Secret Path (Gord Downie and Jeff Lemire)

Secret Path written by Gord Downie and illustrated by Jeff Lemire is both an interesting collection and an interesting way to tell a story and teach some of Canada's history. It includes a book in graphic novel style, a whole album of music, and a mostly animated film. This collection follows the story of Chanie (misnamed Charlie) Wenjack and his journey of running away from a residential school in Ontario, Canada to try and get back home to his family, sadly dying along the way. The first thing that I noticed about the book before I even opened it is the size. It is a large square book measuring 12x12". The size reminded me of the large size of coffee table books. I wondered if this could mean something because it personally made me think that the size was saying that just like a coffee table book is left out in the open for everyone to see, Chanie's story should not be hidden away on a book shelf but instead be out in the open for everyone to know.

The book itself follows a pattern: a page with the lyrics to one of the songs from Gord Downie's album followed by several pages of graphic novel style illustrations with no words or dialogue (except for a "goodbye" from Chanie as he leaves his body in the end) to describe the part of Chanie's story that the song describes. This pattern is repeated for each of the other songs for a total of ten songs. Every time I came across a song as I was reading, I would read the lyrics while I actually listened to the song and then I would look at the illustrations. It was a very emotional experience. Listening to the songs that are filled with so much emotion and then seeing a visual depiction of the lyrics really makes you feel the story and understand what Chanie went through instead of simply knowing what he went through. It was great to watch the animated film after having gone through the book. It follows the same pattern of showing a visual depiction for each song. The same illustrations from the book were animated for the film and the songs are played in order while each of the visual depictions are shown. Seeing the book come alive on a screen was beautiful and even more emotional. I definitely found myself crying by the end.

The colours of the illustrations are really important to the storytelling. The illustrations in grey, black, and white show all of Chanie's sad moments and memories while all of the colourful illustrations show his happy memories. It's a great way of showing Chanie's emotions. The main setting of the story is the train tracks. As he walks along them while running away from the residential school to get back home, he has flashbacks mostly to his time in the residential school. The flashbacks start, however, with his life before the residential school when he was happy living at home with his family and from then on show all of the bad memories from the residential school. It is as though the train tracks are the trunk of a tree and the memories are branches. In the structure of the story, Chanie is thinking of all of these memories because he is running away therefore it all results from walking along the train tracks. Walking along the train tracks to get back home is the important part of the story and his memories show us why he is trying to go back home. His home is what he wants to go to and the residential school is what he is trying to get away from. Both are the reasons why he is running away. Things that he sees or are seen by us in the illustrations make the train track and memory scenes flow together with them being connected through imagery. Having the illustrations show his thoughts and feelings as he tries to go back home draws us into the story and makes us feel along with him.

I also found some of the messages and meanings hidden in the story, among the obvious message of the fact that we need to be more aware of Canada's history regarding Indigenous people, to be very interesting. "Here, Here, And Here" is a very haunting song about death. I see it as saying that we are all connected. We don't just feel, hurt, live, and die in one place but all over the place because we are connected to so many places and so many people. Another meaning that it could have could be that feeling, hurting, living, and dying happens in many parts of our body like our mind, heart, and soul. A raven shows up several times throughout the story which is important to note since the raven has a lot of symbolism in Aboriginal culture. The raven has many meanings but some of the meanings that I think are important to this story are transformation, exposing the truth behind secrets, and healing. Chanie wanted to go back home and did not want to stay at the residential school where he was taught to be something that he was not so I see him transforming as he runs away because he is figuring out who he wants to be rather than what they told him to be at the residential school. This story is showing us some of the true history of Canada that we haven't really learned about and so it is exposing the truth behind some of the history that was kept a secret. Healing will hopefully come from opening up this part of the history book for all to know and understand. At the end of the story, I thought about how Chanie needed to get back home within his own country when his own country was supposed to be his home and I feel that that is important to think about because it makes us see that this country that we see as beautiful, free, friendly, and as our home has some dark times in its history. We have begun to learn more about the things that really happened in Canada and we continue to learn and must learn more. We are now such a welcoming country to people who come here but the people who first came here from other countries weren't accepting of the people who were actually here first. This was the home of the Indigenous people and yet other people came and tried to change everything.

This is only the beginning of a conversation. There are so many stories of residential schools and all of the other difficulties that Indigenous people in Canada have faced since people from other countries came to this land. Secret Path is a powerful story and sometimes we need a powerful personal story to get us to start looking further into the situation. Just learning about the residential schools is not enough. We need to understand and really feel what happened. History has already happened but we need to learn about and understand what happened in the past so that the truth is known and things can change. We need to understand the past so that it will not be repeated. I apologize if I have misunderstood any part of the story or the messages and meanings in the story. I am always learning. I think that we need to dive deep into the story and how the collection has been presented to us to really understand and we should share our thoughts and feelings that come from experiencing this collection in order to open up conversations about what has happened in Canada.

May we continue to learn the untold history of Canada, understand, and create a better today and a better future.

