Passion Power

So now what? After this pandemic does what it does how will things change? What is the new economy going to look like? What is our new handshake going to be? Is buy the shoes take the trip and eat the cake still good advice? What felt like a reset button has become a nightmare. All this uncertainty has created a lot of fear and stress which creates panic and chaos. We see this playing out in the news and on social media every day. Although the storm has hit the entire globe, we are all in different boats. I am so happy to be living in Canada right now. Am I the only one? Our new normal has just begun and with our heads-up paying attention to where we are going, we might get it right. Jack Dorsey the CEO of Twitter donated one billion dollars to pandemic relief. Oh, what a wonderful world it would be if all billionaires shared their wealth or even better, we had a world where accumulating that kind of wealth was not allowed to exist in the first place. What happened to the laws ...

The green rush is on while Ontario is busy reinventing the wheel. Alberta has 400 Cannabis stores while Ontario loses $42 Million setting up a website and making stickers. A short drive down the road you can purchase cannabis in creams, soaps, gels and bath balms. They sell cookies, chocolate, candy and tea. The CBD oil is priced competitively in a range of different products and strengths. You can purchase a plant if you like gardening. They have a points card. Mondays and Wednesday are senior discount days. The store collects cans of food for the community and offer discounts for donations. The store is heated with solar panels. They have fish and chips right on site with umbrella picnic tables to enjoy a nice lunch. People come from all over to explore the novelty of a pot shop while product experts happily answer questions to help you choose the right product. Customers are lined up out the door almost every day. The longer hours on Fridays and Saturdays accommodate the ...

The Impossible Standard of Beauty Am I the only one that thinks there is an implicit connection between the blown-up beauty industry valued at $530 Billion and the increase in anxiety and anti-depressant use in young girls? The impossible standard of beauty in movie stars and advertising models is now, whether we like it or not unavoidable. There’s an online world more than willing to usher them into adulthood with these beauty games as social media influencers are being tapped to promote products and do tutorials on how to use their “favourite” brands. They’re being taught they aren’t clean enough, thin enough or pretty enough and playing right into the hands of these gigantic retailers. I suppose this messaging has been going on for years. I flashback to my teen years when there wasn’t enough makeup in the world to cover up my perceived imperfections. For better or for worse we eventually have to discover that beauty products don’t cure unhappiness, loneliness, a broken heart...

Mainstream media is constantly pushing narratives that wind people up because strife sells better than unity. Competing for eyeballs is like catching crabs. They throw us click bait and see how many they catch in the net. Here’s a recent example of how they get our attention. Mainstream media took a moment on Coaches Corner gave it some click bait and it went viral. I’m sure good old Don was cracking from the pressure as a public figure and the responsibility that it carried. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks or as it seems, a new updated politically correct language either. His style and popularity are the exact opposite of that. He’s too old to care or conform. Rogers Media tried to put Don Cherry in a box, and he said NO. Fair enough. I know 80-year old’s and they don’t fit in boxes and follow new rules. Besides, there are far better platforms for this hockey legend than cable television. In fact, we should all be looking for alternative media news sources such as ...

An early morning predawn To calibrate my day I sit quietly and listen To what silence has to say slow and steady breathing body whispers needs truth softly awakens and writing flows free Oh mornings pages, morning pages, how wonderful you’ve been to me. When gratitude abounds and I am set free.

Family is the group of people you see when you peek through your childhood windows. It’s our link to the past. It’s where our story begins. Whether we like or not we are put into these familiar tribes that are meant to be sacred relationships, yet we’re jerks to each other. Then we get all self-righteous about it. Then you go months, if not years, not talking. Sometimes you can’t even be in the same room. The gap keeps getting bigger and bigger and all over what? Do you even remember? I think it’s a pretty relatable story. No family is immune to these conflicts. Some broken relationships will stay estranged for obvious reasons, but most family squabbles are petty and about uncontrolled anger and judgment. Conflicts that are due to pride and intolerance. Don’t spend your last penny on a grudge. Families should stick together and stand by each other even when our differences may launch us in opposite directions. Families seem to be modelling the rest of the world whic...

March Madness is a long-observed phenomenon in Ottawa which sees federal departments quickly spend all their remaining annual budgets in the last month of the fiscal year to avoid losing the cash altogether in the following budget - This has been going on for decades. Why? I also wonder why we must pay for people’s sick days when nobody pays for ours? If I’m really brainstorming, I’d say we charge a flat fee of $5 for a Doctor’s visit which would deter needless appointments and save millions if not billions. This money can be moved around into areas like healthcare. Spending cuts and economic prosperity measures go over like a lead balloon especially during an election campaign. There’s always a hullabaloo from opposition parties and special interest groups. They would find one person’s heart melting story and put it on the news, and you would be a buffoon committing political suicide if you tried to ignore it. Welcome to democracy. I agree that a universal daycare soun...