Even google maps can’t make a difference

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Louise Gallagher

When I leave the house I am well-equipped and informed to get to my destination. I’ve allowed myself an extra 20 minutes. Google maps is primed on my iPhone. Traffic is cooperating.

It’s a straight forward journey. No unexpected mishaps along the route, I arrive on the other side of the city in what I think is plenty of time.

And then…

my phone falls to the floor of my car.

my mind tells me I’ve gone too far.

I take a left turn thinking it’s the wrong turn and then decide, No. It’s right.

I phone a co-worker who is meeting me at my destination where a group of fifteen Public Health nurses are waiting for me to give them a presentation on Calgary Counselling Centre. She tells me to find 8th Ave.

I find 8th Ave, but it’s going west. I need to go east. I turn east.

And spend the next 20 minutes driving around in circles, looking for the address where I need to be.

In the meantime, my co-worker is asking people at the centre where I’m to be how to get from where I’m at to where they are. I tell them the names of the intersection I’m at. They tell me to go straight. Follow that road. Find 8th Ave.

It’s the 8th Ave. that gets me. It doesn’t exist.

Except.

It does.

Just not in the quadrant I’m in.

The address I’m to be at is on 8th Ave S.E.

I’m driving around in circles a few blocks to the north, in the N.E.

I will never find my destination until I let go of my conviction, I’m going the right way. I’m on the right path. I’m not lost, google maps is wrong.

Eventually, I realize my mistake. I stop to ask someone for directions and as I am about to get out of the car, I realize my ‘quadrant’ error. I didn’t need directions after that. It was a simple task of taking the main road I was on, south, crossing the intersecting avenue, turning left and there I was. Exactly where I was meant to be.

I was grateful for getting lost, I told the nurses when I began my presentation. We all get lost sometimes, I told them. We all become convinced the path we are on is the right one, even when the evidence is alarmingly clear we’re not. We ignore the signposts. We confuse the directions we’re given because we can’t see there’s another path, another way to get where we’re going.

Sometimes, we need help to clear our thinking. Sometimes, we need other people to guide us out of the darkness.

I got lost yesterday and received a valuable lesson.

No matter how well-equipped I am, ‘stuff happens’. And when it does, my conviction that I am where I’m meant to be is not always the right one. No matter how well-informed I am, if the evidence points in the wrong direction, check the signposts. Be open to possibility. Be prepared to change directions. Be willing to examine my assumptions.

And, provide those guiding you all the information. Because I never mentioned the quadrant (Calgary is built on four quadrants, N.E., S.E., N.W., S.W.) my helpful direction-givers didn’t think to make that simple statement — you are in the wrong quadrant. In telling me to keep looking for 8th Ave. they didn’t realize I was looking for 8th Ave. in a quadrant where it doesn’t exist. Their directions, while helpful, didn’t include a vital piece of information because I didn’t clarify how lost in my thinking about where I was I really was.

I got lost yesterday and found myself open to the possibility of how different life can be when I let go of my convictions that the path I’m on will take me to where I want to be.

It isn’t always true.

Sometimes, the path I’m on has all the markings of being where I want to be, except, it’s based on my assumptions it’s in the right zone. Asking for directions is important but, if I don’t tell the whole story about where I’m at, no matter what you tell me to do to get to where I’m going, I’ll still be driving around the circles of my assumptions.

And in the end, even google maps can’t make a difference when I am driving in my conviction I am right, it’s wrong!

Community makes a difference

Posted on September 12, 2012 by Louise Gallagher

Bubbly and peace go together

We gathered together last night to celebrate the completion of “Summer of Peace Calgary 2012”. Seven of us communed around my dining room table, sharing a meal, laughter, companionship.

This is community.

No matter our purpose, our objectives, our goals, this is community. People gathered together, sharing, caring, being of one voice, committed to furthering that goal in ways that create more…. peace, harmony, forgiveness, kindness, … whatever the overarching purpose, it is the fact we are united together in community that makes the biggest difference.

Early last spring when the amazing Kerry Parsons approached me to ask if I wanted to be part of Summer of Peace Calgary, I was a bit dubious. Seriously? You want to do all that by June? Kerry’s passion and commitment to making a difference was compelling. So I joined the group of ‘peace angels’ as Kerry calls them and turned up at meetings.