Sending peace,
Kaylie

My Goals for 2017

I revealed my word for 2017, HEALTH, in January but I'm a bit late to the whole 2017 goals party. That's okay! The great thing about personal goals is that you can start any time! I'm still going to refer to this as my 2017 goals list though, since we aren't actually that far into 2017. For this goals list, I had to force myself to keep it a bit more simple. For one thing, I limited myself to five major goals. I did this so that my goals list wouldn't be overwhelming. I have so many things that I want to do but I needed to choose to mainly focus on only a few of those things and I needed to choose the goals that are the most important to me at this time. I also tried to be specific with my goals. Instead of writing down to just do something more often, I decided to say how often I want to do it. I also decided not to go overboard with each goal. Of course I'd love to do these things way more than I decided, but, once again, I don't want to overwhelm myself. I put a limit on things so that I can ease into my goals more easily. I'm also happy that I have two health related goals on my list to go with my word for the year. So, without further ado, here are my goals for the year of 2017.

1) Read 25 novels: I chose this goal for one specific reason: I want to read more books. It's as simple as that. I studied English Literature in university but I don't read as many books as people would think. Sometimes it takes me months to get through a novel. It sits on my table or keeps getting packed in my purse, hoping to be read a lot more but that just doesn't happen. I become busy with other things or I just have trouble concentrating enough to sit down and read. That's just the way I am but I want to change that. I thought of setting my goal at a much higher number, something crazy like 50 or 100 novels this year, but I felt that that was much too high. I get overwhelmed easily so I often need to start things off small and go from there. I have a feeling that I'll probably read more than 25 novels this year but I'm still keeping it at 25 in my mind just so that I don't scare myself too much. I want to actually achieve this goal.

2) Do yoga every day: This one is so important! I have found that yoga helps me a lot. If I start feeling down, yoga picks me right up! I just do yoga at home in my living room. I have lots of yoga DVDs so I move furniture, set up my mat, take off my socks, put on some finger-less exercise gloves to help with grip, pop in a DVD, and away I go. My Mom often joins me and actually gets a bit mad if I start doing yoga without her. I love yoga because it helps with strength, flexibility, balance, and it helps me relax and concentrate. I feel great after doing a yoga practice. I feel happy and ready for anything. So far, I've been doing some yoga here and there but I want to do more. It is definitely something that I need to do every day.

3) Meditate every day: This is another important one. Meditation is so beneficial but I have a lot of trouble with it. My mind wanders too much so I have trouble concentrating on the meditation whether I am just meditating on my own or using a guided meditation. Meditation takes practice and we need to train our brain to meditate so I need to practice meditation much more to get any better at it.

4) Practice piano and flute once a week: I miss playing piano and flute. I used to take private piano lessons and I also taught piano. While I was in high school, I played flute in concert band. I miss all of this. I want to bring piano and flute back into my life but I'm a bit nervous to start playing again since I haven't really played much in the past few years. This is all for my own enjoyment, however, so I though that I better take it slow and ease my way back into practicing my instruments again. I decided that once a week isn't too overwhelming and I can make sure that I definitely set aside time to practice.

5) Publish blog posts three times a week: I started this goal two weeks into January and so far so good. I enjoy writing blog posts and it really helps with my writing and it gets me thinking about certain topics a lot more. I looked back on some of my old posts, thinking that they weren't so great and I actually considered deleting all of them and starting fresh but they weren't actually that bad. Some of them were pretty good. I realized that I've become better at writing blog posts and I want to keep improving. I have also been working on writing longer posts and expanding more on the topics that I write about whenever I write a post. When deciding on how often to post, I felt that three times a week was good. It isn't too much or to little and it isn't too overwhelming.

I guess I'll just have to see how it goes. I'll talk about my goals again at the end of the year to see how far I've come with them. No matter what, it's a start. And we all have to start somewhere.

Cheers,
Kaylie

Braving the Winter 2017 Playlist

Here in Sudbury, the snow just keeps coming. It's really pretty though. I love the look of fresh snow on tree branches. It's quite magical! But, Winter is kind of tough for me because my feet get cold worse than other people and it doesn't seem to matter what kind of boots I wear... my feet are going to get freezing cold no matter what to the point where they feel like they have actually frozen. There's not much that I can do about it unless I want to take medication. I just have to try to layer up enough. That is, if I actually decide to go outside in the Winter weather, which is not as frequent as during all of the other seasons. Also, the almost constant cloudiness of the sky really affects my mood. Having said all of that, I always look forward to Spring. Always. So, I decided to name this year's Winter playlist "Braving the Winter" because I think we all need to be brave during this tougher season.

Here's my Winter playlist that I put together for you on Spotify (make sure you have an account first!): Braving the Winter 2017 Playlist

Also, check out the Winter playlist that I put together last year: Frosty Winter 2016 Playlist

And you can always listen to other seasonal playlists that I have put together in the past by checking out my Spotify profile: thewanderingchickadee

Cheers,

Kaylie

Dreamy Summer 2016 Playlist

Summer solstice was on June 20th!! I am so happy that it is finally Summer! It seemed like it was never going to come but we are having beautiful weather at last! We were having a heatwave here in Sudbury last week but then it changed to stormy weather and now the weather is perfect! Not only does Summer bring nice weather here in the North, but it also brings feelings of possibility, opportunity, and pure bliss.

For my Summer playlist, I decided to make it extra special and double the number of songs. So, instead of the usual 15 songs that I add to my seasonal playlists, this one has 30 SONGS!! Woohoo! Lots of songs to enjoy all Summer long! You'll need them too... for listening to while you hang out by the pool... while you lie in the grass and watch the clouds... while you work on all of those Summer hobby projects that you plan to do... the possibilities are endless! All of these songs remind me of Summery things: beautiful weather, the great outdoors, lots of fun, and the feeling that anything can happen!

As always, I made this playlist using Spotify so make sure that you have a Spotify account! I hope you enjoy my Dreamy Summer 2016 Playlist!

