Posts Tagged ‘be thankful’

Last year James Mielnik of the Halifax Area Chamber of Commerce asked if I was interested in becoming a Charter Member of the Nova Scotia Come to life program. I jumped at the opportunity for two reasons;

1 – I love Nova Scotia and talking about how great it is to live, work, study, invest and play here is very easy for me (Just ask any of the recent participants at the Forum on Virtual Assistance ~ Everyone who attended now knows something about Nova Scotia.  No one left there wondering where I came from, though technically it is Alberta!)

2 – It seemed a good way to do some more networking, which I truly enjoy.

That opportunity presented by James has turned into many more; a networking event where we signed a ‘charter’ document with the Premier of Nova Scotia, a day of media training, as well as meeting other contacts which has lead to new clients for my business. I also ‘gave back’ by helping the Come to Life staff customize their Twitter profile and showed them how it can help connect their program with more people.

Recently, I was contacted by a journalist, Marie Weeren of 10th floor Solutions. She was assigned by the Come to Life program to “Tell my Story”.  It was slightly daunting being interviewed for this; complete with tape recorder, notepad and all.  However, my story has now been told and is published on the Come to Life website should anyone like to take a read.

Thanks to the people who helped Ms. Weeran with by providing background information about me for her story – Tawnya Sutherland of VAnetworking , Donna Toothaker of 1stVA and David Eisnor from the Centre for Entrepreneurship, Education & Development (CEED).  Your time is also appreciated!

For any business, joining in similar type programs (although this one is very unique) may take a bit of time and effort, but you’ll always find rewards in  the end!

Technorati Tags: be thankful, Entrepreneurs, Nova Scotia, reward, Small business, virtual assistant

I was watching the movie “Seabiscuit” this past Saturday night, and if you have never seen this movie… go rent it.  It is a great story of several people, in the depression era,  who end up coming together because of a horse named Seabiscuit, and surviving those very, very difficult times. The movie has sections with narration and images from the 1930′s, showing what people suffered through to make ends meet. The message of the movie is “You don’t throw a whole life away, just ’cause it’s banged up a  little”.

As it did the first time I saw the movie, some of the images really hit directly in my heart.  Images of children sleeping on cots, in cars, outdoors, with no family around and older children (12 years) doing what it takes to survive.  I find anything that has kids suffering and in pain, I can easily relate to and compare to my own children. It is painful to be reminded of what people went through back then and how lucky we are today.

That was this past weekend; the same time as Hurricane Ike was hitting the Southern States, gas prices here in Nova Scotia and Canada went going up again (even though oil prices were down, I’m still trying to figure out that formula…hmm), and then the big news in the States early this week with regards to Lehman Brothers, AIG and the stock markets in the US & Canada.

Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: be thankful, family, hard times

I was watching the movie “Seabiscuit” this past Saturday night, and if you have never seen this movie… go rent it.  It is a great story of several people, in the depression era,  who end up coming together because of a horse named Seabiscuit, and surviving those very, very difficult times. The movie has sections with narration and images from the 1930′s, showing what people suffered through to make ends meet. The message of the movie is “You don’t throw a whole life away, just ’cause it’s banged up a  little”.

As it did the first time I saw the movie, some of the images really hit directly in my heart.  Images of children sleeping on cots, in cars, outdoors, with no family around and older children (12 years) doing what it takes to survive.  I find anything that has kids suffering and in pain, I can easily relate to and compare to my own children. It is painful to be reminded of what people went through back then and how lucky we are today.

That was this past weekend; the same time as Hurricane Ike was hitting the Southern States, gas prices here in Nova Scotia and Canada went going up again (even though oil prices were down, I’m still trying to figure out that formula…hmm), and then the big news in the States early this week with regards to Lehman Brothers, AIG and the stock markets in the US & Canada.

Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: be thankful, family, hard times