We are at the height of this year’s United Way campaign and almost everyday I have one and sometimes two talks to give. When I speak, I use my story of falling into the arms of an abuser, sharing my story of that road to hell and the journey back to well-being to illuminate the threads that connects us.

“I couldn’t do it alone,” I tell people. “I couldn’t get back on my feet without the help of the network of agencies the United Way knits togethers.  I needed a place like the Calgary Counselling Centre to help me, just as others, no matter the circumstances of their lives, need help to find their way out of the darkness into the light.”

To emphasize how dark my road had become, I tell them of wanting to die. Of wishing, hoping, praying that I could erase my presence on this planet, erase all memory of me from my daughters’ minds so that they could live free of the pain of the mother who had hurt them so much. I wanted them to forget me.

And then, I tell them how I couldn’t do it. How at that moment in my life there was only one truth I had left within me — I loved my daughters — and could not make a lie of that truth.

Yesterday, I presented at the kick-off event of a large engineering firm here in the city. When I began, I invited everyone in the room to raise their right hand above their head, bend it at the elbow behind their head and to give themselves a pat on the back. You’ve engaged in the three tenets of philanthropy, I told them. Give. Volunteer. Act. Here you are, willingly participating, turning up, willing to give your time, treasures, talents.

No one can do this alone. No one can make this a great city for everyone by themselves. It takes all of us. Giving what we can. Volunteering when ever we can and willing to take action to change — perceptions, beliefs, minds — as well as what we do on a daily basis to make a difference.

At the end of my presentation a man approached and said, “You don’t know me but I want to give you a hug. I think you’re very brave and courageous” And he gave me a hug.

“My wife committed suicide ten years ago,”” he said. “It’s had a devastating effect on my children. I’m so glad you didn’t do it.”

And I took a breath and hugged him back.

We don’t know whose heart we might touch, whose story we might connect to when we choose to share our stories of moving out of darkness into light, but connect we do, touch we will. And in that touch and connection, miracles happen.

I too am grateful, every moment of every day, for this life I cherish. I am grateful the police drove up and rescued me at a moment when I had lost all hope and was waiting to die. And I am grateful that my daughters and I have had the gift of time to heal, to rebuild and reclaim all and more of what was lost on that road to hell.

I am grateful for my life.  All of it. Darkness and light. Challenges and triumphs. Upheavals and smooth sailings. I am grateful for the snow this morning. The darkness of day’s awakening. The quiet of the house.

I am grateful.

And in my heart, gratitude makes the day bright. Gratitude is the difference and Love is always the answer.

May your day be filled with Love. May your heart be graced with gratitude and may you know you are the Love you seek. You are the difference you make and the world is greater for your light shining bright.

Namaste.

I started an online course last night. It seemed impetuous at the time. The course began at 6:30. At 6pm I decided to take it. But, it was really only the decision that was in the moment.

I’ve been thinking about taking this course for a while. It’s just, I’ve kept talking myself out of it. “You won’t stick to it, Louise,” my little critter voice whispered. “You’ll just be wasting your money. You’ll start and then stop and forget to do the homework and…. ” Ever notice how sibilant and insistent the voice of doubt and self-disparagement can be?

I decided to move deeper into my knowing. I decided to ask my inner GPS, that voice that lives deep in my gut, for direction. My inner GPS is the voice of  self-belief and support. It guides me by illuminating my feelings through my body. “How does your body feel when you think about actively being engaged in the course, Louise? How does it feel about consciously choosing to learn and grow your awareness of the evolutionary impulse?” I asked myself. And I felt it. There in the pit of my stomach. The excitement. The knowing. The understanding that this is my next step on my journey. My GPS applauded me. It rose up and said, Do it. Take it. This is important for your development as a human being on the evolutionary timeline on this  journey of her life.

And so, at 6:05 I signed up. The team quickly got me my access details and at 6:30 I was on the line, listening in as Amy Edelstein and Jeff Carreira set the stage for what promises to be an exciting and enlightening 10 months of the Living an Evolutionary Life training program with Andrew Cohen and Enlightenment Next.

