Posted on by BWThomas

Truth and reconciliation! Will the truth set us free?

Will the truth set us free? Truth and reconciliation!

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable. James A. Garfield

Truth and reconciliation! Will the truth set us free? As we continue to find gravesites and acknowledge what was done will we finally acknowledge who we are and how we got here?

We need our history to be the truth, as much of it as we know. There have always been wrongs done and much of what is coming to light now has been covered up. If anyone mentioned anything they were shushed. We have other secrets that need to come to light. The National Indian Hospitals are not as well known as the Residential Schools

Are there two sides to every story? Was both good and bad done? We need these stories told. Stories can be told in ways that make them horrific. I had my stomach cut open while I was awake and my baby was taken out (twice), sounds horrific but if I say I had two cesarean section deliveries not so horrific, done for good reason, and two healthy babies the result.

We cannot look at history and judge it only through the eyes of what we now know. We are constantly judging those in power during this pandemic. We don’t all fear the same things, we don’t all think the same practices should be in place. As we come up to another Canada Day some people think we should be so ashamed of Canada we can’t celebrate Canada Day. No country, no people, anywhere in the world has always done the correct, right, and proper thing. We cannot right the wrongs of the past but we can acknowledge them.

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. John 8:32

How do we square being part of institutions, countries, religions, organizations, and cultures of people who have not done the right thing? Do we get rid of our beliefs and organizations because they made mistakes, thought, and did wrong things? Or do we go forward better, forgiving and being forgiven?

We can’t be forgiven for what we do not acknowledge. We need to let it all hang out, the good, the bad, and the ugly. We need to tell our stories, we need to heal, forgive, and be forgiven. We will not go forward perfectly. How could a country like Canada built on colonialism, religionism, culturalism, racism, otherism, capitalism, and socialism not have a history we are not proud of? There are always social ills, there always have been. Where does the perfect society exist?

Individuals should tell their stories. Individuals, build their lives and I may be completely wrong to believe that one of the things Canada has tried to do is give equality to the individual.

As we wrestle with the sins of the past, the uncomfortable truths, and injustices that were done can we still be proud of this country we live in warts and all? I for one will celebrate Canada Day not because we are perfect, not because we have always done the right thing, but because we exist, and I can’t think of a better place in the world to live.

As we learn more of the truth of the history of Canada, as we hear people’s stories will the idea behind truth and reconciliation become a reality?

But better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie. Khaled Hosseini

The pursuit of truth will set you free; even if you never catch up with it. Clarence Darrow

The truth will not necessarily set you free, but truthfulness will. Ken Wilber

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come again and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end. Please subscribe, comment, and share.

Thank you to everyone that reads my book. A special thank you to those who leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads. If you click on the picture and purchase an item through the Amazon link I receive a small percentage of the sale through the affiliate program.

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Posted on by BWThomas

Telling our story, the good, the bad, and the ugly. We are not responsible for what was done to us but for what we do.

We are not responsible for what was done to us but for what we do. Telling our story, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

With great power comes great responsibility. Voltaire

The course through the Art Gallery of Mississauga is almost over. Last night we were asked if we would like to continue to meet, network, and discuss what we learned and how we are taking it back to our communities. The answer was yes, once a month, Wednesday evenings on zoom.

Telling our stories through art, song, dance, writing, and listening to, reading, and experiencing other people’s stories through art, dance, and song helps us know who we are, and who others are. No one has the exact same experience and sees things exactly the same way.

This is not the year we will be able to experience festivals but when we can I am looking forward to visiting some festivals, ceremonies, and celebrations I have never visited before. Sometimes we need to meet someone who has gone to one before or is interested in attending. It is easy to stay in our own comfort zone go to the same restaurants, order the same food, listen to the same music, and read the same books.

When we bring other people’s experiences into our lives we begin to morph and grow. Book clubs are great for introducing us to new writers. Community groups introduce us to new people. If we work and live in one place for long periods of time we may need to step outside of our normal life to meet new people and experience new things.

Remember when we were kids and we had boxes of crayons. I always wanted the biggest box of crayons with the most colors. As an artist I know we can paint with red, yellow, blue, white, and black, but I do not limit my palette to only those colors even if I should.

The only true freedom each of us has in life is the freedom to choose, but once we choose, we become the servant of our choices. John C. Maxwell

This course is widening my horizons and I am meeting people I can’t see meeting any other way and in this setting, we are learning about each other because we are telling each other our stories. Telling our stories affects our lives in deep and profound ways.

