Finding happiness when life is running smoothly is easy. Being happy when you're sad, or when life is treating you like excrement on the bottom of it's giant cosmic shoe, is an entirely different story. It also begs the question, why on earth would you want to be happy when you're sad? Aren't you just suppressing your emotions by pretending your life doesn't suck a million lemons right now? The answer, as you might expect, is not black and white. Happiness is an emotion, and like all …
Not All Career Paths Follow a Straight Line. Some Go Through a Maze.
Ass backwards. If there were two words to define my “career”, ass backwards would definitely be them. I started my path into digital media and blogging as a means to an end. A decade ago I started a cottage industry business called Best Tools for Schools with a friend. With little to no room for marketing budget, someone at a trade show suggested we promote ourselves on Twitter. With my face scrunched up, and totally confused as to what I was even doing, I opened up a Twitter account and …
Going Back to School at 50 – There is no Deadline for Learning
I'm going back to school at 50. Let's file this under, "Words I never thought I'd utter" for $400 Alex. Like most things in my life over the last year or so though, I've come to accept that it's best to follow my instinct and chase what my heart wants. In this case in particular, I've never been more eager to embrace something in my entire life. Divorce has been like a tsunami for me. The ground beneath me shook violently, followed by a temporary and deceptive calm as the water pulled …
The Worst Age for Girls is 14, and the End of Reason
My youngest daughter turns fifteen in 21 days, 22 hours, 16 minutes and 41 seconds. I know this because I have been counting down the days for a little over six months now. It is with keen anticipation that I look forward to saying, "Good riddance 14, don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!" because if there's an "official" worst age for girls, 14 is it. The day the switch flipped, and reason left the building. I may not have reams of laboratory data to back up my claim …
Into the Great Wide Open – Skydiving Into Life’s Next Chapter
This was supposed to be an article about skydiving in Ottawa but as often happens, the story I intend to write and the story that gets written is often wildly different. And oh my god, doesn’t that last sentence just sum up the last twenty years of my life. So, apologies in advance if you came here to learn about skydiving in Ottawa, because this is actually about skydiving into a life. Pre-jump. I recently published a list of 50 things I wanted to conquer in honour of my upcoming 50th …