Turning up is the first step.

Every Tuesday evening, from 7 to 9, we’d meet, talk about ideas, what we could do, what we needed to do to take just one of those ideas forward. The uber-talented Judy Atkinson of Circles of Rhythm generously offered up one of her regular Friday night drum circles as a venue and vehicle to connect people into the rhythm of peace and Drumming up Peace Calgary was imagined.

Dianne and Judy toast peace

It begins with imagining what is possible.

Once we’d imagined what could be,we focused on making it happen and it began to unfold. And it all began with the imagining of the possibilities. What if we could get 150 people to come and drum up peace with us? What do we need to do to make it happen?

At one of the meetings I told the story of my heart rocks and a peace rock ceremony was created. We needed the rocks, Dianne Quan set out to acquire them. We needed to paint peace symbols on them. Dianne had the method, I had the dining room table.

And so it went. From drumming to peace circles to the Peace Academy, peace came alive this summer in Calgary because from our imaginings we made space for it to happen. And in that creative, collaborative and co-generative space, peace happened. In that space of peaceful co-existence and recognition of our essential natures to be ‘of peace’, we set in motion what needed to unfold in order for Summer of Peace to come into being.

And it did. Come into being. In grand and gentle and rhythmic ways. In small and vibrant and resonate notes.

On Monday, Kerry was interviewed on CBC’s drive home program, The Homestretch about Peace Calgary and a $1200 grant we received from GIG YYC as part of Calgary’s year as cultural capital. While chatting with the announcer before her interview he posited that peace wasn’t really happening in Calgary. But it is, replied Kerry. There are so many small and yet significant events happening. Many people gathering to talk about and take action on peace.

Kerry & Marilyn share in peace

Peace is everywhere.

There is always room for peace. Always a place for peace at my table. In my heart. In my life. In my world. There is a place for peace and that is at the centre of my being at peace with where I’m at, what I’m doing, how I’m being in this world to create more of what I want, and less of what I don’t want.

It isn’t that peace doesn’t exist. It is that we often take the path of least resistance, the road well-travelled to get to our destination, to create what we want in life. If we were to stop and ask ourselves — will this create more peace or less if I do it this way? — before doing — we might make different choices.

Like anger, peace requires a change of thought. Counting to ten when anger rises up gives me time to assess how best to express my anger, without causing discord in my life and the life of those around me.

Counting to ten before taking action gives me time to check into my peaceful, or not, state of mind and ask myself, “Is this the path of least resistance? Will it create peace, or not?”

It all began with an idea.

It began with one woman believing it was possible to shine a light on peace in our city. From that tiny seed of a thought, an idea grew into a series of events awakening the possibility of peace.

From that one idea community was created, a community that gathered together last night to share in all that makes us magnificent human beings — our capacity to create change, to ignite possibility, to inspire greatness.

I witnessed an idea evolve into a community of gifted and caring people working together to make peace happen. Now. I am blessed.

A Conversation with Donna Mae DePola

Posted on September 9, 2012 by Louise Gallagher

I’m starting a new feature today.

Conversations with people who make a difference.

My intent is to interview people all over North America and the world, whose acts of courage, grace, caring make a difference. These conversations will be posted on Sundays, interspersed with Guest Blogs. I hope you enjoy it! I am thrill to share my conversation with Donna Mae DePola today. Her book, Twelve Tins, is a powerful journey of empowerment that starts in the darkness of incest and ends with hope, joy, Love and living a passionate life. Her vision to provide former addicts opportunities to gain training and credentials as addictions counsellors is inspiring.

Donna Mae DePola: Turning pain into laughter and grace.

When I answer the phone a warm friendly voice with a distinctive New York accent responds to my greeting. “Hello there! This is Donna Mae.”

I’ve never met her and until recently, I didn’t even know her name or her remarkable story. And then, I received an email from Sandra Bossert, publicist and graduate of the Resource Training Centre, Inc, introducing me to the TRTC founder Donna Mae DePola and her book, Twelve Tins. Suddenly I am awakened to the brilliance of a fellow human being doing everything she can to make a difference in the world, to make it a better place.