When we are willing to tell our story we can take back power. Britney Spears is telling her story about the conservatorship she is under. She may win or she may lose but by telling her story, she will probably make it better for herself and for others people want to get conservatorship of.

We always need to remember when we tell our story it is our story and there are other sides to the story. When we hear someone’s story it is not the only side of the story even if it is the only one we will hear.

Sometimes we hear things and think well something had to be done. Children had to be removed from homes, children had to be educated, older adults can’t live on their own anymore. Just because something needs to be done doesn’t mean the people who do it are doing the best they can. Children are not always better off because Children’s Aid steps in.    

My mother always tells me a poor home, a dirty home, even a home where the children do more taking care of the parents than the parents do of the children may be filled with love, and be better for the children than removing them from a dysfunctional but loving home.

Knowing what is best for someone else is a huge responsibility, we often don’t even know what is best for ourselves. Most of us get to live our lives muddling along as best we can and when we know better we do better. How much scrutiny is too much, how much looking the other way is too much? Caregiving may call for us to lean into love we didn’t know was possible, but what if we don’t, and do what is best for us instead of who we are caring for?

The moment you take responsibility for everything in your life is the moment you can change anything in your life. Hal Elrod

You are where you are because of who you were but where you go depends entirely on who you choose to be. Hal Elrod

May we think of freedom, not as the right to do as we please, but as the opportunity to do what is right. Peter Marshall

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end. Please subscribe, comment, and share.

Thank you to everyone that reads my book. A special thank you to those who leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads. If you click on the picture and purchase an item through the Amazon link I receive a small percentage of the sale through the affiliate program.

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Posted on by BWThomas

Fathers are our unsung heroes the builders of our society, and pillars of our lives.

Fathers are our unsung heroes, the pillars of our lives, and builders of our society.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Dads are most ordinary men turned by love into heroes, adventurers, story-tellers, and singers of song. Pam Brown

Yesterday was Father’s Day and we ended up celebrating it twice. It is sad when we no longer have our fathers to celebrate with, call, or visit. That is a reality that will come to all of us in time. We aren’t all lucky enough to have had time with our fathers because of circumstances beyond our control. There is no other way to look at it than we missed out.

I’m one of the lucky ones. I was blessed with a great mom and dad. Some people have the idea that we shouldn’t celebrate because not everyone has someone in their lives to celebrate. Father’s and Mother’s Days aren’t only about the reality in our lives but the potential. Even if we didn’t have the best role model in our life we can be the best in our children’s or even in other people’s children’s lives.

How someone else conducted themselves, we can’t control. We may wish they were different but they were or are who they are. What we have control over is ourselves and how we navigate our world. We can encourage, uplift, look on the bright side, and accept the difficulties of life with grace. We can be an example of not giving up when the going gets tough. We can be an example of pursuing dreams so others will believe they can pursue their dreams also.

We can be good friends, co-workers, and family members. We can be up-lifters, encouragers, and happy people who live our lives with grace and gratitude. We can make time for others and invite them for dinner, conversation, and laughs.

Is there anything as wonderful as sharing a meal with family surrounded by the warm glow of conversation and laughter? We’ve had two evenings of this sitting outside enjoying being together. Spring turns into summer today and just as it isn’t noticeable as the seasons change from day to day the seasons of our lives change.

By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong. Charles Wadsworth

We were children, then young adults, new parents, parents of adult children, and soon we hope grandparents. Some of us are lucky enough to have our grandparents in our lives for a long time. Some of us hardly knew our grandparents; some of us hardly knew or didn’t know our parents.

We can think life isn’t fair when we don’t get what someone else got. In my art class on Saturday, it was led by a young woman who is sight-impaired. She is an artist and sees the world differently. She is making the most of her abilities by producing beautiful art and teaching others to do the same.

If we don’t make the most of what we have and instead focus on what we don’t have how does that serve us? It doesn’t make us get what we want; it just makes us not appreciate what we do have. What we don’t have maybe abilities, family, assets, or belonging to groups, but we can make the best of what we have. People who make the best of what they have inspired us.

Father’s Day can be sad if we no longer have our father or it can be happy because we remember him and appreciate all he did for us. If he wasn’t in our life maybe someone else took the father role. When it became our turn we can be a good father or do our best to choose a good father for our children.

