Bits, pieces and random thoughts

On my flight from Halifax to Ottawa, my ‘personal entertainment center’ was not working (you know how that goes – the back of the seat in front of you). Unable to numb-out for 90 minutes, I decided to wander through the Globe and Mail, seeing as we were both just sitting there, doing nothing.

A few pages in, I come across an article that indicates that one in five children has a serious emotional/behavioural problem. One in five! 1 out of every 5 children! I was stunned! The article went on to speak to this problem as if it were somehow about the children. I found myself wondering: how come it never occurs to us that the biggest problem our children have is the adults in their lives? How come it never occurs to us that maybe – just maybe – our children are nuts because we are. Just a thought….

Yesterday, I’m listening to Pat Carney being interviewed on CBC morning radio. Ms. Carney is speaking to the fact that women have so many more choices available to them today; so much more freedom to determine how they live and the choices that make their lives meaningful. As I listened, another one of those obvious thoughts drifted by: women today have so many more choices because the women of yesterday (and the men who had the courage to stand out from the pack of other men) made the tough choices that redefined lives. It was not easy, it did not make them popular and they did it anyway. It leaves me even more certain than ever that in today’s world, those of us who can speak (and not all of us can – men and women) must speak. Not from duty, obligation or the responsibility to save the world but from knowing that to do otherwise would be an act of self-betrayal. In one breath… one choice… the world turns and ‘transformation’ occurs.

Today, I am more mindful than ever that if my world – our world – is to be different, women must emerge from the wallpaper that their lives have become and reveal ourselves to be the massive presence that we are. One woman at a time. One voice at a time. One choice at a time.

Breathing is good…..