It’s not the story of being raped by her father, year after year from the time she was a child until her teens that is most remarkable. It’s not the story of finding twelve cans of film he’d captured of his continuous abuse of her, or the fact she spent 25 years in a drug induced haze trying to forget, to erase the trauma and horror of his abuse and the betrayal of the other adults in her world. While those things are an amazing story that speak to the true grit of the woman and her fierce passion for life, what is most remarkable about Donna Mae DePola is the joy and compassion with which she approaches each moment of every day. It is her love of life, her fearless conversation about topics that in most instances would be taboo, and, her incredible sense of humour that leave me breathless and wanting to know her better, to talk to her more.

Donna Mae is a remarkable woman. And, she’s very funny. Funny in a light, musical way that bubbles up from a well of laughter buried deep within her soul. I hear it in our first exchange of words and it burbles beneath the surface of our conversation, popping up in unexpected places to surprise, illuminate and enlighten even the most delicate of topics.

Of the things she is most proud of in her life, her personality, her empathetic nature and her sense of humour top the list. “Oh, and the fact I’m a dyke,” she adds with a laugh. “Ask people to describe me and they’ll tell you, ‘She’s a dyke.’ And then they’ll add, she’s funny and be careful if you ask her opinion. You may not like what you hear.”

She is opinionated. But in a gentle, caring, non-judgmental way. “There’s a saying I really like,” she tells me. “He who judges doesn’t matter. He who matters doesn’t judge.”

And she lives her life by that axiom. “It is my gift to the world,” she says. “To help people, especially those for whom addictions have limited their options and left them reeling. And in that place of being of service, there is no room for judgment. “I want them to know that if I can do this, so can you.”

The ‘this’ is to start a school even though an expert in the field of addictions counseling says you can’t. And again she laughs. “Don’t ever tell me I can’t do something. I’ll just work really hard to prove I can.”

The ‘this’ began in 1996 when she realized there were lots of people with lived experience of addictions looking for ways to change their lives and the world around them and not enough opportunities for them to get the education they needed to make a difference.

With an annual budget of $20,000, her counselors support and a belief she could do it, Donna Mae established The Resource Training Centre, Inc. (TRTC) in New York City. Students at TRTC obtain their credentials as Alcohol & Substance Abuse Counselors and, as it says on the TRTC website, “become soldiers in the fight against addictions.”

It is a fight she is well-suited to. “Originally, when I first got clean and started working as a counselor I figured that after twenty-five years as an addict, I had achieved a Masters in Drug Addictions.”

She didn’t intend to start her own school but, as she candidly says, “I needed a job that I could do that also kept me clean.”

Having to model sobriety did it for her. “I get to serve others instead of serving myself. And that makes a big difference.”

Donna Mae is into making a difference. “Isn’t that why we’re here?” she asks. “To make a difference in the world?”

And make a difference she does.

“It’s all about giving people jobs who might not otherwise be able to get them because of their history with drugs,” she says. And in the process, it’s about shifting perceptions of the people and the circumstances that lead people so far from where they wanted to be or thought they’d be in life.

“Drug addiction is not just about life and death,” she says, her voice filled with the passion that underlies everything she does. “It has legal impacts. It affects your family. Your community. You know you don’t want to be an addict, but you don’t know how to get out.”

From her training centre to the programs she’s introduced to help people address the consequences of their addictions, Donna Mae is committed to creating a world of opportunity that helps people find themselves in and out of their addictions.

“People don’t see it within themselves,” she says. “They don’t see that they can do this. Help others. Become a counselor. Quit. Change. So, we model it. We show them they can do it by doing it ourselves.”

And in their showing, in Donna Mae’s passion to serve others, a world of difference is made. A cycle of abuse is broken, and lives are healed, changed, made purposeful.

She is funny. Generous. Caring. Compassionate. She laughs easily. Is open and forthright about who she is, what she’s done and how she’s overcome the past. And most of all, she is real.

I spent an hour on the phone with a remarkable woman the other day and I am grateful. I am grateful for the generosity of her time and spirit, and I am grateful to know there is a Donna Mae in the world leading the way out of the darkness of addiction for those who have become lost on the road of life.

