E. Jean Simpson's Blog: A & J PEI Treasures/E Jean Simpson, BEd, BA, MA, page 7

Thoughts about Life and the Health Care Crisis

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 and I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree or not, at least I hope it makes you think. This week, I explore the effects of Health Care Crisis and other thoughts. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!

Today after having spent hours on stuff going wrong with the computer, with emails that added to the burden as they don’t answer questions about the care my parents were being given and worries about why I can’t get a straight answer, I had enough. We are considering our future and where we want to spend it. We love the Province, but it would be better to be within easier access for family and physicians. So, are we going to remain A & J PEI Treasures or are we going to be looking to move to another Province? The questions hangs heavy in the air. It has a lot of the factors that we love, the water, the space, my creativity has been great. In the past months, I have suddenly developed allergies out of nowhere. On top of that, the lack of information that I have about my parents has kept me worried. It is harder to travel from the Island. COVID has made getting medical treatment harder. I wonder if it is unrealistic to think that I can get medical care and that I can operate things as my computer has wonky stuff happening often. So, there is a decision to make. We can explore opportunities before it gets too late to move. We are nearly in our 60th year.

The thing that I find greatly confusing and concerning is that with all the extra medical staff in New Brunswick, they cannot seem to answer to me directly or easily as to whether a study is valid or not. I cannot find out whether there is an institution involved with my parents or not. They also cannot seem to indicate anything but that they would like to talk with me on the phone from a number and a location that is no longer valid. It was, I assumed a simple question with a valid answer that one could see the information on. This has turned into a round robin of having been given no fewer than three different potentially involved groups, different times and ruled out one since PNAB indicated no knowledge of it. So, one of the factors is not only my husband and my own medical needs, but also my continued concerns about what is going on in the New Brunswick medical system. It might be less stress if we were able to reach them more easily.

So, what things do we need to take into account? Firstly, on the medical basis, In New Brunswick in 2022, the population was estimated to be 794,300 https://www.populationu.com/ca/new-br... and of those there are 63,000 seeking a doctor https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-br... for a statistic of about 1 in every 12 people looking for a doctor. From my last week blog, we see that “On the Island, there is a population of about 167,680 and there are 24,976 people without doctors” which is about 1 in every 6 people don’t have a doctor https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.c.... On Nova Scotia, the population has reached 1,002,586 as of January 1, 2022 (https://novascotia.ca/finance/statist...). This is the highest population for Nova Scotia on record. There are about “88,300 Nova Scotians on the province's primary care wait-list.” https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/nova-scot.... This is about 1 in 11 people are looking for doctors. When it comes to the Statistics, it seems the PEI is struggling. There is no doubt.

Another factor we will have to consider is pricing. We are on a limited budget. So, any move would have to be made to our advantage. This might mean a wait while we explore opportunities. I had considered something closer to Charlottetown, however, this might not address the parent concern. Nova Scotia, depending on where, might offer some ability to be able to be closer to both families. New Brunswick, while gives opportunity to be closer to my elderly parents and has the benefit of the best doctor patient ratios, also delivers a problem of being bilingual while we are unilingual English speaking. I have, sadly, very poor French. I never had a talent for languages and the best I got was laughed at in Quebec for asking directions to the bathroom. I also got a snigger, though more kindly, when I tried to explain, our malfunctioning car. They did a quick at the side of the road fix and I just wanted to make sure it wouldn’t blow up on the way home. I never learned car maintenance terms in French class in school and apparently not even Quebec French. I think it was a visit to the Maritimes and the car broke down in Quebec. This did result in some pantomime and finally got the message and found that it would get us home. “Kaboom” seems a universal thing in Canada. They were happy enough to indicated “Non Kaboom” with obvious negative head shaking. So, I have my doubts about my linguistic capabilities outside of the English language and some days even doubtful of that. I’m grateful to the mechanic that could translate my bad French into something that we could at least manage with.

As far as family, both Provinces have the benefit of being able to travel easily to either family. There are some areas that hold some interesting promise for adventure. I have some areas in mind in at least one of them. I’m a Maritime child, an Atlantic Canada child, so I have the ability to move around in the Provinces with some comfort. I’m not familiar with Newfoundland, so am less comfortable with the idea of going there. It is also unlikely to improve the situation. It is further away. No offense to any of the Provinces, I am using practicality as part of the equation.

Since we aren’t adverse yet to doing some smaller renovations, painting and such, and minor construction, this does increase the viability of a change of scenery. Pricing isn’t worse in the rest of the Maritimes. Cost of living comparisons for the Province of New Brunswick, it shows to be one of the lowest in the Maritimes. https://livingcost.org/cost/canada/nb showing $1504(monthly) being average, Prince Edward Island being $1716 (monthly) (see the bottom of the page for the numbers) and Nova Scotia being $1868 (monthly). This gives a bit of an edge to New Brunswick. Of course, it also depends on where you are in the Province. Bigger cities in New Brunswick, for example are not a guarantee of higher or lower prices. St. John seems to have the lowest at $1390 (monthly) while Moncton posts $1416 (monthly) and Fredericton shows $1712 (monthly). The monthly cost of living discrepancy is likely true of all locations. Some locations will be slightly better than others.

The one thing that would have to change or perhaps end would be A & J PEI Treasures. It would be completely dishonest to continue to run things as A & J PEI Treasures if we moved out of Province. But, I’ve started over before. Sometimes due to health, sometimes due to a workplace being unhealthy for me. So, this isn’t something that will be a deciding factor. I will, of course view Prince Edward Island fondly. I love the water, the land, and the views. I love the quiet walks with Sam and the photography that I do. But, with recent allergies having suddenly become so difficult and the asthma attacks. With the wonkiness of the computer system and my internet. I have no idea what is the cause of it. With the lack of respect for my work with it being taken and used by others without any thought to the creator nor to how I would feel about it. There are a number of things that seem to be encouraging me to start to think about moving from the area. The latest endeavour to get information on a simple study in New Brunswick causing me concerns, makes me think it might be best to give it serious consideration. It would hurt to leave everything here behind, but sometimes it is important to take care of oneself and one’s family first.

So, as I continue to mull things over, I hope that this blog post has made you think and helps you to understand the complete picture of the situation in the Maritimes. It’s interesting, it’s a challenge and sometimes the cards are stacked against you. When that happens, you have to stand back and take a long hard look at yourself and your situation. Sometimes things change for the better, and sometimes they don’t. It happens. Sometimes if you aren’t going to succeed, it is good to take a long hard look at the situation and see if something needs to be changed or if you need to change the situation. I hear if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. It’s a good saying, however, this is self-defeating and in some cases, I like something my old UNB Counselling Mentor said to me….If at first you don’t succeed, give up and try another way. Thanks, Reg. It’s been useful. After you try, try again, then sometimes it’s useful to take a good look, explore all the options and sometimes, it is, indeed good to give up and try a different way. Sometimes try, try again is just recipe for failure. Look at a different approach and find one that does work. This is some of my current ponderings. It might give people something to think about.

Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures!

Keep watching for more e-books and more formats! We’re always working on something. Thank you! The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://anchor.fm/a--j-pei-treasures/...

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E. Jean Simpson

The Health Care Crisis…

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 and I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree or not, at least I hope it makes you think. This week, I explore another angle of the health care crisis. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!

It seems that the health care crisis is taking its toll in Atlantic Canada. I have to state that I mostly focus on Prince Edward Island this time with a few anecdotes about situations in New Brunswick. Of course, the problem doesn’t just exist solely in Atlantic Canada but since I’m here, it is most salient here. In New Brunswick, a request for information created a kerfuffle in my family because the person who went in introduced themselves like a Paramedic or looked like one, which my father accepted. This resulted in a wild goose chase and apologies to the PANB. I was then forwarded to the Extra-Mural nurses and have made contact with the association to find out about it. Is it a valid study, is it not a valid study? I hope to find out. An email from PANB suggested it doesn’t exist at least under their purview. I’ll find out more from the Extra Mural Nurse Association soon, hopefully. This time I was able to give detailed information to them about exactly what the study was, who was giving the information to my father, what they were there for, what they did, and the date. At the very least, it should lead to the correct Extra-Mural nurse. This is traceable and easier to get explanations settled for all involved. My parents are competent to make their own decisions, but I also want to make sure that there are not just arbitrary people wandering around. They don’t have doctors but have a nurse practitioner. Still awaiting word…however in the meantime, another agency name has come up. So, either one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing or there are too many hands that don’t have a body. As a daughter of elderly parents, this is quite disconcerting…because are there arbitrary bodies wandering in and out or is the system so badly messed up that no one knows who is doing what? Neither prospect is all that encouraging.

