As I walk along the beach, I look out over the horizon. I gaze for a long time, dipping deep into my mind, into the nothingness, free-falling and letting loose of the stresses from the last month. I am tired but the wind in my hair and the gooshy sand under my feet and the salty wet wind refresh me. I am starting to feel alive again. I can feel my mind emptying and the joy nipping at my heels as I walk. As I look into the distance, I see something in the water. I can’t quite see what is floating my way. I walk and I wait and I eventually sit down in the sand and watch it floating in. It feels gritty on my skin to plop down in the sand and it is warm under my legs. I sift the sand through my fingers as I sit watching and waiting. The bobbling thing floats toward me and then away again as the waves wash in and out. I realize the tide must be coming in, or whatever it is would be moving away from me and not toward me. I feel timeless propped up on the sand watching and waiting. I have nowhere to be and nowhere to go. For the first time in a year, my time is my own. So, I sit and wait. “Oh,” I exclaim. I am a little surprised to hear myself speak out loud. I realize it is a bottle floating on the waves. Now I am super curious. I continue watching and I start calculating when I can run into the water to retrieve the bottle. Dreams of genies and notes in bottles whirl around my consciousness. My cynical side rears, “Don’t be silly. It’s probably garbage,” says my critical voice. I roll my eyes at my own unwillingness to play and race splashing into the water. The water is cooler than I expected and makes me catch my breath. I slow down...
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I had the opportunity this week to stay at Toronto’s Drake Hotel and we had a fantastic time. I had never heard of the Drake Hotel although it has the sort of name that sounds familiar to me. I found it on Trip Advisor and every other hotel in Toronto was full. I never did figure out why everything was booked, but the Drake Hotel seemed like a good fit for us. I picked up my chef daughter from her job in Muskoka and we spent 2 nights and 3 days together in Toronto. We checked in on Sunday afternoon. The hotel is small, charming, and has multiple restaurants and bars full of trendy, interesting people. We were given a room on the 3rd floor. We were surprised to find out there is no elevator so we trekked up the stairs and found a lovely but small, very cool guest room. We were greeted with complimentary sparkling wine on ice and the room was full of interesting items for purchase as well as a fun “mini-bar” area full of tasty beverages and snacks. The design concept really stood out and we felt like we were not quite cool enough for our hip accommodations. That said, Jonathan the manager greeted us warmly every time he saw us and made us feel incredibly welcome. He hugged us when we left–we felt loved and cared for in this fun hipster hotel. I am not sure we were cool enough for our surroundings, but we felt welcome and enjoyed its charm. We ate breakfast twice in their cafe and the food was fantastic. I only wish we had the energy to explore more of what was going on. There is a roof-top bar that looked very fun. We heard happy people partying late into the night. This didn’t bother us, it was kind of fun–like falling asleep on the couch during a really great party. During our stay, there was an open mike and a pickle contest...
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Super Summer Guacamole Guacamole is one of those remarkable foods that has appeal across cultures and generations. There are many different variations out there, and more than once I’ve been snacking at the hors d’oeuvres table with fellow party-goers when curiosity about the contents of the host’s “guac” has turned to lively debate among guests and outright defense of a tried-and-true recipe. Red onions go head-to-head with garlic; limes duke it out with lemons. Cilantro? Tomatoes? Hot sauce? Mayonnaise??? A really good guacamole takes a little more planning than most dips. Very rarely am I able to find the perfect avocado in the store or at the market, so great guacamole is a perfect way to practice the under-appreciated art of postponing gratification. A rock hard avocado usually takes about a week to soften, while a medium hard avocado takes about three days. The soft avocados on the shelf are usually too ripe and won’t have the flavor of the perfect avocado. Organic avocados are readily available, even in the winter when other fruits and vegetables are out of season and you’re craving a taste of summer. My daughter, Sela, is a chef. She is an amazing cook. Almost everything she makes is perfect. We happen to have different guacamole recipes. People ask which one I prefer, and I always say, “I prefer anything she cooks for me.” That said, I make my guacamole differently! Sela’s Ingredients: 3 “perfect” organic avocados 2 cloves organic garlic, pressed or micro-planed 1 tbsp fresh squeezed lime juice Salt to taste My Ingredients: 3 “perfect” organic avocados 1/4 cup diced yellow or white onion 1-2 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice Salt to taste With both recipes, mash the avocados with a fork or a pastry cutter until they are creamy. Add other ingredients and salt to taste. On occasion, when I need to stretch the guacamole (more guests come than are expected or the kids are starving), I add tomato to the guacamole. This can be done with...
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I am angry. Yup. Just plain mad! And I’ve changed my mind about something that I used to be wrong about. I am a fairly conservative dresser. I don’t ever wear sleeveless things and I rarely wear shorts. I am fairly modest in my choices even though I like bright colors and I like things that are a little bit funky. I notice if my children wear things that look “tacky” and I have been known to send all three of them back upstairs to change for various reasons. That said, I am fed up with so-called “dress code enforcement” in schools that only gets applied to women. I read an article the other day that talked about “students humiliated for dress code enforcement.” I want to point out these weren’t just students, they were all young women. Young girls were asked to “bend over” to see if their skirts are too short. Women are being sent home in schools all over the place. You can see the video here of one school. Another mom fought back when her daughter was sent home on the last day of school because her dress was allegedly too short. She wore the offending dress to her daughter’s graduation ceremony. You can see that here. In Quebec this week, a 3-year-old girl was called out for swimming without a top and asked to leave. Read the article here. The child’s mother was told the child couldn’t be topless because they didn’t want her to be targeted by pedophiles. Are you kidding me? What? Are we really going there with our children? After further consideration, I think we need to examine our policy on dress codes altogether. Everyone is talking about whether the schools are being too strict and whether the clothing really is offensive. I think everyone is asking the wrong questions. The question we should be asking is why can’t women drape their bodies in whatever they want to? We have laws for public nudity. I am not...
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DISC is a personality profiling system that takes its name from four personality attributes: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Compliance. DISC can be used in development and training, to elevate communication, to raise self-awareness and increase team cohesiveness. Recently, I had the opportunity to work with a company whose product requires considerable collaboration with clients. The product is beautiful, and it really fills a niche. Unfortunately, the company also has a problem. Clients are repeatedly unhappy with the customer service they receive. Essentially, clients have a low perceived value for the product they are purchasing because their experience of the process is not optimal. I worked with the production team to really hear what was happening and suggested we use the DISC system to bring clarity to the situation. I chose DISC in this case because the team seemed to be aligned and functioning well; it was their interaction with the customer that was problematic. Each team member filled out a DISC profile. We followed this with some training about the tool and then the profiles were shared with fellow team members. We discovered the person with the lowest natural aptitude for connecting with people (lowest on the ‘I’, or ‘influence’, scale) was the client’s primary client contact—the project coordinator. This explained the clients’ perception of poor customer service. After taking some time to digest and understand each others’ profiles, this team rolled up their sleeves and came up with some solutions. Their solutions seemed to fit two categories: 1. Coach the coordinator on some of the behaviors that create higher connection with the client and 2. Have the other team members who had more customer service-oriented profiles (high ‘I’ profiles) connect more directly with the client. This team was able to address a serious issue with no blaming or finger-pointing. They were able to find solutions that were both specific and comprehensive and they were able to begin implementing the solutions immediately because there was universal buy-in from the team. The coordinator didn’t have...
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