Honoring Mayor Hazel McCallion

Earlier today, Hazel McCallion died peacefully in her sleep at the age of 101.

A businesswoman and politician, Ms. McCallion served as the mayor of Mississauga from 1978 until 2014. A successful candidate in twelve municipal elections, she was acclaimed twice and re-elected ten other times. One unsuccessful opponent compared running against her to “challenging somebody’s favorite grandmother.”

During her term in office, Mississauga grew from a small collection of towns and villages to one of Canada’s largest cities. Politically savvy and pragmatic, she ran government like a business. At one point in her mayoralty, ratepayers went an entire decade without seeing a property tax increase.

In 2011, geriatrician Dr. Barbara Clive assessed Madam Mayor and stated, “At 90, her gait is perfect, her speech is totally sharp, and she has the drive to still run this city. She’s the poster child for seniors.”

My favorite quotations from Mayor Hazel McCallion:

I could never toe the party line. I’d wear the carpet crossing the floor.

Think like a man, act like a lady, and work like a dog.

I am a joiner and always have been. I can tell you it works.

I’m not saying all seniors should be running a city or running a business, but I am saying seniors are good for a lot more than simply running a bath, baking cookies or babysitting grandchildren.

I say it the way it is. I don’t play around. That has been my success, in my opinion, for Mississauga.

I never had the opportunity to go to college or university myself; it wasn’t financially possible. But I really believe education is so important because the future of our Canadian economy is going to be brainpower.

I learned to do with little. And that’s why today, I only spend the taxpayers’ money like I spend my own, which is seldom. The people of Mississauga love that.

I’ve been called other things too, and some of them uncomplimentary and sexist like the “Queen of Sprawl,” “Attila the Hen,” “The Mom who runs Mississauga,” and the “Mississauga Rattler,” so it’s little wonder that my favorite nickname is Hurricane Hazel.

From Premier Doug Ford of Ontario:

“Hazel was the true definition of a public servant. There isn’t a single person who met Hazel who didn’t leave in awe of her force of personality. I count myself incredibly lucky to have called Hazel my friend over these past many years.”

Three Unfiltered Thoughts for a Tough Day

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

A long-time fan of bestselling authors and coaches Marc and Angel Chernoff, I look forward to reading their emails and blog posts. Here’s an excerpt from a recent email:

Sometimes I catch myself staring at people – studying their mannerisms and expressions. I wonder what their story is. What are they searching for? What makes their heart beat with happiness, with sorrow, with fear, with longing?

And then I ask myself, “What words might I write to inspire them, and to remind them that, even on the toughest of days, our hearts all beat for the same things?”

So today I figured I’d share a few of these unfiltered words with you…

1. Too often we work hard to disown the parts of our lives that were painful, difficult, or sad. But just as we can’t rip chapters out of a book and expect the story to still make sense, we can’t rip past chapters out of our lives and expect our lives to still make sense. Keep every chapter of your life intact, and keep on turning the pages. Sooner or later, you’ll get to a page that brings it all together and you’ll suddenly understand why every page and chapter before it was needed.

2. In those frustrating moments when you find yourself standing face to face with an issue you battled before – one bearing a lesson you were sure you had already learned – remember, repetition is not failure. Ask the waves, ask the leaves, ask the wind. Repetition is sometimes required to evolve and grow.

3. As you live and experience things, you must recognize what works and what doesn’t, what belongs and what doesn’t, and then let things go when you know you should. Not out of pride, inability, or arrogance, but simply because not everything is supposed to fit into your life. Close the door, change the record, clean the house, get rid of the dust. Stop being who you were so you can become who you are…

Allow yourself to see something new, and discover something new.

Allow yourself to take up a lot of positive space in your own life.

Allow yourself to think better today…

Note: I highly recommend subscribing to Marc & Angel’s website.

Good Things Happen on Purpose

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

Here’s a thought-provoking reflection from international speaker and bestselling author Joyce Meyer:

Tragedy that has caused pain and suffering is often attributed to an accident, such as an automobile accident, a fall, a broken limb, or some other random situation. But I have never heard anyone say of a good dead, “It was an accident.” Good things happen on purpose. Someone decides to be good to someone else, and then they take corresponding action.

Most people in the world are starved for love. They need affirmation, kindness, compliments—anything that helps them feel valued. Because of what Jesus has done for us, we have the ability to do that for other people, and I think it should be one of our great purposes in life. It should be something we live to do, rather than something we do on rare occasions.

We can live on purpose. Loving God and loving people is our highest purpose in life. When you spend time with people, ask yourself how you could compliment them and then do it. When you are shopping or eating out, tell the people serving you that they did a good job. And always remember that you can never say thank you too often.

Source: Strength for Each Day by Joyce Meyer

Commit to Growth

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

I highly recommend reading When You’re Ready, This is How You Feel by Brianna Wiest. Here’s an inspiring and thought-provoking excerpt:

The truth about forward movement is that it’s more about present stillness tan anything else.

Can you sit with yourself?

Can you be present?

