"What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?" - George Eliot

"What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?"
                                                                                                    - George Eliot

I came across this quote the week before school started. It is so powerful and thought provoking.  When I read the quote, it made me think about all the ways that I extend and help others. It also made me think about the amount of people that I know that spend WAY too much time thinking about themselves and way to LITTLE time thinking about how to help others or how they might be impacting the life of another both positively and negatively. This needs to change.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't take care of ourselves - my blog is about taking care of yourself...what I am saying is, we need to constantly recognize the light in one another and we need to understand that life is abundant and there is enough for everyone. There is no need to be intimated by what others have and what others are. We all hold beauty in our being, there is no need to compete for it. Beauty shows up in all of us in unique ways, we need to celebrate that for ourselves and for each other.

And sometimes, just sometimes - we need to remind one another that we each hold beauty...because sometimes we forget and need someone to lead us back in the right direction.

Don't ever forget...

                                                                                          ...and so is everyone else.

This quote also made me think about where I could work on this, and how could I make things less difficult for both the people in my life and the ones I meet along the way...at the risk of sounding conceded I think I do this naturally, I'm always looking for ways to help others. Can one do this too often? Hmmm...perhaps in my case that might be true, except it's something ingrained in me and I believe I can't help it. I've tried to not be as helpful or caring...it backfires and makes me feel awful. And so, I find myself extending a helping hand before I even realize what I am doing...the part that I am challenged by is the lack of people in the world who are like this...while I respect that we all show up differently I can't help but wish that people were just a little nicer. And sometimes it feels like I don't know many people who try to help make life less difficult for me when I am going through a tough time. Maybe people do try to make life a little less difficult for me. It's just I just don't see this showing up in my world all to often. This makes me wonder whether it is happening and I'm not open to receiving it or if what I'm noticing is actually a truth...perhaps I need to practice being open to the same amount of help as I give out. Meditation time? I think so...

I'll leave you with this...how are you making life less difficult for others? What are you doing to increase the joy and success in your life by lifting others up? Are you doing it enough? Could you do it more? Are you receiving and not giving? Are you giving and not receiving? Where can you work to hold balance in this idea of working to help others and humbly accepting the help of another without fear of judgment...

This Baby...

On January 6th, 2014 the sweetest baby was born into my family. My sister, whom I love dearly had her first baby, a little girl named Abbigail Jane...most of my colleagues were waking up on the 6th to head back to school after the Christmas break. When I woke up to get ready for work I received a call from my brother-in-law letting me know that my sister was in labour...it was go time!

My family and I drove through quite the snow storm with great anticipation to meet the little peanut! Okay, so I know that the arrival of a new baby has beauty and all sorts of good feelings for most families, but this was beyond a normal level of beauty for our family than you can imagine. Both of my parents are only children, whose parents passed away before we were all born. This meant, we didn't really have grandparents. My mom was raised by her Aunt who became our 'Nanny' and someone we loved very much...so I'd say, I got to experience some of what it was like to have a grandparent but our family has been small and baby Abbigail means our family was getting bigger...

Growing up, it was pretty much just the 5 of us...with a lot of great friends surrounding us, it was great! When I got the news that our family would grow with my brother in law, I was ecstatic! However, when I got the news that our family would grow with a new baby - I was beyond grateful, happy, excited...every possible positive word you can think of...insert here...lol

Abbigail is now 7 months old, and because my sister lives so far away we haven't seen her as much as we would like. This makes our visits so much more meaningful in a way. From the moment I met her I knew she was special, it's just now that she is a bit older she is more interactive and engaging. She has a smile and giggle that can light up a room! She is a pretty happy baby with a very nice demeanour. Her smile is instantly contagious! While she was spending a week with us we brought her to her very first Jays game, the little cutie lasted almost the whole 19 inning game. That's right...the Jays decided to stretch out the game and really develop Abbigail's love for the sport...thankfully they won at the end of it all...

Abbigail smiling away!

Little Abbigail loved the crowd...she loved the clapping and the energy of the people...it was really neat to see her so interested and happy about it all. (I think she has good taste in sports) She was really well behaved and quite the trooper even after we left the game...we stayed until the 16th inning and then had to leave given the concessions closed at the bottom of the 7th inning...we were slightly hungry. Abbigail was an angel through dinner, the subway and finally zonked out in the car...actually she may have out lasted her Auntie...lol

Essentially, my point is..I'm absolutely in love with this baby. She has brought so much light into our family, the world and I'm so lucky to call her my niece. I am excited to see her develop and help her learn and grow...and what is also really great about this baby is that she has a pretty awesome Mommy...I never saw how loving my sister was until she became a Mom, and let me tell you...she is such a good one. She loves Abbigail so much and is gentle, kind, caring, giving, receiving all the greatness that comes with being a Mommy. (she has a pretty awesome Daddy too) I'm so excited to watch them grow as a family and I'm beyond excited to watch Abbigail develop into a little lady and can't wait for her to start talking!!!