Currently, in the Maritimes, there is trouble at the OK Corral (to use an outdated phrase). It takes the form of people literally dying in the ER and I found two articles immediately. They both come from Global news and involve people dying in Emergency rooms in New Brunswick. The first one talks about finding someone who seemed in distress later unresponsive. They had been waiting for a doctor https://globalnews.ca/news/8993519/pr.... Now, sadly yet another case in New Brunswick follows right on the heels of the first but this one seems shrouded in mystery at the moment and this will create more stir I would imagine https://globalnews.ca/news/9013261/nb.... Whether or not it is warranted, time will tell. What is more sad, this doesn’t surprise me and I’m sure it isn’t just in the Maritimes as I remember other cases over time in different Provinces. I won’t go into details here, as I have in the other Health Care Crisis article, but I was in emergency in serious condition. When the on-call doctor finally got to see me, I had spent a good 10 or more hours in Emergency and the chipper doctor came in and announced that their goal for the night was that I would not bleed out on them. So, the fact that people are dying in emergency is not a new or surprising thing to me and I’m lucky not to be one of them. It certainly is sad and definitely points toward there being a huge crisis.

Meanwhile, on the Island, various emergency hours and hospitals are an ever revolving door of opening and closings. https://www.princeedwardisland.ca/en/.... Having had to use the Emergency Department myself, I have found that, with a serious infection requiring IV treatment, I was made to wait in Emergency no fewer than 8 hours at the time. Having no doctor, I was reliant on Emergency to determine if I was finished with IV treatment, needed to have the IV removed etc. I got to wear it home for a few days to make things easier for them giving the treatments. Was it fun? No, but I do understand the need to make things faster and easier for the hospital staff so I sucked it up and wore it for a few days. For them every second counts and the less of them I have to use up, the better. This was pre-COVID. I cannot imagine how much worse it is for medical staff currently. In the IV case, a visit to a doctor would have just resulted in me being sent to emergency as it was not easily treatable. I still bear a small scar on one side of my eyebrow from it. The last time in for this situation, I was told I could just have the IV removed and sent out to the waiting room. I went back after a time and told them that I just needed the IV removed, and I think this was done relatively quickly in triage. My husband has had his own stay in Emergency. No short trips when one has to go. Not for the faint of heart. I’ve been there on a valid emergency for hours and hours. The length of time resulted in a lot of people just giving up and leaving and they had to come out and call names to see who was still there. It cut the list dramatically. So, staff are overworked, stressed and patients are getting testy. I can see both sides with sympathy. I’m sure no one is having fun with the situation. This does not fix the problem though. Of course, there are walk-in clinics, but those are also overrun. People on the Island are recommended to call ahead even for the walk-in clinic. So, there are lines waiting to see them too. They suggest calling ahead to make an appointment and make sure they are open. So, I think the days of speculation about health care crisis are over and days of how do we deal with it have arrived.

Also interestingly the information from the PEI Quarterly Report (https://www.princeedwardisland.ca/en/...) states, “The data shows Prince Edward Island’s population is estimated to be 167,680 as of April 1, 2022. This represents a yearly increase of 5,084 persons or a 3.1 per cent annual growth rate.” The population is the largest growth since 1951. So, the growth of population is high, yet what do we have for medical care? Well, there is 811…if you’re sick and not sure how sick you are. A nurse can help you figure that out. Then 911 if you need urgent care. There are overrun walk-in clinics. There is Emergency. There are online doctors who refer you to a doctor if you’re on medication. There are walk in clinics where you need to call ahead.

The most interesting thing that I have found is that https://www.princeedwardisland.ca/en/... has links to the various hospitals in the Province of Prince Edward Island. If you click on the link for each hospital, it will show you the wait times. Most interesting of all these is the fact that Prince County Hospital has wait times that are double or more that of all the other hospitals. I’ve seen this more than one time. It would be interesting to determine what affects the wait times in this particular Hospital. Are the other hospitals similarly afflicted, did I check at a strange time, is there something more that is harder at the Prince County Hospital (PCH)? What is making for double the wait times at least on the one or two checks I did, though my husband has checked it and depending on time there are more or less long waits? Is it larger population, fewer doctors, more of something or less of something? Interestingly, wait times are far shorter in the main City of Charlottetown than in Prince County Hospital. In some ways, I would expect that this would be the case with it being a larger center, there might be more doctors attracted to it. However, the other wait times in other areas seem to be similar to Charlottetown. What are the factors that influence this? Is it a lack of doctors? Lack of retention? Organization? Housing? Availability of resources? Availability of leisure time activity? What are the root causes? Can they be addressed? A cursory glance shows that PCH has only 5 of the 11 needed physicians for emergency (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince...). Meanwhile Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown has 12 out of 14 (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince...). At the same time, King’s County has hired on dedicated emergency room doctors (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince...) and have limited hours. So, it seems that at least partly, the discrepancy is related to lack of doctors. It might be useful to see if there is a difference in protocols as well. This is past the purview of this blog post and podcast.

I’ve been in Summerside, PEI lately and there has been an increase in the number of houses being built. So, they are addressing one of the issues that are claimed in this newer article about locum doctors by creating more housing which might address a myriad of issues. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince.... The question remains…why are they not able to get doctors? I’ve lived here for several years and I have yet to be able to get a doctor for more than one or two visits. I have finally, in total frustration pulled myself off my medications. I love my Province, but to be honest, the health care situation is terrible. Is it worse in other Provinces? Some have more difficulty than others. How many other people are either self-medicating or not using medications?
This article https://www.princeedwardisland.ca/en/...# quotes 7,194 people awaiting a doctor in Prince County. In the Prince County area alone (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_...) they show a population of 46,234. On the Island, there is a population of about 167,680 and there are 24,976 people without doctors. Doing the math, using the number from the quarterly report, it makes for approximately 1 of every 6 people do not have a doctor on the Island. The number increases to about 1 in 7 needing a doctor in Prince County. My husband and I are two of those and we are nearing 60 years old with no doctor in sight. My parents, in their 80’s and in the neighboring Province of New Brunswick are seeing a nurse practitioner. The numbers fluctuate between counties on Prince Edward Island. Some are worse than others. Simple Google searches will serve to point you to the population county information if you want to figure out your own county. Further, we estimated that if a doctor takes 2000 patients in a year (https://www.physicianleaders.org/news...) though the article suggests more than 2000, I use this lower number as a starting point, they would need at least 3 doctors in Prince County alone to get rid of the wait list. It would take approximately 12 doctors to barely cover the patients on the entire wait list.

It seems that, there “are currently 17 medical schools in Canada with an annual admission success rate normally below 7.5%.[1] As of 2021, approximately 11,500 students were enrolled in Canadian medical schools graduating 2,900 students per year.[2]” (#’s are those of Wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical.... This leaves us with more questions such as; is the issue one of limited numbers? Is it part of the grand exodus to big cities? Or is it simply that Canada needs to train more doctors and other medical staff? Is there a need to refine the procedures in Emergency? Prince Edward Island seems to be taking steps to try to remediate the situation by building more housing in Summerside and there is talk of opening a medical school. We can’t reduce the requirements to become a doctor, nor can we deny doctors who do meet the requirements. Reducing requirements would result in more damages. Minimum standards must be kept or patients are harmed. You can generally tell when doctors are not meant to be doctors or are not good with patients as they have reduced patient loads and people seek other doctors. They will show up with poor retention and notes of other doctors covering for mistakes. Everyone suffers. I cannot blame the medical association for making sure that standards are met. However, you see the effects of doctors being at a minimum and lack of alternatives in some of the issues that crop up in the news. For example, this CBC News article discusses a mystery neurological disease that turned out not to be so mysterious. It shows the effects of minimal ability to get second opinions https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-br.... They relied on one neurologist and after having the results examined, determined that it was not a mystery illness. Often doctors need to confer and if you’re the only one in a large area, this might not happen. Of course this creates distrust and there are people screaming about conspiracies. The problem is that they had it explored by 6 different neurologists and they came up with actual diagnosis in most of the cases. Conferring with colleagues might have avoided this issue. So, is it a conspiracy or simply a much needed collaboration finding different answers? It is just one more example of the high cost of not having enough medical practitioners.

