38 - Rhonda S., Authenticity

I met Rhonda in the spring of 2012, after an injury to my lower spine. Rhonda, a physiotherapist at the U of C Sports Medicine clinic, assessed and diagnosed my back injury. I didn’t injure myself playing a sport, although I played many. I bent over to pick up a pair of kids shoes, and crashed to the ground in agony. I have seen Rhonda for two more injuries since that time, one just finishing up this week.

Under the care of Rhonda, I didn’t simply get rid of the pain, swelling, and bruising that goes along with an injury. She guided me through a type of attention and re-building like nothing I had ever experienced before. The time she invested in treating and teaching me, motivated me to actually do my exercises. Each time I injured myself, though I would have preferred a quick-fix-and-return-to-regular-activites approach, I know that wouldn’t have worked. With Rhonda’s guidance, I learned to tune in to specific parts of my body—tissues around the injury—and then strengthen from the inside out. I began to really understand the connectedness of our body as a whole. 

I liked the fact that she portrayed a real situation, with achievable—and sometimes painfully slow—goals. She never told me what to do, she showed me how I could achieve healing and optimal strength. 

Healing. 

Strength. 

Authenticity. 

Let me return for a second to my “superhero in everyday clothing”, Brené Brown. 

Rhonda provided me with the mental capacity to regain my physical strength, simply because she showed up each and every time I arrived. She paid attention to me as if I was the most important “thing” that she would do that day. I doubt that she knows what a marvellous effect she has on those with whom she journeys. 

40 - Footprints

Photo taken walking through the snow at the ranch...

41 - Laurèn

Laurèn leads me to animals that draw me into nature week after week. I feel so blessed to be part of the Higher Trails family, and to observe Laurèn in a place of majesty and miracles. 

Having the ability to try new things is something that Laurèn has grown into. She, walked in my shadow for the first number of years of her life. Not moving far from me, particularly in a new situation. But now, she tries things that she is drawn to, and I am truly inspired by her ability to put desire first in certain situations, and not worry about results. 

Day 42 - Neighbour Lou

I drove past my neighbour’s “boyfriend”, Lou. He stood at the bus stop, next to his pull cart. He wore a light jacket, trousers, and shoes. My neighbour is eighty; I don’t know how old Lou is, but he has several health concerns, including diabetes.

I pulled over, “Where are you going?”

“It’s okay,” he said in his heavy accent, “I have the bus pass.” He held out his wallet and showed it to me.

“Well, I’m going to Dalhousie station, do you want me to drop you off at the train station?” I asked.

“No, I’m okay. The bus pass is really good. It only costs $15.00 a year,” he said.

“Wow, that’s a good deal. But, I am going right by . . .”

He waved me off, like a car doing the final lap in a stock car race. I said goodbye, and pulled away, inspired by his determination to build his life around what was possible. 

On the same day, I asked my oldest daughter to go on a walk with me. 

“Are you kidding!” she said. “It’s freezing outside.”

“It’s three degrees,” (Celsius) I said.

“Exactly,” she said.

Sometimes it feels like those with less, have more. 

Day 43-Yohannes

Yohannes won all his matches in the junior high divisional wrestling meet today.

Yohannes is a cool twelve-year-old. 

After the third match, the referee raised Yohannes' arm, and then -- without even removing his blue mouth guard -- he ran up the stairs to where I stood cheering, and gave me a high five. 

Joy. 

"Once you've wrestled . . . everything else in life is easy. "

Ben Gable

Day 44 - HIV/AIDS Advocates

Wendy, Laurèn, Faven, Yohannes and Ward (photographer) in Harar, Ethiopia, with family.

Social media was abuzz yesterday with #World AIDS Day. Celebrities, talk show hosts, past politicians, magazines, and athletes revealed what they are doing to make a difference. There were concerts and contests, statements and stories, and products and promotions. What an opportunity we have to become involved in something that really CAN change the world for future generations. 

“Every generation is known for something. Let's be the one to deliver an AIDS FREE GENERATION.” (RED)

I think that HIV/AIDS still feels very far away. It is true that an estimated two-thirds of the world’s HIV-positive population lives in Africa. Most of us will never go to Africa.

I have been there four times. 

The orphan crisis in sub-Saharan Africa IS a direct result of HIV/AIDS. The demographic most affected is adults between the ages of 15 & 49. Let’s make sure that the next generation of children has parents who can love them, and raise them with the richness of culture, religion, and language, in the country best suited to their needs. 

I am inspired by those who choose to stand up in support of, or against something—and take a risk. As you look through some of the many stories, please consider making a donation, in lieu of a gift, to one of the many organizations doing this amazing and necessary work. 

When Elizabeth Taylor was asked why she became involved so early in the HIV epidemic, this is what she said:

“I kept seeing all these news reports on this new disease and kept asking myself why no one was doing anything. And then I realized that I was just like them. I wasn’t doing anything to help.” In 1985, Elizabeth Taylor joined with a group of doctors and scientists to form the American Foundation for AIDS Research, or what is now commonly known as amfAR. 

The U2 front man and rock legend Bono founded the (RED) Foundation in 2006 with Bobby Shriver to engage millions of people from around the world in the fight against HIV and AIDS in Africa. "Together we've raised 325 MILLION dollars, and impacted 60 MILLION lives." 

