E. Jean Simpson's Blog: A & J PEI Treasures/E Jean Simpson, BEd, BA, MA, page 3

Meaning of Life

Hi and Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson Author Blog Post and Podcast. I’m your host, Jean coming to you from the beautiful Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada!! The blog post and podcast is an opinion piece and only reflects this author’s opinion and not that of any other entity. I hold no designations in politics, economics or medicine. I am retired from the mental health field. I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree with me or not, at least I hope it makes you think. This week I discuss a very simple yet very complicated concept…more complicated and less complicated than you would think. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!

This quote is often attributed to John Lennon, "When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down 'happy'. They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life." This is a wonderful quote about life, and like much else in life, there is a complication. There is no proof he ever said it. https://www.radiox.co.uk/artists/john... The fact remains that it is a wonderful quote trying to give meaning to life. This is a concept that has been explored by philosophers, comedians and most people from time immemorial. Different viewpoints exist on this. Scholars in Ancient Greece explored the concept https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/.... Ancient Egypt thought life was just one part of the journey. https://www.worldhistory.org/article/.... It seems with all these various explanations, we are still not satisfied with the meaning of life. We seek to put our own meaning to it. The idea came to me when someone brought up that they were seeing how many people were clicking on their links to Tweets. I thought that this was a very stressful way to decide if you wanted to do something or not. It made no sense to me. I’m sure there are a great many professionals that would not agree with me on this point and think I was being naive. I’m sure there is meaning to it in many circles. It just pointed out to me how different my position on the whole enterprise was from others. I do what I do because I hope it brings some people happiness, or that it brings some truth, but I have no real expectation that anyone reads what I do or cares. If they do, then I have done a good deed. I have made them think. If not, I have put out something into the universe and it may or may not be useful to some reader. It is up to the person.

When I think of the continuum of exploring the philosophies about life, I am reminded of an old quote attributed to Wolfgang Riebe “There are only two things to worry about, either you are healthy or you are sick. If you are healthy, then there is nothing to worry about. But if you are sick there are only two things to worry about, either you will get well or you will die. If you get well, then there is nothing to worry about. But if you die there are only two things to worry about, either you will go to heaven or to he**. If you go to heaven, then there is nothing to worry about. And if you to go he**, you'll be so darn busy shaking hands with your friends you won't have time to worry.” Life philosophy runs the gambit from very simple to very complex. Within this is the kernel of truth that people have to work it out for themselves. What your belief is of the meaning of life can affect how you react to the world. You may not even have verbalized your belief about the meaning of life, but it can be seen in your actions within the world. “For some, it is all about happiness, building a family, and leading life as it is. For some, it is about accumulating wealth, whereas, for some, it is all about love.” https://www.techexplorist.com/what-re.... This is quite simplified, but it does give an easier starting point. Many see some higher force in the mix. According to the article this is something that is being given more attention and is being seen as a modifiable construct. It is something that can be targeted to improve the lives of people.

Now, given that we can find meaning in life and not just use it as a fancy philosophical construct or idea, how can we do this? An article I give in the podcast write up and blog post gives a few suggestions for finding meaning including finding a passion and something to focus on. https://positivepsychology.com/live-m... There are 5 suggestions in this article if you are interested in this. Not everyone seeks to serve others. They should see ways to satisfy their need for meaning in positive ways. Some find meaning quite easily and find ways to be productive in ways that matter to them. Some create positive paths and some support others. This is not a perfect one size fits all situation. Not everyone finds the same things rewarding or has the same understanding of the meaning of life. This is quite evident in the wide variety of attitudes that can be found on almost any subject. The main problem with any dogma is that when one holds tightly to one ideal and it is not helpful to a whole group, harm can be done. This can easily be seen in the news of the day. One example is that some people might (and I’m not saying this is the correct definition, it might be totally something different) however for the sake of my argument, some people might hold that they had a right (happiness) to carry guns. They take this stand to the exclusion of the rights of other people to live their life in safety (happiness). It takes the same idea or construct and shows how it can be viewed differently by different people. The idea of happiness is not the same even within groups. Even when it comes to happiness, there is no general agreement on what it entails. There is no general consensus on what make happiness. In other words, what makes up happiness for me might not equal happiness for you. This makes the meaning of life far more complicated even though it seems very simple.

“We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” This saying is attributed to Albert Einstein and can make things clearer and more confusing when it comes to the meaning of life. We cannot keep thinking the old thoughts that we did if we want to change the world and make a better world. We cannot spend time pointing fingers at other people and create avenues of hate and dissent and still find meaning in life. Some think they can. They try very hard to get people to follow what they think. But, if we keep following the same age old prejudices and hates, we only recreate the same situations over and over. Making people relive the same trauma over and over again. For example, religious intolerance has existed for centuries. People have put down people for being Jewish. They have murdered them. They have also done the same between Protestant, Catholic, Muslim…there is no religion that has not experienced some kind of religious upheaval or persecution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religio.... People are happy with their religion, but expect everyone else should be too. This might not be a healthy attitude to maintain. We have proved over and over for centuries that this method of thinking only results in death and dissent. Yet, many still follow this ideal. We want to think that happiness is the same for everyone. Of course this is just one example of a portion of the meanings of life. I have to give focus to one idea because there are just so many. If you are interested in meaning of life, there are many links and theories from ancient times until current times. There has yet to be one agreed upon definition of it. As Robert Frost is quoted with saying, “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” Many definitions exist for the meaning of life. Something about it is simple, yet extremely complicated. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope it makes you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!

The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...

Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
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Podcast are available on:
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iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...

Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few

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Social Conscience/Consciousness

Hi and Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson Author Blog Post and Podcast. I’m your host, Jean coming to you from the beautiful Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada!! The blog post and podcast is an opinion piece and only reflects this author’s opinion and not that of any other entity. I hold no designations in politics, economics or medicine. I am retired from the mental health field. I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree with me or not, at least I hope it makes you think. This week I talk about a little known phenomenon that I have noticed in the news feeds. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!

First, before talking about two similar yet different constructs, it is best to define them both. First Social Conscience is “caring or concern about important social issues.” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dicti... . The second, Social Consciousness is “awareness of important social issues.” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dicti... . As you can see, they are very much related. I could argue that one needs to have social consciousness before they can work on social conscience. It is imperative to have both and it is not an easy balancing act. Often it is a choice of how to respond and how to act and how you treat people. Separating them is part of the major issues in the world. I will discuss some of the types of social consciousness and social conscience issues that seem to mean very little, but at the same time can mean so much.

One thing I have noticed lately is the older I get, the more I notice that there are fewer musicians, actors and other stars that I grew up with. They keep slowly disappearing. They are replaced by names I’ve never heard of. So many, in fact, that sometimes one loses track. There is a never ending round of sympathies to extend. The same goes for my family circle as well. Fewer and fewer are still around. Some of them, as they age tend to communicate less. The other thing I notice is that with this ever shrinking circle, there seems to be less and less use of the social niceties. I’m not sure if the young grieve differently. I’m not sure if they have not been taught the social niceties. It seems, for the most part, the older people who are extending sympathies. It can be especially comforting for people to understand that someone cares. It only takes a few clicks of a keyboard of some sort. It only takes a moment. I can imagine that with the younger crowd, they are not experienced. They don’t understand the impact that lack of action can have. The other thing is that the young grieve differently because, let’s face it, they often have fewer experiences with death and they may have been protected from it. This article gives a brief rundown of grief at different age levels. https://www.mibluesperspectives.com/s...

There is no best time to talk to children about death. This article talks about how to explain this to children at varying ages https://www.hrrv.org/blog/5-tips-for-.... People often cringe when considering explaining things to kids and young adults when it comes to death. Most people avoid saying anything if they can help it. Remember no matter how you approach it; people will still develop some phobia about it. Some people, it takes years to get over some aspect of what they were told. We need to teach kids and young adults ways to approach dealing with the end of life before they are pushed into the middle of the situation. I can’t imagine having to deal with it on a celebrity basis. Dealing with it from a regular person viewpoint can be daunting enough. However, at some point, everyone will have to deal with the situation. Everyone will have to attend a funeral or lose someone they love. Showing people that you care can be both difficult and rewarding because you know you are doing the right thing trying to help another human being move forward. It is not always the easy thing and it is not always the perfect thing. It can allow people to grieve. It can help people to come together. Even if you just direct your publicist to put up or share an already existing post.