Enjoy,
Kay

My Favourite Eurovision Entries 2016

This year's Eurovision Song Contest takes place in Stockholm, Sweden. To tell you the truth, I'm not as excited for Eurovision this year. The entries this year don't seem to be as good as previous years. Listening to all of the songs (which can always be found on Eurovision's website and Youtube channel) ahead of time, there weren't a whole lot of them that struck me as new, exciting, unique, interesting... there weren't a whole lot that really popped, you know? Most of them didn't have that wow factor that a winning song has. I found that most of the songs just sounded like a lot of songs that I have heard before, like they were copying the sound and style but not really doing anything new with it.

However, I still listened to some songs that were new, exciting, unique, interesting, really popped, and had the wow factor that I was looking for. These songs also come from entries in the 1st and 2nd semi-finals. None of the entries that are automatically in the grand final, otherwise known as the "Big Five," plus the winning country from last year made my list. I was actually surprised about this as at least a few of the automatic entries in the grand final usually make my list. Anyway, here is my list of entries that I like this year followed by explanations of why I like them. Keep in mind that I focused more on the song rather than the video because the performance might be different from how the artists originally performed the song or different from the music video. I will, of course, start with my favourite entry that I am cheering for (I'm "cheering" for them since I am from Canada and am therefore not allowed to vote).


MY FAVOURITE ENTRY:

"Loin d'ici" by ZOË (Austria): I love the instrumentation for this song! It's beautiful and different from other songs that I've heard. The lyrics are nice as well. They are simple but not too simple that it's boring. I love this song so much that I've been listening to ZOË's album, "Debut," a lot lately.


Other Interesting Entries:

• "Pioneer" by Freddie (Hungary): He has an interesting voice and the song has a good beat. I also love the lyrics and the meaning of the song. It's all about being proud of being different and unique.

• "Hear Them Calling" by Greta Salóme (Iceland): I like her voice and the upbeat song. This song sounds like it could be in a movie when characters are running.

• "You Are The Only One" by Sergey Lazarev (Russia): This song is very exciting! It's so fun to listen to and I'm really excited to see how it is performed on stage because they could do some really cool things with this song.

• "Slow Down" by Douwe Bob (The Netherlands): The lyrics have a good meaning about slowing down and finding your way in life. Also, this is more of a country song while a lot of Eurovision songs tend to be pop so it's a nice change.

• "Soldiers of Love" by Lighthouse X (Denmark): The voices of these three men work great together and I also like the bits of piano in the song.

• "Moment of Silence" by Ovidiu Anton (Romania): This song sounds like it could be in a musical. It's very powerful.

Well, there you go! These are my favourite entries this year! As usual, I'll be watching Eurovision online on their web tv since I live in Canada. It takes place on May 10th, 12th, and 14th (you'll have to find out the times for your own time zone).

Cheers,

Kay

Awakening Spring 2016 Playlist

I'm so happy that the snow is melting here in Sudbury. Winter is always a difficult time for me because the lack of sunlight seems to affect my mood and motivation and I also have a circulation problem in my feet so staying out in the cold isn't very fun for me. I'm excited for all of the snow to melt and for the flowers to start growing and the leaves to start appearing on the trees again. I'm really really looking forward to spending time outside again; going for walks and sitting on our front porch and planting our garden. I am determined to spend more time outside this year during the spring, summer, and fall than any other year.

Since Spring Equinox was on Sunday, I decided to make a spring playlist for you guys using Spotify so I hope you enjoy my Awakening Spring 2016 Playlist.

I chose songs that I associate with spring. To me, the songs are fresh, pretty, relaxing, and lively. There's a whole mix of different songs so I hope you enjoy!

Cheers,
Kay

I Shall Have Some Peace There

My family owns a camp, a little cabin in the bush (woods) with a small wood-stove. It is like a second home. When we started using it again regularly this year, two years had passed since we had last visited it. I checked my journal and found out that the last time that we were there was September 22nd, 2013 and we had arrived on September 21st and stayed there overnight. The day that we finally visited again was September 21st, 2015, the day which, two years ago, had been the last night that we would spend there for a while. Of course, some of our relatives who also partly own the camp may have visited it during that time, but it didn't look like it had been used very much.

We have been trying to use it more now. It feels good to go back there, where it is quiet and relaxing. Where we are surrounded by nature. Where there are less distractions. Where we are away from society, away from civilization. I could go on and on but the point is, it's peaceful there. When I am there, I am surrounded by nature and I am also surrounded by my family since we go there together.

I also find that it is easier for me to concentrate on various activities like reading books and working on various projects. I like writing there and working on crafts like my loom knitting. There are so many distractions at my family's house and there are just so many things to be done there. At our camp, however, life is simple. There aren't a million things to do, only a few. That leaves time for working on other things. The quiet of the bush and the warmth of the wood-stove provide a great atmosphere. We sit quietly and read or work on whatever we like. In the mornings, we meditate, and on Saturday evening, we listen to Randy Bachman's Vinyl Tap on CBC Radio, a radio show where Randy Bachman shares songs that fall under a theme (a different theme is chosen for each show) and shares stories from his experience as a musician and his experiences meeting various other musicians.

Of course, many experiences of mine remind me of songs or literature and my experiences of staying at my camp are no different. In William Butler Yeats' poem, "The Lake Isle Of Innisfree," he talks about going to Innisfree and he describes Innisfree and describes what he will do there. At one point in the poem, he says, "I shall have some peace there." For Yeats, Innisfree is where he finds peace. For me, my family's camp is where I find peace.