Abbigail and Auntie Becca

Abbigail and Mommy

Kids make life pretty awesome...especially when they are apart of your family <3

Simply Blessed With Natural Habits

Wow. The last week and a bit has proven to be very life changing for me. Last week my blog talked about my trip to New York City and finding myself empowered by my adventures. I'm still very heavily weighing my options about spending more time there. Do I invest in some much needed weekend trips? Do I spend some of the summer there? Do I just pack up and move? Time to meditate? lol

Simply Blessed. The title of my blog today is referring to a trip I literally just took to Buffalo. My Principal invited myself and a few other amazing teachers to partake in a Symposium called 'The Leader in Me'. This Symposium is inspired through the great work of Stephen Covey's '7 Habits of Highly Effective People' and implementing the habits within a school culture. The 2 day experience was very transforming and empowering. This system basically gives us a toolbox to teach children and people to be GOOD people. Naturally I use a lot of the principles already in my own daily life and so you can imagine that it trickles down to my students. The part I love about implementing the 7 Habits in the school system though is that it gives educators and students the language to then take action to become good people.

The closing keynote speaker at the Symposium had the entire auditorium in tears (okay - maybe I'm exaggerating...but my table group was in tears). Muriel Summers is the lady responsible for making this possible in schools and she was incredibly warm and loving.

The habits are;

1. Be Proactive                                                                            

 2. Begin with the end in mind         

3. Put first things first                      

4. Think win-win    

 5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood   

6. Synergize (collaborate)

7. Sharpen the Saw (take care of you)

(from Stephen Covey's book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)

I have only recently started to become fully aware of the 7 Habits and how effective they are in practice. I've been listening to the audio tape on my drive to work. Like I said, most of them are already a part of ME - but the one that I have committed to work on for myself that I don't otherwise do is Habit #4 Think Win-Win...here's the thing about me, too often I think Lose-Win...me being the lose...and not because I want to lose, but because for some reason I think other people need the win more than I do...and actually...it kind of breaks my heart a little that I've felt that way in the past. I've literally compromised my well-being, my intelligence, my needs - all in the name of making someone else feel good, 'win' or shine. When in actuality I should have been thinking 'win-win'...somewhere where both people walk away feeling happy and content...I have a lot of things to be proud of that deserve equal light and there is absolutely no reason for me to compromise to the point where my needs are not being met...so my personal goal for the next however long it takes...until it's embedded in my DNA is to improve my 'think win-win' mentality.

Okay, back to Muriel...this woman took these ideals and used them in her school to build a culture of students who respect one another as people...and she extended it so much as taking care of the lives of her staff also. When she spoke I felt a really warm feeling of love and care in my heart.... for me, it was like everything that I love about teaching children came flooding back into my heart. For the last 10-15 years I have felt that the education system was truly failing to meet the needs of the HUMAN beings passing through. I felt like the heart and compassion needed to educate young people was missing. Everything about the 7 Habits puts becoming good, loving people first...get it...first things first...you can't learn until your soul and being feels loved and safe. Gosh I'm incredibly lucky for having participated in such an inspirational event. lol

So much of what Muriel said resonated with me and one of them was this quote;

"The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why."

- Mark Twain

Amazing. Celebrate life people!!! Your presence on this earth is on purpose and likely for a pretty stinking cool reason...but...as much as I loved what she said, I don't think I have entirely realized my purpose. I know a lot of what my purpose is...but there is so much of the 'why' that hasn't presented itself yet. I've had many traumatizing experiences, uplifting experiences and inspirational ones...and really everything in between also...but there is something that just hasn't clicked...but in hearing Muriel speak about motivating children to be their best person as they find their why, I felt a huge sense of hopefulness shoot up and down my spine, that I, like her, will eventually find my 'why' and change people's lives...

I would absolutely love to hear from you about your 'why' ... Have you found it? What's it feel like? How did you notice it? If you haven't found it...what are you feeling? What are signs that are showing up for you?

The Great Buddha Hunt

So I have always been drawn to some of the principles of Buddhism and last summer I was determined to find the perfect Buddha statue for my room. The statue would be a reminder of some of the teachings that appeal to me. I had laid my eyes on the most beautiful statue and had it stuck in my head that I would find the perfect one. Every Sunday for about 2 months I would meet my good friend for a coffee and we would browse about the stores. She was the first hand witness to the start of The Great Buddha Hunt.

I began to look everywhere, but none were right. She looked everywhere. We would message each other all the time - 'oh found one but it's not quite right' or 'saw one but it wasn't your colour'. And after much searching she found it. I was so excited! She gave it to me and I brought it into my space, it fit perfectly. Then one afternoon my Dad and I were talking and I said "oh, look at the buddha my friend gave me" ... he responds ... "you mean temple god" and we bicker back and forth for a bit, until I finally admit that 'The Great Buddha Hunt' was really NOT! How embarrassing!!! How can I respect Buddha and mixed him with temple gods?? So now I have a temple god, which is equally pleasant to have in my space. Here in lies my purpose for sharing today. Whatever you believe in, whether it be simplicity in universal karma, god, source, anything that you connect with - respect all other forms that people connect with. We all choose some way to live and if in doing that we are honouring our own unique path, we all deserve space and respect to do so. In our space of belief we must also respect ourselves and be open to what others belief. And in the end? Well, the beauty is, we've got a lot of freaking awesome people to learn and grow from and with. That's a pretty cool way to look at life. And in the real end? Well...let's see what Buddha believed:

note: my belief is there is no end and life is infinite - we'll meet again ;)

"In the end only three things matter; how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you."

- Buddha

The grace in that quote alone gives me shivers. Be love. Be gentle. Let go. <3

For the next week I am going to focus on identifying how this quote shows up in my life and look for any ways I can improve myself and I invite you to do the same...and let me know how it goes!!!