Another thing that can go a long way is acknowledgement of someone’s contributions, acknowledgement of someone’s successes. This also can mean the world to some people. It’s not easy. Sometimes to be honest, it can bring up some of your own insecurities, but if you, in good faith, can say “Congratulations” or “Happy Birthday” if someone freely wishes to celebrate their accomplishment, then it brings them a feeling that people know they are there and they have done something. I don’t think there is anyone out there that does not like to feel they have done something successfully. As Kitty Collins was credited with saying, “Aging seems to be the only available way to live a long life.” Of course you must consider the more of them you have the longer you live. Please also respect that not everyone wants to celebrate their birthday or their milestones. Be sensitive to the needs of others in this regard.

Social niceties are often given short shrift. The need to be right, to be better than, to seem more successful, to be on the right side of the argument seems to take precedent over please, thank you, sorry and other forms of social conscience. Then there are those that see it as unnecessary or worse as an affront to be made fun of or an argument for some infraction. Here is the thing, having some social graces is not a bad thing. Without them, we treat others like rubbish. We forget to be thankful. We take it for granted that everything is meant to be our way and we don’t think of other people. To learn to think of others as well as yourself will help to pave the way for a better and happier society.

Another problem with society is that though we talk about not conforming and being ‘individuals’, we aren’t always. Sometimes people look for what way the wind is blowing. In other words, they decide that they want to be ‘in’ and don’t consider the actual situation or the costs that go with it. It is sad to see so much hate being vented against a part of society that they perceive to be a threat. First, I want to discuss the bell curve https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/def.... It is a type of graph used to talk about different populations. So, when you look at a bell curve, there are two tails on both ends…and it kind of looks like a bell. The tails are the least and most of whatever the characteristic is. So, for example, “Canada is home to approximately one million people who are LGBTQ2+, accounting for 4% of the total population aged 15 and older in 2018.” https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily.... This is actually a surprisingly small proportion of the population given the reactivity it elicits. On that bell curve I talk about, this would only be the small side at the beginning of that bell curve. It’s a bad example in some ways because there isn’t exactly a curve on this. You either are or aren’t for the sake of this argument. However what I am doing is point out that there are only a very small percentage of people who fit this category. There is no danger that the world will be taken over. There is no danger that they will try to ‘turn you or your kids gay’ (sorry, know this is rude but I’m making a point that this seems the attitude some have). This is a fallacy that needs to be erased. It’s not a recruitment drive, nor is it something we can make someone into. We need to stop fearing what is different and embrace the difference. If we can’t even at least agree to live and let live (the very least asked), how do we stand a chance to sanely tackle other issues that humanity faces. If we hate and denigrate each other, how can we change things or even try to agree on what to change? If we allow children to hate enough to grow up to buy a gun and use people as target practice, how can we make the world a better place? If we teach our children to hate themselves and each other, then how will we be able to move forward as a cohesive whole? So, why do manners matter? It matters because it is an attempt to bring us forward in a way that respects people whether or not we like them. The choice is yours readers and listeners. Even the aliens from space would not want to take over what we have created. We need to create something better while we still can. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope it makes you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!

The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...

Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Podcast are available on:
Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...

iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...

Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few

All my e-books can be found on:
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You can also find us on:
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Is it Possible?

Hi and Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson Author Blog Post and Podcast. I’m your host, Jean coming to you from the beautiful Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada!! The blog post and podcast is an opinion piece and only reflects this author’s opinion and not that of any other entity. I hold no designations in politics, economics or medicine. I am retired from the mental health field. I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree with me or not, at least I hope it makes you think. This week I look at what is possible in life. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!

People often talk about others as though they will always be how they are or were. They don’t take into account life happens and things happen and sometimes people fall into the cycle of abuse, misuse, drugs and mental health issues. Does this happen, do people get stuck in these cycles? Yes, they do. It happens every day. On the other hand, there are also people who managed to pull themselves out of it. They manage to break free of the cycles of abuse, addiction and free themselves from the past. They are never truly free of the past because it is always there. They choose to put one foot in front of the other and continue to walk forward in healthy and productive ways. It can and does happen. Getting stuck in blame game, guilt and finger pointing doesn’t change the past. Taking revenge on others doesn’t reduce the pain. Nothing will change the past. We have yet to invent a method of going back and changing the past. There are whole franchises that address this particular idea and still fantasy. So many things happened there. Some of them need to be left there. It is OK to explore the past, to learn from the past, but you cannot live in the past. History is something to be learned from. There are historical re-enactments…but this is not actual reliving of history. This is showing how history came to pass from the viewpoint of present day people. They are watching the past with new eyes.

The problem with living in the past is that it doesn’t allow one to experience the present and you get stuck with no definite future. In the meantime, collateral damage is being created. What I mean by collateral damage is that other people are being damaged in some way or another if they are close to you. You can stay stuck in guilt. You can stay stuck in recrimination. You can stay stuck in blame. You can continue to create hurt and damage. This is the cycle that needs to be broken. Can you repair everything that is created out of this? Now here is the tricky part. Until you fix what is broken inside of you, you cannot fix what has been broken outside of you. Distrust, insecurity, and the pain inflicted still remain. This may or may never ultimately get fixed. Here’s the important thing about breaking the cycle that the addictions, mental health issues, or general negative actions have taken. The only place you can move, if you want a chance to make your life right and make a better future is forward. If you stay stuck, you will continue to increase the damage. Some things you may or may never fix. However, if you fix what is wrong in your life, if you continue to move ahead and if you find positive ways to move ahead, then on a daily basis, you will prove yourself. Changing into who you are meant to be will prove your commitment to being a better you. It may take time and some may never accept it and that is something you must also face. You will prove that you will be who you are intended to be. You will improve on who you are. The only real pay it forward thing you can do is to become an example of moving forward. You can be an example of how people can move forward. You can be an example of how it is possible to end and break negative cycles. This is the biggest pay it forward and the highest level of attainment available. I can see where this did happen, where people did improve their lives and despite notoriety worked back from the brink and prove themselves daily…every day of sobriety, every day of having control over their lives is proof. I can point out a few celebrities that made it. You say it was just because they had money. Some of them lost everything to a drug habit. They literally lost money, status, and freedom. They literally did time in jail. It isn’t money that brought them back from the brink. That’s what brought them there. It is someone believed enough in them and made sure they got proper support. They took responsibility for what they did. They took treatment. They took their lives one step at a time and learned to live with what they did and move forward. Just like anyone else would…one step at a time. They had nothing left to lose and built themselves back up. Money will be as nothing if you don’t have good supports, treatment and take things one day at a time.

Now, the sticking point is not an easy thing to deal with. There are some suggestions on how to move forward. https://www.lifehack.org/816187/movin.... The article talks about such things as let go of what is not working and figuring out why you are stuck. I won’t go in depth into the article, but it does have a few suggestions that sound useful. Of course, the most important thing about the whole enterprise is that you first have to actually recognize that you are stuck. Sometimes that is the hardest step. The same with addictions, the hardest step is admitting you have a problem. The next hardest part is actually doing something about it. It isn’t easy after that, but it is the first and most important steps. Breaking the cycle is hard, but not impossible. Making changes for anyone else will not do it. The changes you make have to be made for you or they will not have lasting impact. As Glennon Doyle Melton points out: “We need to make friends with ourselves. We are stuck with our self all day, so let's be kinder, gentler, more amusing company. Let's take our own hand and say, 'There, there, sister. You're doing a good job. I'm proud of how you're handling all this craziness down here. Don't give up. Carry on, warrior.'” Of course this is a quote using gender specific language but it holds true of all gender identities. To be blunt, we need to show selfishness in our healing journey by making these changes for ourselves. Making changes for anything or anyone else may not last. It might work in the movies or in TV shows, but seldom results in real lasting change. Support is also a key component in healing. Sometimes when the chips are down, you have to be your own friend and let everything else fall away until you are able to stand up by yourself.

Often, people on a destructive path seem to act as though they were on the road to revenge and continue creating harm as though they don’t understand that what they are doing is not going to fix the problem. As Lewis B Smedes was credited with saying, “The problem with revenge is that it never evens the score. It ties both the injured and the injurer to an escalator of pain. Both are stuck on the escalator as long as parity is demanded, and the escalator never stops.” It is like trying to fill a deep hole of agony. It never fills. It never ends. You can’t fill it with alcohol, drugs or pain of others as it never fills. They fill it with harmful things; they fill it with drugs, drinking and other addictions. Whether it is true vengeance or just lashing out in an attempt to reduce the pain it just realistically doesn’t work. It just keeps the cycle going. It creates more pain. It creates more damage. This is the main problem with the cycle of alcoholism, family abuse, social abuse, addictions and all such negative cycles. It never ends until the person decides to end it. The person needs to decide that they have had enough pain and created enough pain. So, when is this? In the literature it is often called rock bottom. The person hits rock bottom. They find that either people stop enabling the behaviour or they are jailed or enter therapy or recovery programs or people just stop being there. So, in this way, it seems, the main obstacle to living ones’ best life, in all these cases is actually the person forgetting to be their own best friend. I do not blame the person having trouble here, but rather point out that there is a primary relationship that one must develop with themselves in order to become a healthy whole. Without this one important relationship, you don’t understand your effects on others or the pain caused.