President Bill Clinton has spent much time post-presidency fighting the AIDS epidemic in Africa and around the world. He has shown almost a singular focus on raising awareness and delivering aid through the Clinton Global Initiative and has taken multiple trips to a number of countries across Africa, working to post nurses in rural clinics in various countries, deliver medicines to people who need them, and send experts to train hospital workers throughout the continent.  

Annie Lennox brings passion and tenacity to everything she does, and her work in HIV activism is no different. The vocal powerhouse has championed many causes and is a celebrated social activist who has worked tirelessly to give a voice to women and children living with HIV in Africa and throughout the world. The U.N. ambassador launched the SING campaign, which works to raise support for HIV-positive women and children in Southern Africa.

Sir Elton John has always been outspoken, which is why he wasn’t afraid to fight HIV and AIDS in a time when many celebrities were afraid to be attached to the disease. In 1992 he founded the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which supports HIV prevention, education, and supports people living with HIV.

Nelson Mandela's most significant contribution to the fight against Aids may have been at the international Aids conference in Durban in July 2000. The meeting had become a rally of those who wanted life-saving treatment for Africans with HIV. The powerful speeches of Edwin Cameron*, a judge with HIV, and a small boy called Nkosi Johnson, who died a couple of years later, brought it to the world's attention. Mandela closed the meeting with a speech that changed the Aids agenda. He said, this is “the one event where every word uttered, every gesture made, has to be measured against the effect it can and will have on the lives of millions of real human beings all over this continent and planet".

*Edwin Cameron article in The Guardian, Dec. 1, 2015

“Care for us and accept us – we are all human beings,” Nkosi said at the conclusion of his speech. “We are normal. We have hands. We have feet. We can walk, we can talk, we have needs just like everyone else. Don’t be afraid of us – we are all the same.” 

Nkosi Johnson

NBA superstar Magic Johnson announced that he was HIV positive in 1991 and has since become an outstanding advocate for safe sex and for others living with HIV. His courageous announcement of his HIV status helped to end the widespread stereotype that HIV was a "gay disease" about which heterosexuals need not worry.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s goal is to significantly reduce the incidence of HIV infection and extend the lives of people living with HIV.

Wherever she goes, 17-year-old Canadian, Ashley Murphy brings along her strength, courage, and the idea that we have to live life positively—no matter what challenges we are faced with.

Born to parents unable to care for her, Ashley was fighting for her life in the hospital at just six months old. She was born HIV positive, and the condition had developed into AIDS. She was placed into foster care, and her foster parents were told Ashley had just weeks to live. But after taking Ashley home, her health steadily began to improve.

Ashley has been speaking publicly about her condition since age 10, and has spoken at We Day events across Canada, sharing the stage with personalities like Queen Noor of Jordan, Martin Luther King III and Magic Johnson. Ashley’s story has inspired many people around the world, especially others with HIV, with the message that we can all overcome our challenges—and use them to help others.

TEDx Talk 

The Stephen Lewis Foundation works with community-level organizations which are turning the tide of HIV/AIDS in Africa by providing care and support to women, orphaned children, grandmothers and people living with HIV and AIDS. 

Day 46 - Anne Lamott

Many of you know that I have been writing a memoir manuscript. At the beginning of May I started a 30-week correspondence course through Humber College, with writing advisor Olive Senior. This is the last week of my thirty weeks. I have produced—at least—84,000 words. Within those words contains a story. 

I went away last weekend to get away from distraction, and write the final chapter. I thought it would be the easiest one. The scenes I wanted in the final chapter floated in my head, along with scenes scattered throughout the book, a literary milky way. I had no idea where the story would end. I knew the year it would end—2013—and I knew the place—Ethiopia—but I did not know what event would mark the end of this story. 

I stared at my computer screen for long periods of time. Then I did the dishes. I stared some more. Then I vacuumed, washed the floors, walked the dogs, sang a few songs, got on the wind-trainer, checked Facebook, and pulled out my hair. 

Late Sunday night, long after I was supposed to be back home, I sat in utter frustration, filled with anxiety. I can’t finish. I’m not going to be able to do it. Shit.

 I turned to the book “Bird by Bird”, by Anne Lamott. I knew that in the book Lamott wrote about “Shitty First Drafts”, so I searched for inspiration. Here is some of what she says:

Very few writers really know what they are doing until they’ve done it. 

The first draft is the child’s draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later. You just let this childlike part of you channel whatever voices and visions come through and onto the page. 

Just get it all down on paper because there may be something great in those six crazy pages that you would never have gotten to by more rational, grown-up means. 

So I pulled out my favorite pen and opened my creative journal; I began to write—bird by bird—about being with Yohannes and Faven’s family in Ethiopia, about the Rift Valley, about the food, about the turmoil, about the shopping to purchase supplies for their older siblings, about the hardships, the sadness, the hope, and the impossible.

And then, twenty-three pages into handwriting the truth, the gibberish, the story—a scene that I had not even previously seen, or remembered appeared on the page. I stopped writing. I stared at the words, and I instantly knew that I had found my ending.