Thank you Donna Mae DePola. I look forward to meeting you one day. To looking you in the eye and saying, “Thank you! You inspire me. You are a gift to the world and I am grateful for your presence.”

RESOURCES:

Resource Training Centre, Inc. NYC http://www.resourcetraining.org/

Twelve Tins http://www.resourcetraining.org/twelvetins.html (Donna Mae speaks about Twelve Tins) http://donnamaedepola.com/

Let us be Love in this world of wonder

Posted on September 3, 2012 by Louise Gallagher

I danced Friday night. I danced and sang and laughed and heard stories and shared an evening with strangers and it was perfect.

It was 9pm when C.C. and I decided to walk over to a local pub to grab a bite to eat. He hadn’t yet explored the neighbourhood so it seemed like a good opportunity to check out what was going on. What was going on was karaoke night and a whole bunch of people having fun.

We were sitting by ourselves when a man from the next table came over to chat. “Why don’t you come and join us?” he asked when he found out I was from Calgary and C.C. was new to the neighbourhood. Which is how we came to be embraced by a group of 8 friends celebrating Warren and Linda’s wedding two weeks ago.

Warren, the groom, was the man who invited us over. “You gotta come hear my band,” he told us at one point. “We’re called, “Two and a half Metis” and he began to laugh uproariously. “I’m the Metis guy. Get it?” He was still laughing when he got up from the table to take the mic to sing a song. Gerard, the host of the party to honour Warren and Linda took the mic before Warren could begin to sing. “Ladies and gentleman,” he called out to the room. “I want you to give a big warm welcome to the one, the only, the amazing Warren from Las Vegas.” And the room burst into applause, hooting and hollering as Warren began to sing.

Ever gullible, I asked Warren when he sat down if he really was from Las Vegas. He laughed and slapped the table. “Hell no. I’m from Batoche.”

“Oh,” I replied. Having long forgotten what little I knew of Louis Riel and the Northwest Rebellion, I asked for clarification, “Is that near Las Vegas?”

This time his laughter split my eardrums. “Hell no. It’s right here in Saskatchewan. I’m a native boy.” He had to turn and poke his new wife’s arm on that one. “Get it? Native boy. Metis…”

And so the evening went.

People sang. Some on key. Some not so clear. People danced. So did I.

And then, I decided to sing. I don’t sing in public so for me, this was a great stretch — it may have had something to do with that second glass of wine too… I was nervous at first. Nervous and self-conscious until I decided to not make it about me, but rather, about having fun. And that’s when I found my note. That’s when the music moved through me and I just let it flow without trying to be on key or anywhere other than in the music. I belted out House of the Rising Sun and knew, The Animals would have been proud. Even if I messed it up, I loved every note of it. Loved every moment of singing my heart out.

Mark Twain once said that we should all,

Sing like no one’s listening, love like you’ve never been hurt, dance like nobody’s watching, and live like its heaven on earth.

I sang like no one was listening on Friday night. I danced like nobody was watching.

And in the singing and dancing and loving and living I found myself touched by grace. I found myself connected into a circle of joy that carried C.C. and me home as walked in the quiet of the night back towards our little home on the prairies. I stood beneath the full moon where once Neil Armstrong set foot and declared it to ‘be a giant step for mankind’ and blinked my eyes at the moon shining brightly.

It is the same moon that shines above every man, woman and child walking this planet. It is the same moon that casts its light into the darkness, calling us to move into the light of knowing, we are all one world, one planet, one people. There is no us and them. We are all connected and when we celebrate that which makes us great, when we share in laughter, song and dance, we make a difference.

Just for today, let’s all surrender and fall in Love with knowing, it’s all about us, together, doing whatever we can to be Love in this world of wonder.

Moments of quiet make a difference

Posted on July 24, 2012 by Louise Gallagher

Every morning I awake, make coffee, let the cat in, the dog out, meditate, write my “Miracles Happen” list, respond to emails, comments etc., and write my blog, and when I have time, read other blogs and make comments there. And then, four days of the week, I get ready to leave the house to face my day.

