Personal

Vancouver and Lake Louise

Posted June 16, 2012 by Eden

At the end of May, I went on a whirlwind trip to Western Canada. First stop was Vancouver where I fell in love with Stanley Park. It’s been many years since I’ve been there. I don’t think I fully appreciated it when I was younger. Next stop was Calgary and the drive to Lake Louise to visit my son, Jordan, who has been working there, at the Fairmont, since September. Again, the mountains, forests, crystal clear lakes, and wildlife were all a joy to behold. Even though Jordan had warned me, it was surprising to still see snow and ice on Lake Louise at the beginning of June. Definitely a little chillier than Southern Ontario but crisp, clean and beautiful. I’m so happy that he is treated to such immense beauty every day when he goes to work.

Here’s a few shots from the trip:

Heron Reflections

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Taken in Vancouver Harbour from Stanley Park

Film Class

Posted June 6, 2012 by Eden

In May, I joined a diverse and talented group of students on a quest to produce a film in less than a month. In our film class at York University, we were assembled into teams of four – Producer/Writers, Directors, Directors of Photography and Sound Designers. Under the tutelage of expert course directors, Genevieve Appleton and Rafal Sokolowski and TA David Han, we learned about film production and especially as it applied to the neo-realist genre.

Our mission was to produce a short, neo-realist film. We had to write the screenplay, get the actors, design the storyboard, find and assemble the set, plan the shot list, sound design and then shoot the film and edit it, refining it multiple times in post-production during a three week period.

For me, it was a fabulous opportunity to learn a lot about film-making in a very compressed period of time. It was also very stressful at times to meet the required deadlines, incorporate feedback and changes after presentations and coordinate the way forward as a group. There were 14 short films shot by the teams in FILM 2030, all of which are available for viewing in Vimeo. Following are some pictures of the class and then links to videos where the licensing has been approved for public viewing.

$On set of \"Just Landed\"$

$Shooting \"Just Landed\"$

[Show as slideshow]

Links to short films on either vimeo or youtube:

Team 12 – Just Landed, about Pakistani immigrants to Canada

Team 6 – Swan Song, about a young musician who is going deaf

Canada Geese

Posted May 22, 2012 by Eden

One of my recent obsessions – observing the behaviour of Canada Geese – is not an overly popular one. I have one friend who, at the mere mention of geese, will launch into expletives and his desire to annihilate the species (good luck with that). He does not appear to be alone in this opinion as they can be pests in some areas and seem to be spreading like wildfire. It also strikes me that they seem to be highly intelligent, organized, and family oriented, often mating for life. I was amazed at the migration drills I observed last fall but spring has brought even more interesting activity.

In late March, near the bridge at the MacKenzie Marsh in Aurora, I witnessed a ritual that I had never seen before. There were about 10-15 geese in the pond making quite a racket. Frantic honking lead to a rather spectacular (and frightening) goose fight! From what we could figure, two males were fighting over a nest with a female waiting placidly for the result. In addition to this shot on the side,

I’ve included about 10 pictures of this fight in the set below… so perhaps there are some geese mating ritual experts who can tell me what was going on.

Gosling

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Now it’s May and the babies have been hatching. It’s so much fun to see the little goslings. Of course, I’ve been hissed at by more than one protective father when I’ve tried to take their pictures…

And, yes, I’m getting a little tired of navigating amongst the goose droppings.

Mind Games

Posted April 27, 2012 by Eden

Have you ever been hijacked by your mind? For me, it started when I was a teenager.

Mine is a familiar story, almost cliche – I was a mess – emotionally charged, kicked out of school and home regularly, suspicious and mistrustful of most adults, lots of friends and parties, drugs and alcohol. Boyfriends added to the emotional roller coaster. If I wasn’t fighting with the boyfriend then it was my parents or teachers. My mind was always spinning – obsessive thoughts, sometimes paranoid and jealous.

