Story to tell....Veronique

Thirty years ago, on December 6 1989, in Montreal, 14 women in l’Ecole Polytechnique were killed because they were women. I was only a young kid back then and I don’t recall those events. Years later I remember, on the day of the anniversary, listening to the news and seing the sorrow the souvenir brought into the lives of people across the country but not fully understanding why it had happened. It’s only years later, while attending university in the engineering program, that I really became fully aware of the gravity and the meaning of that day in the evolution of women’s rights. They were 14 women just like me, just like many women I’ve grown with and shared challenges of studying in a field where men dominated in numbers. We were all aspiring to do great things, to push the limits established in the society, and complete our education with a goal in mind of helping our communities, our country and the world. We had dreams, and we were going after them. Never in our minds w...

You wait. You do the work. You are hoping for an outcome. You work at it so hard, you think it will never come. You take one step back, sometimes two. You are waaaaayyy to hard on yourself because you should know better, you'be gone through the learnings and you can't really understand why the path is going as you thought if would. The picture is still blurry and you wonder if it will ever happen. You've dreamed of it, you've wished for it, and yet still nothing. Until..... Well, the day has arrived. Totally unexpected. You took a chance. You didn't know for sure if this was the right move, but yet, you took a chance. Your gut was telling you it was what you were meant to do. Your gut was stronger than any anxiety & insecurity you might feel, and for once, you listened to it. It felt like a big plunge into the abyss but at last you did it. It took a few weeks. You were scared, telling yourself you've made a big mistake, you probably should have played i...

The moment when you all of a sudden feel inspired by someone or something you've just watched or witness. The ha-ha moment. The moment that follows, I would define it as the cliff moment. The moment when you have an amazing idea or a vision of something that could be beautiful and truly life changing. In that moment, that doesn't really last forever but gives you that boost of energy, fuels your soul and would allow you to conquer the world in that one instant. You feel so powerful, event though you might not have done anything so far in your life that merits to be noticed or acknowledged. We all have to moments, where everything is possible. How many of us make something out of those moments? Hard to tell. I would define those moments, the cliff moments. The cliff because you know you are on the edge of something great, and the only thing that is stopping you of taking the jump, is your own self doubts, your own fears and your own uncertainties. Nothing is for sure in ...

As a year come to an end we all have a tendency to look back on what the past year has brought us and make an assessment of the quality of the year we’ve had. Some of us will judge the past year based on the personal accomplishments we’ve made, by the milestone that we’ve reached, the successes we’ve had at work or with our families. We often are looking for a measure. A measure that is based on what society has been dedicating us through social measurements and gauges. If we take that yard stick and we measure ourselves and the past year to what society has shown us to be great and successful, maybe we are missing out on something. We are missing out on what our true value is as an human being, missing out on what our accomplishments really mean to us. Aren’t we meant to always be disappointment if we only count on those social barometers to decide if it’s been a year worth living? Worth the question I think :) Here are some of my reflections of the past year; ------ ...

I was probably too young when they first started playing, not exposed and part of the phenomenon that were the Tragically Hips. I don't think that anybody really knew, how much they were going to mean to us. No one really saw coming, the impact that Gord Downie was going to have on our lives. I feel privileged, lucky and honoured today to have witness part of this journey. Gord Downie's late journey, was one that most of us will most likely experienced privately, with our close family and friends. It is pretty amazing, that through his illness, he decided to instead care only for himself and be afraid of what was to come, to offer it to the world, to Canada and to the community. He devoted himself to shine the light on the northern & aboriginal community of our great nation. A community that has been neglected by all of us. I'm not an expert and I certainly don't have all the facts to speak at length about this, but from my soul, I can see how our fellow Can...

In that exact moment you feel completely denuded. Your soul is totally exposed and you feel raw. You can fell the energy shift, you are feeling it, it's exhilarating. You have this connection to the Earth, you are totally grounded. Those moments are magic. Your heart and soul are opened, it's like you've developed an 8th sense. You notice things that before you would have stopped paying attention to or not realize it was happening. It takes a release of all expectations you have towards the world and people. You need to be able to let go of judgment and really open your mind and soul to all possibilities to be able to get into this spiritual state of mind. Your thoughts have to be put to the side, you have to quiet your mind. I am surely not a master of it yet, but I have those moments. Moments of pure connection with my surroundings. Looking into a strangers eyes, who you are just passing by and in that moment you are able to understand their exact state of m...

Do you believe in magic? I'm not talking about the kind of magic you've seen being done on a stage, by a talented magicien. I'm referring to the magic that comes for the soul. I've you ever met someone, that while you are watching them and listening to them, you just feel this energy. You are not quite sure what it is, what you are really witnessing or if you are even understanding what the person is all about, but you just feel good in that person's presence. I think most of us, as we grow into our adult life, are dismissing those moments. We are categorizing those moments and people, because we don't understand and they are very different from us. Perhaps we are the ones that are missing out on something. Instead of embracing the energy, we get scared of it and we close ourselves off because it's just not our "normal". I remember when I was younger, to have add amazing connections with people of all age. I didn't know it at the time b...