That’s my morning ritual, except, lately, the meditation part has taken a back seat, it’s slipped from my mental landscape — and that’s not a good thing. I need to meditate. The world needs me to meditate. Meditation soothes my soul, raises my spirits and creates space for miracles everyday.

So…. what is it that keeps me from doing something that is good for me? Something I know makes a difference in the quality of my day?

Exercise. Meditation. Eating healthily. Calling my mother. Journalling. Taking my vitamins.

All of these things feed my soul. All of them use my time wisely. What is it that keeps me from spending time on them?

I read a story recently about a man who was a very ‘famous’ thief. During his career he stole an estimated $10 million in jewellery and other valuables from people on the social register. Unlike Robin Hood of eras past, he did not steal from the rich to give to the poor, he simply stole from the rich because they had more to steal. He was caught, spent 25 years in jail and when released, got a job in a burger joint. That was his life.

When interviewed by a reporter he said he realized, in hindsight, he didn’t just steal from the rich, he stole from himself. He stole his future, the things he could have done to make a difference in the world, the things he might have done to be different in the world.

And he couldn’t get that time back.

When I don’t meditate in the morning, or write in my journal at night, or take my vitamins or any of the other, good for me self-care things I don’t do — I can’t get the lost time, nor the lost benefits of the activity back. I am stealing my well-being from me.

And that makes a difference I don’t want to make in my life. Because when I don’t take positive care of me, I am not creating the greatest possibilities for awe and wonder and beauty in my world each day.

If you don’t meditate, or simply sit in silent contemplation every morning for a few minutes, try this…

Make a commitment that for the next week, starting right now — always begin where you’re at — that you will stop, close your eyes (if your hands on the keyboard simply leave them there, the key is to simply STOP what you’re doing and be still).

Now, deep breath. In. Out. Deep breath. In. Out.

Keep breathing. Relax your shoulders. Your neck. Your body.

Close your eyes!

Focus on your breathing. In……. Out….. In….. Out…..

Focus on the feeling of the air coming in through your nostrils, notice its coolness. Notice how it fills your lungs. Breathe. Slowly. In…. Out….

Count ten breaths in and out. Follow the flow of ten breaths in and out.

Now, open your eyes and continue on.

Do that every day — to begin with, once a day for ten breaths. But, try to add a couple of more exercises throughout the day. Do it three times a day if possible — but commit to doing it once a day for a week.

And then, next week, double the breaths. In….. Out…. 20 times

And if one day you forget, Begin again. Always begin again.

See. I just did it and I feel the benefits of the quiet flowing within me. I feel positive energy moving with grace and ease throughout my being.

Try it. It will make a difference.

and now, I’m off to take my vitamins.

Gotta go. The day is calling me to approach in wild-eyed wonder to the beauty of every moment unfolding with miracles of life all around.

Namaste.

Absolute Surrender makes a difference

Posted on July 22, 2012 by Louise Gallagher

It is Day 204 of A Year of Making a Difference. I noticed the number this morning when I checked into my Daily Course in Miracles for my morning lesson.

204.

Which also means — I am more than half way through the year of writing on this blog. Which, considering at the beginning of the year I wasn’t sure I could write daily about making a difference — that’s pretty spectacular!

And, as this is Sunday, there should be a guest blogger but….

I’d like to say that I don’t have a guest blogger today because I wanted to write about 204 days of making a difference and what I’ve learned, but… the truth is, I don’t have a guest blogger today because I forgot to organize one! 🙂

And so, I begin again. Always begin again.

If anyone is interested in being a guest blogger, please do email me. I love having other voices here, sharing their beauty, encouragement, insight and strength. Your voice would sound lovely here and be most welcome.

When I was talking to my friend Dave in Winnipeg this morning about forgetting to organize a guest blogger, he suggested writing my own guest blog. I laughed and said, “What a great idea! I could write as “Suzy Homemaker and write all about making a difference begins at the hearth of home — and getting rid of clutter is the first step.”

“Or,” said my friend Dave who always has interesting thoughts and challenges up his sleeve — It must be the life coach in him wanting to coax the better out of me into the world — he is an amazingly gifted life coach. you can find him at Harmonious Flow. “You could write your blog longhand, using your left hand.”

