The To Do List vs. The Wish List
I have lost pretty much everything I owned a few times in my life. The first time was through a fire in a hotel I was playing at. I was in my early twenties and lived on the road. I had what I cared about with me, and all of it was lost. The second time, a few years later, I was in a doomed relationship, I needed to make a quick exit, and the few things that I had acquired in terms of tokens of precious memories were in a small box in the closet, which I neglectfully left behind. By the time I realised it, it was too late.
It wasn’t so much that I needed these things to survive, but they were my cherished items, gifts and letters from my sister who had passed away, concert ticket stubs from some of my favourite artists, poetry I had written as a child - significant moments stored away in a treasure box, ready to be sifted through when I needed a moment to reflect on life and its wonders. The third time was only a temporary separation from my stuff. I was living in LA but had returned to Canada for a brief trip to visit my folks. I was denied entry at the US border upon my return and it took me a year to contest it. My home, my life and my stuff were on the other side of the continent and I had no access to them. These experiences reduced my need for stuff. I no longer trusted stuff, because stuff was temporary and fleeting. Because of these losses, I put my energy into experiences. I have always had a To Do List, but I do not have a Wish List for stuff. Occasionally a need presents itself and I go purchase something, but I have had no emotional bonds to any of my stuff, until just recently. My Mother has passed a few items to me lately that already hold more sentimental value than anything I had in my home; an opal diamond necklace/bracelet set that my grandfather had given to my grandmother and my mom had helped pick out, a crystal bowl that is one of my mom’s prize possessions, pictures of my childhood. These items bring about something more than tangible to me, when I appreciate the necklace I feel how special my grandmother felt receiving and wearing it and when I appreciate the bowl I feel how proud my mother felt owning it and displaying it. The items themselves don’t come with strong personal memories, but the experiences and the bond they create for me are indelible within. I think what I will remember most is that my mother wanted me to have these items, to be remembered through these items after she is gone, and to know that they will continue to be cherished. I suppose I will accumulate a few more items of personal value in my life, but mostly I just want to accumulate experiences. I think I’ll officially put that on my To Do List! Wishing you a week of great experiences.  In Stillness We Find Peace
Someone was asking me this week why I got back into writing music as an artist. That was a difficult question to answer. The better question might have been ‘how’. At the time that I got back into it, I was practicing stillness. In that stillness, came my music.
What is it about stillness that leaves room for creativity? To know that, we need to know what is present without stillness. Fear, suspicion, doubt, worry are all present, in the majority of us, most of the time. We worry about our parents and our children. We worry someone is going to swoop in and take it all away from us – this is all hard wired in nature and we show up at the table daily, for most of our lives. Life is difficult. We are all, even the new born, in a constant state of coping. Much of the art we see today comes from this surface of life, born in the noise of today and in effect adds to it. We see this in today’s reality television and on the big screen ‘blow up everything in sight’ approach to making movies. We are touched by this art, but only in a very temporary, superficial way. It doesn’t speak to our soul; it merely reflects how we might feel on the surface. How do we both experience life and still ourselves in it? How do we raise our conscious mind to a higher plane? For me, I work on music. THAT is why and how I started writing again, because when I learned how to be still, I realized it was always by my side, ready and waiting to express itself, and ready to fill my world with love and creativity. In practicing stillness, I found myself and part of me is the music I write. Consider this: If everyone in the world practiced stillness, there could be a massive tapping into inner knowing. It could create a planet wide wakeup call of creativity and quite possibly, it could even create peace on earth. With creativity we feel fulfilled. With creativity we can think of a way to coexist on this planet without destroying every square inch of it. With creativity we are satisfied. Wishing you a week of stillness and creativity. How to Become a Free Channel for the Creative Energy  To pick up a free download of my new project set to be released this September, subscribe to my mailing list. Feel The Heat!
This week a heat wave gripped central and eastern Canada and the north eastern states. Millions of people ran from air conditioned place to air conditioned place attempting to stay cool.