Cheers,
Kay

Life Lessons That I Learned From Being A Piano Teacher

I was a piano teacher for three years while I was in university. I had enough knowledge of playing piano so my own piano teacher hired me to work as a piano teacher in his piano teaching business, as he often did with other students. It was amazing for me to teach piano because I never really thought of myself becoming a piano teacher. I learned how to play the piano just for fun so it was awesome to actually see something come out of that education, all of those years of piano lessons. It was also amazing for me to teach piano because I learned a lot. Sometimes teaching was a breeze and other times it was more difficult depending on the students. Now that I am no longer teaching piano, I thought that I'd make a list of the life lessons that I learned from teaching piano.

1) Everyone is different in personality and the way that they learn: It is important to remember this and understand it. Understand different personality types and learning types. Get to know them or at least be accepting of them. You never know who you might meet in the world. Be prepared to do things a little differently when meeting various people in order to get to know them or at least have a nice conversation with them.

2) Put yourself in other people's shoes: This is connected to the lesson about how everyone is different. When speaking to someone and teaching someone, put yourself in their shoes. They might not understand what you're saying or teaching so accept and understand this. Once you do this, you can figure out a different approach to the subject.

3) Be open to learning new things: Some people might think that a teacher knows everything about what they teach but the truth is that they do not. They simply know a lot about it, so much that they are able to teach it. There is so much information about everything in the world that it would be hard to actually learn everything about a subject. So, even teachers still need to learn more about what they're teaching, as well as about how to teach. Students ask questions and sometimes we don't have the answers so that can be a great excuse to continue learning. Everyone should continue learning new things, whether or not you're a teacher.

4) Be enthusiastic about what you love: Whatever it is that you love, whether it be a hobby or a job, be enthusiastic about it! Show people that you love it! If you show enthusiasm for whatever it is that you love, then other people might be interested in it too.

5) Some people learn things just for fun: Even though I always learned piano just for fun, I had to remind myself that others do too, especially kids. As a piano teacher, I felt that my students needed to learn everything right now and that they needed to do it correctly in order to move on. It frustrated me when students didn't remember things that I had told them several times before or when they kept making the same mistakes over and over again. I had to realize that most of them will never become piano teachers or concert pianists. In fact, some students might not even continue piano lessons after one or several years. This doesn't mean that they don't want to learn, however, so we must let them and help them. In life, we have to accept that some people just like learning for fun and they might ask us questions about some of our hobbies or jobs and we should feed their curiosity because it is still important to learn, even if it's just for curiosity's sake.

We learn from all sorts of experiences and I definitely learned from my experience as a piano teacher!

Cheers,
Kay

Some Dance To Remember, Some Dance To Forget

There are certain lyrics from the song "Hotel California" by the Eagles that really resonate with me; "some dance to remember, some dance to forget." Whenever I hear those lyrics, I relate in so many ways. You see, I bottle things up inside of me. I bottle them up and, most often, don't release any of those emotions, whether they be worries, fear, anger, sadness, or the feeling of being overwhelmed that I know oh so well. I get overwhelmed easily, so when I bottle up my feelings and they swirl around in my mind and they don't leave me alone, I feel like I just want to scream, and sometimes I do. When I bottle things up, I hold onto them and I don't let them go.

Now, some people want to remember the past and others want to forget it, just as it says in those lyrics. But the thing is, we cannot and should not follow only one of those choices. There are parts of the past that we should remember. We should obviously remember the good times but we should also remember certain bad times; the ones that we can learn from. I believe that this is one of the most important reasons that history should always be taught in school; we learn from our ancestors. We learn from their accomplishments and their mistakes and we should do the same when looking at our own pasts. Of course, there are certain memories that we need to simply accept and let go of. Forget about them and move on. Take the lessons away from them and leave the rest in the past. This is what I need to do with all of those feelings and bad experiences that I bottle up inside of me; I need to accept that these things happened, learn from them, and then release them from their prison that is my mind. I need to let them go.

It sometimes feels like I'm at war with my own mind, like my mind is partly disconnected from me, but connected just enough so that when I am fighting with it, I still feel like I am fighting myself. This is what it felt like when I was germophobic at an obsessive compulsive level for a few years starting in high school. It really feels like you have no control over your own mind. When it comes to the feelings that I bottle up, it feels like my mind is incapable of letting them go. I even tend to act out how I would react to something that hasn't even happened. These things usually have something to do with events or people that have angered me in some way. Instead of learning from the experience and letting it go, I hold onto them so much that I waste time thinking that those events might repeat themselves or that that person might show up again and that I have to be ready. I become defensive, even though nothing has happened yet and even though I don't even know what is going to happen. What I need to do is stop worrying about it and move on because it is holding me back.

When I dance, I want to remember, accept, learn, and move on. That's a lot of things to do while dancing, but it's worth it if it helps to let go of bottled up emotions. Either I can do that, or I can just enjoy the dance and not really think about anything except for the music and my feet.