As women, this is one of the biggest decisions of our lives. Who will father our children? As men what kind of father will we be? We watch our children make these choices and if we are lucky we will watch our grandchildren make their choices. Some are even lucky to see great-grandchildren make these choices. This is the legacy we leave behind.

As we celebrate the fathers in our lives, the unsung heroes, the builders of our society, and the pillars of our lives we are blessed. It is our job to be blessings to those coming after us.

What makes you a man is not the ability to make a child, it’s the courage to raise one. Barack Obama

The quality of a father can be seen in the goals, dreams and aspirations he sets not only for himself, but for his family. Reed Markham

A good father is one of the most unsung, unpraised, unnoticed, and yet one of the most valuable assets in our society. Billy Graham

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end. Please subscribe, comment, and share.

Thank you to everyone that reads my book. A special thank you to those who leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads. If you click on the picture and purchase an item through the Amazon link I receive a small percentage of the sale through the affiliate program.

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Posted on by BWThomas

Living life to the fullest. Being creative and discovering our unique way of seeing the world.

Being creative and discovering our unique way of seeing the world. Living life to the fullest.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today. James Dean

Last night we did some fun improv exercises in the course I am taking. We told a story each person adding a new line. For another exercise, we either said fortunately or unfortunately before our line. In a story, this is a great way to think about what happens next. It may even be a good way to look at our lives because whether we have fortunate things happening or unfortunate things happening they are changing and fortunate may go to unfortunate and unfortunate may go to fortunate. Life is a series of events and how we look at them will determine our life. It isn’t always that things are good or bad but in our minds, we make them one or the other depending on how we see life.

Jim Rohn tells us, “Don’t wish for things to be easier, wish for you to be better.” Often we don’t know what we can achieve until we start doing things. We like our novels complicated but not our lives. When we look back on our lives many of the times we enjoyed were very busy, complicated, and active. We need to be careful that we have something left after the busy time of raising children is over, so the rest of our life is still filled with adventure, goals, and achievement.

When I was offered the opportunity to take this course I didn’t think, “Oh wow I’d love to do it.” But, that is what I should have thought. The class coordinator has done such a good job of making it interesting, and we are looking at things differently. Each class has someone leading it who gives us exercises that expand our minds and our way of looking at creativity.

In many ways, I have led an insular life with work and family being so busy with both that I didn’t get out into the wider community. Joining groups and taking this class are widening my horizons.

At the end of our lives, we all ask, “Did I live? Did I love? Did I matter? Brendan Burchard

I am definitely a late bloomer in writing and art and I am meeting others that are the same. Coming to writing and art later in life may be the best time to come to it because many of us will not be able to survive on the proceeds of our art, but what we did before can provide for our needs, and art and writing can provide the excitement of discovering our artistic side.

Creativity is not for a certain group of individuals who take our breath away with what they can do. It is for all of us. My husband said the other day, “You always see the bad dancers get on the dance floor first.” I think we should dance to enjoy not impressing others with our ability. Are we standing by the sidelines because we don’t think we are good enough at dancing, writing, singing, drawing, or painting to enjoy expressing ourselves. When birds sing they have their own song. We need to have our own expression as well and not think our expression should be like someone else’s.

This is easier said than done. A member of my writer’s group just finished her novel. What she posted on FaceBook makes me think it will be a much better novel than mine. I’ve heard her spoken word, she’s fabulous. I can’t let my own sense of inadequacy keep me from expressing what is in me to express even if it is not as good as what she expresses. We don’t only want to read the best book. We want to read different books, with different points of view. We don’t only want to gaze at one painting or hear only the best song.

We are often our own worst critics but we will meet critics along the way and we have to overlook their criticism or use it to make ourselves better. Stopping because we are intimidated by what others are doing will not move our own work along. In Toastmasters we are evaluated and the evaluator is supposed to give two positives for every negative comment. An evaluator will point out areas of improvement we can bring to our work that elevates it. If we have no room for improvement then why would we bother with the next project?

Often we look at someone else’s strengths and compare them to our weaknesses and of course, we find ourselves wanting. Life is in many ways, not a team sport. We team up with people but much of our journey is solitary. We develop our own character, beliefs, and self-expression. What we do to stay healthy is individual. How many spouses wish eating healthier themselves would impact their spouse or going to the gym themselves would make their spouse fitter?