There are articles that deal with self healing. https://uhs.umich.edu/tenthings is just one. It is possible to heal. It is possible to move forward. Many of the articles out there start with focusing on the relationship with yourself. Some focus on the relationship between you and a higher power. Many people avoid that relationship with themselves at all costs. They try to fill time being someone else. The relationship with oneself involves a certain amount of honesty which is often difficult and uncomfortable. It is perhaps the most important relationship to develop and the one that we work least on. We spend so much of our lives caring what others think. Spending time on impressing others rather than spending time getting to know ourselves and understanding where we are coming from. I end with this old Anonymous quote, “The past cannot be changed, forgotten, edited, or erased. It can only be accepted.” Yes, it is possible to go back to experiencing joy in life. It’s a hard path. It’s a painful path and yet, it is also a beautiful path. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope I made you think. So, is it possible…yes, most things are possible as long as one lives anything is possible. It is up to us whether to make it a reality. Pushing people past their limits and trying to be more than you are only results in alienation both from others and yourself. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!

The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...

Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Podcast are available on:
Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...

iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...

Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few

All my e-books can be found on:
Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...

You can also find us on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EJS08026749
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zp...
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/ej2466
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/e-j-s-151a...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewAandJP...



Photo, write up and caption as on WordPress:

Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson author podcast and blog post. This week I look at possibilities and breaking cycles. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!
Photo daisies all different and some dandelions. One daisy has a bee in it. Petals most in disarray.
Caption: Just as with field flowers, not every one is perfectly formed and yet they still have beauty and sustain life.

Baking Gluten Free on a Budget

Hi and Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson Author Blog Post and Podcast. I’m your host, Jean coming to you from the beautiful Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada!! The blog post and podcast is an opinion piece and only reflects this author’s opinion and not that of any other entity. I hold no designations in politics, economics or medicine. I am retired from the mental health field. I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree with me or not, at least I hope it makes you think. This week I look at living life gluten free on a budget. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!

The first thing I tell people with regard to Gluten Free diets is that it is not for everyone. It also isn’t particularly recommended unless you have to be on one. Generally there are two or rather three types of people who want to be on a Gluten Free diet. The first group is people who have Celiac disease. The second group is people who are gluten intolerant for some reason. I’m in the second group. This does not mean that I can do Gluten. I get terribly sick when I eat wheat product. It can be an allergy or an incapability to digest something in wheat, so that kind of makes a second and third group. Lest you think I am just making up stuff, the following article spells it out. https://lubbockgastro.com/should-ever.... So, if you think I’m giving you some magical cure, I am not. There is no magical diet except eating healthy. There are many supposed magical diet and all advice is the same. Two examples include the Keto diet https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/fore... and vegetarian diets https://www.health.harvard.edu/stayin.... Before you toss all your eggs or veggies in one basket, understand the diet you are going to follow. Find out about it not only on FB etc. but also check medical sites; ask your doctor or a dietitian if it is for you. Check out the benefits and costs to the diet. So, my first thing is that there is no one size fits all diet. You may be increasing the harm to you if you are not seeking proper input from proper sources. I’m not anti- any diet. What I am is realistic about what a diet can and can’t do for you. For me, the Gluten Free diet changed my life because I was seriously ill and not getting better. My specialist would not recommend the diet, but also had nothing against it if it was working for me. I had just had a medical crisis and a diagnosis, but despite the fact that I should be getting stronger, I was suffering constant fatigue. Then I tried the Gluten Free diet. First, let me tell you I tried it because I had absolutely nothing left to lose. I couldn’t do much of anything. I saw an article that was telling me everything, absolutely everything that I was going through. So, with nothing to lose, I gave it a try. The diagnosis and treatment of my conditions was not the total end of it. The change in diet changed the game. I was better than I had been in months. I have to watch some things like my iron. I still get bouts of fatigue, but not as bad as originally. I do have a medical condition. So, being honest with myself, I know I’m not on any miracle diet, but it did help with a lot of things. Now if I eat wheat product I get sick…very sick. I would suggest most people would be helped by a moderate diet following the food guide and added exercise. I do exercise daily going for walks with my husband and dog.

So, now that I got that portion of the Gluten Free diet and a few other ‘miracle diets’ out of the way so no one is mislead about why I am following it, I can go into having to try to maintain that diet on a budget. Whether many of you know it or not, the Gluten Free diet is not a cheap diet to maintain. This is another reason that it isn’t a particularly good choice if not necessary for you. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18783... gives some idea of just how expensive. The other thing you have to understand is the main reason it helps with weight loss initially is that it cuts out ‘junk food’. Most fast food includes bread and other wheat products. Cutting that out is the main reason it can be helpful. The other thing is that non-gluten containing food can be fried in the same boiler as gluten containing food, so there is always a chance unless they have a dedicated station. So, one has to be aware and experiment when it comes to baking. There are also expensive additives that I attempt to avoid using. Yes, there are tons of lovely recipes out there. They suggest specialized flours (many of which are prohibitively expensive). I’ve discovered some general purpose gluten free flours which seem to mostly do the trick. Luckily, though these have gone up in recent years, staples like potatoes, carrots and most meats remain gluten free but are also rising in price. Some fruits have gone up. One of the ways we have found in the past couple of years was my husband has planted a lovely little strawberry garden. This has reduced the cost of some of the fruit that we have. We grow a few things around that allow us to dry our own chives for example. So, there is a reduction in costs by some of the DIY gardening. We grow our own potatoes which only last a few months, but that is also a reduced cost. So, one of the things that help people on a budget is if you can grow some of your own herbs, fruits and vegetables. It isn’t impossible…one can explore container gardens if space is limited.

I also tend to try my hand at baking. I find recipes online that are simple. Most times the Gluten Free recipes add things that are not staples to a standard kitchen. If I find ingredients that I don’t usually buy, I give it a pass or save the recipe to try some time when I find the ingredient on sale. I found several times that the ingredient didn’t really agree with my system, so I often just skip on these ‘special’ recipes. I often turn to gluten containing recipes to try something out. After years of experience, I have several go to substitutions. I also mention here that I have only so much lactose that my body will tolerate so I use it sparingly. They are as follows:
First 1:1 means that one uses the same amount of ingredient as the original recipe states…so one tsp you use one tsp; one cup you use one cup, ¼ cup you use ¼ cup etc..
Vanilla extract = maple syrup (1:1)
Wheat flour = Gluten Free all purpose flour (usually 1:1)
Butter = Margarine (1:1)
Milk = almond milk/beverage (1:1)

The difficult part with this is that not every recipe translates well. Some do and some don’t. I tend to review the recipe with my modifications on my Twitter page and sometimes other places. I don’t tend to put up videos because there are already enough variations of recipes on YouTube so my adding isn’t going to change much. My advice is if you are gluten free and have time or need to bake, you will discover what substitutions generally work for you. The ones above tend to work for me. You have to be a bit brave and a bit creative. I tend to stick with the simpler recipes. In fact, the simpler the recipe is the better. When I say simple, I mean ingredients. I don’t bother with fancy ingredients. The more things that it takes, the more likely it is for something to go wrong.

Of course, there are ‘rules’ out there for Gluten Free cooking. I don’t include these. I find some of them are specific to areas and types of cooking. Another issue is that I find our oven cooks hot and fast. Most of the time anything over 350 or 400 degrees gets burnt. So, I’ve had to figure out the oven and the timing. Most rules I see suggest that you have to cook gluten free batter longer…which is not the experience I’ve had with my old oven. Whether it is the oven or that we’re closer to sea level, I’m not sure. Over time I’ve learned what does and doesn’t work with our oven. There are also substitutions for gluten to use in baking, so I do use Gluten Free recipes when I can…as they take into account substitutions. The most important thing about baking for oneself is to remember you’re doing it to maintain a healthy lifestyle on a budget. This is the reason for my baking. It is not to become a pastry chef, but rather to have some serviceable meals that I can bake. Often ready-made and store bought are more expensive and even when being used they require using eggs, oil, milk and other things. So, it is no more expensive to just buy general purpose gluten free flour and make from scratch. Before I end my budget Gluten Free information, the other important factor of baking it yourself is that you also know what is in what you bake. Growing our own food, we know that we do not use pesticides and such, so it is also organic. So, there are many benefits to what one does.