I love learning. I love engaging all my senses in the act of exploring what it means to be human in this time, right now, in the here and now. And, I love how Amy and Jeff described the processes we will be investigating. We are living on the edge of our own development, they said. On the edge of where we’ve never been yet. Leaning into where we’ll be.

‘The Edge’ is personal, unique for each of us. It is that place just beyond where I know ‘what is’. It’s that place of creative friction where the things that I am curious about rub up against that which I know. In that interaction, my sense of purpose, of desire, of willingness to get consciously engaged in my own evolution explodes into knowing. It is that place where change ignites possibility.

Once known, once experienced, it cannot be undone. It cannot be taken back, erased, thrown out. No matter what I do, how hard I attempt to ignore it, turn my back on it, push it down, it cannot be unknown. It is always there.

When I was pregnant with my second daughter I worried about how could I love another human being as much as I loved the first. How could my heart expand so much to encompass two beings of such light and joy? And then I realized, Love is limitless. It’s only my thinking (call it fear) that was limiting my capacity to know the truth. I reminded myself about when I used to teach skiing. I didn’t become lesser for the act of teaching. I became a better skier because in the act of transferring my knowledge, I improved my ability and capacity to know the art of skiing and teaching. In my students’ excitement about learning new skills, about becoming more competent on the mountain, I grew in my excitement and competency.

We are all connected.

Last night I spent the first hour and a half of a ten month engagement exploring Living an Evolutionary Life. This isn’t just theoretical Amy and Jeff told us. It’s actualization. It’s not just for ‘one self’ we do this. It is a collective act.

It is the foundation of evolutionary thinking — to work as a collective, to engage in conscious acts of serving humanity to create a world of wonder for everyone. It’s a choice to explore how far can we go, what kind of focus can we generate, how strongly can we feel when we focus on the collective of where we are going together as a shared culture

Evolution is something that happens to all of us. Conscious evolution is something that we do together.

I signed up for a course last night. It feels good. It feels exciting. Energizing. Uplifting. It feels like I have chosen to actively become engaged in making a difference in the world through connecting into a different type of union and communion with my evolving humanity and the humanity of the world around me.

I am happy!

The turkey carcass sits in a pot waiting to be transformed into a nourishing, rich autumn soup. The dishes are cleared and the dining room put back to order. Thanksgiving 2012 has come and passed and still, regardless of the calendar date, gratitude remains, thankfulness rises.

It is the way of heartfelt living. To carry gratitude in every cell, to infuse each moment, to enrich each droplet of blood with the knowing that ‘We are so blessed.’

My amazing friend Kerry Parsons and her talented friend Amy Wood have created a beautiful video/song meditation called, “We Are So Blessed.”  They released it at noon yesterday, a fitting tribute to the day of Thanksgiving that Canadian households were enjoying together. To the haunting voice of Amy humming, Kerry guides you through a meditation into the soul of your blessings.

And it is beautiful. Inspiring. Uplifting.

“And the heart opens and expands and peace and love flow easily in and out and all life rejoices in the knowing, We are so Blessed.”

Kerry speaks the words and Amy sings them and yesterday, seated around ‘the groaning board’ of a table laden with food I looked around at the candlelit faces of family and friends gathered together and my heart whispered, I am so blessed.

And while there were faces missing, I carry them in my heart and in my heart they fill my soul with love.

We are so blessed. We live in a country where war does not tear apart hearts and homes. Where food is plentiful and abundance graces the hearths of most. It is always challenging in these times to accept that in this land where so many have so much there are those who have little. It is challenging to balance my abundance with the lack of others and yet, it is so. I am blessed. I am grateful for what I have, for my home, my hearth, my family, for the love that imbues every moment and every fibre of my being.

Working at a homeless shelter for as long as I did, I learned a lot about celebrating abundance and the gifts of life where ever they may be found. I learned that those who have little of the fixin’s of life are rich in matters of the heart. I learned that what connects us is not the size of our bank account or the designer label on our clothes but rather, that which connects us is this, our human condition. Our being human. Our humanity. We are one people. One life on planet earth.