I did a short check to see how many doctors they seem to think they need in Canada. There seems a shortage of answers that suggest specific numbers. They quote things about doctors per 1000 people showing Canada having 2.4 doctors per 1000 people and USA as 2.6 and Australia as 3.8 as comparisons. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/.... This does not seem to solve the problem either. I also see that in Alberta, some doctors were looking for patients https://bc.ctvnews.ca/hundreds-of-fam.... It seems we need to find the confounding factors and determine how to address them. One factor that I see mentioned is that retention is good for doctors when they are trained in a Province, therefore, having the medical school open in Prince Edward Island seems at least one step toward solving this shortage of doctors problem. So far, so good. In the meantime, we have a long wait for the first doctors to graduate as they need to have the school able to accept patients and train them. So, what to do in the meantime? PEI is working toward solutions, but right now, more is needed. Hopefully recruitment and exploring things with medical personnel will lead to better use of resources and use of more.

The more I look at the crisis, there is a big complicated problem because it seems to open more questions than it answers, but at least I hope it makes you think! Maybe we need to be asking better or more questions, maybe we need to look at how best to use the resources we have while we wait and try to recruit what we can. We could definitely use some more medical personnel in all of Canada and the problem seems to fluctuate. If you want to be in on the ground floor of new potentials, then maybe becoming a doctor on the Island, this is the place for you (make sure they add it to the contract you sign…tell them Jean sent you…LOL). I know I’d back you on finding the solutions. I’ve already tagged the Premier on my posts. Seems they are taking the health care crisis as seriously as possible given the actions over the past year or two. Given the increase in housing and trying to open medical training they are taking that initiative. By the way, the program has been announced…just need it finalized (https://www.upei.ca/medicine). Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures!

Keep watching for more e-books and more formats! We’re always working on something. Thank you! The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://anchor.fm/a--j-pei-treasures/...

Our Blog Posts are available on
WordPress: https://aandjpeitreasures.wordpress.com/ and
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Podcast are available on:
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Amazon: https://music.amazon.ca/podcasts/879a...


All my e-books can be found on:
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You can also find us on:

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Rant: Allergies, They’re not a Joke!

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 and I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree or not, at least I hope it makes you think. This week, I explore the world of allergies. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned…!

Often people don’t give a second thought to allergies. If you have an allergy, usually people sympathize. Sometimes, though, people act like jerks and want to prove it isn’t an allergy. Here is where life gets complicated. In their attempt to disprove it, they often can injure or even kill innocent parties. It’s not funny and it’s not a laughing matter. In Canada alone, 7% of people suffer from food allergies, https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canad.... This does not count environmental sensitivities https://www.womenshealthmatters.ca/he... though some count it as an environmental sensitivity. It is hard to find actual hard stats on the people with allergies that suffer from exposure, however, I did find one article that estimates that 10% of people are allergic to marijuana https://loudcloudhealth.com/resources.... It means I also avoid CBD oil and anything to do with hemp. Mostly I’m not sure exactly what causes the reaction or which components and I don’t want to play to find out with the trial and error method. Any exposure is enough to do it. Then when coupled with other allergens, I am one of the people who will suffer from asthma. I’ve now been sick for a few weeks. I know it is allergen related. I know that it is happening. I sometimes know to expect it…seems any time around here that I smell like a smoke smell, I get sick. The skunk smell, I’m sick with lots of symptoms. If you still have to guess, I am allergic to some chemicals as well as some foods. I’ve had to leave at least one job due to my allergy. Had no idea what it was, no one else was affected, but I was sick and getting sicker. I literally had to leave. Actually liked the job. Asthma Canada https://asthma.ca/wp-content/uploads/... talks about asthma which is not allergies, but a relative to it and the outcome from some exposures. For those who had asthma, allergies can trigger an asthma attack.

So, https://www.asthmaandallergycenter.co... states that approximately 20% of Americans are afflicted by allergy related diseases. I have no reason to question that it is likely similar in Canada and am uncertain as to whether it is underreported as most people just try to avoid something that makes them sick and don’t get a diagnosis. It’s logical enough. It seems that food allergies get the most attention. However, people don’t seem to understand that environmental allergies such as allergies to cosmetics, chemicals, or marijuana are not less serious. At least not to the sufferer. Lest you find it funny that someone can have a serious reaction to marijuana, https://www.aaaai.org/Tools-for-the-P... states, “Anaphylaxis has also been reported. This most commonly occurs with hempseed ingestion.” So, in my opinion as an allergy sufferer, remember I’m not a doctor, trying to prove an allergy is not true could have deadly consequences to the person with the allergy.

As Rosemary Shahan has said “People with asthma or allergies will be at particular risk of breathing in substances that are a threat to their health.” I do not take this to mean that we do it on purpose or that’s all we do. It is just part of the air we breathe. We are unable to filter it out. No one can filter it out, just some people are made sick by certain things while others are not. I don’t ask for it. I don’t encourage it and I can’t be near it. It isn’t something I enjoy. The illness does not get better over time and repeated exposures do not make it go away. You aren’t going to make it better by exposure. It just makes it worse. That’s how we know it is an allergy. An article from healthfully.com https://healthfully.com/the-effects-o... points out that people with lung disease (I had childhood asthma and had not had an asthma attack in years until not long ago) can be made worse, have serious asthma attacks and can be life threatening.

I remember, a fairly long time ago now, I worked at a place. I didn’t know it at the time, but someone had a serious bee allergy. Now this wasn’t something that I was aware of. However, one day, I opened the door to look for the office cat and there they both were at the door at the same time. I opened the door and thought nothing of it. Apparently the cat was chasing a bee. The person got in the door. I heard commotion, but thought nothing much of it. It was a busy building. Later heard somewhere that the person was supposed to be carrying their epi-pen but left it in their drawer. I guess the commotion was to get them away from the bees and to the epi-pen. Though I think they were wasps which is a different creature, but often they have the same effect and tend to sting faster than bees. Meanwhile, the cat and the bee followed me down the hall which I didn’t notice until later. As an aside, I finally noticed the bee…got a paper cup and captured it and let it out the window. The fellow survived the exposure. It might have been better that I didn’t know as I made a better decoy for the bee and cat which ultimately got stuff out of the way. Not a bad job. I got to look after a cat, go for a walk with a bee and potentially saved someone from dying of anaphylaxis. Of course, I did a lot of other jobs too, but I liked the sound of the previous sentence. So, if nothing else, this story shows you exactly how serious allergies are and not knowing about it can be dangerous. It also says that when you have a serious verified allergy, it’s always best to have something near. For mine, I always have antihistamines on hand. I need to make sure to keep one in my purse again.

The food allergies that we hear most about are peanut ones. They are also very dangerous and people have died from having eaten some. Some have been rushed to hospital. Apparently someone I worked with went out with some co-workers…didn’t pay attention and had an exposure to peanuts in a sauce or something. Spent time in hospital. Didn’t kill them, but didn’t do them any real good either. It was fodder for office talk about the dangers of food allergies. Time in hospital is considered lucky in these cases. Death could easily have been the outcome. Keep this in mind when you think it’s funny to play with allergies.

