Emotional Health and Well-Being

On Saturday September 7th, 2019, the headlines across Canada and the global tennis world captured the incredible accomplishment of Bianca Andreescu, who at 19 years of age, became the first Canadian to win a Grand Slam singles title.  

Those who aren't familiar with what it takes to journey through the junior tennis world to have a chance of standing where Bianca Andreescu is today likely cannot imagine the dark side of such a trek.  

Here's a headline that you won't see from any media outlet: Read more

A friend once told me that if we were to gather up all of the money in the world - some 400 trillion US dollars - and distribute it equally among the global human population, within a decade, all of this money would flow in a way where we would end up with about the same level of inequality that we have today.

For obvious reasons, we could never carry out such an experiment, but I feel there is merit to the idea that money does not flow randomly and without reason. While there are rare outlying scenarios, generally, money flows toward things that are valuable. Read more

Originally posted in January of 2017.

In walking along the icy shoreline of Lake Simcoe with our firstborn in late December, I found myself feeling grateful for having lived long enough to know that our boys will remember me no matter what happens from here on out. This was my greatest wish from the time this young fellow arrived into our arms in 2005.

Today, my new greatest wish is that our boys grow up to feel that they can come to me to talk about anything. No matter how grave their concern, how intense their anger, disappointment, or sadness - even if I am a root cause of their suffering - I hope I will have built up enough trust in my emotional bank account with them that they want to share and discuss their feelings, knowing that I will do my best to understand them. Read more

Yesterday, we were devastated to learn that Lee MacMillan took her own life at 28 years of age.  We first noticed Lee through her global VanLife adventures that were beautifully documented on YouTube.  Though we never knew Lee personally, we felt a real connection to her and her then partner Max partly because Lee hailed from our hometown of Barrie, Ontario, but mostly because Lee and Max and their dog Occy exuded a special kindness and zest for life. Read more