And I learned, Love is always the answer.

No matter the condition of your heart, the depth of your sorrow or the height of your joy, Love is always the answer.

Please, give yourself the gift of time to sit in a quiet place, close your eyes and listen to this beautiful meditation with Kerry and Amy. Your heart will lift, your mind will open and your spirit will soar as you connect to your true self and know, We are so blessed.

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And please, take a moment to vote today at AVIVA Community Fund for Project True.  You will make a difference.

Last night at a Thanksgiving dinner party, our hostess invited each of the seven of us gathered at the table to close the meal by sharing one thing that has happened during this past year for which we are most grateful. Her 30 something daughter scoffed and asked her mom why we had to ‘close the evening’ with a sharing. It’s just a dinner party, she said. Do we have to make it anything more?

I laughed. My daughters do the same thing when I  go around the dinner table and invite people to share.

And it didn’t matter. We shared and in our sharing, gratitude blossomed in each of our hearts. Thankfulness rained down upon us as we thought about the one and the many things that were remarkable about our year for which we are grateful.

This year has been filled with a multitude of gratitudes for me. When I began it, I was worried about leaving the shelter where I’d worked for almost six years. I loved working there and was worried I would regret my decision to leave. But I didn’t. With each passing day it became clearer and clearer that leaving was the healthiest and best thing I could have done for me.

I worried at the beginning of the year I wouldn’t find work, that no one would want to hire me. And then I got really busy and discovered how strong and healthy my reputation is in the community.

I worried that I wouldn’t find my creative core again. That I had squandered it over the years of being so engrossed in work.

I need not have worried.

Creativity, like love, never dies. It waits patiently, always beating the drum of memory while we’re busy looking everywhere else for what brings meaning to our lives.

On this Thanksgiving Day I am grateful for the blessings and gifts in my life. I am grateful for my beloved, my family, my friends, the people I come in contact with.

And I am grateful for the lessons I have learned that have reminded me to open my heart to Love in everything I do. To breathe deeply and to remember with every breath the Love that connects us, you and me. One and all.

Last night at the dinner table I shared how I am grateful for every moment of my life and most of all, I am grateful for Love. I am grateful for being inspired by the one I love to write a poem a day of love. To take time every morning to spend a few moments creating an act of love to share, from my heart to his. In that sharing my sense of Love has deepened and my knowing of Love has grown.

I am blessed.

I am grateful.

I am surrounded by Love. Immersed in it. Living in it with every breath I take.

I am thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving my fellow Canadians and to all, I am grateful for your light upon my path.

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Yesterday, Alexis, my eldest daughter called me excitedly to ask me to go and check my FB page. “We’ve put up the Project True Pledge video,” she told me. As she listened in on the phone I watched it and when it was finished told her how good it is. “I wrote it,” she said. “It’s excellent,” I replied. And it is. Heartfelt. Inspiring. Connecting. “I had to work the day they were filming it,” she said. “But it doesn’t matter. I’ve still taken the pledge.”

I will Love my body.

I will respect my body.

I will listen to my body.

You can take the pledge HERE.

And vote to support Project True at the AVIVA Community fund HERE.

A self-professed type A personality, Angela Rinaldis’ words flow with the speed of coins pouring out of the winning slot machine into the hands of a happy gambler. I am like that gambler, fingers poised over my keyboard, typing furiously as I try to keep pace with Angela’s words, eager to capture every idea.

On the day we are speaking she has just launched a new line of health foods specializing in organic, gluten free breakfast cereals, her criminal law practice is busy and she’s working on fund-raising for the Project True Centre for Body Image and Eating Disorder Recovery.

She is busy. And she loves it.

And she’s making a difference.

“My heart swells every time we reach out to a person,” she tells me. And reach out she does, constantly.

Project True is the brain child of her own struggles with an eating disorder.

At 16 her struggle with food began to take on a life of its own. “I was a food hoarder and I wouldn’t even eat it,” she says with a laugh. “You’ve no idea how many Lagostina pots I’ve ruined scrubbing them and scrubbing them. I used to take butter out of the fridge wearing rubber gloves because I was convinced that somehow the fat would seep into my body and make me fat.”

