An audio message for you this morning, from my heart and home to yours. https://youtu.be/sZ6Y3V_ZBXo

A new concept was introduced into my world of late, one that I am enjoying dancing with as I do my best to achieve health and career goals. The idea - when thinking of a goal you want to achieve, do not think of what you need to do to achieve it. Rather, think of what you will give up to achieve it. I gave up eating after 6 pm (so I can achieve the 12-hour fast recommended by the LifestyleRx program I am part of). This one act alone brought down my morning blood sugars dramatically. I gave up my couch, trading mindless hours of video viewing for reading and moving. I gave up chips and snacking in the evening (again, 12-hour fast). In other words, I gave up things that were NOT helping me achieve my goals and as a result ... I am. And for those panicking, I will get another couch ... when I retire. Right now, not needed. The journey continues and I am loving this chapter! lol I love you! HUGSSSSSSSS Sandi

I am awake, I am alive, as my journey continues ... With drastic changes to habit and environment of late, I am seeing the results with each new day. - More work is completed each day, ensuring the continued success of my business. - KPIs for my health indicate that I am most definitely on the right track - Learning has increased as daily reading and training take a greater role (replacing mindless hours of television viewing) - And most of all, my self-determination, pride and happiness have grown exponentially as I practice being the woman I always knew I could be (and who I soon will be). External forces have not changed. This was all inside work and I could not be happier to say ... The journey continues. I love you! HUGSSSSSSSS Sandi

This morning my heart and mind are focused, focused on Bill 5, focused on message of the Grand Chief and more, the words of Chief Wabasse as they prepare to fight the good fight. Because it is happening again ... We are once again being deemed "in the way". Canada was happy to leave those northern remote communities without water, without proper health supports, without the educational needs for their children being met ... until minerals were identified. Now Canada is once again ready, with bulldozers and fancy words, to run over the very people who call that land home, who heal on that land, who love and live on that land, who hunt and fish on their land. The mainstream message, as consistent as it is haunting ... No matter what benefits you derive from the land as is, we will pay you to move out of the way. We will bribe you. We will promise the moon and give you a paper cut out of a star. Just get out of the way!! (Anger and frustration replacing words sweet enough to cause diabetes when they do not get their way.) No, just no. Because Canada has bulldozed over the rights of Indigenous people since they got here, always seeing us as in the way on our own lands, always taking from us and the land with no regard for the harm rendered. No, just no. Yes the people of the North want and need jobs and an economy that supports their people but they know there is such thing as a price to high to pay. Destroying Mother Earth has never concerned the insatiable needs of mainstream but it concerns us. We are the stewards then and now and I stand with Chief Wabasse. The silence of the land is the calm before the storm. And it is gonna storm. A'ho.

I don't think this is a fight we win ... This morning, an email arrived from an activist friend. Her message was as simple as it was powerful, highlighting how nothing had changed since the death of George Floyd, how "Black Lives Matter" had been declared and emblazoned on t-shirts but nothing more. As I finished reading her message, my thoughts turned again to Chief Wabasse and the fight the northern Chiefs now face and I came to one simple conclusion ... I don't think this is a fight we win. Before you jump down my throat, let me explain. I don't think this is a fight we win. Rather, I believe it is a fight that requires constant vigilance, like fortress walls or iron domes. I think Roe vs Wade taught us that. I think democracy taught us that. I think Black Lives Matter taught us that. I think LGBTQQIAP+ rights taught us that. I think Indigenous rights taught us that. The trick - do not wish for or anticipate the end. Rather train for the constant vigilance. Take pride in taking your turn on the wall, in speaking up, in posting words on social media, or carrying a sign in protest. Never waver, never give up, never be the weakest link because I don't believe this is the type of fight we win. Rather, this is the kinda line we draw. The journey continues ...