Cheers,
Kay

I Wonder What Became Of Them

I love cemeteries. That statement right there can get you strange looks, maybe even frightened ones. I'm not afraid to say it, though, because it's true. I love cemeteries. I love them because they're full of stories. You might be wondering what I mean by that. Most people just think that cemeteries are full of tombstones marking the final resting places of people who have died. In many cultures, cemeteries are very important and are considered sacred. These are very beautiful ways to put it because some people simply think of cemeteries as creepy places where a bunch of corpses are buried. My way of thinking makes cemeteries seem like very romantic places, which is lovely, don't you think? Cemeteries are full of stories because each person buried there has a story, the story of their life. Whether they only lived inside their mother or they lived for over 100 years on Earth, they each have some kind of story, and that's a pretty amazing thing. To have your own unique story is a magical experience and it's a blessing, whether you think of it in a religious sense or not.

When I visit cemeteries, I enjoy looking around at the names and dates on tombstones. I enjoy reading extra information or images carved in stone. I use what I see to piece together what life might have been like for those who have passed on. What did they like to do? What kinds of accomplishments did they have in their lifetime? What kind of person were they? Sometimes ornaments that friends and family leave in front of the graves provide clues as well. Or, sometimes the times that they lived in reveal how their lives were different from our own. It's interesting to know that so many different people lived out their lives before yours has ended and that so many different people will continue to live so many different lives for a very long time after you're gone.

The most interesting graves, though, are sometimes the graves that reveal very little about their owners. Mystery graves. Perhaps there's a name, or maybe even some dates, but the rest is unknown. Perhaps it is only known to the family or friends or maybe it is now only know to those who are buried beneath. These are the graves that really make your mind wander and wonder what their stories might be. Fleet Foxes' song "The Shrine/An Argument" begins, "I went down among the dust and pollen/ To the old stone fountain in the morning after dawn/ Underneath were all these pennies fallen from the hands of children/ They were there and then they were gone/ And I wonder what became of them/ What became of them". This is how I feel when looking at tombstones in cemeteries. Of course, in this case, I know what happened to the people: they died. But I don't know what happened throughout their lives before they died and that makes my imagination run wild and I think, along with the fact that each of these souls had their own story, that that is a very beautiful thing.

I guess one very important thing to remember throughout our lives is best said by the Eleventh Doctor from Doctor Who: "We're all stories in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?"

Cheers,
Kay

Frosty Winter 2016 Playlist

Here in Sudbury, we had a green Christmas. It had snowed prior to Christmas but it never stayed. It wasn't until after Christmas that we got enough snow. Now we have a beautiful sparkly blanket of snow covering everything and it actually feels like winter.

Since Sudbury is finally a winter wonderland, I decided to put together a little winter playlist for you guys using Spotify. It's my Frosty Winter 2016 playlist!

There are 15 songs in total and the playlist includes music from both Canadian and non-Canadian artists, newer and older artists, new songs and old songs, and various musical styles. Basically, it has a good mix, and all of the songs either have the word winter or a winter related word in the title.

Enjoy!

Kay

We're Dancing With The Demons In Our Minds

Hello friends!

It's been a while, hasn't it? I apologize for the blog silence; I take full responsibility for it. When I started this blog, I thought that it would be fun. I thought that I would publish posts a few times every week and that my blog would grow into something wonderful. Instead, I posted a few times a week and then posted only once a while until I was hardly posting at all. I have thought about what happened, what prevented me from continuing my blog as I had planned, and I realized a few things, one of which is that the concept of writing and maintaining a blog scares me. I don't have a lot of experience with web design or writing for a public audience so, I'm scared to try and learn about web design and I'm also scared to publish posts until I know that everything is absolutely perfect.

That's a big thing that has been stopping me from doing what I want: perfectionism. When I was little, I was a bit of a perfectionist and, although I have learned not to be so hard on myself about things, the perfectionist in me still comes out once in a while and scares me out of doing things that I want to do. I've learned over the years that our minds can be our greatest enemies. It's like the lyrics in Eurovision 2015 winner Måns Zelmerlöw's song "Heroes": "We are the heroes of our time/ But we're dancing with the demons in our minds." Sure, you could interpret "dancing with the demons in our minds" as going along with evil ideas or doing bad things, but I interpret it differently. We go along with what our minds tell us instead of choosing what we want. It's like the angel and the devil on your shoulders, one telling you to do good things and the other telling you to do bad things except in this case the demons in our minds are preventing us from doing what we want to do with our lives. They are putting us down, telling us that we are not good enough. They stop us from moving forward.

Moving forward is a big thing for me. It would be a huge accomplishment! I have never been diagnosed with anything, but I have been dealing with a lot of things going on inside my mind for quite a few years now, starting in high school. I've talked to friends and family about what I go through and I also just deal with it on my own. Maybe I should talk to a doctor about it but for now I just try and learn how to get through it on my own. I want to move on. I want my mind to be my friend, not my enemy. I want to stop dancing with the demons in my mind and start dancing along in life, doing all of the things that I want to do, all of the things that I want to accomplish.

This blog is one of the things that I want in my life. I want to write. I want to share my stories, my experiences. I want to share happy things. I want to share fun things. I want to show everyone all of the great things that we have in our lives but I also want to show people that they are not alone if they are going through a tough time. Maybe this blog will help me deal with the challenges that I face. I have already been writing things down, trying to figure out what to do and how to deal with everything that is going on, and it definitely helps. Transferring thoughts to paper instead of letting them continue to swirl around and wreak havoc in my mind helps a lot. Maybe putting them here on this blog will help too.

Thanks for listening!

Cheers,
Kay

Eurovision 2015: The Winner And My Other Favourites

This year's Eurovision song contest was great! The country that I was cheering for (Armenia) didn't win but the country that did win (Sweden) had an amazing performance and definitely deserved to win! I had so much fun watching Eurovision again this year with my family and my dad said afterwards that he really enjoyed it and he likes events like this that you can look forward to each year.