Eventually, anorexia nervosa began to take its toll as it inevitably does. “I was in my final exams at law school. I was so tired. I weighed 80 lbs and am 5′ 8 1/2″. I had 8% body fat and bruises all down my spine from my backpack. I couldn’t sit, my bones rubbed everywhere. I asked the school for a deferment on some of my exams but wasn’t given the opportunity. I finished my last exam, packed up my backpack and went straight to my endocrinologist. I just couldn’t do it anymore.”

She was 26 years old. Eight years later she’s still fighting the fight, doing her utmost to live eating disorder free.

Recovery from an eating disorder is a long road and if she has her way, through Project True, recovery will be easier for women and men everywhere.

“I won’t rest until we open the Day Centre at Project True,” she says, and I imagine her eyes burning brightly. I imagine her wielding the giant scissors to cut the red tape. I imagine men and women knowing there is a place where they can get the help and support they need.

Angela Rinaldis has a vision and it is coming true.

I know this even though I am only on the phone with her for half an hour. I know this because Angela is committed, impassioned, courageous. And she’s surrounded herself and Project True with a board and volunteers that will see this through.

Not only is she a woman of conviction, she’s smart, talented and driven to succeed, not only for herself but for the thousands of women and men who suffer from disordered eating everywhere, in the Lower Mainland of B.C. where Project True is establishing its roots and all across this nation and all around the world.

“We’re so far behind in best practices,” she tells me. “You should see what they’re doing in Germany, Sweden, Australia. We need to catch up.”

And catch-up they will. Angela has a vision. And her vision is global. She sees Project True impacting legislation, changing health-care provision and insurance rules.

“I can’t get extended medical care because I’ve had an eating disorder,” she tells me. “And when it comes to organ transplants, I’m at the bottom of the list. Smokers can get lung transplants before I can get one.”

And that has to change. And Angela is committed to making it happen.

As I listen to her, as we chat, I want to stand up and cheer. To jump up and down and yell, “Go Angela Go!”

And I want to say Thank you.

I have to say Thank you.

Because Angela isn’t just a woman with a dream, a woman on a mission to create well-being for people who are suffering from disordered eating.

I have a personal connection to Angela.

Angela has helped save my daughter’s life. Angela has given my daughter Alexis a dream to hold onto, a vision to unfold.

And I am grateful.

Tears form in my eyes as I write this. Tears of gratitude. Of relief. Of joy.

As a mother with a daughter whose eating disorder was stealing her life, I am grateful that Angela Rinaldis is in this world and that she has stepped onto my daughter’s path and shared her light.

It is a bright light Angela carries and in her light many others are finding their way to well-being.

And that’s the thing about visions as big as hers. They inspire others to start shining. To step onto the path and create an illumination bright enough to carry those who still struggle with the alienation, aloneness and fear of their disordered eating out of the darkness into well-being.

Angela’s light is bright. And it is brighter and bolder if we all shine together.

Eating disorders, like depression and other mental health issues are not choices. A person, no matter their age, doesn’t suddenly wake up one day and say, “I think I’ll become anorexic.”  Just as someone doesn’t suddenly decide to become depressed. The factors leading to the disease are many and complex and they can be deadly. No matter the driving forces that lead someone down the dark road into disordered eating, finding the light to health and well-being requires resources.

And sadly, those resources are lacking.

Angela is doing something about it. And we can help.

Please  visit Project True’s page at AVIVA Community Fund and VOTE. Please vote everyday. Please help Angela and Alexis and the Joe’s and Sally’s and Anya’s and Sergei’s and Lucinda’s of the world find their way out of disordered eating into well-being.

You can make a difference — it’s easy. Just click HERE and VOTE.

This is Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. Time to celebrate and give thanks. Today is also Heroes in our Midst day — and there are so many to be grateful for. From the check-out clerk who goes the extra distance to ensure you’re happy with your shopping experience to the teacher who tucks a note into her students backpacks to the stranger who stops to help someone on the road, there are heroes everywhere. Here are some of mine.

