Engaging Women in Meaningful Conversations Makes Community

On this beautiful spring day, I decided to spend some time at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, Ontario. The lilacs were in full bloom and I wanted to treat my senses. There I was in a grove of lilac bushes, with over 800 different cultivar taking in the different purples, blues, whites and greens and wishing there was a way to capture the delicious fragrance that are so unique to lilacs. I was so grateful to have taken the moment to slow down and take this all in. I commented to a woman next to me that I wished I could somehow bottle the smell. This turned into an education about cancer prevention that I wasn’t expecting and was willing to hear. The woman’s name was Jennifer, a member and regular visitor of the RBG and someone with a mission to educate people about the chemical toxins that are in all of our consumable products – the food we eat and the personal care products we use. She shared with me a past experience that taught her that sometimes a negative turns into a positive. When she was 18, she was in car accident that should have claimed her life but she was spared. She was driving her father’s car wrecklessly, wishing it was the convertible her friend’s father had just bought her. Looking back, she knows that it was her father’s choice in vehicles that saved her life. At this point in her life she has taken up the purposeful task of educating people on cancer prevention and wishes to someday write a book about all of the information she has uncovered. She is a role model for chemical-free living and limits her own exposure to cancer-causing agents by consuming only natural and organic products.

What are you most proud of?

To be honest, I missed this question. And I wish I had asked it. This woman had a great sense of pride about her, a countenance that spoke of purpose, clarity and determination. Much to be proud of and yet I wonder what stands out most for her.

I wish I had…

“I wish I had my own swimming pool like I used to have. I wish I had more friends in my condo. I wish I had 5 pounds off but then I look at very overweight people and I think well… I wish I had a man in my life that doesn’t want to move in, ‘cause I don’t want them moving in. I wish I had a sister who was talking to me – we’re not talking right now. She lives 10 minutes from here but we don’t see each other. You notice there’s nothing I’m wishing for that’s related to money and material things are not a part of that either.”

What makes you happy?

“Being here – being right here makes me happy. For every person I reach with this cancer prevention information makes me happy. I can’t control what people buy but I can give them the information and they can make the decision from there. So that’s what makes me happy.”

What makes you sad?

“My son lives in Toronto and I don’t get to see him as much as I’d like. But he was living in England and then he came back to Toronto, that made me happy. Sad… hmmm… I don’t know, not a lot of things make me sad.”

What do you fear?

“Flying and I used to travel a great deal. I fear the holocaust that we’re living in. People are being poisoned every day and I want to help them, I want to educate people. I want to teach. That’s basically what I fear. Ummm, snow storms – I feel trapped inside. I fear things that are going on in the world and I hope they don’t affect Canada, like tsunamis, earthquakes, natural disasters that are going on in the rest of the world. I don’t dwell on it – I just hope it doesn’t happen here.”

What inspires you?

“The fact that I’ve got good health and I’ve got energy to do what I want and go where I like. I’m seeing a good play tomorrow – so concerts and plays, good movies, stuff like that and coming to the gardens. And talking to people – I love it.”

Who is your hero?

“God, God is my hero. And my Dad, I think he was my hero. He didn’t get that convertible. And now that I could get one, I don’t even want one. They’re not that safe and imagine a woman alone driving a convertible, anyone can get into the car at any time.”

What do you long for?

“A man in my life that doesn’t want to move in with me. I don’t want someone with me all the time. I need space, my independence.”

My best advice is…

“Take the information that I have for people and not buy those products. To live a clean, chemical-free life and de-tox everyday with lemon juice and water. That would be my best advice: to figure out a way not to buy these products.”

What question should I ask you now?

“I don’t know. I think you’ve covered it all.”

I appreciate all of the information Jennifer had to share. I found some of it pretty overwhelming to be honest and was conscious of her impact on me as well as my experience of sensory overload from the lilac grove. The care and keeping of ourselves and our loved ones is a priority. There’s a lot of information out there. We can’t possibly take it all in and it’s a good thing we have people like Jennifer who share what they know.

Four Years. Go.

The name of a campaign for transformational change for our planet. It was launched in March and rather than use my own words to describe it, I’m going to share the description from the press release issued on March 19:

“A global educational and awareness campaign rolled out this week, with the bold vision of changing the course of history— to shift humanity onto a sustainable, just and fulfilling path by 2014: FOUR YEARS. GO….

…FOUR YEARS. GO. is not a new organization. It is a goal—a rallying call—for a growing worldwide coalition of organizations and individuals with deep commitments to producing a transformational shift for humanity. Already, more than 500 additional organizations have become part of the campaign, and that number grows daily.

The intent is to foster a self-organizing, emerging open-space of collaboration and creativity among individuals, NGOs, companies and communities, to ignite a movement. And, for that movement to catalyze a newly vibrant world of wildly diverse and inspired initiatives to co-create a transformed human future.

This will be achieved through millions of individuals and thousands of organizations around the world becoming partners in, and creators of, the FOUR YEARS. GO. campaign. Individuals will declare themselves as “change agents” for a new future. And they will begin a personal hero’s journey that will start by taking the simple steps right in front of them, via the FOUR YEARS. GO. website (www.fouryearsgo.org).

Organizations will be encouraged to explore and commit to the most exciting and impactful social/environmental improvement projects that they can imagine and fulfill within the next four years—trimtab projects that will, collectively, cause a positive tipping point in humanity’s trajectory…”

WOW. This is just one of many movements I’ve noticed lately that are inviting us as citizens of the world to own our individual responsibility for the world we are a part of.  It’s about little steps that collectively have a big impact on transformational change in our world.

Watch the two-minute video here.

I’m inspired. I’m moved. I’m committed. Are you?