“Ha!” I replied. “No way. I’ve done that before and it will take me all day!”

And then I told him I’d write about his suggestion and the difference it makes to do something differently. Ah, the joys of talking to a blogger before she’s written her blog. you become grist for the mill. (or fodder to the canon as my dad used to say)

Answering a question with your opposite hand is a powerful journalling technique. Write out a question with your right hand. Write the answer with your left.

It engages the ‘other side’. Puts in motion the left side of your brain — or if you’re left-handed do it in the reverse. Question: left hand. Answer: right hand.

When I have used this technique in the past, I have always been amazed by the difference in my answers. Focused on forming words with my opposite hand, my mind isn’t thinking about ‘the answer’ and thus, the answer comes out from my intuitive being as I take my attention from my thinking and focus on my doing in the moment of writing.

For example, when faced with a difficult decision write the question/concern about the situation out in your stronger writing hand and then, take a breath and write from your opposite hand.

For example: You’ve been offered a new job in a city on the other side of the country. It’s a great opportunity but you’re not sure you want to move. The question you could ask is — What am I most afraid of if I take this job and move? — then write out your answer with the opposite hand.

Asking myself “What am I most afraid of?” always takes me beneath the surface of my angst into the darkness of my fears where I find myself awakening to the truth of knowing — I am powerful beyond my wildest imaginings when I live in the light of fearless, passionate surrender to life.

Or, as someone wrote this morning in a group I belong to — I must greet each day in Absolute Surrender.

Absolute Surrender makes a difference.

So does Dave.

So do you.

Are you willing to surrender to the beauty, magnificence, awesomeness of your being today? Are you willing to let go of regret and become all you are when you live in the rapture of now, free of the past, free of fear, free of wanting/needing to be anyone other than who you are, right in this precious moment of now.

Because, in 204 days of writing in this place, it is what I have come to know is the greatest difference we each make in the world. Surrendering to who we are, exactly the way we are and loving ourselves however and where ever we are. That’s what makes the difference.

The difference is in our human connection

Posted on July 12, 2012 by Louise Gallagher

She is maneuvering her scooter wheelchair up the ramp into the Mac’s store where I am headed to buy cough drops. I call out to her that I will open the door, slip around her scooter and hold it open. She nods her head, grunts a muffled ‘thank you’ (I think) and moves away.

Inside the store, she struggles to move her scooter through the aisles to the cooler section. I watch and ask if I can help.

“I just want a Coke,” she says and I open the fridge door, grab one down and pass it to her. Again, she nods her head, mumbles and moves away.

At the checkout I step back to make room for her to get into the line. This time, she acknowledges my presence. She smiles at me, comments on the heat and how difficult it is to get around for her as she’s just got the scooter. “Cities aren’t really designed for people like me,” she says.

“It must be very challenging,” I comment and she tells me more about her difficulties.

I notice two puppies in a cloth animal carry bag at her feet and she tells me their names. “Buddy” and “Friend”. We chat about her dogs. I tell her how I like their names. “It must be nice to know you always have a buddy and a friend around,” I quip.

She laughs. “Yeah. Except, this Buddy, he can be a real little dickens. Always trying to run off. He’s so nosy. He wants to know what’s going on everywhere!”

And then it’s her turn and the sales clerk greets her and I know she comes here often because he reaches over towards the lottery machine and asks, “Quick Pick?

She laughs. “Not this time. Just the Coke.” And I wonder if, as happens to many, the month has too many days for her assistance cheque.

She holds the coke out towards the clerk but the counter is too far up for her to reach from a sitting position. She’s told me she can walk, but it’s uncomfortable in the heat and I offer to pass the Coke to the clerk and she is grateful. She hands me the bottle and her Toonie (a $2 coin) and I pass both to the clerk. He scans the coke, counts out her change. I pass both back to the woman.

“I’m the intermediary!” I say.

And we all three share a moment connected through laughter.

I pay for my cough drops. The clerk says, “Thanks for all your help.”

The woman is moving towards the exit door and a man in line races over to open it for her. He smiles, she smiles, and I smile as I walk out behind her through the open door the man is holding open for me too.

“Thank you,” I smile.

