Heather Innis

Make little changes, the big ones get easier

While some people make New Year’s Resolutions, I enjoy making a new vision board every year. Since they are meant to serve as a visual reminder and source of inspiration, my vision board usually consists of random magazine photos and pictures depicting people engaged in activities that represent my goals for the year. I especially love the excuse to spend a happy afternoon with my scissors, glue, and lots of motivational stickers. Although I enjoy the crafting aspect, unfortunately most of my lofty aspirations are not met by the time the next year rolls around.

The bearable lightness of decluttering

Over the years I’ve tried many strategies to combat the winter blues – from exploring new outdoor activities, such as cross-country skiing and skating, to focusing on personal growth and development pursuits such as meditation and journaling. While all of these are worthwhile pastimes, I often find myself struggling this time of year. Not surprisingly, this seasonal anxiety has only intensified over the last few years, when the pandemic made everything seem scary and uncertain.

The cat came back (but took its own sweet time)

Sometimes life hands you little miracles in ways you’d never expect.

Adults just wanna have fun…

I love having lots of hobbies – in fact, I often joke with my husband that we need a larger house just to store all of my supplies.

Sometimes when I’m feeling a bit down, engaging in one of my favourite pastimes really helps improve my mood. Other times, especially if I’m feeling particularly low, I can’t work up the energy or enthusiasm to even think about working on a new or existing project.

It wasn’t until recently that I think I figured out why, as a middle-aged adult, sometimes spending time with a hobby just isn’t enough.

Why?

The importance of self-care

One of the things I’ve learned in the past 18 months of pandemic life is the importance of taking time for yourself. Of course, everyone wants to make sure their family and friends are as happy and healthy as possible.

But I’ve come to realize there is a good reason why when you travel on an airplane the instructions are to put on your own oxygen mask first before assisting others — if you are not taking care of yourself, then you won’t be in a position to take care of others.

Self care is important not only for your own mental health but it has the added benefit of keeping you strong and healthy for others who depend on you.

One of the ways in which I like to practise self care is through meditation. There are some really good YouTube channels on which you can find a meditation that suits your mood — whether it’s for relaxation, reducing anxiety, increasing creativity, or simply to help you fall asleep.

In search of toys of yesteryear

I used to think it was silly that people spent ridiculous amounts of money to buy back their beloved childhood toys.

That is, until I realized my own treasured childhood horde of dolls and games was long gone… lost to countless donation drives and thrift stores over the years, not to mention the elements of a rickety old shed. I’m fairly certain my favourite walking doll (a gift from Santa when I was five) and my Cabbage Patch Doll named Kathleen (a birthday gift from my parents) are somewhere at the bottom of a water-damaged box sharing a home with spiders, mice, and other creepy crawlies in the shed.

I remember when I first realized my childhood toys were considered vintage. A museum I was visiting had a trunk of “old” toys, including many of the Fisher Price gems I grew up with like the school desk, farm set and record player. I recall staring at the toybox and thinking that I barely 30 years old! How could these be in a museum already?

Of course, while the toys I grew up with in the ’70s and ’80s are now definitely vintage, I’m surprised at how much I really wish I still had them with me. I know I only have myself to blame. I’ve had plenty opportunities over the years to take them back from my parent’s before they became garage sale items and mice nests.

Leaving your comfort zone can be rewarding

I’ve often joked that the only way I’d agree to camp in a tent was if it was set up in a four‐star hotel room.

Growing up, my siblings and I would squeeze in the small, two‐person tent that my dad pitched in the backyard and pretend that trying to sleep in a hot, stuffy tent with flies and mosquitoes buzzing around our heads all night was actually fun.

It was not. And the bugs were merciless.

But since I’ve been working from home I’ve had more opportunities to appreciate nature. I began taking long walks around the neighbourhood during my lunch hour. Weather permitting, I frequently work outside in the backyard using the patio table as my desk. So this year I finally decided I would give camping a real try.

