When I was living in Toronto, and was working full time, the way I dealt with my problems or issues were using the words, "Forget it!" or "I'm too busy to even worry about that" or, "I have no time". When my family moved here to Yellowknife, my issues were a lot different than before, not only that they were so different, I have all the time in the world to think, to worry, and to feel them. So there are times I do feel less thankful, and maybe when you feel the least thankful, maybe these can help you. I practice this everyday. There are times that I forget and that happens, I try not to fret but instead I just continue on with my day thinking of how to make the day much better than yesterday.

So here:
1. When you get up in the morning, notice your feet, your hands, your whole body. Be thankful you are still alive. Smile right away.
2. Acknowledge yourself. Feel the energy. Fuel that energy with love and high spirit that you can give to others, whether at home or at work, or to some random people you may encounter during the day. I give my love and energy to my boys.
3. Say grace before meal. Be grateful of the abundance that is given to you through God's blessing. I love it when after every time we say grace before meal, my youngest Jesse says "Eating time!"
4. Look at your own life. Examine it. Know that everyone makes mistakes, but what makes the difference is learning the lesson and improving from it. You can never feel better comparing your own life to others. They too have problems you are not even aware of and sometimes they do not even know is coming. Same as you.
5. Feed your hunger for excellence even if it just means taking time to read a good book or doing the crossword puzzles. I write. And I do volunteer work.
6. Practice kindness. When you do, people notice and remember and then as you are spreading kindness, you feed from the kindness that comes back. Sometimes it comes back, but sometimes it does not. But when it does come back, it comes back in doubles.
7. Give love. You can give love even through email. I give love through hugs. I mostly give them to my boys. We do a lot of group hugs.
8. Be inspired. I remember how shopping makes me feel excited. And I realized that although shopping helped me to have a good day, it is not my source of inspiration. Rather, it was my addiction. Words of wisdom are truly one of the sources of my inspirations. The words I read, my spirit feeds on them and after writing them down, after I have expressed my thoughts, I feel content. I feel that I am satisfied.
9. Do not be attached or fixated on material things. Remember that their value depreciates, and goes out of style. You, your spirit, your value should never be based on what you have or what you own. Remember that everything can be lost in a blink of an eye especially at this time of economic uncertainty.
10. Shift your mindset. Do something else out of your routine, sometimes even out of your comfort zone. When you find yourself going to the computer and it depresses you, then stop. Watch a funny movie. Or when you feel you are starting to feel down, or lousy, or depressed, take a run, a walk or jog. Sometimes, a distraction helps. One night, I was writing and my husband came into the room I said, "Oh you are a distraction." He said, "I thought I was an inspiration." I said, "No. Not this time. But being a distraction is not bad. Not at all." I stopped and put my journal down. I turned to him as he lay down on my side, and curled right next to him with a smile. On my journal, the last words I had written were, "I am such a sad woman..." and I never got to continue that piece.

And for something extra. Always leave something extra in case of emergencies, right? Or when everything else has been tried and exhausted.

11. Say a prayer. Notice your breath. Give thanks to the Lord, for all His blessings, His undying love, for keeping you healthy and safe, for keeping your loved ones healthy and safe, and for keeping you --- that you are ready to face another day.

I am grateful for a lot of things. I truly am. But there are times that I can't help not to have questions in my mind, yearn for things that I miss or for things that I feel my family deserves; moments that I feel helpless for there is not much I can do but to accept what is here.

And in moments that I feel lost, I hold on to the times that I feel are precious.

What does work mean to you? Such a boring, dragging you down kind of word, isn't it? Some people say, work is 'stressful'. But to some work is passion, fun, a very fortunate thing to have in life.

Last night Janvier and I were choosing his electives for his grade nine courses. He asked me of what I think he should choose and I said he should pick the courses that will help him on what he wants to be in life. Knowing what you want now will help you later on, I said.

I am a working mother of three boys. My 40 hours per week is solely dedicated to this company which I am proud of but I absolutely will not disclose. Parenthood is not easy single-handedly. My husband works in the far away city of Yellowknife and his physical absence makes motherhood a bit difficult than usual. But this living situation has turned me from a mom-who-did-not-own-an-agenda into a mom-who-has-to-do-list-on-four-calendars. I have 2 calendars at work, 1 in my kitchen and my handy dandy IPhone. I do things in advance as I remember them in advance. My thoughts are a constant repitition from what's for children's lunch, what to wear to work to what to cook for dinner. And of course there are those various thoughts hovering that fill up my daily to do list such as oh yeah I need to buy the kids milk, I have an appointment today at school yadi yadi yada...

Mothers have this extra load on their shoulders. Mothers who are also career women have double the extra load. They have work to do in their so called workplace and their so called homes. As a mom, I feel like a juggler. And I want to be the best juggler mommy I can be.

During my younger years I remember having high aspirations for myself and I don't recall that being a mother was one of them. I guess motherhood just happens. No woman 'aspire' to become a mother. At least I did not.

But I am a mother. A working mother. Martin Luther King said, if a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.

I guess in the end what matters most is that you take pride in whatever it is that you do. Aim to deliver your best everyday in all aspects of your daily life. Think positively that no matter how small you think your role is, it is still a very important role that contributes to the good of all.

I said to Janvier to make Drama 101 his first choice. It is a good way to express yourself creatively. He said I know you want me to be an actor, mommy.
Well, don't you?, I asked.
Yeah, well... But I don't want that life. That lifestyle is messed up.
So I said, you know what Janvier you have a point.

Janvier chose aviation, mechanics, music, photography, and drama as his top five courses. I bet he'll do well in all those. Whether he'll end up an aviator, mechanic or an actor, I just hope he will be doing something that he loves to do ^_^ Work is a lot more fun if you love it. And if you love it, you give all your best to deliver a great job.




Janvier on his Grade 8 graduation