We can work on ourselves and everyone else has to work on themselves. We can spend too much time and energy looking at how everyone else should improve their lives instead of improving our own. If we are living our best life we might inspire others to live their best life. Others will inspire us. When people try to direct us on how to live a better life we often dig in our heels and we won’t do what we know is actually in our best interest because we don’t want to be controlled, we want to do it our self.

Are we living life to the fullest? Are we developing our creativity and discovering our unique view of the world? Are we singing our own song?

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you want something you’ve never had, then you’ve got to do something you’ve never done. Unknown

If you feel like there’s something out there that you’re supposed to be doing, if you have a passion for it, then stop wishing and just do it. Wanda Sykes

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end. Please subscribe, comment, and share.

Thank you to everyone that reads my book. A special thank you to those who leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads. If you click on the picture and purchase an item through the Amazon link I receive a small percentage of the sale through the affiliate program.

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Posted on by BWThomas

Getting old is scary. Is losing autonomy what scares us the most?

Is losing autonomy what scares us the most? Getting old is scary.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

To care for those who once cared for us is one of the highest honors. Tia Walker

Last night my husband and I watched a chilling film “I Care A Lot,” about a legal guardian getting legal guardianship of older adults, putting them in care homes, selling their homes and assets, and bleeding them dry. In the beginning, she keeps a man from seeing his mother with court approval. This is a scary movie because we will all get old if we are lucky.  The guardian is bound by law to turn the estate over to the heirs if there is any left and in her world, they are looking for a “Cherry.” A cherry is someone with no heirs, no one looking out for them, and lots of money and property.

She is able to get legal guardianship through the court without the person being present. In the film, she says, “Most people think they would fight.” She has a police car parked in front of their house and a legal document and the ward walks out of their house bewildered like sheep.” If one of her wards does have family, she makes the family seem like they don’t have their family member’s best interests at heart. She as an outsider can see what the family member needs more than if she were family. She gives the court what they want – the look of competence instead of messy emotions that families exhibit.

When rights are taken away, “for their own good,” by the courts without the person in question present or an advocate to speak for the person losing their autonomy, the system will be abused. Is it abuse when a guardian says, “We are giving them the best care they can afford,” and actually giving it to them with the plan that all resources will be used up upon that person’s death?  What isn’t addressed is what happens when the money runs out. A ward dies the legal guardian thought would live longer and she moans about the wasted resources she now has to turn over to his heirs.

One person caring about another represents life’s greatest value. John Rohn

Being at the mercy of other people’s decisions is one of the things we fear most. We trust institutions with our money. We trust the court to make fair decisions. I believe many of us will not be making the best decisions for ourselves in our later years. If we are lucky we have a loving family to step in who will do the best for us, not themselves. There are legal guardians who will do the best for those in their care. But, there are always those who take advantage of their position and if we run into them, woe is us.

A doctor gets paid off to say someone is not competent to handle their affairs. We had many people go to prison because Doctor Charles Smith said they killed their children. He said he had a passion for uncovering the truth about children’s deaths and he was believed.

When a doctor gives a testimony or signs a paper saying we are incompetent they will be believed. We will not be believed and our family in their outrage, if we have anyone to stand up for us at all, will be made to look unstable.

How do we protect ourselves? As baby boomers age this is going to become a bigger problem. Is everyone looking to take advantage of the elderly? Of course not, but that doesn’t mean wolves aren’t out there. Being proactive and taking care of our own business is better than regret. From what I am reading once some of these guardians get their clutches into us it can be very hard to get the courts to give family members control or in some cases people who are not related but care for the person in question.

This is a very scary situation that some of us will face. Who do we give power of attorney to? Many people with dementia feel everyone is trying to take advantage of them, which gives the courts and vultures more power.

How are we going to navigate the perils of getting old, infirm, and not being able to make the best decisions for ourselves?

A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles. Christopher Reeve

Just being there for someone can sometimes bring hope when all seems hopeless. Charlie Brown

Many caregivers expect their involvement to have a positive effect on the health and happiness of the patient. This may be unrealistic for patients suffering from a progressive disease, such as Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s. Cleveland Clinic

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end. Please subscribe, comment, and share.

Thank you to everyone that reads my book. A special thank you to those who leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads. If you click on the picture and purchase an item through the Amazon link I receive a small percentage of the sale through the affiliate program.

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Posted on by BWThomas

Self-expression through art may heal our souls. When we find our voice we find ourselves.