“Have a great day,” he says. “Oh, and thank you for being so happy this morning too. You brightened my day.”

“You brightened my day too.” I tell him. “I love open doors!”

And we part to go our separate ways and I know the day has been made different because of those small connections made through our human connection on a hot sunny morning in July.

We all have a role to play in making a difference

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Louise Gallagher

Before beginning to write here, I wrote a blog everyday for five years at Recover Your Joy. Since starting to write here everyday, I’ve cut back on my writing at Recover Your Joy. Yesterday, I posted about how I miss it. I also wrote about how turning up there every day to write about – Joy – has changed my life.

And a young woman who lives in London, England wrote in to comment. Through her comment, I visited her blog, On the Way and found an incredible video called, Fears vs Dreams.

And from there, I visited the site “To Write Love on Her Arms” — a not-for-profit dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. They are also the creators of the Fear vs Dreams project.

In my ten minute journey through the blogosphere, I was moved, touched, and inspired.

That’s the difference we make when we connect, heart-to-heart openly and authentically. That’s the difference we make when we say — hey! I have fears. I have dreams and I am willing to speak up. That’s the difference we make when we are willing to be vulnerable.

What struck me in looking through the photos posted at Fear vs Dreams is how young the dreamers are.

While it caused me to wonder — what are we doing to our children? — it also caused me to wonder something else — do they see how amazing they are? How courageous? How brave?

It takes courage to speak about our fears, and our dreams. It takes a brave spirit. And every one of those who write their greatest fear and greatest dream on the white panel board and hold it in front of them and have their picture taken to be posted on the website — is incredibly brave, courageous and inspiring. (And yes, it is not Saturday — but they are still heroes to me.)

I don’t have the answer to my question — What are we doing to our children? — because what we are doing to our children is what we are doing to ourselves, to our world, to everyone around us. There is lots of evidence of ‘what’s wrong’ — but what about ‘what’s right’?

How we do one thing is how we do all things. And how we do the ‘right things’ makes a difference.

How I choose to make a difference, makes a difference. What I do, everything, makes a difference.

And that’s the answer I found this morning. There are millions, billions of people in the world doing the right thing, doing things to make a difference, reaching out to share their hopes and dreams and fears too. There are millions, billions standing up even when life punches them down. There are millions, billions, speaking up even when their fears tell them to shut up. And there are millions, billions reaching out even when their pain would say, Hold Back!

Making a difference is in all of us. (I think it’s part of the human DNA).

We all have a role to play in making this world the world we’ve always dreamed of. We all have a role to play in sharing Love. Peace. Joy. In sharing a smile, a handshake, a hug.

We all have a role to play in making a difference.

What role will you play today? Will you stand up to your fears or give into your dreams? What will you do today to make your heart sing?

What matters most is that we ride

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Louise Gallagher

When he was 9 a brain tumor almost took him from the world. At 17 he continues to be present, to do and to be all that he can. Life can be a challenge. Balance. Memory. Attention span are sometimes affected.

What isn’t affected is this young man’s spirit. He lives in the key of life.

Earlier this year, he heard about The Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer. And he decided he was going to do it. Raise the money. Raise awareness. And Ride. He’s raised the prerequisite, and over, $2600. He’s done the money part. It’s the riding part that’s the challenge.

Riding a bike in a large crowd, 100 km a day for 2 days, connecting to a large community, being part of a big event — all of these things are new to this young man with such incredible spirit. Crowds are challenging. Traffic distracting.

How will he do it? How will he train in enough time to be able to take part in the ride?

Determined. Committed. Convinced he will, he plans for his trip. He’s got the goal down. It’s the ‘how am I going to do it part’ that’s missing.

Enter his next door neighbour.

AJ is an avid mountain biker/rider. He’s completed many epic bike rides including the gruelling seven-day BC Bike Race from Vancouver to Vancouver Island to Whistler. AJ rides.

AJ won’t be riding in the Ride to Conquer Cancer this year. He and his wife CS will be hiking Mont Blanc. (Though they have thought about rescheduling their trip, it’s a logistical and expensive challenge.) While he may not be physically present, AJs heart will be on the ride. His heart will be with a 17-year-old rider who wants to give back to fight a disease that did not beat him down. AJ has been training with this young man for several months now. He’s even built a bike just for him. Created a ‘new bike’ out of old parts to give Shay a fighting chance at completing the race.