This past week has been super busy at the Calgary Counselling Centre where I’m working on contract as the Interim Director Communications. On Monday, we launched a new website. Thursday we kicked off National Depression Screening Day with a panel discussion at a breakfast and yesterday we opened registration for a webinar training series for counsellors working with couples and domestic abuse. It’s been busy and I am truly blessed to work with a team who make it seem effortless to meet deadlines and demands. It is inspiring to work with such a team — not just the communications team but all the members of the Centre’s staff. From reception to the CEO, they shine.

Yayoi, John, Tara, Caitlin, Candace, Tony, Amanda, Kate, Robbie and Kim and everyone at the Centre — you are all heroes.

On Thursday morning we kicked off NDSD with a breakfast where a panel talked about their experiences with depression. Cindy Radu, Director, Family Services at the Waterstreet Group, a lawyer/accountant and mother to a 9 year old daughter, shared her lived experiences with depression starting from her diagnosis in 2002. Maureen Kelsey from Pengrowth Energy Corporation spoke about what employers need to do to help employees and to erase the stigma around depression and Lois Hayward who heads up the counselling department at SAIT shared what educational institutions are doing to educate students on the need to take care of their mental health. MC, Adam Legge, President of the Calgary Chamber and Robbie Babins-Wagner, CEO of the Centre started the conversation which Moderator Dan Delaloye, Exec. Dir. at the Canadian Mental Health Association, Calgary Region, kept flowing. It was an inspiring morning made even more so by the appearance of Calgary’s Mayor Nenshi who took the test live. And, the media turned out to support us too. CBC Radio, CBC TV, City TV, CTV all helped make it a stellar event.

Cindy, Maureen, Lois, Adam, Robbie, Dan, Mayor Nenshi and all our media partners — you are all heroes.

Thursday I attended the farewell event for Tim Richter, former CEO of the Calgary Homeless Foundation who has now moved on to lead the national initiative to create an alliance to end homelessness across Canada. Earlier in the week I’d heard a new description for leadership — A leader is someone who is courageous, curious and humble. Listening to the speakers, and then hearing Tim speak I realized — that’s what Tim is. That’s what he has done — he’s demonstrated true leadership in the fight to end homelessness by courageously taking on something that so many believe is impossible. He’s been curious about the causes, best practices, innovative ideas and tireless in his desire to find the answers to turn the perceived impossible into the reality of possible for people experiencing homelessness on our streets. He’s worked tirelessly, not for his own benefit, but for the betterment of all society. He is a humble man and a hero.

Tim Richter is a hero.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of interviewing Angela Rinaldis — the founder and President of Project True — for my People Who Make a Difference column tomorrow. I am inspired by the work Angela is doing to raise awareness about eating disorders and to create a centre for women and men experiencing them in the lower Mainland of BC. And, I am grateful for her presence on my path too. Angela has been an inspiration for my daughter Alexis as she recovers from her own eating disorder. As I told Angela yesterday, you are a gift in my daughter’s life and a gift in mine too.

Angela is a hero.

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Tomorrow, I’ll be sharing how Angela is making a difference. Today, you can make a difference by supporting Project True at the AVIVA Community Fund. If you haven’t voted yet for Project True at AVIVA Community Fund. please take a few moments today, and everyday, to do so!  It’s a great cause, and a fabulous way to make a difference.   Here’s the link to make it easy for you!  🙂  http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf13435

“It was a day of early beginnings and late finishes. It was a day to celebrate and experience like no other. Not because it was all that different. No, it was as it always is, just a day. But it was a day to celebrate because it was my day. It was another 24 hours in my life, and in my life, every moment is worth celebrating.”

I wrote that paragraph in my journal last night as I headed off to bed. I was tired. Content. Satisfied. I’d accomplished lots. Done lots. Experienced lots. And I was happy.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I generally end my days happy. Heck. I start my days happy! I just generally have a high happy set-point. I like my days better that way. I don’t do well living in mediocrity.