I was seeing a social worker (at the ‘suggestion’ of my high school) and I still remember some advice she gave me. I was obsessing and hadn’t eaten much for days after a bitter break-up from a two year relationship. At fifteen, I was in a desperate frame of mind. I’d been alternating between pushing away my constant thoughts, trying hard not to think about the situation or giving in to my obsessions, wallowing in it, raging internally. Everything – songs, TV, friends – reminded me of him, good times and bad, perceived transgressions, the degree to which I’d been victimized, etcetera.

Her suggestion was simple. She said when a memory surfaces, acknowledge it, don’t resist it but also don’t expand it, generating thoughts that lead to suffering. Once you’ve accepted the memory that’s been triggered, that’s it. Move on. This may sound obvious but it really struck me. For the first time, I began to realize that I have a choice. I wouldn’t have been able to articulate this then but what it meant was that my mind was not in charge – I was.

What I understand now is that conquering a busy mind is a lifelong practice and can be the difference between a miserable, angry life or one filled with love and gratitude.

We have somewhere between 12,000 to 65,000 thoughts per day, although I’ve seen reference to a wider range (between 2,000 to 600,000!). Most commonly, 50-60,000 is considered a good estimate.

Being human means having thoughts all day, every day: endless observations, judgements, interpretations, complaints, worries, ‘what-ifs’, memories, regrets, wishes, desires, dreams about our future, anger about our past, and on and on. I’ve seen statistics that 95% of them are repetitive. Some thoughts are random, others can hijack us if let our emotions react to what are sometimes completely irrational, twisted versions of reality. For me, it has been a major breakthrough to understand that I am NOT my thoughts. For years, my thoughts ran me. They still try to, every single day, but I am watching them now!

In researching this, I was astounded to discover that most of our thoughts are not even about the present. The majority of our thoughts are rooted in the past, somewhere between 70 and 90%. They’re not just replays of ‘what happened’ but we add our own interpretation and meaning. Within our minds, our perception of the past can often become warped. About 10-20% of our thoughts involve imagining what will happen in the future. Only a small percentage of them actually focus on the present moment in a purely experiential manner which is where life truly exists.

Eckhart Tolle, author of “The Power of Now” and “A New Earth”, tells us: “Stay fully present in the now—your whole life unfolds here. In the now there is joy of Being and deep peace”.

When you realize you are not your thoughts, that you are a being with a powerful inner spirit with an appendage that generates non-stop thoughts, the possibility exists to become an observer of the mind and take control.

Louise Hay’s work on “affirmations” demonstrates how you can change your life by the practice of generating positive, life-affirming thoughts. She says: “Trust life to hear and respond to your positive words. Say these affirmations every day and your whole world will change for the better.”

I still struggle with my tendency to wallow in negative, mistrustful thoughts, to over-react to situations. I believe it was Samuel Clemens who said: “Just because I’m paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not out to get me.” Well, that pretty much sums up how I feel sometimes, especially in the politically charged corporate world that many of us need to immerse ourselves in to make a living.

I believe that being self-aware and committed to conquering your mind is half the battle. Avoid the inner time travel and be here now. I’m so much better at this than I was at fifteen. With continued practice, I imagine I will be quite wise (and peaceful) by the time I’m 70.

Olympic Silver!

Posted January 29, 2012 by Eden

The Innsbruck 2012 Youth Olympic Winter Games are over. Both Roni and her fan club are now back in Canada although she will be on a plane again very soon. She’s been invited to join the Canadian Prospect Team in Vail for a series of NorAm races which is amazing. It’s a great opportunity for a 15 year old and no doubt that lovely Silver Medal that she picked up in Innsbruck helped to get her the invite. 🙂

The last days in Innsbruck were busy. The Ladies GS race was a disappointment for Roni as she finished 15th but again, I thought this was awfully good given that she was racing against the top female 15-16 year olds in the world! But she knew she could do better and anything less than her very best is not good enough for her.

So on her last race, the Ladies Slalom, she showed everyone what she was capable of. The weather was sketchy and some events were cancelled, including Bobsled training runs and Ski Cross. Heavy, wet snow came down all day which made the roads disastrous later but they managed to get both runs of the Slalom in.