Can you allow yourself to metabolize the feelings that keep coming up?

Are you willing to change your mind?

Are you willing to change your life?

While there are many parts of life that are out of your control, the parts that are within it are often a reflection of you.

When you commit to working on yourself, that effort radiates out and touches everything and everyone around you. So, commit to growth. Commit to becoming better. Decide that you’re ready to expand your heart past its current perimeters.

There is so much more waiting for you, but you have to be open to it first.

Source: When You’re Ready, This is How You Feel, pp.113-114

Honoring Barbara Walters

An Emmy-winning journalist and celebrity interviewer, Barbara Walters was one of the most recognizable news anchors in the world. In a career that spanned over six decades, Ms. Walters appeared on numerous television programs including Today, ABC Evening News, 20/20, and The View. She scored many interview coups, among them Margaret Thatcher, the Shah of Iran, Fidel Castro, Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin, Katharine Hepburn, and Indira Gandhi.

Barbara Walters died yesterday (December 30, 2022) at the age of 93.

My favorite quotations from Barbara Walters:

Life sometimes brings enormous difficulties and challenges that seem just too hard to bear. But bear them you can, and bear them you will, and your life can have a purpose.

To excel is to reach your own highest dream. But you must also help others, where and when you can, to reach theirs. Personal gain is empty if you do not feel you have positively touched another’s life.

To feel valued, to know, even if only once in a while that you can do a job well is an absolutely marvelous feeling.

Success can make you go one of two ways. It can make you a prima donna—or it can smooth the edges, take away the insecurities, let the nice things come out.

Don’t worry about finding your bliss right now. Not even our President knew what his bliss was, nor did I. One of these days to your own surprise, your bliss will find you. But no matter what you do, participate, be there, full force, full heart, full steam ahead.

A good laugh makes any interview, or any conversation, so much better.

Don’t confuse being stimulating with being blunt.

The hardest thing you will ever do is trust yourself.

You’ll have some failure. And you’ll be able to go on, add a new chapter, and have a more interesting time.

Work harder than everybody. You’re not going to get it by whining, and you’re not going to get it by shouting, and you’re not going to get it by quitting.

Writing Takes Time

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

In A Year of Writing Dangerously, author and teacher Barbara Abercrombie shares anecdotes, insights, and solutions. Here’s a thought-provoking excerpt:

No one has to be patient anymore. We can publish books right from our computers. We can get messages anywhere, anytime. We can have whole libraries of books instantly zapped to whatever our latest gadget is, or a complete film festival delivered at the click of a button. We can plug ourselves directly into our music without bothering with CDs. We never, ever have to be bored, subjected to silence, or deal with our inner life.

But no matter how fast the world zips along, no matter how much fun there is to be had, the fact remains that writing takes time. To write takes dreaming and remembering and thinking and imagining—and very often what feels like wasting time. It takes silence and solitude. It takes being okay with making a huge mess and not knowing what you’re doing. Then it takes rewriting and struggling to find your story and the truth of the story, and then the meaning of the story. It takes being comfortable with your own doubts and fears and questions. And there’s just no fast and easy way around it.

Source: A Year of Writing Dangerously p.12

Live Life on Purpose

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

Here’s a thought-provoking reflection from international speaker and bestselling author Joyce Meyer:

Living life on purpose rather than merely drifting aimlessly through one day after another is very important. We only get one life, and we should make it count. I encourage you to do something each day that adds value to someone else, and your day will be well spent.

We cannot live according to our feelings and behave wisely at the same time. Good choices often have nothing to do with emotions, so we need to learn to live beyond them. Enjoy the good feelings when they are present, but don’t let not having them control you. Live life on purpose.

Begin each day thinking about what you believe would be good choices to make, and don’t let yourself be distracted by useless things that steal your time and produce no good fruit.

Source: Strength for Each Day by Joyce Meyer

Three Things to Remember When Life Does Not Go as Planned

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

A long-time fan of bestselling authors and coaches Marc and Angel Chernoff, I look forward to reading their emails and blog posts. Here’s an excerpt from a recent email:

1. Do not let what is out of your control interfere with what you can control. Use your frustrations today to motivate you rather than annoy you. You are in control of the way you look at things. Truth be told, there is an opportunity in almost every difficult situation to understand yourself more deeply, and also to improve your life.

2. When life’s struggles knock you into a pit so deep you can’t see anything but darkness, don’t waste valuable energy trying to dig your way out. Because if you hastily dig in the dark, you’re likely to head in the wrong direction and only dig the pit deeper. Instead, use what energy you have to reach out and pull something good in with you. For goodness is bright; its radiance will show you which way is up, and illuminate the correct path that will take you there.

3. When you can no longer think of a reason to continue, you must think of a reason to start over. There’s a big difference between giving up and starting over in the right direction. And there are three little words that can release you from your past regrets and guide you forward to a positive new beginning.

These words are: From now on…

Again, you are NOT in control of everything, but you ARE in control of the way you respond to life. And in your present response is your power.

Note: I highly recommend subscribing to Marc & Angel’s website.