When we find our voice we find ourselves. Self-expression through art may heal our soul.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

The goal of art is the vital expression of self. Alfred Stieglitz

Last night in the art course I am attending we created an intuitive collage. We were told to get maps (I printed a world map from the computer), and newspapers, magazines, or pages from a book. We outlined the part of the map with clear water we wanted to keep and then tore them out. We were limited for time so we only did one layer of collage. Our instructor Thaniath Siddiqui often does about ten layers. She has videos you can watch on YouTube about Art and Mindfulness and is offering a course online in July called Whyology.

The idea behind intuitive painting and collage is to explore our experiences without knowing where we are going or what memories, ideas, or experiences we will remember. This can be a healing practice for people. As we put words, images, maps, objects, or whatever we can think of onto canvas or watercolor paper.

We need to be careful of bringing computers and water together. Last night I dumped my water container all over my desk. Fortunately, I had put a few pages of paper on the top and the water didn’t hit the keyboard or mouse but I had quite a mess to clean up. One word of advice is to use a flat container for your water and not a tall container as I used.

The painting for this post is the painting created last night. We didn’t have a lot of time but the paintings created by the group were varied and beautiful. Even when we are following the same instructions we are not creating the same piece of art. Different moods, images, and emotions are evident and what the art invokes in others is different.

We don’t know where our journeys into self-expression will take us. Many people may hesitate to put into words what they can express in art. The art is open to interpretation and part of the art may be hidden under layers. It might be the first time we’ve expressed something. As we continue we may express more. We may have hidden dreams or hidden hurts, things we are proud of, or things we are ashamed of. We may have things we don’t understand, things that have always puzzled us, things we question, and things we think we know for sure. Art is a way to get to know ourselves on a deeper level and explore relationships with others, communities, and the world.

Without self-expression, life lacks spontaneity and joy. Without service to others, it lacks meaning and purpose. Lawrence G. Boldt

Finding our voice, expressing ourselves, through art, dance, music, writing, clay, cooking, gardening, quilting, sewing, building, etc is important. How we express ourselves may affect our daily life. If we can express our feelings in a positive way they may do us less harm than when they are bottled up inside. Unexpressed feelings may erupt in our lives in negative ways that had we found a way to express them may have impacted our lives and those we interact with, in a big way.

In art, we can express our fears and we may find acceptance of things we cannot change. We can look at uncomfortable truths about ourselves and history. We may learn to make peace with what is, and make the most positive choices presenting themselves to us.

Listening to Pastor Mark Hughes on Sunday he said, two sons were talking about their life. One said, “I drink because my father did.” The other said, “I don’t drink because my father did.” The same circumstances but different choices and those choices impacted their lives in big ways.

We can’t control the circumstances we were born into. What we get to control is the daily choices we make. and what we make important in our lives. Life is a garden our thoughts are the seeds. We can plant flowers or we can plant weeds. Unknown.

We are who we are, we’ve been through what we’ve been through and self-expression may help us deal with the wounds and heartbreak we feel. What do we have to express and have we found a way to express it positively?

Art is a way to express yourself and through that, you can escape a bad situation. Russel Simmons

Telling the story, acknowledging what has happened and how you feel, is often a necessary part of forgiveness. Unknown

Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways. Sigmund Freud

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end. Please subscribe, comment, and share.

Thank you to everyone that reads my book. A special thank you to those who leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads. If you click on the picture and purchase an item through the Amazon link I receive a small percentage of the sale through the affiliate program.

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Posted on by BWThomas

Finding our groups, making contributions to society in big and small ways. We build the communities we live in.

We build the communities we live in. Finding our groups, making contributions to society in big and small ways.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work. Vince Lombardi

What can one bumblebee do? They do their part. Yesterday, sitting out on the patio with my daughter and husband I watched a bumblebee busily buzzing among the pink and white Weigela flowers. Looking at a bumblebee I marvel at how it can fly. There are many things in life we see and wonder how can that be?

Often it seems we are control freaks we want to control what visits our garden. We are happy to see bumblebees but not hornets. We like certain birds and cute rodents but nature is not in our control.

My son tells me about the benefits of dandelions to our soil. Some of the plants we don’t like create soil conditions for plants we do like to flourish. This may be the same in other parts of our life. We don’t like the hard parts of life that create us into who we become. The obstacles, challenges, and problems we face help us grow and develop.