And the day had been awesome. From an early morning breakfast my amazing team and I had organized to kick-off National Depression Screening Day where three speakers shared their vision and insight into depression and its impact on their lives and what they saw as the possibilities for change to the Mayor’s presence and willingness to take the test live, the morning started out with a bang. And it kept going. A late afternoon reception for the remarkable Tim Richter who has left the Calgary Homeless Foundation to lead the charge of the nationwide alliance to end homelessness to dinner with my youngest daughter, the day was filled with remarkable and memorable moments.

And yet, it was a day just like the others. And, it was a day like no other.

Just as today will be a day like no other. Because today is the most important day of my life. Today is the day I get to live on purpose. On track. With passion. In pursuit of my dreams, my vision, my goals, my aspiration.

Today is the only day I get to do it my way, right now. Sure, there’ll be tomorrow too but right now, this is where I’m at and it’s up to me to fill this moment with what matters most to me. It’s my responsibility to live my day on the other side of my comfort zone, out there in the heady airs of my lightness of being filled with laughter, freedom and passion.

It’s my day.

What about you? Are you willing to make today like no other? Are you willing to live it up in the rapture of now knowing this is your one and only precious life. Your time. Your moment. Your possibility to be all that you are, right now, right here.

What could happen today if you chose to be, right now, right here, the lightness of your being filled with all that matters to you, filled with all that you want to create more of in your life?

What kind of difference would you make today if you chose to take each step filled with the passion of being your most amazing self exactly the way you are, in this moment right now, right where you’re at?

These are the questions I like to ask myself every morning. And every morning the answer is always the same — If not now when? If not me who?

It doesn’t matter if life has served me a bowl full of cherries or nothing but peanuts. What matters is what will I make with each moment I’ve been given.

Will I let this moment go to waste wishing and hoping things could be different. Or, will I leap into the moment filled with the desire and knowing I have the capacity to create change, to make a difference right now in my life so that in my being all that I am meant to be I create a world of possibility all around me.

The choice is mine. How I step into my day makes a difference. Let me step with lightness and joy being me every step of the day.

It was a morning of two back-to-back speaks on behalf of the United Way yesterday. I had just finished my first talk when a woman walked up to thank me. “Your talk really touched me,” she said. And she began to cry.

“Breathe,” I told her quietly. “Big deep breath.”

She took a big shaky breath and kept talking. “It’s just I moved here three years ago from,” and she named a former Communist Bloc country. “I too had such an experience and what you said is so true. We have to help people when they fall.”

I use the story of the ‘bad man’ and falling on the road to hell as the foundation of my United Way talk. I use it to demonstrate that people fall, but when there’s a net to catch them, the fall doesn’t kill them. And, when caught in caring arms, it’s easier to stand back up again and walk free.

The woman and I chatted for a few moments. She told me about working with immigrant women to help them acclimatize to their new homeland, and to help them put their pasts into perspective.

I thought about what she may have experienced in her homeland. What so many of these women from foreign lands experience every day in the name of war blasting through their country under the guise of freedom.

As I drove back downtown I listened in on a conversation on CBC RAdio’s, The Current, as Anna Maria Tremonte interviewed people about sexual abuses in Syria, where, as happens in so many conflicts, rape is used as a weapon of war.

Lauren Wolfe, the Director of Women Under Siege, a project on sexualized violence and conflict at the Women’s Media Centre founded by feminist Gloria Steinem in New York spoke about the shame that befalls a woman who is raped. How she is cast out, or married off if a man takes her body out-of-wedlock. She talked about women being forced to build their own huts and having to live alone on the edges of her village. About being stoned. Being thrashed. Being shunned.

Rape is a cheap way to wage war. Through rape, the entire community is destroyed by shame. And when you destroy community, you gain control and have a better chance of winning the war.

And I was saddened. Infuriated. Confused.

I know this is happening in our world today and I don’t want to know this is happening in our world today. And that is the problem. My not wanting to know is not making the kind of difference I want to make in the world.

And I thought about the woman who came up to speak to me after my talk. What courage. What commitment. What hope.

