Category: Chat

Two Reasons Why This is Not the New Normal

But for now in this early part of the year 2020, the beginning of this new decade, it is important to practise social distancing in order to flatten the curve so that things can get back to normal.

  • Humbertown Mall Social Distancing
Social Distancing in March 2020

Saying this is the new normal is like saying there is no hope.

Is it normal to stay in our homes for days, weeks or even months; some people live alone whereas others live with roommates, family or pets.  Is it normal to wear a mask out in public going to work or to appointments or just out picking up groceries? 

Is it normal to put a long awaited wedding, class graduation or birthday party online and have friends and family post in through social media because everyone in the city has to remain apart, at a two meter distance? 

That isn’t normal.  That isn’t living.  But for now in this early part of the year 2020, the beginning of this new decade, it is important to practise social distancing in order to flatten the curve so that things can get back to normal. Back to a time when socializing was to laugh, talk and be happy face to face without this virus hanging in the air. 

The days of getting together with friends and family for some kind of social aren’t gone forever.  This is only a bump along the road of life and rest assured, “all these things must come to pass. But the end is not yet.” (Matthew chapter 24: verse 8, KJV)

There is always hope and without having faith, hope isn’t possible

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” and hope does not disappoint us. (Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1 and Romans 5 verse 5, KJV)  

Life – Mission Impossible

My Mom always said, ” trust Him where you cannot trace Him.”

When you don’t see things turning around in your life. The boss at work doesn’t give you credit and you work harder than others, the bills keep mounting up and your bank account has a zero balance, a loved one is ill or you just don’t know what to do with your life. You’ve done everything you know to do and still it isn’t enough.

Trust God

Jesus said in Mark 19 verse 27 …” with men it is impossible but not with God for with God all things are possible.

Trust Him where you cannot trace Him…

Comfort in a Snapshot – the Secret Place

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty Psalm 91 verse 1

This verse is a promise from God or a snapshot of comfort

The Secret Place is a personal relationship with God (the Most High or the Almighty). Words of comfort from God are always true and pure. A relationship with God guarantees full and complete insurance coverage. He will give protection, guidance, counsel, love and much more. There is nothing He will withhold because all things are available to us – to those who love Him.

see also Proverbs 18 verse 10

  • Amen

O Canada – We the North

Today, we make history here in Toronto by hosting the NBA champion playoffs. The playoffs have never gone North but now they have and in a few short hours Toronto will have their shot at basketball stardom.

Canada is a great place to visit as well as to live. The multicultural feel of this wonderful city Toronto is great from the support of the basketball fans to the average people on an average day.

I love this city. It is my home and I’ve lived here all my life. Sure it has its fair share of problems small and not so small, but all things aside we can stand together when the time is right. And the time is now. Where do you see in this great continent different races, cultures, ages, people of different languages come together to celebrate one thing?

No where but Toronto. There is nothing like Toronto.

This is our chance to shine as a international city with so many options, so many things to see, to do and to celebrate. We are a city of plenty and we like to share. Come visit. Cheer us on while we play our neighbour to the south in the NBA playoffs and see if you like us.

What’s there not to like?

Late Spring in Toronto

A Promise from God

In the book of Zechariah in the Bible, chapter 2 and verse 10B

I will dwell in the midst of thee says the Lord (KJV)

God is saying He will never leave me or forsake me. The Bible says God is holy and he cannot tell a lie. If I trust Him and believe His words there will be no doubts. He is right there for me no matter where I am or where I go. The fear of being alone is clouded when I trust in His word and His presence.

In this modern world seeing is believing and anything written in the Bible is laughed at. That doesn’t matter to me because even when the world around me laughs and says there is no God, I still keep trusting in Him because I know through faith that He is real. The opinions of others doesn’t change that fact. He is the living and true God and I believe in Him.

Knowing that my God will be there for me when I fall or fail in my goals. I may have a bad day. I may be grieving over the loss of a loved one or there is some kind of illness in the family or I can not pay my bills. I am so blessed to be able to call on Him and He gives me strength and provides for me all the time. The Bible says he hears all my prayers.

Lets make this new day a good day and count our blessings. Life is too short to waste and the path of life can get very twisted and hard to walk. We need a guide. How hard would it be to make God your guide.