When Roni came down 5th in the first run, we were ecstatic. It takes two runs in Slalom and there are a lot of DNF’s typically (and even more than usual on this day with the tricky conditions). 5th means she has a chance of reaching the podium with a good second run. And, anyway, 5th overall would have been great.

But she did better, made even easier by the trail of European racers who didn’t make it to the bottom of the course. She finished Second Overall in the Slalom! Which meant a lot of attention, press interviews, two podium events (the ‘mascot ceremony’ at the hill and the Medals Ceremony in the square that night), and it also meant they whisked her away to do her doping test. (Two people watch the medalist pee to make sure there’s no funny business!)

So, everyone (including Roni) had a new date for the Medals Ceremony that evening, instead of going to the Canada v. Russia Hockey Game that night. And the celebration continued after the event…

Roni’s father, my brother Randy, put together a youtube video with some highlights from the opening ceremony and races. Here it is:

Happy New Year

Posted January 2, 2012 by Eden

Winter is here and with it, at last, the first snowfalls which turn dead, dreary landscapes and forests into magical, white wonderlands.

Many prefer to stay indoors, avoiding the cold and sometimes bitter winds. As someone who grew up skiing in Ontario, I’ve always been accustomed to outdoor activity during the winter although I must confess that I find the cold uncomfortable and my ski days are sporadic and short (more like half-days). But, I also enjoy snowshoeing and walking in the woods. Part of the allure with walking instead of soaring down the hills is to shoot the scenes of winter. It’s almost a painful thing for me, now, to drive by something beautiful and not be able to take a picture of it. So strange, this new obsession, but also so engrossing. By capturing the beauty of an outdoor scene, after I process it, I can put it on my iPhone, my computer, or even print it and come back to stare at it, feeling again that sense of awe. This picture above is of the bridge in Collingwood accessible from the backyard which connects the neighbourhood to beautiful walking trails in the woods.

Christmas and New Year’s 2011 are over and now it is January 2nd, the beginning of a new year. Back to work tomorrow but soon, we will be on our way to Innsbruck, Austria to watch the Youth Olympic Games from January 13th to 22nd. My niece, Roni, is one of two girls representing Canada for Alpine Skiing so it is very exciting. I will post some updates on how she’s doing from Innsbruck.

Happy New Year to all…

Wasaga Beach Film Festival

Posted December 29, 2011 by Eden

In early October, I heard an advertisement on 95.1 radio station about the First Annual Wasaga Beach Short Film Festival. Wasaga Beach is a neighbouring community to Collingwood (our weekend retreat) and a common beach/resort destination from Toronto (just 1.5 hour drive). When I was in high school, we would often drive up for the day and sometimes camp nearby. And when my sons graduated from high school, they came up in droves to rent cabins at Wasaga and celebrate.

As an amateur photographer and videographer, I was intrigued by the opportunity to produce a video for this competition but also conscious of the fact that the entries were due in two weeks. I originally planned to develop a short film, working together with some others in my family. There are 5 categories for entries – Romance, Action, Documentary, and Comedy (all 4 to 8 minutes in length) with the fifth category being a 30 second advertisement for Wasaga Beach. Following the release of my novel, “Vision Speak”, I’ve been exploring how to tell stories using other media, or perhaps mixed media with my writing, so this seemed like a nice chance to experiment with video production.

It came down to the weekend before the entries were due, Canadian Thanksgiving Weekend, which was unbelievably hot for mid-October in my area of the world. It was hot enough to go to the beach, swim, and shoot some film. With such limited time, we ended up just submitting one video in the Ad category. There just wasn’t enough time to produce a longer film for this first event.