I may not be able to stop rape in villages on the other side of the world. I may not be able to prevent war or make peace in foreign lands, but right now, right here, I can decide to be the peace I want to create in the world. I can make choices to activate my capacity to make a difference, to be courageous, to be committed to create hope where none exists.

There is so much we can do right here, right now to make a difference.

We can volunteer. We can speak up. We can write our government representatives and tell them what we want them to do about poverty, justice, affordable housing, and yes, the abuse of women everywhere. We can take action.

Sitting here at my desk on a somewhat snowy morning in Calgary, it’s hard to imagine that right now a woman is being raped, a child is being abused, a bullet is being fired. And yet, somewhere in the world, this is so.

The biggest challenge of our age is not that it is happening, it is that we believe we are powerless to do anything about it.

I can’t, nor do I want to, fly around the world to areas of high conflict. I’m not trained nor qualified to step into a war zone and make a difference.

What I am qualified to do is make a difference from where I sit this morning, right now. What I am capable of doing is to use the tools at my disposal to give voice to what is happening in the world around me and to ensure whatever I do, I am not contributing to conflict, to abuse, or war.

I can be my best at being a peace-maker by creating peace through every act and every breath. Like the woman who spoke with me after my talk, I can give back to ensure there is a net to catch people when they fall, and caring arms to help them get back up again.

What about you? Are you willing to make a difference by taking action?

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Have you voted today?  http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf13435

This morning I am asking for your support. You can make a difference — and it’s easy!

Below, I have pasted in a letter my daughter, Alexis, has written on Facebook in support of Project True’s bid for funding at the AVIVA Community Fund site. Yes. This is a shameless commercial bid to support my daughter. She is working with Project True, a Vancouver based not-for-profit looking to raise funds to build a healing centre for women and men with eating disorders. And, I’d like to see her succeed. And, I’m asking for your support!

It’s relatively simple. The AVIVA Community Fund is a ‘by votes’ competition. The project that receives the most votes goes on to each subsequent round until a winner in 3 separate categories is announced. Each winner receives a portion of the $1million AVIVA commits to the Fund every year.

Every vote makes a difference. Every vote counts. Over the course of each voting round you can vote once a day (from each separate email address you hold). It’s important to vote every day as your vote bank depletes whether you use your daily vote or not. 13 days = 13 votes per voter email.

So…. please help make a difference. Take a view moments to click on the link below — if you’re not registered — it only takes moments to register to be eligible to vote. And then, voting every day only takes seconds.

You can also make a difference by posting the link to the Project True page on your Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest pages. You know the jig. Exposure is the key. This is where the power of social media and its capacity to ‘go viral’ works best!

In the next few days, Project True will be posting a short video — stay tuned!

Please, do what you can to help. You will truly make a difference today, and every day you vote.

This is the link to the Project True page at the AVIVA Community Fund site.

http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf13435

And, this is the letter my daughter shared on Facebook.

Dear Friends and Family,

I am reaching out to you today on behalf of the thousands of Canadians who are struggling in silence. A year ago, I was one of them.

For many years I kept my battle with an eating disorder a secret. I was afraid of what the repercussions of breaking my silence might be. What I didn’t know until I began my journey towards recovery was that my silence cost me far more than being free.

My recovery would not have been possible without the incredible community I am surrounded by. My family, friends, and coworkers have given me the gift of strength and courage in the face of my fears. This was not a journey I could have made alone.

I know though that I am lucky. I had the financial, emotional and medical resources that countless others do not have access to. In my city alone, the waiting lists for treatment far exceed the available care.

I am working now with a non-profit organization called Project True. It is our mission to ensure that every individual who is struggling with disordered eating, regardless of age, gender, income, or level of health, has access to support, compassion, and hope.

It is my hope that, in breaking my silence, I might pay forward the incredible gifts that were given to me. My recovery has taken a community. Building the first Project True Centre for Body Image and Eating Disorder Recovery will too.

Help us build it. Cast your vote daily at http://www.facebook.com/l/dAQGUaYbRAQGSRd62SJk4zDbCjNIWSzQz32Me2uJ_h-Jiig/www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf13435

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. With all my heart,

Alexis