In conclusion, I have to point out that many people talk about how they understand and can cook for a Gluten Free diet. The main thing I can tell you about all of this is that often there is a lack of understanding of ingredients. First, I knew people who ‘thought’ they knew about Gluten Free diet, yet when you ask them what tomato soup they use…and believe me I know only few are gluten free, they spouted off the name of one of the ones that are not gluten free and were amazed that they contained wheat flour. Please don’t assume that hey, it’s just tomato soup what could it have, understand that we are living in a mine field. What you don’t know about Gluten Free and Gluten Containing foods could make us very sick. There are even spices that contain gluten derivatives in them. I have to carefully read all spices I put in my kitchen. I have to carefully read all soups, rice (yes rice) that enter my kitchen. I have to know the ingredients. If I guess wrong, I can suffer. Please don’t be offended when I’m a little distrustful of foods I don’t cook myself. Don’t assume it’s just tomato soup, or it’s just rice. If you do, you could be doing harm to someone without intending to. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope I made you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!

The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...

Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Podcast are available on:
Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...

iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...

Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few

All my e-books can be found on:
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You can also find us on:
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Information included with Anchor FM you can find it also on the WP blog post.

Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson author podcast and blog post. This week I look at Gluten Free life on a budget. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!
Photo: some artisan rolls home made sitting on a cake plate. Keep things closed so they don't dry out.
Caption: Gluten Free on a budget isn't always easy, but it does help by doing your own baking when you can.

Life Do’s and Don’ts

Hi and Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson Author Blog Post and Podcast. I’m your host, Jean coming to you from the beautiful Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada!! The blog post and podcast is an opinion piece and only reflects this author’s opinion and not that of any other entity. I hold no designations in politics, economics or medicine. I am retired from the mental health field. I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree with me or not, at least I hope it makes you think. This week I did a quick survey of topics and have come up with this week’s. I was rather interested in one suggesting do’s and don’ts. If you want to find out my take on it, then stay tuned…!

I don’t want to start off the post with a don’t but it seems I just did. In life it is often better to start off with a do. The reason for this is that it starts things off on a more positive note. The don’ts will come out soon enough anyway. So, do try to start off on the right foot. It doesn’t always work out that way, but realize that one can always change the way they are acting. If people aren’t reacting well to you, then figure out what is making it happen. Once you’ve figured that out, come back and try again in a more intelligent manner. If you can’t figure it out, then someone around might be able to make suggestions. Remember it’s not terrible to admit to a mistake or to make a fresh start. If someone isn’t behaving normally, then it is important to figure out why. If there is something that is not working well, then that is a clue to start looking at what might be making things difficult.

Now I’m moving on to a don’t. Not the best way to start off a blog post or podcast as I said, so don’t generally start with a don’t. Start with a do. First, and foremost, don’t play games with people’s lives. Don’t lie about things. This can cause distrust. It is the same for life and for your professional endeavours. If you feel you have to hide everything, then you can’t have much in the way of a life. At the same time, you need to decide what things you are willing and able to share and what things you are not. It is fair enough to want a certain amount of privacy. You should not invade someone’s privacy as that is a breach not only of society’s agreements that are unwritten, but also a breach of law if serious enough. If you feel you have to put on a fake front to everyone, then it isn’t going to improve your situation. People, sooner or later, will become very frustrated and fed up when they are constantly feeling they have to be on their guard around you. If you are constantly putting on an act, then you are not your authentic self and eventually that will catch up to you. If you’re running around hiding stuff and have people trying to clean up behind you or have someone running around cleaning up after you with messes created by doing this, then chances are you are not being authentic and you are burning people out. This kind of morphs into being honest and telling the truth which is a do. I’m not saying be brutal and hurt people’s feelings. I’m saying, be honest about how you feel and what you are thinking and why you are doing certain things. If you do not mean to harm, but harm is being created, then you need to rethink the strategy. This is best done with people who are close to you and want the best for you. Generally these are adult leaders in your family or church to start with. They might be able to suggest ways to deal with things. They’ve been around for a long time and have made enough mistakes that they might be able to recognize when you are on your way to making a big one.

The next do is do be careful not to be too trusting. Some people will try to use you. Some people will try to do harm to amuse themselves. These are not nice people. There are people in the world that feel they are entitled to everything…including what is yours. These are not your friends. If they con you once, then shame on them, but if they con you repeatedly, that’s not a mistake that is on purpose and you need to re-examine your priorities. So, make note if someone is around you that you should not trust. Make note if there is someone who continually gets you into trouble and has made enough bad choices that you are spending a lot of time unhappy. At the same time, you have to know that not every choice will be a good one, but that you need to work on making better ones. Learn from your mistakes. So if there is someone who makes good choices, who gives you good advice and doesn’t get you in trouble, then you should listen to them more than trying to fix things in a way that might make them worse for you and for others.

Don’t always follow the crowd. Not everyone is a good person to follow. Remember the saying, sometimes when the masses want to do something, the m becomes silent and your left with …. Well, you can figure that one out. Some people will suggest doing things that are dishonest or bad for you. These are not role models. I’ve seen recently, someone doing a Tictok challenge and died because of it. They were following the masses and it was a very bad outcome. https://people.com/health/ohio-boy-13.... This is not the first or only case. It happens far too often and that is one of the many concerns with Tiktok. Now, to put it in context; everyone knows that Benadryl is an allergy medication. Like any other medication it is possible to overdose on it. Overdosing can cause you to die. It seems one of those things that many seem to know, but some don’t think through. Don’t think it can’t happen to you? I guarantee that it can just as easily happen to you as overdosing on any other kind of drug. If you die, you can’t have a do over. So, evaluate before you take an action. People think they’ll be famous by doing things on TikTok or on other forums. I can also tell you that for everyone who does very well on these forums…there are many others who do not. For example, we have had our YouTube channel for quite some time. We still do not meet criterion to make any money on it. So, if your main aim is views and making money, you might be disappointed.

The next do is do have a backup plan. Have a valid way to make money if you need to work. For every person who makes it as an actor, musician or other famous person, there are many who never make it. If you don’t need to work, then that is a separate thing. You can try out anything. Do what you love. Don’t expect anything of it. Trying is OK if you can afford to. Trying without spending a lot of money is challenging, but can be done. Unfortunately, for the far majority of us, we can’t afford to put a lot of money onto things.

I am reminded of a quote from a famous movie called Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back. In it two characters are talking:
“Luke: Master, moving stones around is one thing. This is totally different.
Yoda: No. No different. Only different in your mind. You must unlearn what you have learned.
Luke: All right, I'll give it a try.
Yoda: No. Try not. Do… or do not. There is no try.”
I’ve heard the quote before and liked it. It speaks to the need to work at things. I think Star Wars is a saga of determination of good over evil. Do not underestimate the power of two things, the first thing is the impact a negative action can have and the other is the power of a positive action. Both have the power to usher change, but what kind of change? Now this is not to say to work on things to the extent of driving everyone around you out of their mind. There is a time and place for everything as they say. Playing something like war of the world on high octane at 4AM is a poor choice of time, 6PM would not be so bad or mid-afternoon might not be so bad. 4AM would be a terrible time to do this. So, there is a do make sure to choose appropriate times for things and appropriate actions.

There are so many different do’s and don’ts that I could go write about, but this is a good start on the do’s and don’ts of blogging, podcasting and life in general. I fit what I could into the short time frame. Life is multifaceted. People are all different. Some people have a high tolerance for noise, others do not. Some have a high tolerance for stress and others do not. Life is not one size fits all and what you do can impact others. You need to choose whether you want to make it positive or negative impact. Some people live with trauma, some live with drama and some need a bit quieter lifestyle. As Charles Dickens is quoted with saying, “Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own; and from morning to night, as from the cradle to the grave, it is but a succession of changes so gentle and easy that we can scarcely mark their progress.” You only get one life. Do make it a good one. We are all on this planet together, whether we like it or not. Do what you can to make it a good world. There is enough violence, intolerance and other things in the world. We need more good. We need more understanding that there is not only one way to be. There is not only one way to live and since we’re all on this twirling sphere, we need to try to accommodate the quiet and the noisy on one level playing field. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope I made you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!