Mommy Bunny a reminder of nature’s wonder

One of the sure signs of emerging summer in Windsor Park is the appearance of all the little brown and grey bunnies. They seem to be everywhere: in the parks, playgrounds, backyards, and everywhere in between.

If you’re like many residents here, you probably have mixed feelings about these furry little creatures.

On the one hand, there’s no denying they are adorable, with their big black eyes and cute little perky ears. However, bunnies can also be a real nuisance. My family has lived in this neighbourhood for over 10 years, and every single year our vegetable garden is raided by bunnies who treat it as their personal all‐you‐can‐eat buffet.

This year, a mommy bunny decided to make a nest for her babies in our backyard. When my husband pointed out where it was, it looked just like a small pile of dead grass that I never would have noticed. Although I had recently spotted a bunny hanging around our place more than usual, once I learned about the nest I began paying more attention.

Committed to caring for those less fortunate

What began a few years ago as an occasional trip to the Main Street strip as a peer support worker, then evolved to handing out sandwiches to hungry Winnipeggers has now become what long-time Windsor Park resident Tracey Wenham calls “the Angel Wings with Love project.”

Together with a core group of volunteers who venture out to various inner-city neighbourhoods and tent communities several times a week, Wenham and her crew hand out food, toiletries, blankets and clothes to those in need.

But perhaps the most important thing she offers is conversation and companionship:

“I’m there to be with the people,” she told me. “They are my focus.”

Skating is not ‘just like riding a bike’

At this time of year I’m usually hibernating with a good book and a French vanilla latte. But one of my goals is to be more active and so my daughter and I have found ourselves going for frequent walks around our neighbourhood.

It was on one of these walks that we made a wonderful discovery — a ‘new’ skating rink tucked in behind Winakwa Community Centre (980 Winakwa Rd.).

Hope was awestruck — she had never been skating before and was eager to try it out. I ordered us each a pair of skates and a few days later we all trekked over to the community centre for some outdoor fun and exercise.

Full disclosure: Although I was an avid skater when I was young, I have only been on skates once or twice as an adult and it didn’t go well.

Never more ready for a new year

As we reflect on the past year, I think we all deserve a ‘hall pass’ if few (or even none) of last year’s New Year’s resolutions were fulfilled.

I have renewed faith in setting high goals for 2021. Not to tempt fate, but it feels like things couldn’t get much worse than they did this past year — so why not shoot for the stars in the next one?

To achieve what I’ve coined ‘The Best Year Ever’, my first goal was to get a Franklin Planner, which is basically a fancy, paper-based time management system. In other words, it’s an expensive day planner that’s supposed to help you reach your goals.

After an extensive Google search, I realized that many of these planners were well out of my price range. In the end, I decided on a very affordable Go Girl Planner. While still functioning as a day planner, it also has sections for writing out your overall life goals, as well as your top goals for the upcoming year and for listing daily habits that will help you achieve those goals.

No better time than the present to shop local

While we can all probably agree this holiday season will be unlike any other, it is now more important than ever to consider shopping local small businesses, artisans and makers for all your gift giving and home decor needs.

To be honest, I’m usually one of those last-minute shoppers who barely makes it into the store minutes before closing, fingers crossed that the item I want is still available. But since that’s not an option this year, it’s the perfect opportunity to start shopping early and locally. Fortunately for shoppers, there is no shortage of talent in our city!

One of the handmade gifts I recently purchased was made by Windsor Park resident Julie Corthey. Her business, Dips’n’Dots, specializes in customized items such as wood art, ornaments, mugs and glassware, as well as refinished furniture.

While Corthey enjoys creating designs using her Silhouette Cameo to make personalized gifts, it was her love of dot art that first sparked her interest in becoming a maker.

Conquering anxiety at the grocery store

I decided to share this story because I think it’s important for others who may have similar feelings or experiences to know they’re not alone. No one is perfect — and that is perfectly fine.

I’ve never made a secret of the fact I live with anxiety. During the first few weeks of quarantine, my daughter and I went for walks every day and we strictly obeyed the shelter-in-place orders. When something was needed from the store, I’d always send my husband.