It is important to find a place where you feel trust, you feel belonging, and stability. Bojan Krkic

We don’t know what other people are dealing with just by looking at them. We don’t see their struggles, what they have overcome, or what they may be working to overcome. Taking an art course over zoom is turning out to be a wonderful experience. I now ask myself why I hesitated when given the opportunity. We think we don’t have time and if we don’t make time for things in our life we don’t know what experiences we are missing, who we are not meeting that would bring something into our life. We don’t know what would be the spin-off from that experience.

Joining groups is one way to add to our lives. We meet new people, exchange ideas, and learn new things. In groups, we share our stories and learn from others. I am meeting people in this art class I’ve met through Toastmasters. We’ve lived here for decades and it is only now I am getting involved in the community. We can be too involved in the community and neglect our family. As I am becoming more connected to the community my life is expanding. My horizons are opening up, and opportunities are presenting themselves. A Toastmaster I met over thirty years ago has reached out to me and asked me to come and speak to his club. On zoom, it is easy to go into the den, turn on the computer, and voila I am with his club.

We don’t know where life will take us, who we will meet, or what opportunities we will be offered. Maybe we need to say yes to life more often. Yes, I would love to… We need to keep a balance in our life so we aren’t stretched too thin and husbands or wives feel left out. When we get energized by outside activities and meeting new people do we bring that energy back to our relationship? How do we keep our spouse from feeling they are left out of important areas of our lives? How do we balance this? Are we like the bumblebee doing our part?

Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you; spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life. Amy Poehler

Success is about creating benefit for all and enjoying the process. If you focus on this and adopt this definition, success is yours. Kelly Kim

There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about. Margaret J. Wheatley

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end. Please subscribe, comment, and share.

Thank you to everyone that reads my book. A special thank you to those who leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads. If you click on the picture and purchase an item through the Amazon link I receive a small percentage of the sale through the affiliate program.

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Posted on by BWThomas

Laughter is the best medicine. Bringing more laughter into our lives, looking on the funny side of life.

Bringing more laughter into our lives, looking on the funny side. Laughter is the best medicine.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Laughter is an instant vacation. Milton Berle

Last evening we had our second module for the course I am taking. What a fun group to be part of. We are an amalgamation of people from different groups in Mississauga. Our guest facilitator was Anto Chan a performance artist and comedienne. If I get a chance to catch one of his shows I’ll take it. Two of the funniest women I’ve met in a long time stayed back after the course, they work together and must play off each other all day. They both have self-deprecating humor and Anto offered them a chance at performing stand-up. They are that good.

I tried stand-up one night. In Toastmasters a woman was putting on a comedy show at a local bar. She was looking for Toastmasters to step up and I took the challenge. I got compliments on my material which was observations about life, men, and women, but I hardly got a laugh. Humor is not easy but some people are naturals at it.

Listening to the two of them made me think I need more humor in my life. I’m not sure how it will go over if I start making jokes about some of the serious stuff in life. There are things I can’t change and instead of letting them get me down maybe a good laugh would be better. My husband will be looking at me wondering what got into you. Maybe I’ll get a smile or even a laugh and won’t that be better for both of us.

Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face. Victor Hugo

One of the questions we were asked is what metaphor would we use for ourselves when we are at our best, challenged, and at our worst. When I look at my notes I think we were to try and make it funny. I missed that. Here is what I came up with.

When I am at my best, I am like a tree with deep roots and large branches giving my gifts to the world. When I am at my most challenged I am like a desert, dry, hard, and unyielding waiting for the rain to soften me and bring forth flowers.

I could have tried to come up with something funny, but I didn’t because funny isn’t my go-to. Could it become my go-to? Would that be irritating to those I live with as they feel I am making light of what they face? One of the goals I set last night is to listen with an open and reflective heart. I sometimes think people think I belittle what they feel like they should get over it, and move on. I’ll have to be careful with the humor as feeling laughed at isn’t better.

If I can bring self-deprecating humor into the situation will that be the balm that makes things better? They say when the student is ready the teacher appears. I expect to get a lot out of this course because we are learning about each other’s stories and everyone has a story to tell. When we find our voice we find ourselves. This course is all about finding our voice, telling our stories, and connecting with others.

Is laughter the best medicine? Do we have enough of it in our lives?

Laughter is the sound of the soul dancing. Jarod Kintz

A day without laughter is a day wasted. Charlie Chaplin

When I hear somebody sigh, “Life is hard,” I am tempted to ask, “Compared to what?” Sydney Harris

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