Since then we are among the finalists and the Film Festival has placed all the final videos on Youtube. The Gala event/Award ceremony is on January 21st in Wasaga Beach, however, we will be in Austria for the Youth Olympic Games to watch our niece compete for Canada in Alpine Skiing at that time. So, our sons who participated in this production will go to the event and hopefully collect our prize. 🙂

Here is our video, entitled “Share the Magic at Wasaga”:

Recovering from a Random Act of Violence

Posted September 25, 2011 by Eden

In the blink of an eye, something can happen that will change your health and well-being, your future, your view of the world. For example, you could be walking across the street, carefree and strong, and be struck by a car. You could have a brain aneurism or a heart attack.

Or some unknown person, with a twisted heart, could come out of nowhere and assault you.

These are not happy thoughts and not usually the type of thing that I write about on this blog.

But that was before some random person committed a violent act against my son who was punched so hard that his tooth was knocked out, who now has stitches all over his lips and gums with his teeth wired to his mouth, who still can’t understand how anyone could do something so violent for no apparent reason.

What happened? As my son was on his way home from the bar in London, Ontario with a girlfriend, a young man walking on Richmond Street in front of him suddenly turned around, punched him in the face and ran away. Many witnesses and even two police officers were on the scene. My son was on his knees, blood dripping from his face with his tooth in his hand, shocked and dazed. He never even saw who hit him. The police were of little help and told him he’d better get in a cab and get to the hospital. No report was filed. No attempt was made to catch the perpetrator.

My son is in fourth year at the University of Western Ontario and on the Western Mustangs Lacrosse Team. He has been gearing up for this lacrosse season physically for months and excited about it all year. After they shoved his tooth back into his mouth and stitched him back together, the doctor told him he wouldn’t be able to eat solid food for weeks and likely had more painful dental surgery in his future to save his front teeth. But that wasn’t what really upset him. The most devastating news that night was that he couldn’t participate in contact sports for 6 weeks. He was out for the season that he’d been looking forward to all year, his last season playing for the Mustangs. It was the year that he thought they might be able to win it all and they had just started the previous week with two wins. To suddenly be told he could no longer be a part of their quest was heartbreaking.

But he knows and we know that it’s done and now we must pick up the pieces and move on. When things go wrong, our brains often do the ‘what if’ or ‘if only’ dance. If we had done something different, if only it hadn’t happened and so on. Something like this with consequences that will be felt for months, is hard. Of course, we all know it could be worse. We’ve heard about violent crimes of this nature, often associated with young people and alcohol or drugs, where the damage is extensive, where sometimes people die senselessly. At least my son will heal and this will eventually be a bad memory.

The other obsessive and difficult thing to deal with is the anger, the need for some kind of retribution. I’ve seen his facebook statements about this incident and his friends’ comments, their rallying cries. A natural tendency is to want to find the guy, to hit him back, to sue the guy, to get even, to hurt as one has been hurt. The more one thinks about it, the more these emotions can swell up and make a bad situation, worse.

And for me, I feel outrage at the police who were there when it happened. Aren’t they sworn to serve and protect? My son and his friend said they seemed indifferent, didn’t want to bother with the situation. I called the London police last night to ask about this. We can still file a report and they have video cameras downtown so they may be able to find footage of what happened although it’s unlikely they’ll be able to identify the perpetrator from the video. We may pursue this. I’m not sure whether it’s a good next step or if one is best to ‘turn the other cheek’ at this point. The constable that I spoke with said there was nothing reported and it would be impossible for him to determine which officers were on the scene as there would have been about 100 of them out on the street on Friday night at that time.

But this astounds me. Is this type of thing happening so often that they don’t even try to stop it? Why are they working on the street if not to do something about violence like this?

I fear the answer is that with so many college and university students frequenting the bars in London, that there are fights and violent incidents all the time. All they do is break it up and move on. I’ve tried to find statistics but what would they mean anyway if most incidents are never even reported?

How do we stop this? Can we only grit our teeth when our kids go out at night (for we know they will not stay home) and hope that they are wise enough, or lucky enough, to steer clear of the lunatics?

I don’t know the answer to this but I do know what I must do. I must help my son to move on, to accept what can’t be changed, to try and turn this negative into a positive or at least a life lesson. And I must do the same.