I was curious about the behaviour of people and started asking questions. What I found surprising was that the people who were complaining most about the heat also enjoy traveling south for vacations where the temperatures are even higher than they were here this week. In fact, people from the north literally flock to the south in the winter to escape the cold drab landscape. Flocking to a climate we complain about and have trouble coping with at home. I thought back to a year I spent some time in New Orleans in the summer. Sweltering hot it was, but there was something different about how people responded to the heat. They stopped, sat on their front porches with cool lemonade and fanned themselves. Those with a bit more energy walked the neighbourhoods talking to the folks fanning themselves on the porches. There was a sense of community. Heat is part of the culture, what binds them together. At night in the quarter, every establishment leaves its doors and windows open. Music mingles with the air adding a certain sultriness to the heat that only can be experienced in New Orleans. This week I watched my dogs. They did little else but lie in the coolest spot they could find. But my schedule didn’t change. I still had deadlines to meet, briefings to attend, projects to take on, life goes on – because of air conditioning. Air conditioning was only invented in the early 1900s, yet we can no longer live without it. It is one of the worst forms of pollution yet it is something that we are now designed for. Many people live in developments without a single tree to cool them. Many shorelines are private now reducing people’s access to the lakes and waterways they could use to cool themselves. We’ve lost the culture of summer when people slowed to a summer like pace, and we’ve sadly lost something natural about the cycle of the seasons. The heat wave broke in a celebratory way on Friday morning with a delightful rainfall. Having endured a hectic sleepless week in the heat without air conditioning, I ran around in the rain with glee. It felt amazing. It felt like a reward. It felt natural. In the end, we cannot depend on electricity to sooth us indefinitely. It is not guaranteed. We need to be able to cope with our planet’s conditions naturally. We need to slow down when it’s hot and cuddle up when it’s cold. Most importantly, we need to sit on our front porches with cool lemonade and get to know our neighbours. Together, we can establish a way of living that feels more natural, builds stronger communities and strengthens our tolerance for life on our beautiful blue planet. Wishing you a week of meaningful insights. The Dance of Good Fortune
This morning as I watched the sun come up over the horizon I was thinking about how lucky we are in North America. We celebrated Canada Day last Thursday and the US will celebrate Independence Day today.
I sponsor a family of five in Paraguay, the Martinez Family. In their village, the houses are made of mud and there is one communal latrine for about 50 houses. There is a community of ladies that keeps an eye on them and cares for them and distributes sponsorships through CCF. When the family I’m in touch with first got electricity in their home it was the most magical day for them. It has introduced them to music they wouldn’t otherwise hear and dishes they couldn’t otherwise make. It made them the most fortunate in their community. They were, and continue to be, thrilled. Everyone in my community has power, but we don’t celebrate every time we switch on a light switch. Does that make us any less fortunate? I think it does, in a way. Sure, we pay for the power, but the point I’m trying to make is we HAVE power, we HAVE running water, we HAVE roofs over our head that we can depend on. For many on this planet, these are reasons to stop and marvel. For many, they are unobtainable dreams. How many of us stop and marvel at our good fortune? Fortune is a matter of perspective. People come from all over the world to enjoy our good fortune. They make brilliant lives from nothing at all; they become huge contributors on the world stage, because of our good fortune. Yet, some people born here, who are not given everything they need in life in an easy, lazy way – feel life threw them a bad deal, life is out to get them. Some people, if given the chance, would adamantly push people away from trying to come here from war torn countries to dance in our good fortune. How fortunate can they be to carry that kind of hate around with them - that lack of compassion? So the question I ask today is this: Who is the more fortunate? a) The person who has little but knows and values their good fortune no matter what b) The person who has more than 90% of people on this planet, but considers themselves unfortunate May you have a week of recognising your independence and your pure potential with all of the resources you have
- but most importantly, may you recognise, celebrate and share, your good fortune.  Toronto The Beautiful ~ Under Assault #G20
The G20 summit is happening is Toronto this weekend. It has turned Toronto into a war zone. Over 400 people arrested so far, damages to businesses and our city property will take months to clean up. Toronto’s reputation will be further impacted, already not one of the more loved cities in my fair country, mostly because of its size. It is the immigration hub of the country; all nations from the world are represented, for the most part, peacefully. I would argue to say that no matter where this summit was held, it would have attracted the anarchists, some even speculate these are the same people who trashed Montreal during a recent playoff game, and they weren’t even Montreal fans.