I hear this story and I wonder, does he know how amazing he is?

Because he is. Amazing. Just hearing about his guts, his determination, his conviction inspires me. Just hearing about his parents commitment to help him reach his goal makes me want to ride beside him and cheer him on. He doesn’t see limitations. He only sees possibility.

And hearing about how a bike, a race and a goal have connected a young man and his neighbour inspires me.

It is in all of us to make a difference, to connect to people around us in ways we never thought possible to help them reach their dreams. Like AJ and the training program he and Shea, the young man, have created together. It doesn’t matter what the conditions outside, they stick to their schedule. If it’s raining, AJ will set the bikes up in the garage. And if it’s sunny, he’ll ride alongside of him ensuring he stays focused on the road.”

Like life, climbing onto a bike and setting a goal to ride the distance can be hard for all of us.

But no matter the challenges, Shea is determined to reach his goal. He always gets on his bike and rides. He has a dream and he’s riding towards it.

May we all ride like this young man. May we all know what it means to have a dream, and be committed to seeing it through to the finish line.

I heard a story last night about a young boy with courage, about parents whose love is expanding the possibilities for their son and a man with heart.

And in its telling, I was made different. In its telling I was moved and inspired. In its telling I was reminded of the capacity of the human spirit to be great, to be magnificent, to shine.

Thank you Shea for shining so brightly. Thank you everyone for keeping the dream of a young man alive and reminding us all it isn’t important how we ride, what matters most is that we ride.

Celebrating the heroes in our midst (a Saturday Feature)

Posted on March 10, 2012 by Louise Gallagher

I had coffee with one of my favourite heroes yesterday, Ian Prinsloo. Excerpted from his bio at The Rehearsal Process — in formal terms, “Ian is a professional theatre director with over 20 years experience working across Canada… Recently Ian has been exploring theatre outside of theatre. His graduate research (MFA, University of Calgary) focused on how the alternative ways of knowing developed through actor training and enacted in the rehearsal process could be developed in people outside of theatre and how those abilities prepare groups to engage in change processes.”

In real life terms, Ian is a man with a great heart, inquiring mind and enormous capacity to, as he calls it, be comfortable in the field of inciting change. I first met Ian at the shelter where I used to work when he came in to work on The Lower Depths Project he created for the National Conference on Homelessness held at the University of Calgary in February of 2009. “The Lower Depths Project explored the lived experiences of people connected to the issue of homelessness through theatre practices; in doing so it was seeking to create an opening for alternative views of the issue to emerge”, his bio states.

Ian knows how to touch hearts and open minds, to see possibility in everything and to be open and generous with his enormous talent.

Ian is a hero.

Max Cielsielski. was one of the participants in The Lower Depths Project and continues to be a supporter and participant in The DI Singers. A gifted artist, carpenter, musician Max is a man of great heart and deep soul. Max was a founding artist of the art program I started at the shelter, and one of its strongest supporters. His generosity of spirit, his willingness to explore his creativity and to share his discoveries inspires me. Max is a beautiful soul who never ceases to leave me breathless at the beauty and magnificence of the human spirit.

Max is a hero.

I first met Des Nwaerondu at the TEDxCalgary event last November where I was a presenter and he was one of the participants. We met for coffee in January and I sat in awe of this young man who is committed to make a difference in the world, and who is doing it everyday. Des takes action. Des makes change happen — and in his doing, creates opportunities for others to see their power to create change too. You can read Des’ blog HERE, and follow him on twitter here — @AdvisorDes. He’s always got lots of good information to share on creating wealth in your world — he’s an accomplished wealth advisor by day and a heart-driven philanthropist at all times.

Des is a hero.

Heroes in Our Midst would not be complete without a video of someone, something in the world that inspires creativity, wonder and awe. My friend Maureen at Writing Without Paper shares a VIMEO video of music expressed as a rollercoaster ride this morning on her Saturday Shares (My finds are your finds) — Its fun and exciting to watch and makes me marvel at the ingenuity of the human spirit! Enjoy!