Jeremy Rifkin is credited with saying, “The American public is not aware that there might be potential allergenic and toxic reactions. With regular food, at least people know which foods they have an allergy to.” So, it seems that food allergies have become part of mainstream conversations and are more in the public awareness than the other forms of allergies. Though I think ‘hay fever’ and stuffy runny nose commercials are part of the mainstream on commercials for antihistamines. This shows the better cases. We obviously still know relatively little of allergies especially that they can become quite serious. They still get used as joke answers to things such as “I'm allergic to attitude.” Attributed to Megan Boone. Though I doubt that there are very many teachers who have not had that thought when dealing with teens.

As Steph McGovern is credited with saying, “Given how dangerous it is for someone to consume something they are allergic to, you would think that companies would just make sure they print labels which have the allergy information on.” One would think that this would be simple, but it is somewhat complex as evidenced by recalls happening often in the food industry. I’ve been victim to one of those. Ate the item for supper, found the warning just after. I can confirm there was wheat in said product and I suffered for it. With my wheat allergy, I have to read every package that I consume. I watch for anything that is wheat or wheat derivative and some of the jargon can be confusing. My rule of thumb is, if in doubt leave it out. Of course, as I am reading, I can also pick up whether there is anything else of concern. Canada does have some regulations with regard to food allergies https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canad.... There are other related pages along with this one on the Government of Canada website that tells you what things to look out for when you have allergies. They do not include Marijuana and its derivatives in their food allergy list. However, they are kind enough to provide a bunch of potential bad effects of the substance on their webpage. https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canad....

My advice, not as a retired psychologist, but as an allergy sufferer is that it is terrible to expose people to a substance that makes them sick, whether it be perfume, wheat, milk, marijuana, hemp, CBD oil or anything else. It’s fine if you feel the need to use it. It’s not my business…you know until it is coming in my window or attacking me in my home or I can’t safely walk on my street. Then I tend to be a little less kindly about it. At the very least, educate yourself enough that you aren’t doing harm to someone who did no harm to you. I leave you with this one last article, https://www.allergicliving.com/2022/0... which tells of a few instances where the jokes about allergies turned fatal. This centers on food allergies…at least I hope that the person doing the action didn’t know they could kill the person. I can attest to the fact that both food and environmental allergies are no laughing matter. Whether you agree or not, I hope it will make 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 for more e-books and more formats! We’re always working on something. Thank you! The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://anchor.fm/a--j-pei-treasures/...

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E. Jean Simpson

Responsibility…Whose is it?

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 and I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree or not, at least I hope it makes you think. When someone makes a poor decision, whose fault is it? I guess it depends on whose viewpoint it is. However, there comes a time that one must accept responsibility for their own actions if there is ever going to be forward momentum. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned!

When I was contemplating a topic for this blog post/podcast, being as I was in the middle of some kind of flare of something I didn’t want to have to think too hard. It felt like allergies which makes me miserable and sick. So, I thought about what I could do easily without a lot of having to think hard. Then it popped into my head….responsibility. It’s an interesting idea to explore, and much bandied about. The first article I saw seems like an awesome interpretation https://www.niagarainstitute.com/blog.... This relatively short article is jam packed with awesome information. It is worthwhile to take the time to read it. It is business related and brings to the forefront an issue that is often the basis of poor workplace communications and poor life decisions. I couldn’t put it anywhere near as succinctly as the author has. Essentially, it boils down to taking responsibility for your own actions. Don’t blame things on other people, don’t deflect, take responsibility for your own part in things. It is short, to the point, and gives good advice for dealing with workplace conflict. At least in the theoretically perfect workplace world. Sadly, we must acknowledge that people aren’t perfect and neither is the workplace world.

Over time, I have found that workplaces that have the highest turn-over and the lowest morale seem to be the places that look for someone to blame for issues. This seems true of most things in life. Of course, the problem is that even when the “problem” leaves, there is still a problem…thus begins the whole recycle of the same old same old. It continues either until people get fed up and move on or the person who creates the issues moves. This doesn’t have to be the case, but it generally is. People make poor choices all the time. I’ve had my fair share of them. It happens to all of us. It happens either through lack of information, lack of understanding or just plain poor problem solving amongst some of the reasons. It’s not new to the world. It’s not shocking. However, the more we blame each other, the more we blame someone else or something else…well, it just keeps going in circles and no forward movement happens. No one is happy in situations like that. Even if you ‘get even’ with the ‘targeted individual’, how even is even? How long is long enough? Are you happier? Is anyone happier? This just creates a spiraling ever increasing sense of discontentment and there is never enough. You’re never enough, you’re never getting better. The boundaries are blurred and no one is happy.

It is the same in the general world. If you decide that you have a right to put down someone for being different or decide that you have a right to revenge on someone for some supposed infraction, then when is it enough? There is a quote often misattributed to Gandhi that had been used by his biographer (Fisher) to describe Gandhi’s position of non-violence. “An eye for an eye will leave the whole world blind.” No matter who actually said it, it was used in relation to Gandhi and so, I give both his biographer and his name. This gets off track somewhat and I don’t intend to argue the point. The main point is that, whether or not you like it, there is no place in the workplace nor in the world in general for people needing to ‘get even’ nor for someone to blame for a bad situation. It’s caused a lot more trouble that it has ever solved. However, if you are the instigator, then learn from the situation, fix what you can and move forward. Don’t expect the victims to be happy about it.

As Marie Curie has been credited with saying, “You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end, each of us must work for his own improvement and, at the same time, share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful.” So in my opinion, responsibility is what helped build a lot of society. It is something that many of the scientists and those who made great strides in the world understood that there was a responsibility and that we have responsibility not only to ourselves, but also to others. There would be no movement forward in the world if we cannot move forward from mistakes. Most great scientists made mistakes, most great philosophers made mistakes. They had to face them and learn from them and improve themselves to get to success. Therefore, I postulate that no greatness can be attained without first learning to take responsibility for one’s own mistakes. No success can be fully won without being hard fought and wisdom obtained from it.

Miranda Kerr states that “A nice person is a 'yes' person, whereas a good person is a person who accepts their responsibility in things and moves forward and tries to constantly evolve and isn't afraid to say no or challenge someone or be honest or truthful.” In this, one has to be adamant. Moving forward requires honesty with oneself and with others. It requires that we acknowledge our mistakes and either fix the problem or move forward and be better people. No one is perfect. Within society there are certain things that are agreed upon, do not steal, do not kill, and do not take what is not yours, don't lie…sounds familiar I’m sure to a fairly large proportion of the population. When these societal covenants are broken, then society tends to react badly. It is moral obligations/responsibility that can run one afoul of the law. People do make mistakes, but a mistake that is continually made can stop being a mistake and then becomes a choice. At the same time, if you find me a perfect person, I will be able to show you a liar. If you find me someone who never made a mistake, then I’ll show you someone who has never tried to do anything.

Dear listeners and readers, lest you think that moral responsibility is a newer construct, the first person credited with discussing this was Aristotle (384–323 BCE) https://stanford.library.sydney.edu.a.... It appears to still be a work in progress centuries later though. Not only do we have a moral responsibility to ourselves and others, we are morally obligated to follow the tenants of our own belief system. Whether it be Christian, Atheist, Muslim, etc. It is a difficult concept and many do not learn it. In the simplest form is the do unto others idea. It doesn’t say do unto others and run just for clarification.

This brings us to the modern workplace. Where there are a variety of people, enclosed in a relative small space. Though now with working remotely, this is less, but at this point, it is not the top of workplace lists. Most still want to see living people in their offices. The article, https://hypercontext.com/blog/managem... uses the word accountability which I quote directly “Accountability in the workplace means that all employees are responsible for their actions, behaviors, performance and decisions. It’s also linked to an increase in commitment to work and employee morale, which leads to higher performance.” So, it seems that responsibility is one of the factors that increases commitment and employee morale. Presumably when misused, it will lower those and it is exactly what they argue. The philosophical ideals suggest that whether or not people like it, responsibility is an important ingredient to having a positive and happy workforce. It seems a little thing, but in fact, it is a much bigger thing that most people understand. I have worked in a variety of workplaces. The ones that seemed more healthy and productive were ones that had clear expectations and responsibilities. I’ve also seen places go down and empty out. Things became far less clear. Responsibility was not given. People were wandering about in confusion. Any direction given was made out of desperate knee jerk reaction to try to maintain control. There are some who are ‘self-starters’ and they will work despite poor management but they will soon burn out, leave or are fired for some infraction real or supposed. The article is also full of good advice on responsibility/accountability at work. It doesn’t need to stop there. Being accountable in life is also a given. I see a lot of talk about rights, but often they don’t seem to believe they need to be accountable or have responsibilities. Sorry to them, the world is enough of a mess…and yes, that’s what has a lot of stuff falling off the rails.