Here is the winner of Eurovision 2015. This is Sweden's entry of the song "Heroes" performed by Måns Zelmerlöw. I was impressed by the way that he worked with the stage. Amazing!

Here is an interview with Måns Zelmerlöw after the big win!

Here are some of my other favourites...

Of course I loved Armenia's entry of "Face The Shadow" performed by Genealogy! This was the entry that I was cheering for, after all!

Hungary had a very meaningful song and performance. The song was "Wars for Nothing" performed by Boggie. This was the entry that my dad wanted to win.

Russia's entry was beautiful! The song was "A Million Voices" performed by Polina Gagarina. 

I loved the dancing in Azerbaijan's entry of the song "Hour Of The Wolf" performed by Elnur Huseynov. I also loved how the moon changed into a blood moon! Beautiful!

Georgia had a strong and powerful performance with the song "Warrior" performed by Nina Sublatti.

Austria's entry of the song "I Am Yours" performed by The Makemakes was great. Just look at the flames in the piano!

Israel's entry was just so much fun! The song was "Golden Boy" performed by Nadav Guedj. It makes me want to dance whenever I listen to it!

The United Kingdom had a really fun performance with the song "Still In Love With You" performed by Electro Velvet. I love their mix of modern and 1920s music, dancing, and performing!

I loved seeing last year's winner, Conchita (from Austria), performing her song "Rise Like A Phoenix" to kick off Eurovision!

I also loved Conchita's performance of "You Are Unstoppable" and "Firestorm" during the grand final!

After watching Eurovision online last year and this year, it's definitely becoming a tradition for my family!

-Kaylie

My Favourite Entries in Eurovision 2015

The Eurovision Song Contest 2015 in Vienna, Austria is coming up soon! The first semi-final is on May 19th, the second semi-final is on May 21st, and the grand final is on May 23rd. All of the songs are already on the Eurovision website for everyone to listen to and I have already chosen the country that I'm cheering for along with a few others entries that I just really like. I'm going to be cheering for...

Armenia with the song "Face the Shadow" by Genealogy!

The story behind the group and song is really interesting! I'm really excited to see how they perform this song onstage!

Here are some of the other entries that I really like:

Hungary with the song "Wars for Nothing" by Boggie:

Lithuania with the song "This Time" by Monika Linkytė and Vaidas Baumila:

France with the song "N'oubliez pas" by Lisa Angell:

United Kingdom with the song "Still In Love With You" by Electro Velvet:

Serbia with the song "Beauty Never Lies" by Bojana Stamenov:

Czech Republic with the song "Hope Never Dies" by Marta Jandová and Václav Noid Bárta:

Last year I was cheering for Conchita Wurst who was representing Austria with the song "Rise Like A Phoenix and I was so happy when Austria won! I am really excited to see Conchita Wurst perform again during this year's Eurovision! Here is the magnificent performance from last year:

Since I live in Canada, I'll be watching Eurovision online on Eurovision's web tv like I did last year. I'm so glad that they make it available for people to watch all around the world!

I can't wait!

-Kaylie

My 101 Things in 1001 Days List

One great motivational technique is a list of goals! Writing your goals down a great step to start with before you actually begin your goals. I think of it as a way of convincing myself that I actually really want to a certain goal. I have so many goals that I want to complete that I decided to make a 101 Things in 1001 Days list. 101 Things in 1001 Days is an idea by the Day Zero Project. Basically, you make a list of 101 goals that you want to complete within 1001 days (that's approximately 2.7 years). 

For my list, I divided my goals up into categories. The categories are: Health & Wellness, Fitness, Nature/Environment, Reading, Writing, Blogging/Online Work, Music, Art, Family, and Miscellaneous. The Miscellaneous category is for goals that just didn't really fit into any of the other categories. Lots of people divide their goals up into categories when they post about their lists on their blogs and you'll see that they may have chosen different categories. I chose the categories that were important to me so if you want to put your goals into categories too, choose ones that are important to you! When I made the list in my Day Zero account, I couldn't divide my goals up into the categories so I just put my goals for each category together. In this post, you'll see that my goals are divided up into the categories and if you check my actual list on the website, you'll see that my goals appear in the same order as you see them here.

Check out my list and follow me on the Day Zero website to track my progress! I'll also be doing monthly updates of my progress here on my blog! You will be able to find all of my progress updates through the 101 in 1001 tag!

Health & Wellness

• Meditate everyday for a month and continue
• Write in a gratitude diary once a week for a month and continue
• Don't say anything negative for one day
• Overcome my phobias
• Try Tai Chi
• Grow my nails again
• Improve my posture
• Drink more water everyday
• Floss everyday for a month and continue
• Put my Crohn's Disease into remission
• Figure out a healthy eating plan that helps my Crohn's Disease
• Learn how to make 10 healthy recipes
• Eat healthier snacks
• Limit salt and sugar intake
• Limit processed foods
• Have a vegetarian day once a week for a month and continue

Fitness

• Create a morning stretch/workout routine
• Do yoga everyday for a month and continue
• Walk my dog everyday for a month and continue
• Jog everyday for a month and continue
• Do the 200 squats challenge
• Do the 100 push-ups challenge
• Do the 200 lunges challenge
• Do the 200 crunches challenge
• Start lifting weights
• Be able to do the splits
• Be able to do a headstand for one minute
• Learn more Charleston moves