Writing Journey Step #2 How to take criticism good or bad and work with it

When receiving a rejection or advise please, please listen and keep an open mind

Ok, I haven’t posted anything since before late spring or early summer but I haven’t forgotten.  As always life gets in the way but in a good way.  I have to work out my time in odd hours.  I quote loosely from a blog I read about Toni Morrison…I write on the fringes of my life. That is awesome and so write…ok no pun…

I need to share. I’ve completed a few things I find fascinating.  I went to a romance writers conference and I pitched my book idea.  She liked it and gave me some great ideas I plan to use.  I had a reader read my synopsis and she didn’t like it and told me why.

The advise was hard to take but I didn’t respond right away but played it over in my head before I could come to terms with what she said.

That’s the hard part.  Acceptance.

I remember a rejection I received from a editor I queried from a publishing house I wanted so badly to accept my work. and I was upset.  I believed she didn’t understand the concept of my novel.  The gall of the woman after I worked so hard, I knew I was right and she was wrong.  I wrote back thanking her for the decision but not before I explained to her my novel, again.  That was stupid.  But at the time I got it off my chest and out there which didn’t help me much because it was still a rejection and I mostly wouldn’t submit to that line ever again.

Step #2 

When receiving a rejection or advise please, please listen and keep an open mind.  Think about it this way:

  • Was it good advise?
  • How can you learn to adapt or make some changes that can work to having an editor read my work and get excited about it?
  • Editors read so many different requests so how can your work stand out?
  • What is your targeted publisher or editor looking for?  In other words do some research on the publishing house or editor before submitting because your work maybe good but they may not be looking for work in the genre your writing.
  • Be kind and thank them for looking at your work.  They have busy schedules too.
  • And finally, don’t stop writing.

Cheers to all the adventures in writing and keep going…

 

Happy New Year April 1st

 

2018 is one quarter completed and what have I done? This is a question that resounds in my ear almost every day as I look back at January and forward into my future.  Sure, I try and make the New Year resolutions of exercising and being a good person.. But have I don’t any of these things?  Yes and no.  Like most, I start out strong until life gets in the way and things fall along the wayside.  Then, I get disappointed in myself and I try to pick up my tattered resolutions and move on. Hoping to start again strong, and ending my year strong and successful.

 

What I don’t see or fail to understand is that every day I am blessed with a new beginning.  This Easter weekend I looked at the history of the Jewish people with regards to the Passover and I looked at the Christian faith with regards to the resurrection of Jesus Christ and I saw the evidence of new beginnings.

 

The children of Israel left their lives of bondage and ventured into the desert towards the Promise land, a land flowing with milk and honey.  As they prepared for that journey God told them to sacrifice a lamb and put the blood of that lamb on the doorposts and lintel of their homes. When angel of death sees the blood he will pass over the home and spare them from death and judgement.   

 

The Christian’s author is Jesus and He was taken and crucified as the perfect sacrifice. He died for the sins of the world, was buried and on the 3rd day He rose from the grave and then later ascended to Heaven. Resurrection is a new beginning, and this season is the perfect opportunity to see things fresh.

Some people don’t get the opportunity to see the newness of life as a good thing.  Tragedy, pain, emotional stress, failed and disappointing goals and relationship are a few things that can cause the darkness of depression to seep into life.  Life becomes hard to bare and the future looks so grim where any thought of a new beginning with hope and happiness becomes elusive and impossible to envision.

 

Recently, I heard of a number of families in my Christian community losing a family member to suicide.  When I was a child the word suicide never came up and if it did then everything was hushed up and  “this doesn’t happen or shouldn’t happen” were whispered. Today, suicide is still happening and in my Christian community it is becoming an acceptable ending.

 

This is not right and Christians need to talk.  We need to look into what mental illness is all about and we need to look for those signs of mental illness in our families and not take things for granted.  Some people need help and don’t know how to ask or maybe they don’t know where they could go for help.  I hear people saying they need to go to the Lord and read the Bible more.  That is very true and I am not disagreeing.  But as in the times of Jesus, people brought those needing to be healed to Him.  Some of the sick could not come to Jesus themselves but needed some kind of physical support.  This is what we need today not just physical but emotional support.  We need to support one another in a healthy way by being there when someone needs to talk. We need to be trustworthy.  We need to look into resources and ethical information for people going through problems and the families of those touched by this suicide to turn to.  We in the churches need to be educated on the right way to deal with this problem of suicide. This is not the time or the place for a gossip mill; this is someone’s life.  Jesus said, “I came to preserve life.”  As Christians we are to be like Christ and to preserve life.