Responsibility has so many different elements and seems to be such an important part of life, it is astounding that it is such a big umbrella term and yet there seems to be a lack of actually accepting its importance in some circles. On Wikipedia, there is a whole page listing different types of responsibility. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respons.... So, what have we learned? Responsibility is an important part of the healthy workplace. It is also something we need to have in a healthy society. It is something that workplaces have found important to the wellbeing of the business and morale of the place. Religions espouse it, people talk about it, and some try to duck out of it. But in any situation, if we don’t accept our own responsibility, and we point fingers, we devolve into unhealthy, unproductive, and destructive patterns. A happy place is one that has some responsibility and follows some kind of rules. Sitting around is never good for saving ourselves from destructive patterns. Responsibility is one of the factors that makes the world go round. Without it we lose credibility with ourselves, others and that monster that we fear is under the bed might just be looking you in the eye in the mirror. Whether you agree with me or not, I hope it will make you think! As Aristotle is credited with saying according to https://www.thoughtco.com/aristotle-q..., “It is absurd to make external circumstances responsible and not oneself, and to make oneself responsible for noble acts and pleasant objects responsible for base ones.”

Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures!

Keep watching for more e-books and more formats! We’re always working on something. Thank you! The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://anchor.fm/a--j-pei-treasures/...

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E. Jean Simpson
The Big Kid's Magical Path to Insects in NatureThe Big Kid’s Magical Path to Numbers

Mental Pause*

*Discretion* Aging issues discussed with medical perspectives as well. May upset some readers/listeners.

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 and I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree or not, at least I hope it makes you think. This is a little discussed phenomenon that most women will, if they live long enough get to experience…I call it “Mental Pause”. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned!

The one thing I stand by is that one can learn a lot by paying attention to the more experienced people out there. They call them seniors. One of the things that you can learn from women over 50 is about an age old phenomena that all women go through. Men have their own thing…which I’m not able to elaborate on for obvious reasons. I can only speak from my experience and I’m a woman. Males don’t seem to elaborate on their thing much, and women do a bit more. I call it “Mental Pause” because honestly, it sometimes gives me pause and it makes me wonder if I’m mental. Most women refer to it as “menopause”. As Ursula K Le Guin said, “…menopause is probably the least glamorous topic imaginable; and this is interesting because it is one of the very few topics to which cling some shreds and remnants of taboo. A serious mention of menopause is usually met with uneasy silence; a sneering reference to it is usually met with relieved sniggers. Both the silence and the sniggering are pretty sure indications of taboo.” Let’s explore this topic in a little more depth with some life experience situations.

It’s not that I totally didn’t know what I was getting into when I started menopause or Mental Pause as I like to refer to it. My mother had it a long time before me. I knew peripherally that it was not exactly fun and came with strange and weird symptoms. Like something I’ve heard referred to as brain-o’s where you say something and it’s entirely wrong like a typo but in life (https://www.urbandictionary.com/defin...) or something to do with brain flatulence (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/bra...). The latter being the worst of the two as one doesn’t catch it until it is long gone. It is the latter one that gave me pause the other day. See, I don’t often have computer trouble. I generally can get it fixed. This time, it required a call to the service provider. Of course, I always try to trouble shoot first because I’m sure they are doing constant tech support over the phone. This time, no dice. So I called tech support. The nice tech support person ran me through the processes…and then in a last ditch effort, asked about where things were plugged in (literally wires plugged into the modem). As I viewed the back, started listing off stuff, it began to occur to me that it didn’t look right. I don’t know how or when I got them all in wrong sockets, but apparently, I must have. I switched everything back where it should be…after all the tech work I did and they did…it popped right back on. Welcome to the problem of brain flatulence. But, try to consider yourself sane after a few of those. I’m considering after that, requesting for a change of name from menopause to “Mental Pause”.

If people don’t talk much about menopause, I guarantee from experience that they don’t talk about surgical menopause at any greater rate. When I had my total hysterectomy, I had no idea what to expect. My medical conditions made it harder as cancer is a potential danger…so I chose not to go with hormones which has its own risks. No one talked to me about it in any way. No one told me what to expect. I was left floating on my own. I can tell you, from the perspective of someone who had to go through it for medical reasons, when I woke in the hospital, I felt like I had hit a brick wall. I had a sudden removal of hormones. I spent a long time trying to get past it, get over it, understand what was happening, how long did it last and would I always feel like I was in a living hades. So, ladies out there, I hope that there is more information out there than when I went through it. You don’t have to pretend you’re ok. You don’t have to wonder if you’re insane. I want you to know that eventually it will all even out and you will be able to feel somewhat normal. You can make it through. I did. It does take time. If you’re lucky, you will have a medical person who will explain the whole thing…not just the, you’ll be fine, we’ll take out your reproductive organs…then it’s done with. Let you know the options and whether hormones would or would not fit for you. Talk to you about feeling like crap, which most people are ashamed and confused to begin with. Talk about the potential of perhaps needing medication until things even out a bit. Let you know there are options.

I followed tons of online chat stuff…I definitely saw other people were going through the same thing and were going through heck. What you don’t see is, that when things are dealt with and the hormone thing settles a bit, you can get back to something approaching normal. I wonder how many people think they lost their minds instead of understanding that they had a sudden removal of hormones and it can have an effect. I will never know what actual menopause is like. I’m on the other side now, so it makes no difference. I still get the brain-o, hot flashes sometimes and flatulence of the brain…but I am more at peace with where I am in life. I can laugh at myself.

As Cybill Shepherd has said, “It's okay to talk about birth, okay - then menstruation. I first started my advocacy for women's health in the field of reproductive freedom, and the next stage would be bringing menopause out of the closet.” Myself, I’m opening a whole new can of worms. There are less of us out there, we are the few, we are the survivors, we are the uninformed and discouraged to talk about it by society. We find ourselves hiding out on online forums which tend to be a revolving door. Now, this was several years back so, maybe things have gotten better. But, the thing I remember is not being able to find any information. I just remember it being difficult, feeling I had to work toward survival and I was crazy. The hospital to be fair, I was sent on emergent basis as they thought I had cancer. It wasn’t. I wonder if this might be a situation where one gets better information when there is a bit of time.

So, now I have broken another barrier. As with all people with hysterectomies and all woman who live old enough to reach menopause, there are various different reactions and different experiences. Tsing Loh has said, “The literature of menopause is the saddest, the most awful, and the most medical of all genres. You're sleepless, you're anxious, you're fat, you're depressed - and the advice is always the same: take more walks, eat some kale, and drink lots of water. It didn't help.” Then others like Kim Cattrall says, “I see menopause as the start of the next fabulous phase of life as a woman. Now is a time to "tune in" to our bodies and embrace this new chapter. If anything, I feel more myself and love my body more now, at 58 years old, than ever before." So, if you are having a hard time going through menopause, you are not alone. If you are feeling on top of the world, congratulations!

