Self-growth

Taking the Road Less Travelled

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“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled and that has made all the   difference.” –  Robert Frost

A brisk, Sunday morning walk in late November was all I needed to be inspired to write something for my blog which has been sorely neglected these past months. The inspiration to write often hits me on a Sunday especially when I am walking in the midst of nature. One of my favourite walks is the French Basin Trail located a few meters from my apartment in Annapolis Royal.

I had just begun my recent walk when Robert Frost’s quotation from “The Road Not Taken” popped into my head. Why this particular poem, I wondered? I had come to a fork in the trail. Before me lay two different paths meaning I would have to decide which one to take. This was easy because I was familiar with both, so what was the real reason for this poem’s appearance? Interesting how one thought or word can lead to another and another…For me this had to mean something deeper in my life at this time.

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Dealing With Climate Change on a Personal Level

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Climate change is finally working its way up to the top of our list of concerns these days. How can we ignore it when our newspapers and other social media are bringing it to our attention every day? In fact, it’s no longer about climate change but about a climate crisis.

Young people around the world are worried  that there may not be a future for them and if there is , it won’t be anything like what we have now. Fear for their future is luring them to protest and camp out in the streets of large cities around the world in order to gain the attention of their governments to do something about it. If you dare to listen or read about what’s in store for us, it can be scary even for us older folk who will most probably escape it. We can’t help feeling frightened for our children and grandchildren who will have to deal with the brunt of it. Continue reading →

Waking Up to the Effects of Climate Change

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My final two weeks in Chaing Mai this April were horrible…one of the worst experiences of my life. This may come as a shock to you from a returning visitor for the past ten years who has never hesitated to put this beautiful historic city at the top of her list as the most desirable city in SE Asia to visit and possibly live year round. I can only blame this change of mind on climate change. This year Chiang Mai broke all their previous records for high pollution indices and even gained the dubious title of being the most polluted city in the world beating New Delhi and Shanghai, the usual winners. The PM2.5 ( fixed particulate matter) was hovering between 140 to 200+ the whole time I was there. I can’t imagine what effect that had on my all ready compromised lungs where some bronchitis had set in while in Bali.

Bangkok gets smoggy, too

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Ubud – Art and Culture, Monkeys, and Rice Paddies

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How can I best sum up my one month stay in Ubud?  On one hand, the month seems to have passed by much too quickly failing to give me enough time to really explore as much as I would have liked. On the other hand, it seems likes eons ago that I first stepped onto Bali soil again after a nine-year hiatus. It’s been a month of changes in many ways for me as in the weather,  friends who have come and gone, my personal travel plans, but the most difficult has been getting to know the new Ubud which hardly resembles anything like the small village it was. It has, unfortunately, morphed into a far too  busy and noisy town adjusting to the over development  brought about by the influx of tourists, many coming from China.

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It’s Called Resilience

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Over the years I have kept a collection of quotations by famous people down through the centuries. Their words of wisdom have been my inspiration for many of my actions and my writing. 

The following quote by Cecil DeMille* was my inspiration for this post which is long overdue:

“Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what is next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.”

This past year I have had to make some tough choices which have disrupted my comfort zone. I have discovered that it’s not easy to not know where you will be living or what you will be doing a year from now. However, what I have learned is that the ‘not knowing’ what the future holds has helped me to know what resilience truly means and how necessary it is in times of great change such as we are facing today. It requires great strength and creativity which in itself is good because I will have lived instead of dying even a little bit. Continue reading →