 

This is a new beginning one quarter gone of this 2018, a time to make a fresh start for myself as well as for others. 

 

 

     

 

The Easter Egg story

Why the egg at Easter?

Ever wonder what the story is behind the Easter egg?  Why use the egg?  Is it something to do with the Christian faith or the Jewish faith?  Is it a religious symbol at all?  And what’s this about Easter as being Christian or pagan?

I grew curious so I asked my co-workers, clients, friends and family and none of them had much of a clue as to the meaning behind the egg at Easter or otherwise known as the paschal egg.  The word paschal relates to Easter or it relates to Jewish Passover.

Historically, the egg was used by ancient cultures in Egypt, Mesopotamia and Crete.

this egg was painted in Punic a language known by the ancient people of Carthage.  The tradition of painting eggs goes back to Africa some 60,000 years ago.  It was a symbol of death and rebirth

The early Christians of Mesopotamia painted eggs red as they remember Jesus Christ in his death, burial and resurrection. The egg was seen as the tomb in which he was laid and where he rose, the red colour symbolized the blood he shed on the cross.  The egg is used at the time of Easter as a memorial within the Christian faith.

Non Christians use the Easter bunny as a symbol of rebirth with regards to the coming of the Spring season.

Some quick facts about Easter…

 

 

Carry- on Tinnitus Step#2

Step #2

Now that you’ve seen the Audiologist or the Hearing Instrument Specialist and they’ve given you a hearing test what is there left to do?

Talk…..

The hearing professional will discuss the results of the hearing test.  You may or may not have hearing loss but you may still suffer from tinnitus.

How is that possible?

Don’t people with hearing loss all have tinnitus?

It is true about 90% of people with tinnitus also have hearing loss and tinnitus affects 1 in 5 people. What about the rest of us?

Let’s work backwards with some basic information about tinnitus.

Tinnitus or some pronounce it tin-eye-tus or tin-a-tus is not a disease but a symptom resulting from a number of causes most common is hearing loss but others are: ear infections, hearing loss, constant exposure to loud noises, brain tumor, emotional stress, exposure to certain medication , head or neck injury, hypertension, heart disease and earwax to name a few.

There are different types of tinnitus: subjective, objective and pulsatile.  Subjective is the most frequent type and it is explained as hearing sound when there is no external sound and it can present itself as ringing, clicking, hissing or buzzing; some people even experience hearing music.

Tinnitus also triggers an emotional response in each individual in unique portions. In other words, tinnitus affects everyone differently and their reactions are all different. Some people can ignore the noise in their ears, whereas others are frustrated and even can be emotionally distraught. No two people are the same.

So where do you go from here?

Counselling is needed and your hearing professional is going to be able to help you with that.

Find out more next week.

If anyone has any questions, please e-mail me.

Until next time…

That Constant Ringing in My Ears

There is no cure.

I hear the ringing, the buzzing, the clicking that noise sometimes throughout the day but it happens mostly at night before bed when everything is quiet.  This is called Tinnitus and many people young and old suffer from this condition.

I work as at a hearing clinic as a Hearing Specialist and I’ve noticed since the flu season began several people have visited the clinic with symptoms of tinnitus. Most are getting over the flu virus and report that the tinnitus was strongest when they were laid up with the flu and now they’re “better” the tinnitus is still present.

I know my tinnitus began with a virus and never went away even after I got better and that was over 10 years ago.  The ringing in my ears gets more prevalent when I am stressed or I’m lacking sleep and then calms down when I sleep better and take my vitamins.  That works for me so far, but it may not work for others.

At the clinic before I suggest any kind of solution to help the client with tinnitus, I take a case history and I do a full hearing assessment.  You see tinnitus and hearing loss go hand and hand but there is also a percentage of people suffering from tinnitus who have no hearing loss.

Step #1  get your hearing tested by a registered Audiologist or a Hearing Instrument Practitioner.  These people can help you and guide in the right direction.

Recently, I learned of a tinnitus workshop at Sunnybrook Hospital and check out their website called Your Health Matters @ health.sunnybrook.ca/wellness/tinnitus-ringing-ears/ This is a great resource.

I’ll write about Step #2 next time