The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...

Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Podcast are available on:
Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...

iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...

Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few

All my e-books can be found on:
Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...

You can also find us on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EJS08026749
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zp...
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/ej2466
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/e-j-s-151a...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewAandJP...

From the WordPress and also on Anchor podcast write up, photo and caption information:

Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson author podcast and blog post. This week I look at the do’s and don’ts for podcasting, blog posting and life in general…they are all part of my life. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!
Photo: A black and white woodpecker with a red patch on head looks off on a break from exploring a dead tree. Wood chips litter the ground under him.
Caption: As in nature, there is a time and place for everything. The local woodpeckers diligently works on a rotted out tree looking for food or trying to attract a mate. He does his work during the daytime. Other animals do their work at night. Each has their own time to shine.

Projects and Health

Hi and Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson Author Blog Post and Podcast. I’m your host, Jean coming to you from the beautiful Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada!! The blog post and podcast is an opinion piece and only reflects this author’s opinion and not that of any other entity. I hold no designations in politics, economics or medicine. I am retired from the mental health field. I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree with me or not, at least I hope it makes you think. This week I will tell you how I spend my time and some hobbies I have that keep me busy. Hubby of course has his woodworking, but I have other things. I have a bunch of hobbies that end up being of little value for sales, but can keep things more interesting. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!

At first, I thought I might make some money with upcycling clothing, but this seems not to have been productive. No one showed any interest or showed very little interest in anything I produced. I think I sold one piece on Ebay a long time ago. So, knowing that, I moved forward into making stuff for myself. I have expanded from upcycling already existing pieces, which I still can do to making simple no pattern pieces. I had sewn a bit in my earlier years. In fact, one piece won second place at a local fair many years ago. I had used patterns. I still could, but I became interested in easy to make pieces. I found the sewing machine to be somewhat annoying as it was very picky. So, as a result, I turned to hand sewing. So far, my cloth has been purchased at various thrift shops so it is actually still giving something a second chance. I’ve used various cloths…lace table cloths and curtains included. Once I stopped being so serious about the sewing and started to make stuff for my enjoyment, I didn’t care how long it took to make it. I had to concern myself with what I wanted to wear and not what someone else might want. I still have quite a stash of cloth and clothing to work with. I find hand sewing to be relaxing.

I also have done crochet and knitting. I tend to cycle through my hobbies. The sewing is at the top of the list right now. I find that with more delicate fabrics, I like to use French Seams https://www.seamwork.com/articles/sew.... For any other sewing, it is possible to sew very small stitches on the outside or one can pick a little cloth on the inside in order to hide the seam. Of course, my love of added embellishment is given a place as well. Sometimes this can be used to hide sewing if one wants to make it easier. All it takes is some rudimentary sewing knowledge on how to sew straight stitches or back-stitching to lock in place. I have to admit that when I took sewing in Home Economics way back in school, I wasn’t enamoured with sewing. I found it slow and silly. Most of the girls weren’t incredibly excited by the class or said they weren’t. This was in the days when girls had to take Home Economics and boys had to take Shop. I suspect that at the time, some of the girls would have been happier with Shop and some of the guys would be happier with Home Economics. It wasn’t the way things were done back 35 or more years ago. Now, I think there is choice with that regard. Strangely, I was able to make use of what I learned at the time. It was much like the typing class. I hated it at the time. In the years since, I’ve made good use of the skill I had achieved. So, there is something to be said of taking courses that one doesn’t exactly love when they are in Jr. High and High School. As they said at the time, it builds character.

Another hobby that, strangely enough I also didn’t find all that exciting in Home Economics class, but developed some interest in since leaving the workforce is baking and cooking. I remember in Junior High School pairing up with some friends. The rule for the particular class was that you had to eat what you made. I believe we might have created the first time that the rule was allowed to be broken. Apparently two of us got the same ingredient and added it. This did not work out well. The teacher tasted it and admitted it was disgusting and would waive the having to eat it rule. It was rather lucky that we were both respectful students as it was admittedly a mistake and not a purposeful action. My mother was a teacher, how much could I get away with…LOL. Now, I find myself watching some baking videos and if the project looks reasonable I make sure it isn’t something wrong and give it a try. Of course we all know that every YouTube video is exactly correct (sarcasm it can be hard to tell with writing). That’s another one of my issues. The one thing I can tell you is that if we make a YouTube video, it is a valid video. We actually video what we are doing as we do it. Doesn’t always make great video, because I can’t go back afterwards and re-tape it. But, it does mean that if you see a project work on our channel it should work. My latest thing was making pumpkin puree and freezing it. The great thing about this is that it gives me a main ingredient. The pumpkins cost us nothing extra as we grew them from seedlings. So, it was just the electricity to bake and grind the puree. I don’t add anything to it because I want to be able to make it into whatever I want and different recipes might call for different additives.

My next big project might be bread making. I have seen some easy looking recipes. They are more time consuming, but if you watch on Twitter, I often post pictures of things I have made. I don’t bother to redo the same recipes on YouTube. They’re already on YouTube at least half dozen variations. So, my picture and short review of the recipe is enough. The other thing is that I often find a wheat flour recipe and I have to modify it. I will share wheat containing recipes, but at some point, I tell my followers what I changed. Sometimes wheat recipes translate well into Gluten Free and sometimes they don’t. I never know which it will be until I try it out. The benefits to doing your own baking is, for example, to buy a muffin mix or cake mix that is gluten free is quite expensive. If I’m choosy about what I use, then my fresh baked is no worse in price. I find most of the packages require the addition of eggs, oil or some other items. I can buy the flour and add the other ingredients and still not be any worse in cost.

I should point out that Do It Yourself (DIY) is time intensive. Most times, unless you find ingredients or pieces that you need to buy that are more expensive, it isn’t more expensive in the long run. Living within one’s means and being on a budget means that I pick and choose the recipes that I attempt. I also pick and choose the items that I make. There is more to doing your own thing than there is to buying ready-made. For example, things like pumpkin pies, if you buy them in store, and they are gluten free the price is often $10+ each. I haven’t bought one for a couple of years or more, so not sure exactly the price, but last time I bought one they were over $10. On the other hand, if you grow your own pumpkin, even buying the pie crusts, the price is far less. Yes, it takes longer, but you save money. The most important thing about baking projects is that you know what is in them. I try not to find recipes with a whole lot of sugar in them. I find a lot of recipes online tend to use too much salt and a lot use a lot of butter. If I bought them, they would be full of those two things as well. I can control the intake of things such as sugar and salt. There are no extra ingredients to keep them fresh for long periods of time, so I control the amounts that I make so that we don’t have it go bad. Some things you can freeze. The cost of frozen fruit, for example, has gone up dramatically. Having grown our own strawberries they can be picked and frozen. These strawberries have lasted us the whole winter. Possibly we will have a new batch before we totally run out, but it will be close. We use them in making smoothies which we also make from scratch. So, there are a lot of benefits, but there are costs to the DIY life style. Of course not all things are DIY in our home, but we find that a small garden had yielded a lot of pickles and salsa. I have pumpkin puree and discovered a nice muffin recipe. I’ve made pies. I would suppose one of my future projects should be how to make pie crust. I do remember not being incredibly talented at it when I tried years ago. I hope that this will give my readers and listeners some ideas how to simplify their own lives. As Napoleon Hill is quoted as saying, “It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project.” Whether you agree with me or not, I hope I made you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!

The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...

Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Podcast are available on:
Anchor FM in a variety of formats: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...

iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-e-...

Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-... name a few

All my e-books can be found on:
Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...

You can also find us on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EJS08026749
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5zp...
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.ca/ej2466
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/e-j-s-151a...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewAandJP...

Politics and Health Care

Hi and Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson Author Blog Post and Podcast. I’m your host, Jean coming to you from the beautiful Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada!! The blog post and podcast is an opinion piece and only reflects this author’s opinion and not that of any other entity. I hold no designations in politics, economics or medicine. I am retired from the mental health field. I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree with me or not, at least I hope it makes you think. This week I look at current events surrounding politics and various health care issues and see where they take me. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!