Truthfully, the thought terrified me — I feared my anxiety would overwhelm me and I’d forget to practise physical distancing. I worried if I did practise physical distancing that I’d offend someone. What if I said or did the wrong thing? Mostly, I was afraid all these worries would lead to a full-fledged panic attack.

Eventually, I realized I had to face this fear before it evolved into a phobia.

Adopting a new ‘furever’ friend

With our daughter Hope out of school until at least September and with us working from home, my husband and I decided that now might be the perfect time to adopt a kitten.

We did not make this decision lightly. Adopting a cat (or any animal, for that matter) into your family requires a lasting commitment from everyone. In addition to the costs associated with providing healthy food, having appropriate supplies, visits to the veterinary clinic, and so forth, perhaps the most important consideration is being able to promise your new family member the time, patience, and love it will need for many years to come.

Many cats live up to 20 years (or more), so one important issue we had to take into consideration was the fact that just because we are all working and studying from home now, this will almost certainly change in the upcoming months. However, since we’ve had a cat before (Phoebe passed away when Hope was four), we at least know what we’re signing up for.

Upon learning we were going to adopt a kitten, the first thing my daughter did — after squealing for joy and doing a happy dance of course — was immerse herself in research. She spent several weeks learning how to care for a kitten. She learned the importance of how to correctly hold them, the best way to set up a feeding area, and even the importance of cleaning the litter box on a regular basis, since the latter would primarily be her responsibility.

Ah, the joy of… sticks

I’ve been thinking a lot about sticks lately.

Like many kids, my daughter Hope never misses an opportunity to pick up a lone stick lying on the grass and use it as a magic wand, a spoon, a shovel or whatever else her imagination comes up with. Even if we had a yard filled with toys, she would still find that lone stick lying in the grass and incorporate it into whatever game she was playing.

So why have sticks been occupying my thoughts?

Well, since I’ve started working from home a few weeks ago, Hope and I have been going for a lot of walks. Not surprisingly, she always manages to find a stick along the way and proceeds to bring it with her on our journey. Sometimes the stick functions as a cane. Sometimes it’s used for pointing (“Hey mom, look at that bird’s nest!”). Other times it’s used as a shovel or to poke at something fascinating to nine-year-olds, such as icy puddles, mounds of mud or mysterious little crevices in the cement.

The story of Little Bunny

For children, this is an especially difficult time, being away from friends and classmates.

Even as grownups, many of us feel powerless. When I wrote the following children’s story, I had no way of knowing we’d be experiencing a global pandemic, forcing closures, quarantines and social isolation.

However, now more than ever I think it’s important to remember that we all have our own special gifts that we can use to help others.

What can you do to help someone today?

Hendricks out to capture subject’s true essence

A local photographer it out to capture the essence of breast cancer survivors in a new project.

Bruce Hendricks is a master photographer and four-time Manitoba Photographer of the Year recipient, awarded by the provincial chapter of the Professional Photographers Association of Canada. His company “Impact Photographic Design” offers a wide range of professional photography services including portrait, wall décor, commercial, public relations and branding, as well as wedding/event photography. His full list of awards and accolades are too many to list here but he is certainly one of the most accomplished professional photographers in Manitoba, if not throughout all of Canada.

However, what brought me to Hendricks’ home studio recently was to discuss a project he is currently working on that would shine a unique spotlight on the lives and experiences of breast cancer survivors. According to the Canadian Cancer Society (www.cancer.ca), breast cancer is the second most prevalent form of cancer in women. In fact, this year alone almost 27,000 women will be diagnosed with this disease. Chances are that someone you know is currently living with breast cancer, which makes this endeavour even more timely and important.

As a photographer, Hendricks says the most critical aspect for him is that his photos capture the true essence and spirit of breast cancer survivors as they live their lives to the fullest and continue to enjoy their favourite activities in life, whether it be having tea with a friend, making cookies with a grandchild or even just relaxing with friends and family.