I just call them ‘the angry people’. I have been at a lot of protests in my life, and many of them included the angry people. Angry people are generally under educated and without purpose – they are all ramped up on anger, so much so that they can’t think straight. The angry people NEVER SOLVE ANYTHING, they don’t lend any purposeful ideas, they aren’t even there for the protest per se, they are there because it is a good outlet for angry people. We are what we think! They have created the perfect angry world for themselves, going from one targeted place to the next expressing their anger. Do the leaders need to meet? Yes, more so than ever, the leaders need to meet. Could they have done so somewhere where the anarchists would have less to damage? Of course they could have. There are already fortresses all over the world where these leaders could have met that would not have caused the host country to spend over a billion dollars in prep for the summit and an undetermined amount to clean up. Canada showed the world this year that we can open our doors and welcome the world population into our humble midst. We also showed that, like the rest of the world, we are victims of purposeless anger, anger without a solution, anger that contributes to world anger, and really nothing else. So what is the solution?? Again, it comes down to what we’re willing to tolerate. Everyone who participated in the negative knows someone who didn’t – someone who thinks it’s wrong. It’s time to start reporting the angry people who are terrorists that get their glory from destroying things. We’ll all be better off once they realise they are the source of their anger, not the world. Nothing heals more than helping. When they learn to help, they will change the world. As for Toronto, it will be a beautiful place of tolerance once again. Even today it shows signs of peace in the aftermath of chaos. Toronto is a place where people can come from their war torn countries and set up a new life of their choosing. Toronto is a soft place to land in an angry world. It is a city I love. Wishing you a week of peace.  Father's Day - Peanuts, Birds and Music
It’s the third Sunday in June – that makes it Father’s Day. I can remember a lot of Father’s Days, usually involving a family get together of some sort and some peanuts, bird books and music. My Father has always been difficult to please, but peanuts, birds and music have always been his soft spots.
For the best part of the last year my Father has been in an institution because his mind is failing him. In his state of confusion (he was a professional musician) he thinks he has a gig there that he is not fulfilling and he lives in fear of being kicked out and apologises to us daily for his worry, his inability to do the gig and his condition. Today as a family we will try to bring even a tiny bit of joy to his anguish. Mental illness is something that not many of us know much about. If I think back on the part of my Father’s life I was exposed to, I can see his illness clearly was there for a very long time. We saw it as a short temper, a difficult personality, a perfectionist that couldn’t be pleased - and we navigated around it, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. My Father was aware of it too. His library is full of books on calming the nerves through martial arts, food choices, and meditation. Even with all of the reading and experimenting, he never really made the connection that it was his physical body making him feel that way, not his life. So he kept busy. When he was busy he was able to get away from the ruminating thoughts, the torture of anxiety, the self loathing. Unfortunately the thoughts won and now we are unable to care for him as a family. There have been several suicide attempts and eventually the institution was our only choice. If you know someone struggling with a personality disorder, mental illness, depression, panic and anxiety, it is critical that you begin to understand what drives their behaviour and forgive them for it. Forgiving is the first step to healing for all parties. If you are suffering, it is critical that you forgive yourself and move toward a healthier place. I’m not a huge supporter of pharmaceuticals and given the choice personally I would NOT go that route, but understanding what is happening in the body, even just understanding how chronic stress feels and affects you – will take you miles closer to being able to manage its affects. The biggest point being it is not your surroundings making you feel that way; it is your body and its coping mechanisms. With clarity brings choice – and there are many ways to combat stress including life choices, food choices, yoga, volunteering, surrounding yourself with positive, optimistic people that truly care about your well being, limiting time with people who drain you, orchestrating a paradigm shift to positive thinking – in effect training your brain to let go of thoughts and feelings that have no value to you in real life. If YOU are suffering, let me be the first to forgive you for your condition. If you know someone suffering, go to them, forgive them, love them and find help for them. To all of the men out there who have taken on the role of mentor, guidance counsellor, coach or provider to anyone on this fair planet, Happy Father’s Day. May we all have the strength and coping mechanisms to overcome the stress of the world and to remember the most important things. For me today those would be the peanuts, the birds and the music.  Climate Change or Climate Gate? Either way, it's just a distraction from what matters most.
