of fully embracing every person under the rainbow, it's not teaching morality or ethics, or empathy. 

No, it is, instead, teaching entitlement and self- righteousness. Training you so well, you'll be able to ride that high horse without thought, blindfolded. 

I come from a long line of people who have tied their souls to the pomp and circumstance of ceremony, fully believing that those who don't will be forever damned. So, I get it. I really do.

I believe everyone has the right to take part in religion, I just don't believe that any one religion is superior, or more correct than another. Of those I've studied, there are positives and negatives to all of them. 

Some lament that organized religions are losing members, followers, and want to say that it's because humanity is losing its morality. I argue that maybe it's because humanity is trying rediscover their morality, salvaging it from under all of the fire and brimstone. 

The world seems pretty morally bankrupt in certain spaces right now, but if you listen, you find its those who bathe themselves in Bible verses that are pushing for the unhoused to be discarded, for the LGBTQ+ community, both young and old, to cease to exist, or at the very least, have the decency to get their asses back in the closet. 

Look, I think we can all agree that murder is wrong. But violence is not JUST wrong when someone who has made a career out of stoking hate becomes the victim. It's JUST as wrong when you allow grown men to marry children. It's just as wrong when you swap covering basic needs of your most vulnerable for Presidential golf trips, some hideous patio, a gaudy ballroom, and a million spray-painted gold, dollar store appliques to make 'someone' feel like a king. It's definitely JUST as wrong when you scoop people off the street for no reason, other than they are varying shades of not-white, and throw them in your gulags, funded partly, I might add, by the tax dollars generated by the hard-working people being held in them. 

None of us see the world through the same lens. 

We are simply products of our personal experiences. 

Almost all of humanity is born with a sense morality, an instinct, an inner voice, something that guides us to be decent, empathetic people. 

How we internalize our personal experiences as we grow up, and as adults, can help that instinct to sharpen, grow, and evolve. How we internalize our personal experiences as we grow up, and as adults, can warp that inner voice, twisting it, molding it toward self-service. How we internalize our personal experiences as we grow up, and as adults, can numb that sense, almost into oblivion, turning empathy into apathy.

None of us see the world through the same lens. Our personal experiences as we grow up, and as adults, are a mosaic of beautifully broken pieces, as no one gets through life without scars. A myriad of accidents, both happy and not-so-happy, as nothing ever really goes according to plan. 

I guess my point is this...

Don't let the hard things in life twist your instinct, or make you not care. Don't let the hate and fear, disguised as righteousness, replace your empathy. 

I know my personal experiences continue to change the view through my lens. I'm constantly learning as I go. 

We'll get through this rough patch. Historically, hate has a hard time keeping grip on the upper hand. I see peace and progress on the horizon, it's in the distance, but it's definitely there...

We are, all of us, each of us, every single one of us, only here for such a short while. If we are very lucky, we might see more than eighty summers, experience love, create precious memories, have a family if we choose to, be who we authentically are, and laugh more than we cry. We should all have the right to these simple joys... equally. 

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So, What Did I Miss...

Hi!

So, I've been dipping back into the news, trying to get caught up with a few things... seeing what I've missed. 

I have some questions...

So, our neighbours to the West AKA, Alberta, are starting their own book banning club now? 

I know we have librarians and teachers in our schools that do a fabulous job introducing our kids to books, both new and classic, without scarring them in any way. I find it hard to believe that the books they were finding, like "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood, were in the little kid section, and doubt even more that the sketchy ones they found were in the system at all. If they are, then that's a conversation to be had with the librarian, not a reason to start gatekeeping books. 

Books are such a fantastic way for little ones to learn about the world they are growing up in. They learn about different cultures, how different homes look, the different kinds of jobs that exist outside their family bubble. They get to read stories about overcoming all kinds of adversity, physical, emotional, cultural, historical. Through these stories they learn acceptance, empathy and resilience. 

Reading inclusive stories can't make a kid part of the LBGTQ+ community any more than reading true crime novels makes you a detective, or reading westerns makes you a cowboy, or Shakespeare makes you King Lear. They are simply stories to introduce people, young and old, to ideas that exist outside of their own lives. 

Next question...

I can't help but wonder why survivors of the Rich Boy Pedo Club, are made to feel like they have to hold a freakin' press conference because the king of the club wants to pretend that the horror they went through was a hoax? 

These warriors are expected to just bow their heads and accept this grotesque disrespect? These are women who have grown into the protectors they didn't have as young girls. You don't survive what they have without fierce resolve, and astronomical amounts of courage. This isn't going away.

One last question...

What the hell is going on with the health of the guy occupying the Whitehouse these days?

He doesn't look well.... at all. 

He doesn't sound well... at all.

No, seriously, it's getting weird. 

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