Enkounters

What caught my attention today was some recent enough news about a Canadian News reporter who went head on with some inflammatory remarks aimed at her. After watching the footage some teachable moments surfaced. Before sharing the lessons, here’s a summary of what happened… It was the end of a football match and the female reporter was trying to get the reactions of the patrons. As she was interviewing two males another male patron walked by and whispered some female objectifying remark aimed at her. Following this both the men being interviewed and the reporter were taken aback. One man being interviewed remarked to the reporter ‘you must get that all the time.’ This line is probably what triggered something in the reporter.  She decided to challenge the thinking of some other male patrons who were waiting to make similar remarks. Some of the reactions she got was ‘nothing is wrong with it [the remark]’, ‘It happens in England’ and ‘my mom would find it funny’. In a twis...

My mother passed away from Cancer in December 2013. This is my second year observing Mother's Day without my own mother being physically here. This is also another year of reflecting on not being a mother even though it was a long held dream of mine. My mother's birthday and the anniversary of my grandmother's death was last month. These events caused me to reflect on the importance of mothers/motherhood and the phenomenal impact this has on a human life. My mother taught me so much about love, life and most importantly about the power and freedom of being my authentic self. There's a cheeky but powerful saying..."A child only a mother can love." This is the kind of love that transforms lives and creates whole and healthily functioning members of society.  Many times throughout my own life people tried to make me feel like I was 'only a child a mother can love.' But my mother's love and care was exceptional and strong enough to help me ...