Because I am an artist who covers topics such as Climate Change and Peace people are compelled to argue with me. I am a seeker of the truth, so I listen.
I want to make it clear though – I am not an expert on either of these topics. I write about them because I am touched by them. I am a student of these topics. As citizens of planet earth we should all have our eyes wide open. On the agenda this week was Climate Change. There are people who believe Climate Change is real, and people who do not. The thing I find most interesting about the argument is this: 1) If it’s true – the human race had better make some changes quick, we’ve reached The Tipping Point 2) If it’s not true – carry on – as you were! Let’s put the temperature of the planet aside for the time being and have a look at human behaviour of late. If we look at our relentless search for fuel to propel our machinery alone, we see some deplorable situations like the current oil spill, mountain top removal and dirty oil extraction leading to contaminated communities and wet lands as well as species extinctions. My question is: So what if C02 emissions from our vehicles, industry and factory farms are not to blame for the increase in temperature? The behaviour is still wrong, the behaviour is still unsustainable, the behaviour is still showing complete disregard for the planet – our planet. The argument that Climate Change is not real seems a bit like a 'get out of jail free' card to me. It appears to be a hate fest against Al Gore, intimating the only reason Al Gore is fighting this fight is because he stands to make millions in green technology. Please, I think Al Gore could choose to make millions doing just about anything, why would he pick such a hard battle to fight? Why wouldn’t he just go into mountain top removal? He certainly could do whatever he chose to do. Besides, Al Gore only jumped on this band wagon a few years back – people like David Suzuki have had an entire career studying the subject and have done their best to coach us to a better and more sustainable way of life. What we know for sure is there is some controversy as to what is causing our earth to warm – but let’s ensure that argument doesn’t muddy the waters so much that we fail to see what is going on today on our earth – real travesties caused by real people for no other reason than greed. You call this progress? You call this civilized? There are people who want to live a life of excess and a life of greed. In order for them to do so they have to convince the rest of us we need to “PROGRESS” i.e. we need more stuff, we need to go faster, further, higher and let's keep the business of war afloat too while we're at it. Well, no matter who is right – I still like my vision better. I like the people and I like the air, the fresh water (enough for all human beings), the animals and of course the mountain tops. Maybe we could all stop arguing long enough to see what we’re missing.  Let’s lift the insanity.
As people’s anger grows at the escalating crisis they see around the world, there is a call to action, a standing up and holding people, countries and industries accountable. We have run out of tolerance for big business ruining our environment and our sense of financial security and future health whilst they enjoy the riches of their industry. This is all very progressive and right, we SHOULD BE MAD!!
At the same time there are thick dividing lines in terms of politics, religion and beliefs in general. There are some people who believe the earth has only existed 6 thousand years even though we have PROOF it’s been here for hundreds of millions of years. Not only do they believe it, they will argue with you about it for as long as you can tolerate! I can tolerate about 1 minute. I don’t see any value in arguing this point; I don’t see how it’s helpful to humanity in any way right now. I have had people blast me and turn their back on me ‘even though they love me’ for writing a song they viewed as occultist even though the song was about waking up and learning from our past mistakes, making the world a better place. I even had someone blast me for not doing enough; they think I’m just making pretty pictures and songs. They really didn’t know I have lived a life of service to humanity and nature, they felt they knew everything about me from my facebook page. Well you know what? Even if I am just making pretty pictures and songs, what is the crime in that? Isn’t that better than sitting back and judging our fellow human beings? Isn’t it time we let go of judgement all together? Hasn’t judgement without knowledge been our single most fall from grace as a species? We do need to hold people accountable for real travesties being created. In order to do that, we need to come together as a human race, not create deeper dividing lines based on perceived differences, or based on the ‘I’m better than you’ mindset. Let’s level the playing field and come up with some new game rules for the human race where everyone gets to play. I think one thing is important to remember. Every single word on this planet, every religion, concept, border and barrier we have has been invented by people just like you. You can choose to follow or you can choose to lead. I think instinctually we know we are one, but sometimes our beliefs tell us we need to hate another person, so we do – without as much thought as what we’d have for dinner. Does that make sense to you? If we did only one thing – let go of hate and judgement for our fellow human beings and our perceived differences, we would have the biggest quantum leap we’ve ever experienced. So much fog would be lifted we’d clearly see the real people doing real things to destroy our planet. When we take love out of our world and replace it with hate, indifference, greed and judgement, we create the world we see today. So now we know! Let’s make it impossible for the real perpetrators to hide amongst all of this non value added hate and judgement. Let’s lift the insanity. Let’s try a new experiment, one based in knowledge, love and tolerance. (WARNING! Pretty picture!!) Making small changes for Planet Earth
It was approximately a year ago that I made a concentrated effort to reduce my personal paper use. I was still dependent upon that paper copy, the filing system, the copy for safe keeping.