I was somewhat reluctant to delve very much into the mental health aspect of this, but then I remembered that a lot of women suffer in silence and that can create harm in and of itself. So, toward that end, I am adding a few articles with a brief description. Starting with, https://www.health.harvard.edu/womens... which talks a bit about some of the factors that need to be examined. The problem is a lack of information and resources for menopause which just compounds the lack of wellness in women’s issues. An article from menopause org https://www.menopause.org/for-women/m... also suggests that there is a need to evaluate family history as part of the methods of dealing with menopause. The biggest issue I find is the working at cross-purposes that happens with regard to medicalization as they call it of women’s issues. There are people who see this as a way of making women’s issues into an illness. There is a complicating factor to this idea. It only adds to the stigma. Not everyone will have an easy menopause and not everyone will have a bad menopause. If we close our eyes to the population that has a hard time, we are keeping them from being helped and we are telling them that it is not OK to acknowledge they are having a hard time. We are telling people that it is not acceptable to be women who have a difficult menopause. The results of that are just as damaging. So, whether you agree or not with the medicalization of menopause, you have to understand that not everyone gets through this stage easily. To tell people don’t medicalize the life stage is just another way of saying, what you feel and what you need don’t count…because you shouldn’t feel the way you do…and so you’re abnormal. I sometimes cringe when I hear about the medicalization of women. It’s not all women that have issues. Just like it’s not all men who have issues. I dislike the “we need to shush you because people will think that we women are less capable” attitude that pushes away getting help for issues. Capable and menopause…if you have been through a rough one, I would think as far as capable or strong go, most of us could figuratively bench press a Buick!

So, when looking at any issue in life, it is important to understand that it isn’t about medicalizing anything. It isn’t about finding problems with being a woman or a man. It’s about making sure that you get good information, that you can find good information and that you can get help if you need it. That is what mental wellness is about. That is what moving forward in life is about. If you have an easy time, that’s great. If you have a hard time, then you aren’t alone and you don’t have to hide it. There is help available. So, now take that, “Mental Pause” part of life, and I hope that 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 for more e-books and more formats! We’re always working on something. Thank you! The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://anchor.fm/a--j-pei-treasures/...

Our 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://anchor.fm/a--j-pei-treasures

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

Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-...

Amazon: https://music.amazon.ca/podcasts/879a...


All my e-books can be found on:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/E.-Jean-Simpso...

Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi... or https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...

You can also find us on:

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E. Jean SimpsonThe Big Kids Magical Path to Colours in Nature

Life Changing Decisions

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 and I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree or not, at least I hope it makes you think. Everyone has had something happened that changed the direction of their life. Some of us have more than one. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned!

When I was a child, one of my Uncles came home. They all seemed somewhat concerned that I was such a quiet child. I guess I just never had a ton of stuff to say as an early teen or tween. I tended to take in everything around me. When my Uncle came, he was quite enchanted with me and was one of my favourite Uncles. This was mostly because he was always nice to us kids and he was always especially nice to me. On one of his visits, he brought a brand new little instamatic Kodak camera. It was small and fit for little fingers. I was entranced by it. He wanted pictures of us, but I seemed to be happier to take pictures than be in them. So, he handed it to me and asked me to take the holiday photos. Much to my joy, when he left he told me that, if I would send him the photos from his vacation, I could keep the camera. That was my first contract job (also non-paying). I was beyond happy. I had a camera. I could take pictures. The camera invariably followed me on a shorter and longer trips with my mother and from home to University where I also took tons of photos. Not all my best work at University. But it was my fun. It followed me through my dating years. I still had it when I met my husband. Sadly, around that time, my camera kind of had its last breath and I had to leave it behind, but I carry the memories of that summer and the excitement of taking photographs of my Uncle’s holiday and all the pictures I took after that. Of course my parents were happy to provide him with copies of his pictures. I was diligent to make sure that we brought the pictures to be developed so that he could have them.

I spent the next years training and getting ready for a profession. I took my studies mostly seriously. When I graduated my first degree, I couldn’t find a teaching position. I tried every school district in the Province. I was mostly told there were few if any jobs and they’d have to hire their part-time teachers and the on call ones before they could even look at me. I can’t remember who that letter came from, but that one meant something to me. Why? Because they took the time to be honest with me. I suppose nowadays the recipient of such a note would hit the press hard and expect to get something out of it. Even in those days, this was a frank and honest note and not the stuff made of political intrigue. Someone took the time to be frankly honest about my situation and not give me platitudes. So, no jobs in teaching…unlikely to do bit and pieces teaching…after all, I had been a kid and I know what they did with substitute teachers, and I needed a job. So, my then boyfriend and now husband was considering taking a course at a Business College in Ontario. I applied to the Secretarial school there and got in. I had considered going to University one more year…and it was mostly settled up till then. But, another twist of the wheel of fate.

I spent more time studying. I met some interesting people. Learned Forkner shorthand from a wonderful gentleman who people whispered about his preferences and thought it was a joke, but I didn’t care. He was nice and he showed an interest in me getting my shorthand down. It was hard to learn. He was also interested that I bring my typing speed up. So, I worked hard at it. I graduated. I invited him to our wedding. He brought us a bottle opener from Buffalo. It was a kind gesture. I was happy just to have him attending.

Fast forward, we ended up moving back east for a time. I never wanted to live outside of Eastern Canada. I was a Maritime kid. I found Ontario too fast paced. I found that things were too fast and people complained about tourists. I had no understanding of this. The perspective I always had been raised with was that they were the bread and butter of a lot of scenic areas. We never referred to them as dirty or unwashed. The attitude was hard for me to deal with. I found attitudes toward the Maritimes were deplorable the further west we moved. They thought Maritimers were lazy and didn’t want to work. This also came from people with whom I worked and put in more effort than many. I didn’t know of my medical condition then. So I couldn’t understand how some could go and go and go. But, I put in a fair battle. Was still not doing a lot of picture taking. Mostly just for fun and trips through the beautiful Rocky Mountains.

Then came another twist of the wheel of fate. I had gotten very ill and ended up having to leave the counselling profession. I had several jobs, but one was working for an oil industry company. I actually liked the job well enough. They had a cat that was the boss (not really, the owner wasn’t insane…he built the place from the ground up but they had a cat that needed care and brought it to the office). I looked after it as did others. I picked up a lot of the jobs that were piled up because people didn’t have time to do them, but they needed to be done. Generally it was stuff no one wanted to do as it was considered fiddly and time consuming. The twist in the wheel of fate came during their Christmas Party. My husband also worked there. They had a draw for Christmas. I wouldn’t go into the draw because I was only contract and not staff. I’m also not one for being in the front of the limelight…this is long standing. I was always happier behind the scenes than in front of cameras. Anyway, my husband happened to win an EOS camera. He had wanted a newer version. Once he tried it, he determined he liked his old one better. I inherited the new EOS. My first very own professional level camera. I had bought mostly Kodak because that is the brand I had from my Uncle and have a couple of midgrade older ones that I also use depending on weather, distance to carry etc.

After a couple more jobs and the economy going a little wonky, we decided to move back home. There were several other things that made it a good time to move. I noticed around the area that I could smell a certain now legalized substance. The problem for me was that I was terribly allergic to it. I had always thought I would love to live on Prince Edward Island by the water. We had visited it fairly frequently in our early marriage. So, with this thought and goal, I was elated. We started looking for properties. We found one that was in our price range. We had it checked out long distance. It definitely needed work. It was very near the water, so that was the main thing. I always wanted to live near the water. My mother grew up near the ocean. I had always loved visiting her childhood home. So, we found the place, we put the money down and got ready to move out.

This brings us to today dear readers and listeners. All the training I have helps me to get ideas for writing my blog posts and gives me the experience of researching my ideas. I try, other than in experiential blogs to make sure I back up my ideas. I make my podcasts mostly as another method to make my blog post available to a whole different audience. I use my photography in e-books and for the blog posts. I put them on Twitter to share my beautiful Island Province with the world. Some of the topics of my photographs and e-books are other Provinces, but a lot of my recent ones come from Prince Edward Island and use photographs from the local area. There was a hiatus of travel during COVID. We’re still not travelling much unless necessary, but if not for COVID, another twist in the wheel of fate, I would never have started writing. I would never have started to take a more serious interest in photography. I would not have opened the doors to making A & J PEI Treasures an online entity. I don’t put a location because it exists only online and I use it to give people something to think about, something to dream about and try to encourage people to believe we can make this world a better place. I share what little wisdom and lessons I find along the way.