Nature/Environment

• Watch the sunrise and sunset on the same day
• Watch the sunrise on the Winter and Summer solstices and the Fall and Spring equinoxes
• Do a nature walk once a week for 2 months
• Plant a huge garden and use the vegetables in all sorts of ways
• Go foraging for plants, berries, etc. that I can use
• Learn more outdoor survival skills
• Learn how to use a compass
• Climb Ishpatina Ridge in Ontario, Canada
• Go for a long snowshoeing hike
• Go on a hike with my city's hike club
• Go geocaching for an entire day once a month
• Get up to 1000 geocache finds
• Build an inukshuk on the side of the road
• See the Northern Lights
• Go for a picnic in a park
• Take a nap in a hammock
• Climb a tree
• Learn to identify 10 constellations
• Use less water
• Use less electricity
• Recycle everything that can possibly be recycled
• Start composting
• Go for a day without technology

Reading

• Read 100 books
• Read 100 poems
• Memorize 10 poems
• Read 10 French novels
• Read 5 non-fiction books
• Read all of Shakespeare's plays
• Read all of the Sherlock Holmes books
• Read in a park

Writing

• Write a novel
• Write a children's book
• Write a book of poetry
• Write a book of short stories
• Get my writing published
• Get a story published in a Chicken Soup for the Soul book
• Win NaNoWriMo
• Win Camp NaNoWriMo
• Write in my diary at least once a week
• Use a writing prompt that I have found or created each week
• Write a letter to myself to be opened when the 1001 days are over
• Answer the "50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind"
• Update my resume
• Learn how to write with my left hand

Blogging/Online Work

• Make a plan and schedule for regular blogging
• Update my blog's About and FAQ pages
• Put a donation button on my blog when I start blogging more and get more visitors
• Start a CafePress shop

Music

• Practice piano for 20 minutes everyday Monday to Friday for a month and continue
• Practice flute once a week for a month and continue
• Get my grade 8 RCM piano certificate and grade 2 RCM theory certificate
• Learn to play the accordion
• Learn to play the violin
• Write a song (lyrics and music)

Art

• Start sketching regularly
• Learn how to paint flowers well with watercolours
• Complete a colouring book

Family

• Have a board game night with my family
• Have a movie marathon night with my family
• Have a craft/art night with my family
• Bake Finn bun with my family
• Cook an entire meal for my family

Miscellaneous

• Start and complete driver's ed
• Get my G2 driver's license
• Use the French language more in my life
• Learn Spanish
• Expand my vocabulary by 100 words
• Learn how to crochet
• Learn how to use a sewing machine
• Learn how to use a memory palace
• Say "yes" to something I would not normally do
• Start wearing a watch everyday

You should definitely start a 101 Things in 1001 Days list too! What would you put on your list?

-Kaylie

Finding My Way

Life is tricky sometimes. It can be hard to find one's way throughout their journey of life. I'm 21 years old so I'm at that age where I'm a young adult. I'm officially an adult but I was also a teenager not long ago. As young adults, the world expects us to know what we want to do with our lives. They make it seem that way, anyway, and it sure feels that way. This is all crazy. I don't think that anybody ever really has their whole life planned out.

Since I'm in my 4th year of university, I've been thinking a lot about what I want to do next. I'm at a point where I don't really know anymore. I have an idea of what I want to do but I'm stressed out and I feel kind of stuck. I also feel like everything is going too fast. I want to slow down and have time to really think. I want to do some exploring along various paths.

I've realized that I am not someone who fits into "the norm." My life and who I am deep down inside is not what society expects of me (although, society is slowly learning to change and be more accepting). I feel like even in Canada, society expects us to live a certain life: go to school, get a job, get married, have kids, raise kids while working, work until an appropriate age to retire, and then enjoy retirement. This is not the life for me. I already know that I don't really want to get married or have kids and that is perfectly fine. I'm in school so that I will be able to get the job that I want but now I'm not exactly sure what job I want. I'm a creative person; I like music, art, and writing. I also like the outdoors. I want to get away from living the same way day after day. I want some adventure and I want to do something that will expand my mind and really make me think. The way that I feel makes me think of one of my favourite quotations from Doctor Who:

"When you’re a kid, they tell you it’s all… Grow up, get a job, get married, get a house, have a kid, and that’s it. But the truth is, the world is so much stranger than that. It’s so much darker. And so much madder. And so much better."
-Elton Pope 
(Doctor Who, Season 2, Episode 10, "Love & Monsters")

It's not just the "What am I going to do with my life?!" situation that is bothering me. I also have health challenges as well. I prefer to use the word 'challenge' as opposed to 'problem' because it's more positive. I have mild Crohn's Disease. I've never talked about it here but I am very open about it in my life outside of my blog. If you don't know what Crohn's Disease is, it's a gastrointestinal disease meaning that it affects the digestive system. Crohn's Disease is an Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and basically there can be inflammation and ulcers anywhere in the digestive system but most commonly in the small and large intestines. There is no cure for IBD yet.

I have inflammation in the end of my small intestine and in the end of my large intestine and I don't get pain. This is why my Crohn's Disease is considered to be mild. The only symptom that I get is bleeding from the inflammation in my large intestine (in other words, I get blood in the stool). The blood in stools is actually the only sign that I had that something was wrong when I first started getting it in my first year of university (December 2011). I am so grateful that I did something about my Crohn's Disease before it got worse.