I had already made drastic changes to my business life. People I work with know I’d prefer an email in advance of working together to share any pertinent material. I have eliminated all paper redundancies with passion. I have transformed entire departments to be more eco friendly. It was time for me to really make a personal commitment. Since I made the decision, what I have backed up to date has replaced 3 banker’s boxes of stuff. And those are just the documents I had filed. When I think of the trees I have used in my lifetime, I can easily overcome any fear of transitioning to a completely soft world. We have soft copies of nearly everything now, and very simple ‘IT idiot friendly’ ways to back up important documents. Sadly, it wasn’t the environmentalist in me that made the shift. I put a concentrated effort into it because I needed to be flexible. I need info at my finger tips and I never know exactly where I might be. The shift was made out of necessity, and made possible because of technology. I realised I met my personal goal when I looked in those file folders and there was nothing left that I cared about and nothing new coming in to put in them. I am paper-free, short of a few businesses that have received emails from me indicating that not providing an entirely digital experience has become a deal breaker for me and asking for an ETA on when they will be fully transitioned. I have some choices to make. My new commitment to myself is to spend 30 minutes a week on making small permanent changes that can further reduce my impact here on Planet Earth. I fear part of that may require I become a better cook, or worse, gardener (look out world!) but I’m willing and ready to take a closer look. Wishing you a week of graces for Planet Earth. Everyone has critics! Only you know your personal truth.
Everyone has critics, no matter how low key our life might be. There are people who don’t like how we dress or speak or look or drive or decorate, or live. If we were to pay attention to these critics, we would never make a decision for ourselves. We would never know our own truth.
And make no mistake about this – you have a personal truth, and only you know what it is. I thought I had reached the pinnacle of my career in the 90s. I had a major label deal; I was living in LA, working with some top notch producers and talent. At that point, I had the embrace, the ‘endorsement’ of all of my friends and family, I was the apple in the eye girl, the one living my dreams. But you know what? I was in exactly the wrong place, at the wrong time – it was an illusion of success. It wasn’t real, it wasn’t my truth. Today I am living my truth, and if you told me ten years ago what I’d have to go through to get here, I would have hid under the covers. How did I get here? I lived my truth every moment and let it lead me. It led me to people who taught me tolerance, people who taught me hard work. I learned how to love, both myself and every single person on the planet. It led me to feel compassion for the hard working; I learned the generous spirit of giving and helping. I became integrated in society. A very good friend told me that in her opinion the biggest mistake I made was to walk away from a scholarship to study classical music in Montreal in my early 20s. I tried the course, I really did, it didn’t feel right, and it wasn’t my truth. I knew that at 20, but my friend was probably just thinking had SHE had the opportunity, SHE wouldn’t have walked away from it. So remember, people are going to give you advice, and most of it will be out of love, but all of it will be from an outsider’s perspective, only you know your own personal truth, only you know what is best for you. How do you know what your truth is if you’ve never listened to it before? What I do is I ask myself – on a scale of 1-10 how ‘right’ does this feel? How ‘happy’ am I in this situation? How ‘engaged’ do I feel here? If it scores an 8-10 – it’s a pretty good indication it’s what I’m supposed to be doing, where I should be. When I know I’m where I’m supposed to be, doing what I’m supposed to be doing, I can give it my 100% loving and compassionate focus, and THAT is a great feeling of truth, one moment at a time. I’m wishing you a week of truthful moments. To your critics you can say, thank you – you flatter me with your preoccupation of my life!  
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