Our PEI elections finished this past week. The link gives more details. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Pr.... I’m rather glad that’s over. Progressive Conservatives (PC) took over most of the province with Liberals in second place. The Wiki article seems to have already been updated at the writing of this article. Of course, what held more prominence on the Canadian news is the Province of Alberta (AB) and Premier Smith wanting to launch legal action https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/alberta-pr.... I say this because on the day following the election, I got up in the morning and tried to find an article to confirm results. You never know with politics. I finally found it about halfway down the Canadian News feed. It seems the legal woes of AB were given precedence. On the bright side, it appears that Mr. King is serious about working on the major issues that we face. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince.... I can, for the most part, say that at least he didn’t back stab and he kept it from becoming an ugly political race. Not that some didn’t try to make it one. We’re not USA junior (sorry, I see the mess that is US politics and it gets ugly). He also didn’t promise anything that was undeliverable nor create too many solutions that might worsen things here. I hope he delivers on the Health Care and will find ways to open the medical school training or obtain more internship positions. I know I could use a doctor. So could tons of other people.

The ever present health care crisis in Canada is still there and still topic of discussions https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/medica... and people propose ideas like increasing the mobility of doctors. This article suggests it. Tell me how is that going to fix the problem? Sure we can do that and make it easier for doctors to move, and it might alleviate the problems in larger areas. We’ve already lost two doctors in the Summerside area who are leaving in May. https://www.saltwire.com/atlantic-can.... If given greater mobility, where do you think these doctors are going to choose to go? Do you think the little areas are going to gain greatly from this? Most importantly, does this make more doctors? No, they just move from one area to another.

The other suggestion that they make is making the rules less strict. How is this going to fix the problem? Do we just give anyone a shingle and let them set up? I think, for these ‘super fast’ and in some cases knee jerk reaction solutions that are being proposed, I would like to see how these things are supposed to work. A proposed agenda and how do we loosen the rules and what rules are we talking about loosening? The only way to fix the problem and the medical crisis in Canada is to train and give internships to more doctors. If, as they suggest in one article there are lots of doctors sitting not doctoring because of qualifications and internship methodology, then how are they currently employed? What did they lack? Is there a fairer method of evaluation to get into an internship, one that is less difficult or biased? All that is given are estimates...and I would think with the lack of solid statistics on this and the lack of solid reasons why people are not allowed to practice, I would like to see the statistics on what needs to change, how and why. We can state that things need to change all we want, but without a plan we’re not moving forward. They want to blame the system, but it does make sense to train doctors trained in your own country because that guarantees a known quantity. It guarantees a certain amount and type of training. Do we need to form equivalencies? Is there some form of testing that all aspiring doctors could take that would qualify them to do internships rather than current methods? It seems a question of not accepting enough residents overall if they accept about half. However, at the same time, what eliminates someone from a spot? Not everyone who graduates from a program will practice in their area of expertise. My first degree, I was qualified to be a teacher. At the time, the only possible way to do it would be to do ‘supply’ teaching over a longer term until I might get hired. I was not independently wealthy, so I ended up leaving the field. Not everyone ends up in their chosen field. Similar issues are showing up in the Teaching field, but there is not enough time in this blog post and podcast to detail this. However, I note that one of the reasons they give that not all get their teaching certificate is incomplete paperwork https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-te....

Everyone is proposing solutions including me but we need to have data and why the particular changes will be beneficial. Who is being left out? How can we make it work better for everyone? Most Provinces, I would assume would recruit from these people and help them get to the qualifications that they need if they were specifically qualified and equivalently educated. So how are they being completely missed? What qualifications keep them from becoming a doctor? I can spout out all the solutions and blame all the factors I want, but if they don’t add up or there is no strategy to resolve the issues, then I am wasting time. If they qualify completely, then they should be allowed to do an internship. What qualifications or reasons are they given for not being set into internships? I can’t see doctors being stupid and not allowing people into the profession nor can I see them not volunteering to work with someone without some kind of basis, though it is not beyond the scope of reality. So, all the solutions still won’t solve the problem over night. We still have doctors that are retiring. We still have doctors who are overwhelmed. Overall, we might have to deal with having more internships and more medical training to get things caught up. It won’t change anything to change the location requirements except make it easier for them to move around. We can do it. It might result in some movement, but will that movement be to our benefit? Will it just move doctors to more ‘desirable’ locations and what are those locations? It might give some temporary relief by taking doctors from other areas where they may be needed. Are they going to choose to move to locations where there are little to no services? Are they going to stay at locations that have nothing to attract them? It will fill a lot of vacancies in the perceived ‘best’ locations. It will solve nothing for the smaller have not areas. The only cure for the doctor shortage is to have enough qualified doctors out there.

Another less talked about crisis that we have in the Maritimes is that we have a similar problem getting enough Veterinarians (Vets) here. Our cat got sick late afternoon to early evening one day. The first thing next day we called the Vet office, before we even got to go in the door, they told us $70 for Emergency and $50 per day to have him there. His case couldn’t wait…so we have to assume the burden. They can’t get enough Vets either. This means there is less time for the Vet to do the work and they have to fit in emergencies. I do know enough that it is an emergency when a cat is throwing up, not using his litter for half a day and not eating or drinking. They can dehydrate and that could be deadly. If you know that waiting could be deadly, then you have a serious problem. Then again, if you don’t know you could end up with a dead pet. So $120 later the cat was at the Vet’s but came home same evening with tests waiting processing and some medication and special food. They had to take time to get the hydration taken care of and they can figure out if there is a serious problem. If it is serious enough, much like with humans, he might not be around long through no fault of his own. To make this more salient why it is a problem, I believe there might be one Vet for the whole area and 2 vet offices in two towns and they share the Vet or Vets between the two locations. There is no guarantee that you get an actual Vet to be your pet’s Vet. In other words, they are so busy and have already got so many patients that they can’t actually take on more. It is pretty much Maritime wide from what I see on family feeds. Many articles suggest that it is actually wider spread. So, not sure that they have a choice but do things on an emergent basis if it is a valid emergency. If not, and it can wait, then people will wait for an appointment. I’m not sure if the charges that are suggested are put there to make sure that people aren’t trying to abuse emergency basis. I know some people would and they have to do what is necessary to maintain sanity. I know I was not abusing it. I knew about the danger of dehydration to a cat, so knew a couple of days was not an option. How many people do know this? Of course, being uncertain of what the actual problem was the first time, I didn’t think that there was something I needed to do to prevent further occurrences. So, today, it came up specifically…sadly, not the hairball though. Now we’re switching Ramses’ food to hairball control and my husband will ask if there is more we can do. I plan to specifically ask about pumpkin puree (we have organic made ourselves stuff without sugar or additives that I freeze). There is also some hairball remedy, but that might not be a top choice. Depends on what the Vet says. Either way, I want to know what we can do to prevent further such occurrences.

What is the cause of the shortage of Vets? Well, it is said that one is the proliferation of pets that came out during the pandemic https://www.ctvnews.ca/lifestyle/nati.... I’m not sure where that one will lead. However I do see one of the things that has hit the news is a current increase of pets being surrendered. https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/217408... This seems to be caused by both the pandemic that caused the lack of Vets and the cost of living. People cannot afford to keep their pets in other words. Much like with the doctor shortage, the Vet shortage is causing stress and burn out for the Vets. They are keeping an even number and graduating as many as replace retired but this is less than needed. Of course with the influx in the surrenders of pets some of the vets need to focus on the Humane Societies and shelters as well as their practice. Some Veterinary Colleges are increasing intake, so this might help with the numbers. They talk about preventative care, but to get your dog or cat into the clinic can be challenging as they are over booked and over worked. You have to be willing to ask questions because overwork results in dealing with the situation and sometimes not the more permanent fix. It is much like the human health care system in that respect.

It seems that the Veterinary care is suffering as well as human care. In fact, there is another problem caused by the uptick in companion animals brought on by the pandemic as well. This is the fact that often farm Vets are choosing to leave for companion animal care practice https://www.npr.org/2022/12/19/114339.... This means fewer farm Vets as well. This also spirals into more stressed out Veterinarians. Veterinarians are trying to get this issue addressed by graduating more Veterinarians https://www.canadianveterinarians.net... . They too want to accept recruits from other areas. Again, this does not solve the overall problem. If you remove a Veterinarian from one area and they move to another, we’re still short Veterinarians overall. So, it seems the best line of attack is to train more Vets.

The problem that is pointed out is not the problem that we need to solve. They see mobility as essential. I’m sure it will help some areas and other areas will not do as well because of it. Mobility isn’t the main issue. We can change that. It might help some, but hinder or hurt others. I don’t say not to do it. My point is moving Doctors or Veterinarians around is not going to make more of something we already don’t have enough of. I hope that they will see the need to increase those trained and interned so that we can get the issue resolved. Other medical professionals may be a help, but those too are in short supply. Much like most problems we have in the world, we can’t fix the problem by foisting it off on the next guy or moving it around. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope I made you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!