Even though my Crohn's Disease is only mild, it doesn't mean that it doesn't bother me. I have to pay attention to my Crohn's Disease and do necessary things like go to doctor's appointments, go for tests, take medication, and watch my diet to ensure that my Crohn's Disease stays mild. Sometimes these things stress me out, which is another thing that I have to watch and try to reduce because stress can make things worse like it can with many health challenges. When there's continually blood, I keep thinking "Will I ever put my Crohn's Disease into remission or at least heal the inflammation in the end of my large intestine?" Inflammation in that location can be difficult to heal because bowel movements always irritate it. Right now I'm trying a combination of methods to try and heal the inflammation. I'm following a low residue diet as much as I can while still eating healthy, taking vitamin C and D everyday, exercising, doing yoga, meditating, and taking my oral mesalazine medication (for the inflammation in the end of my small intestine). I've also started drinking jasmine tea everyday (jasmine tea has many health benefits!) and I put honey in it (which is also very healthy!). So far, something here seems to be working because, when I've had blood, it has been less blood than usual and has actually been quite small of an amount. Sometimes, there's been no blood at all! I'm obviously very excited about this because: 1) My body is healing or at least getting better! and 2) I have found a way to deal with my Crohn's Disease that involves a lot of natural/alternative methods!

"Letting it get to you. You know what that's called? Being Alive. Best thing there is. Being alive right now, that's all that counts."

-The Eleventh Doctor

(Doctor Who, Season 6, Episode 4, "The Doctor's Wife")

Letting my Crohn's Disease "get to me" or bother me can be a good thing because it makes me want to do something about it! Also, it reminds me to be grateful for the healthy parts of my body and the ways in which I am healthy. As I mentioned before, when I think of my Crohn's Disease, I think of it in a more positive way by viewing it as a health challenge rather than a health problem. I choose not to view my intestines as bad guys but, rather, as the organs in my body that need more love and attention!

If you want to learn more about IBD and learn about a great organization in Canada that raises money to find a cure for IBD, visit Crohn's and Colitis Canada!

These are the two things that I'm dealing with right now. Of course, there are other things that I'm dealing with too like things going on in my family (mostly health and stress related), getting stressed out with school, and continuing my journey of living a life full of positive energy but figuring out my life and dealing with my mild Crohn's Disease are two of the main paths that I'm on at the moment. I just have to remember to stay positive and remember that I am in control.

"Our fate lives within us, you only have to be brave enough to see it."

-Princess Merida
(Disney Pixar's Brave)

We all go through times in our lives when we become overwhelmed with everything, whether it be things staying the same or too many changes. We just need to pay attention to them in order to learn, grow, and be thankful for the experiences that are building our futures.

-Kaylie

DIY: Personalized Stickers

I wanted Halloween stickers that had music notes or some kind of music theme to give to my piano students. I knew that it probably wouldn't be easy to find some plus I don't need a lot of them so I just decided to make my own. 

I took white sticker labels and divided them into rectangles with a pencil and ruler. I then wrote and drew on each of them with Sharpie markers. You can write and draw whatever you like! You can also use any writing tool (markers, pencil crayons, crayons, pens) although I like how Sharpie markers show up. I decided to write 'Happy Halloween!' and draw music notes and pumpkins. I then cut out each of the stickers. When I want to use the stickers, all I have to do is peel off the back!

This is a super easy way to make personalized stickers for any holiday, occasion, or theme so have fun with it!

-Kaylie

The Wandering Chickadee Fall Playlist 2014

Happy Fall everyone! Yesterday was the first official day of Autumn! To celebrate, I decided to make a fall playlist! It's called Fall Bliss. Click the link to check it out on 8tracks: Fall Bliss

Here's a list of the songs:
1) Harvest Moon - Neil Young
2) Outlander Theme - Bear McCreary
3) Country Roads - John Denver
4) Farmer's Song - Murray McLauchlan
5) Into The Open Air - Julie Fowlis
6) River Road - Crystal Gayle
7) Hurt - Johnny Cash
8) Private Universe - Crowded House
9) England - Great Big Sea
10) Working Man - Rita MacNeil
11) Streets of London - Ralph McTell
12) Viva La Vida - Coldplay
13) Tennessee Waltz - Patti Page
14) I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues - Elton John
15) Dust in the Wind - Kansas
16) Moonshadow - Cat Stevens
17) Rise Like A Pheonix - Conchita Wurst

Enjoy!
-Kaylie

Outlander... My Newest TV Show Obsession!

Opening to Outlander. So beautiful!

I have recently become obsessed with a new TV show called Outlander (on Showcase in Canada and Starz in the U.S.) which premiered on August 9th. It's based on a series of novels by Diana Gabaldon. My Mom saw the show advertised in our booklet from Fan Expo Canada 2014 and she decided to start watching it and I later started watching it too because it is so good!

It's about a woman who was a nurse in WWII and, after the war ends, she goes to Scotland with her husband on a second honeymoon. She ends up touching a special large rock and gets transported back in time to 1743 where she is found by a Scottish clan that won't let her go. All she wants is to escape and try to get back home to her own time.

Want to know a wee bit more about the show? Check out this video:

I love this show because it has sci-fi, adventure, romance, and history all mixed in. You never know what's going to happen next and the music, sets, and costumes are amazing! You become so attached to the characters that you feel like you know them. It is definitely a very good quality TV show and I look forward to continuing to watch it!

-Kaylie