A few months ago I found myself in a volunteer position, enthused, excited, eager to put my skills and energies into something concrete. Part of a terrific team of people, this effort looked like it would be as much fun as it was work. Except for one stumbling block. A bully. You’d think that bullies…

It was International Women’s Day last week. Do you remember Think Pink! in the 70’s, when International Women’s Day was a brand new celebration, marked by groups of women gathering to talk about equal opportunity? The young women in my life shake their heads in disbelief when I talk about work in the 60’s, the…

It’s happening again. Closing in on me. Six months ago I moved into new office space. Big cheery window. Pared down filing cabinets (12 drawers down to 4!!!). Pitched, shredded, looked over 30 years of stuff, kept only what I needed and what the bookshelves would hold. Tiny CD player, stacked CD’s, coloured boxes for…

“Get your whole resume on one page! And don’t include your references! Leave off dates so they won’t know how young or old you are! And don’t let on your religion, cultural background, yah, yah, yah, yah…” Sitting in a resume writing class can be a debilitating, bewildering, self-esteem-battering experience. Add to that the fact…

For those of us who’ve experienced the awe of pregnancy and birth, the memories are myriad. Dads, too, are included in this. The wonderment of that first movement. The countless hours Dad spends, hand on Mum’s stomach, WAITING for another kick. Which never comes. The growing awareness that inside this growing bulge is a baby….

Cat lovers everywhere will talk forever about the various personalities of their pets. And one cat is never enough, it seems. One young woman in my life tells me about the relationship between her cat and dog… the dog nips gently along the cat’s body and the cat licks and cleans the dog’s ears. Love…

When any individual grabs the reigns of business ownership, they usually bite off more than they can chew! And they do it in the complete bliss of ignorance… They are usually terrific at whatever it is they base their business on and start their own operation for a number of reasons. They may be tired…

They say that it’s the brick walls that we slam into that really give us life! Sort of like celebrating every time we hear the word ‘no.’ When Lynn and Robert Skinner decided to close their auto products service business last year, it was the end of a long run of success which was the…

There’s a remarkable couple who are living their native Canadian commitment in the high tech world of digital sound studios and video streaming. Shoshona Kish and Raven Polson-Lahache, who met accidentally during a music performance audition, are now writing music that honours their native roots. Shoshona was born to the Ojibway nation, part of the…

I love this city! I just love it! And New Year’s Eve proved it! Thousands of families were downtown, mingling on Collier St., stepping around horse deposits on Mulcaster (when beautiful Belgian horses give wagon rides to hundreds of people, they leave deposits, don’t you know?). Hundreds were skating on the Circle at the Centre…