The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...

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April Fools’ Day

Hi and Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson Author Blog Post and Podcast. I’m your host, Jean coming to you from the beautiful Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada!! The blog post and podcast is an opinion piece and only reflects this author’s opinion and not that of any other entity. I hold no designations in politics, economics or medicine. I am retired from the mental health field. I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree with me or not, at least I hope it makes you think. This week I discuss the seemingly never ending April Fools’ Day. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!

Lately, reading the news on my timeline is rather reminiscent of Groundhog Day, a 1993 movie starring Bill Murray (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107048/). The premise was someone living the same day over and over in an attempt to get it right. Except, instead of Groundhog Day, it’s more like April Fools’ Day over and over because it seems a round of things that seem to be hoaxes or at least one wishes they were. The problem is many of the things not only are not funny, they are real and in some cases tragic. Let’s start with a recent shooting in a school in the USA. The headline said it all. https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/nashvill... “Nashville shooting highlights security at private schools”. Really, this is what was highlighted? Three children and three staff members were murdered in cold blood. This isn’t the first or only such incident in the USA. It doesn’t seem to matter what school. What is the factor that is the same in all of these multiple murders committed in a school? The person who gets into the school has a gun. Let’s focus on security in schools? How can we make schools more secure from people carrying guns and going in and shooting people? But, no, they would rather blame the school. Sure, they’re the ones that are at fault if we’re going to be sarcastic about it. What I have to wonder about is what blaming the victims does to resolve the issue? Are the kids at fault for attending school? Is the school staff at fault for working in a school? No of course not, but isn’t that what focusing on security does? It blames the school for not keeping the kids safe from people breaking into the school and killing people with a gun. Their end statement, “…we live in a broken, fallen world," he said. "And we need to be vigilant to care for one another as best we can."? But, we must protect the right to play with guns. We can’t infringe on this. How many children have to die?

Of course, further investigation into this particular case shows that her parents did not think she should have a gun…yet she had more than one and some legally obtained. https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/28/us/cov.... It is tragic that her own family thought she should not have a gun, yet there was nothing to stop her from legally obtaining guns. It further states, “The attack was the 19th shooting at an American school or university in 2023 in which at least one person was wounded, according to a CNN tally, and the deadliest since the May attack in Uvalde, Texas, left 21 dead. There have been 42 K-12 school shootings since Uvalde.” (https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/28/us/cov...). Do I propose that we take away people’s rights? Not at all. The major question that I see is; who is speaking for the rights of people who were living one day and dead the next just because they attended school and someone came in with a gun? Who is speaking for the rights of the children to attend school in a safe place without worrying about being used as targets? There seems to be confusion as to what rights are important.

Even more horrific; I had read some comments that seemed to suggest that we could fix the problem by arming teachers. First, this is not the militia. This is a school. Teachers are meant to teach children. This is, of course, not the only issue. If a teacher has a weapon in the classroom, what happens if someone disarms them? What happens if someone slips the gun out of their possession? Is this going to solve a problem or potentially create more problems? Teachers do not have police training. Do we want to include that too, into their training? Even with police training, shooting another human being can be a traumatic event. Many police officers who do so are traumatized and may solders develop PTSD. So, how many students and teachers might end up with PTSD inadvertently because we arm the teachers? Where is the logic in that suggestion?

The tragedy of this, according to the same article, (https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/28/us/cov...) is that the attack was well planned out. There was a message sent out to someone they had been friends with, but too late to do any good. Even sadder, Firearms are a leading cause of death among children and adolescents in 2021. We focus on curing childhood illnesses like cancer, but we don’t want to focus on finding a way to save children from being shot and killed? Are we that far gone as a society that we are willing to risk the lives of our children by handing guns to people with little to no thought. The following article shows how some changes can save lives. https://www.reuters.com/world/how-can... . These are actual cases and measures. But, why expect people to look at stats and facts when rhetoric is determined to be the ‘Golden Mean’.

At the same time some political agendas are busily denigrating the LGBTQ+ Community and any time someone there sneezes; this becomes an attribute to the whole group, yet they don’t like it when someone points out that they are being discriminatory. They come up with whatever they can find. Of course to add more confusion into the whole thing, apparently we need to be protected from people doing shows in drag. If you don’t like it, don’t watch it. Much like nude David…if you don’t want to see it, don’t go see it. But then where do you draw the line and can you enforce it?

Sometimes, I shake my head because I get a ‘what century are we in again’ moment. The next in my series of this can’t be real and maybe April 1 it will come out to be a sick April Fools’ joke follows close behind. The need to legislate what women do with their bodies seems excessive. This attitude smacks of ancient views of earlier centuries where women were seen as being ‘morally weak’. Of course we’re not competent to run our own lives. Just ask men from the court of Henry VIII (https://onthetudortrail.com/Blog/2012...). Because, you know we have no conscience of our own, we have to have our husbands’ crack down on us to keep us in line. Isn’t that what the Governments are telling us with the use of laws to keep us from taking care of our own bodies? This is not something that is being done in Canada. Though gun control is a thing being done in Canada…there might be a lesson there. Though Canada has some issues in the realm of respecting women, they are working on it. Such a lack of respect for women and their fellow humans to be able to run their own lives baffles me.

As Phil Bredesen is quoted with saying, “The consequences of decisions don't just affect spreadsheets... They affect, in fundamental ways, the lives of people and they often mean the difference between life and death.” I think when decisions are made, it would be an important factor to consider the consequences of those actions and not just spout out the party line. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope I made you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!

The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...

Blog Posts are available on
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Presumptions and Assumptions

Hi and Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson Author Blog Post and Podcast. I’m your host, Jean coming to you from the beautiful Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada!! The blog post and podcast is an opinion piece and only reflects this author’s opinion and not that of any other entity. I hold no designations in politics, economics or medicine. I am retired from the mental health field. I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree with me or not, at least I hope it makes you think. This week I explore the idea of jealousy and anger and how it is holding back civilization. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!

This week, I saw a young musician put out a demo with his band. Nothing is really all that new or interesting about that. I mean people do it all the time. People either like it or they don’t like it. That’s not a problem either. Some people make it and some people don’t. What was a problem is that some people were putting it down because his father was a famous rocker. This makes little to no sense to me. People seem to make the assumption that they will be riding on the coat tails of their parents. The thing is that not every child of someone famous stays in the limelight. Many leave. https://www.buzzfeed.com/kristenharri... and https://www.beliefnet.com/entertainme... talk about some of these situations. So, whether or not your parent is in the limelight, does not determine success or even staying in the celebrity world. Of course in the celebrity world, there are people who are simply discovered and become celebrities… https://www.buzzfeed.com/kristenharri.... Not all celebrities are born into celebrity families and a great many of the greats also started out from obscurity.

This brings me to the topic of jealousy and anger. There seems a lot of either one or the other going around. I highly recommend learning to deal with it so you can grow as a person. There is nothing to be gained by trying to crush someone trying to break into any area. Whether it is music, acting, or any profession for that matter, it does no good to put down others. It doesn’t make one any better a person nor does it make the situation any better for anyone. It just shows that you have very little class and a lot of growing up to do. Anger getting the best of people seems to be a thing nowadays. https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/ontario-... talks about a grown man failing a driver’s test in Ontario, Canada and then nearly killing people. What was gained? Well, he’s suspended from driving and it made the news. This does not seem a good way to make the news. It does make a good reason to learn to deal with your anger. He is quite lucky that no one was badly injured. It garnered him suspension of license and impounding of his vehicle. Now, when it comes to failing driver’s tests, I did. I have perceptual problems so driving did not come easy to me. I can attest to the fact that you are a bit disappointed. Even more especially disappointed if it was a rookie mistake. However, going out and nearly killing people did not occur to me to be a practical solution. Go back to the drawing board and start over again did until I could pass it.

When did we become a society so full of jealousy that one would try to crush another person based on their family? Why would we treat them in a way that was negative trying to start their own career? They are not their family. Do they have money? Probably. Will that money make it easier for them to be able to do better videos and better demos? Again, probably. It still doesn’t ensure that they will make it in an industry where it appears that even the public will try to eat their fledglings. People with money will always have an advantage. It does not mean that their work is any less deserving of acknowledgement. If someone with talent and drive comes along, they will become the next big thing. That is one of the problems with jealousy and talent. If you do not acknowledge people for their talents, if you do not understand the nature of the business, if you drive young people away from it, you will potentially keep people from earning their own place in the business. Is that the type of people that we want to be in the world? Is this how we want to move forward?

If every time we are disappointed, we do damage, we harm or kill someone because we’re angry and disappointed, there will be a lot of full jails. There will be a lot of funerals. It is never right to harm another. Nor is it right to show such extremes in jealousy or anger. I like the definition of jealousy. “Jealousy generally refers to the thoughts or feelings of insecurity, fear, and concern over a relative lack of possessions or safety.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jealousy This is different from prejudice, but seems to somewhat overlap. Let’s also explore one of the definitions of prejudice “an adverse opinion or leaning formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge.” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dicti.... So, sometimes jealousy can result in prejudice. This can translate into bias. A lot of problems in the world seem based on fear and lack of knowledge. We assume things that might or might not be accurate for a given group. One of those faulty assumptions is that some make is that someone whose parents were celebrities results in their making it on the coat tails of the parents. Money might help, but it can’t buy talent. Those who try tend not to make it very far. Many children of celebrities do not stay in the celebrity life. Some do. It is no easier than any other profession.

There is a faulty assumption that someone whose parents were celebrities or had one parent who is a celebrity will make it simply because they are related to the celebrity. It does give them a leg up, but it does not ensure success. What generally makes for success is having talent and drive to succeed. Even then, it is not a guarantee. I have often said that it doesn’t matter how you get the job. What matters is how you keep the job. Many jobs are gotten by knowing someone in the company. Why would this be any different for entertainment? One of my jobs, I got because I had worked with the woman who was running the accounting. I didn’t take advantage of that fact and worked every bit as hard as though I was an unknown. I have always done my best at the job. I worked just as hard at that job as I did at any other job. Sadly, due to environmental allergies, I was unable to stay, but while there, I was not given any complaints about my performance on my work.

There is good news, there are things you can do to help deal with jealousy. https://www.nbcnews.com/better/lifest... suggests some ideas. There are also lots of anger management ideas out there too https://www.apa.org/topics/anger/control and this article gives some ideas. The beauty of this is that most of these can work for you and also help deal with other issues in your daily life. It may help you sort out whether it is a bias or whether there are true concerns. If someone has done harm, then there is a tendency to be concerned. This would be normal. If you are concerned about someone doing better than yourself, then you need to examine why this matters. It won’t change the status of where you are in life. It may just turn some people away from you.

Remember when someone takes on a job, whether or not you like their family or that they have family in the profession or did, makes no difference. One of my ancestors was a seamstress, should I therefore be put down for doing some sewing for myself. I will never be Coco Chanel. I won’t try to be. Just as this young man is not trying to be his father, he is trying to develop his own style. If the person has talent they will rise, if they don’t, they will not. It really is as simple as that. As Stephen Fry is quoted with saying, “I will defend the absolute value of Mozart over Miley Cyrus, of course I will, but we should be wary of false dichotomies. You do not have to choose between one or the other. You can have both. The human cultural jungle should be as varied and plural as the Amazonian rainforest. We are all richer for biodiversity. We may decide that a puma is worth more to us than a caterpillar, but surely we can agree that the habitat is all the better for being able to sustain each.” Whether you agree with me or not, I hope I made you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!

The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...

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Time Cycles

Before I start, this is my 170th blog post on GoodReads. I'm starting it on St. Patrick's Day but publishing Saturday.

Hi and Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson Author Blog Post and Podcast. I’m your host, Jean coming to you from the beautiful Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada!! The blog post and podcast is an opinion piece and only reflects this author’s opinion and not that of any other entity. I hold no designations in politics, economics or medicine. I am retired from the mental health field. I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree with me or not, at least I hope it makes you think. This week I look at time and how it works or doesn’t as the case may be. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!

Bet you think this is going to be the same old spring ahead, fall back lecture. Well, maybe part of it will be. But, let’s look at time in general for a little bit. According to this article https://www.maa.org/external_archive/... “measurement of time began with the invention of sundials in ancient Egypt some time prior to 1500 B.C.” I’m sure the first man recognized that time passed…or by some weird process things got light for awhile and then got dark for awhile. But, for argument’s sake, we started measuring time about 1500BC. When early man travelled from one area to another, they had to have some sense of time or the sun. There was likely recognition of things changing. Even without clocks, travel was charted using the skies, the stars and such. This must have given the early humans an idea of change that comes with time. As humans progressed, they learned to measure time using a variety of implements that included candles, water, sand and worked their way up to the mechanical marvels and of course the complex calendar and clocks on our computers, cells, and tablets. Who knows how even that will evolve over time. This article https://www.thoughtco.com/clock-and-c... discusses some of these changes. Each change was seen as radical in their time.

Of course now we have clocks on computers, cell phones etc. and we take time, make time, steal time, waste time spring ahead, fall back and some of us have too much time on our hands. Time takes an awful beating. After the Egyptian and Roman sundials, things progressed into clocks that needed to be wound; depending on cogs and wheels. This evolved over time and some could be wound less and now we have various battery operated clocks and watches with no need to wind. In the 1700 and 1800’s clockwork surpassed itself with automatons which were literally machines made to operate as a human would. A boy at a writing desk, a woman at a musical instrument and a silver swan are just a few examples you can find on YouTube. I have a link to the swan just for an example for those not aware of this marvellous jump forward in technology of that time period https://youtu.be/ECuS6HDa-9Y . They were works of art. This article talks about the automaton periods. I’m dealing mostly with the clockworks and clocks due to the relationship with time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automaton. At the time, people were interested in time and with human movement. It was a way to understand the world around them. The work was the marvel of that age.

When Standard Time was established, it was to make things easier for the railways to schedule. Of course they got very interested in time and ended up making different time zones to accommodate different locations. So, this made it easier for railways to have schedules and transportation and shipping could be done on some kind of schedule. This also moved the importance of keeping and measuring standard time on to the work day and everyday life. This article talks about this process in more detail. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standar... Now this is not to say that Daylight Savings time is their fault (railways), though they were involved in setting standard time. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayligh... had various reasoning presented, most ignored early on. One early one was to save candles set forth by Benjamin Franklin who suggested it in a satirical letter…which goes to show that one man’s satire is another’s time change. It is mostly held together by arguments that people like more daylight after work in summer. It now seems partially politically based. However there are some suggestions that it may save on power consumption. At the same time there is an increase in some things like traffic accidents with some time changes. All this is discussed in the article. So, we continue to see suggestions of getting rid of it, keeping it and there seems little agreement by the powers that be whether we should or shouldn’t change it. There seems a greater interested around the time of the Spring and Fall Time change which makes it a topic célèbre at least two times a year. Much like a clock with a face and hands that is broken still gets to be right twice a year the Spring Ahead and Fall Back times seem to elicit a lot of discussion. I think people still see clocks with faces and hands. Not everything is digital.

Of course the music world has had a huge interest in time. Some want to save time in a bottle (Jim Croce). Some want to Turn Back Time (Cher)…and I am guilty of loving to share the meme before the time change in the autumn. Some of them yearn for Yesterday (The Beatles). Of course, not to leave out Movies and Actors we have Back to the Future (Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd to name 2 of the actors), The Time Machine (Guy Pearce) and of course Days of Our Lives (Soap Opera). So, no matter what we do, we still have time. There’s always time to change. Then in the art world we have Salvatore Dali who was fascinated by time and has a famous work showing melting clocks. People have been fascinated by time, changing time and changing our future by changing the past since time immemorial. It is the topic of many artistic endeavours.

As Michael Altshuler is quoted as saying, “The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” So, for those of you who are flummoxed by time, the only real thing one takes away from it is that time will pass whether or not you like it. Most of life happens and time passes whether you want it to or not. You cannot go back to the past and change the past. Many movies try to change reality and attempt to show it working for their characters. You cannot go to the future and warn yourself of a mistake you made. Once a mistake is made, the time it happened will never return. You will not get a chance to turn back the clock and get a redo. It is just as well to find ways to enjoy your time that do not infringe on the enjoyment of time by others. If you use your time to perpetuate stereotypes or to do harm to others, then you are wasting precious time. No matter how you use your time, you are the one that is in the driver’s seat of your time. Harvey Mackay is credited with saying, “Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it, you can never get it back.” If you want to take anything away from this, it is to use your time wisely. You only get so much of it every day. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope I made you think. Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures! Keep watching because we’re always working on something. Thank you!

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