Over time, I had a cheap camera, but didn’t really do much with it. When digitals first started, I got my first digital which was a kind of cheap version to try it out. I didn’t know if I’d like it. I could see the value in being able to put pictures online and save them to various cards and memories. It can open up a new world and changes in various art can bring us forward. It gives us records of history. As things progressed with digital cameras, I moved to the Kodak EasyShare which I still use. One of them had an unfortunate incident where it dropped in the water as I tried to hand it to hubby. We hunted the net and finally found a replacement one. I was very disappointed when Kodak stopped making cameras….that was the brand that my Uncle first gave me. One has to understand that change happens. Life moves forward. We might not always like change, but it’s going to happen whether or not you agree with it. As William Shakespeare has said: “The wheel is come full circle.” Photography brings joy to me. Even if I never get to be a ‘professional photographer’, I enjoy what I’m doing. What more could you want? As Hafez is credited with saying, “Don't be surprised at Fortune's turns and twists: That wheel has spun a thousand yarns before.” So, sometimes the more things change, the more they stay the same and whether or not there is a purpose is up for grabs. Some say yes, some say no and some just go along for the ride. Things change, yet they sometimes change in an up and down ever changing spiral…and much like the solar system, not exactly in exact circles (https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/...).

I’ve always had a soft spot for Monty Python so I leave you with a fact check of their song on the Universe. Rather illuminating that the famous comedian troupe was actually pretty factual on some things…proving it never hurts to fact check. Things are always changing and evolving. You will have to accept it or regret it. https://astronomy.com/news/2018/08/fa....

Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures!

Keep watching for more e-books and more formats! We’re always working on something. Thank you! The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://anchor.fm/a--j-pei-treasures/...

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E. Jean Simpson

Educate Not Ruminate

Warning...this is clean but does discuss a medical condition and may make some people uncomfortable. Discretion advised.

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 and I am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree or not, at least I hope it makes you think. As Lily Tomlin said, “I always wondered why somebody doesn't do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody.” It seems there are some ‘embarrassing’ conditions that people don’t talk about and it’s literally killing people. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned!

Right from the start, I am stating that I am speaking on this disorder because I have this condition and I was diagnosed later in life. Now that’s out on the table…I hope you are starting to feel uncomfortable because I intend to tell you the good, the bad and the ugly about it. I hope that it will save lives. First, I can tell you, Crohn’s disease is something that cannot be cured. It is one of the Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-c...) they all have different issues and within Crohn’s disease, there are different areas that can be affected starting at the mouth and right on down to the anus. It is the complications from Crohn’s, not the disease itself that can kill you (https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/arti...).

Now, there is some good news. Just because you have Crohn’s disease doesn’t mean you’ll have a shorter life than anyone else. https://www.everydayhealth.com/hs/cro... so, this is not a death sentence. It isn’t comfortable and some of the symptoms can occur out of nowhere. Sometimes, I get tired easy. I can have flare ups. There can be diarrhea or constipation even nausea and fatigue. I tend to be on the luckier side and mostly manage it with my diet. I found that, for me, I either have an allergy to wheat gluten or I don’t tend to digest it well. I won’t go too deeply into diets…because generally they have advice all over the board and I’m no dietician or doctor. The thing to keep in mind is that depending on what is affected and what your own body tolerates, you may find that what some people can use, others cannot. For example, I know other people who have parts affected that I do not. They cannot even do strawberries because of the seeds. This is not a problem for me. They have better medications that help to control symptoms as well. So, perhaps a dietician can help you to get a better grasp on what can help you.

Now, flares….they can happen. Sorry, it’s a fact. Might as well figure out what to do about it. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-c... again, it seems that different things work for different people, but there are generalities. Do not take this as a recommendation in any way. I find in a flare, what helps me are small meals, rice, potatoes, bananas, and Jell-O seem to reduce problems for me as well as some of the things they suggest in the article above. I break one of the rules like the one of no soda…I actually find ginger ale helps when I have nausea. I cannot recommend things as I’m not a doctor. I only say what works for me and it might not work for you. Your specialist can be more helpful. The one thing that the article at the top of this paragraph from the mayo clinic suggests is that one has to minimize the stress in your life. It doesn’t cause the disease, but it can complicate things and make a flare worse.

Now, if I haven’t made you totally uncomfortable yet, hang on dear readers and listeners, I am only half done. Now on to the medical help to keep things from getting out of control. I know no one likes to talk about this, there is the Colonoscopy and in some cases such as mine the added Endoscopy. Let’s start with the colonoscopy. To be honest, the worst part is the prep. Literally. There are different preparation solutions. If you can’t handle one, there are others. Your specialist will be able to tell you. The one I use came in a package with two envelopes. Depending on your size and body mass and system, you may only have to do one. There are also liter bottles of liquid stuff. Anyway, after you take that, you need to have ready access to a washroom. It’s meant to clear out your system so the camera can do a good job of looking. Follow directions from your specialist. https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-proc... gives you more details. Essentially a camera is inserted through your back door to keep it polite (where people tell you to shove things is they’re angry with you) and the specialist looks to make sure everything is ok. Now, it’s not fun for anyone. The specialist does it because they want to make sure you live a long and healthy life.

The next thing they can do is an Endoscopy. https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-proc.... Generally if you need this done too, it is done when you do the Colonoscopy because why do preparation twice. This one is a camera down your throat. I presume a different camera... It is also to make sure everything is ok in there. Now, no one really loves doing these, but the fact is that if you have Crohn’s, you’re at higher risk for some issues (https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-info...). Now, there is the embarrassment factor, but I kind of prefer to live a long health life. Believe me, I would love to see some other options. I mean who wouldn’t take a more comfortable method if one was available. Sure, there are other tests that you can get, but generally screening won’t do the whole trick if you have the condition but it might give information. Bottom line, I have done one of the screening tests…because the disorder can come with internal bleeding, I still was sent for the scopes. But, you need to discuss your options with your doctor. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/arti....

As Josh Shipp has said, “You either get bitter or you get better. It’s that simple. You either take what has been dealt to you and allow it to make you a better person, or you allow it to tear you down. The choice does not belong to fate, it belongs to you.” The general population will not understand the struggle that one has when their body decides to do what it wants and not always the thing you would want it to do. As I originally wrote this, I had a bad night. Something new to me that I ate obviously decided that it was going to leave. I was up for an hour (I’ll spare you details). You can’t see the medical condition on the outside. Some people have medical conditions that you can see, some have medical conditions you can’t see. The scars are still there. Some days it is like wading through mud. I would love to have the energy to do everything I want to do, but sometimes, it just isn’t going to work.

As the philosopher Confucius is credited with saying, “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” Life with Chronic illness is not all fun. We fight multiple stigmas on a daily basis. We fight our bodies and the thing it does that we don’t enjoy. There are things that we can’t do or do as much as we want. With education about the disease and the general Inflammatory Bowel Diseases and less fear of the testing and using the resources that are available we can live reasonable lives. Sure things aren’t always perfect, but we can make things as perfect as we can make them. Life with Chronic disease is just a different lifestyle. Understanding our bodies and the disorder we have can help us to be our best possible selves.

As Toni Bernhard said, “Do not spend your precious energy worrying about how others view your medical condition.” You have to live with it, they don’t. It is important to find ways that work for you. You have to find a happy balance. If you need to rest, then you have to rest. If you have the energy to do things, then you can do things. Sometimes you’ll decide to push past the fatigue or illness and do something if you think it is worthwhile. People will always judge. It is up to you if you’re going to let it mess with being the best you can be or not. It’s also up to you to make sure you take care of your needs. If you have a medical condition, when you get to have your specialist, make sure that you talk with them. Make sure you find the information you need to be the best you can be. I can also tell you that sometimes your specialist knows things about your condition that general practitioners do not know. Doesn’t mean anything against the General Practitioner…they mostly deal with everyday stuff. So, when you are told something that does not hold true to what your specialist told you about your condition, follow the specialist. Remember, a specialist has years of training with your specific illness. They are the ones that know what works and what doesn’t. Even something as innocuous as vitamins or pain relievers can be important in your battle. I’ve had some doctors that thought I was normal tell me there were things I needed or could use and afterward, when I checked with the specialist, this was not good for my particular situation. Remember general practitioners might not have training in the specific disorder. Nothing against General Practitioners, they have to do a lot of different stuff and generally it is with normal populations, so sometimes the different person has to know what their specialist has told them.

Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures!

Keep watching for more e-books and more formats! We’re always working on something. Thank you! The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://anchor.fm/a--j-pei-treasures/...

Our 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://anchor.fm/a--j-pei-treasures

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

Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-...

Amazon: https://music.amazon.ca/podcasts/879a...


All my e-books can be found on:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/E.-Jean-Simpso...

Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi... or https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...

You can also find us on:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/EJS08026749
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E. Jean Simpson

Change is all in the Mind?

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 a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree or not, at least I hope it makes you think. People often wait for retirement to enjoy life or for the next holiday, etc. You need to understand that life is what happens while you’re waiting. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned!

The past month has been one of stress, illnesses, life and death. I had a sick family member and had to go to another Province to help out looking after things. I’m pleased that things are now in recovery mode in that area. However, as I was looking after things with family on one side, I had my husband come down with Shingles. It is one of the 20% of the cases they talk about that comes with debilitating pain. So, there have been a few trips to emergency and some less than stellar evenings. In the meantime, I also lost one of my Uncles and earlier in the year a cousin. Now this brings me to the starting point for the blog post. My one Uncle (I’ve simplified things by calling him Uncle). He had worked for the mines all his life. He had prepared for retirement and looked forward to it. Then cancer. Then a reoccurrence. He died at 64. A year before his actual retirement. This is where, dear readers and listeners, we need to step back and look. There is always something we are waiting for. We wait for things to get better. We wait for retirement, we wait for our next birthday…we wait. Here’s the thing…how long do we wait? Do we know how long we have to wait and what we wait for? What is the benefit to this waiting game?

I have determined that waiting is something that you can’t do. You need to seize the moment. You need to believe that we (yes, we) can create miracles. We need to believe that we can fix this planet. I mean, it’s not like we can wait for a new planet to come around the corner. The more we ‘wait for things to get better’. The more we wait for anything, the less we move forward. I think waiting is the big time killer of life. We need to take more chances. We need to work toward moving forward. Generally in any area, the local populace is bound to think you’re crazy. Maybe they are not wrong. It takes a special kind of crazy to dedicate oneself to improving things and believing it can work. Think about it, I actually BELIEVE that we can change the medical system. I actually believe we can take it forward and if we ask the right questions and find the right resources and change out what isn’t working for what will work, we can become a shining example to the rest of the country and move my beautiful Province and Country forward into a glorious era. If we get the right people, who know about the system and its difficulties on board with being on the ground floor to change, then we have a better chance of lasting change. Tell me a better alternative? More can be accomplished by believing than ever will by disbelief. Now, one of the things about change is there is no real mystery to it. The article I link here and in the podcast write up gives a short version of what to do to make change. https://knowhow.ncvo.org.uk/your-team.... It is in no way rocket science.

As David J. Schwartz, author of The Magic of Thinking Big said, “Believe it can be done. When you believe something can be done, really believe, your mind will find the ways to do it. Believing a solution paves the way to solution.” So, I think the first step is stop waiting...waiting on things to change. Waiting on the world to change the way you want it. Complaining about the problems that exist. If you want a better world, then you have to be unafraid to do the work. Not afraid to be thought of as crazy. You need to believe with your whole being that you can move forward, that the world can move forward. You need to have goals and you need to have dreams. If you have to work behind the scenes, roll up your sleeves and do grunt work to get that dream, then do it. Guess what not all dreams, jobs or even parenting is a cushy high paying job. If you believe in what you do, then you do what you believe. What could be better?

As Michelle Obama said, “When you're really trying to make serious change, you don't want people to get caught up in emotion because change isn't emotion. Because change isn't emotion. Its real work and organization and strategy... that's just the truth of it. I mean, you pull people in with inspiration, but then you have to roll up your sleeves and you've got to make sacrifices and you have got to have structure.” So, the ‘rah rah’ sessions…what I term the motivational speaking is an important part of creating the living dream. It’s the part that gets people excited because they can see that someone believes in their ability to reach the end goal. It’s imperative really. If you can’t see the goal, you’re not going to be motivated to make the change. So, there is an importance to the belief in the goal that cannot be underestimated. First step to reaching any goal is a belief that it can be reached.

As Christopher Reeve is credited with saying, “So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.” So, first there is the dream…and sometimes it seems getting there will be insurmountable. However, the more you work at believing it, the more likely it looks like it might happen. I always admired Alice in Wonderland as a source of great inspiration and am reminded of this quote, “Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” – Lewis Carroll. It becomes easy. Life isn’t easy and some things feel impossible…but the more you work at it the more possible it becomes. Add to that, “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” – Paulo Coelho. This is the reason a lot of dreams and a lot of goals are never met. People fear failure so they don’t even try. They don’t want to take the chance to try to make changes because they are afraid it won’t work. When they hit the first road block, they crumble and retreat.

I think we need to acknowledge that “Things move along so rapidly nowadays that people saying: “It can’t be done,” are always being interrupted by somebody doing it.”…it’s been attributed to everyone from Confucius to the magazine Puck. No matter who said it, it is certainly a motivational quote. I would add that if you don’t believe something can be done, then step aside and let other people roll up their sleeves and do it. If this is a quote, let me know where it is, I couldn’t find it. So, until I can find it, I guess I have to accept attribution for it currently unless told differently…LOL. The most interesting thing about this quote, it belonged to an older time…so we have been seeing innovations and making things work that should not be possible for a long time. It is part of human history that we want to be able to do the impossible and thus make it possible. The one thing I know is that unless someone does something about the situation, someone believes it can be done, no one will attempt anything and we’ll still be waiting for the world to become a better place. Without clear goals and actionable steps, nothing will happen. No matter how hard or how much work, we can enact change. We can improve things. We can work toward being a better version of ourselves. We can work on teaching ourselves and our children to be honest and tolerance is better than hate. We can give ourselves and our children and their children a better future, and a health care system to be proud of.

When I think of someone who had a dream that is still being talked about today (sadly we haven’t reached that goal as of yet, but it is still being worked toward and he is still inspiring millions), I think of Martin Luther King Jr. I must agree with the quote’s spirit if not the words exactly as they are. People who think they have a right to put down someone for being different. Put down someone for being of a certain race, religion, orientation, etc. are never going to believe in a true dream. As King Jr has said, "Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." What he says here is true. People who believe that they are in the right to put down someone for being different will not have actionable goals. They just fire up the populace with no positive outcome in sight. Eventually there is a legal challenge. They just send the world to spin their tires and stay in place for a time. I go back to Obama’s quote on working toward a goal. It takes sacrifice. The thing with these negative goals…this perpetuating hatred of others, is that they are easily shot down. I’ve seen it over and over online. Someone puts out hate against, LGBTQ and it is not in keeping with the values of the country they purport to support. The inalienable right (According to the Declaration of Independence to life, liberty and happiness)…I don’t remember them being made for just certain groups. Religious intolerance against other religions or certain groups. They run counter to their underlying principles. So, their goals are only accepted by the few and not the many. Eventually they lose and are bitter and hateful toward people. The arguments are shot down. This doesn’t stop them from spitting them out, but it does annoy a great many. The main point is that negative goals, hating goals are not actionable over the longer term and even if they get some action, they get shot down as being against the tenants of the society in general. It just leads to legal battles which they invariably mess about with and it goes to a higher court. All they do is waste time and money trying to reach goals of hate and divisiveness. So one other thing that is important is that the goal be for the greater good and that is more likely to make it more easily actionable. Positive goals are actionable. Belief in the ability to change the planet, a certain area, a protocol or lives for the better is actionable…because it will be accepted by many and will be something that attracts people to work on it. People working on it will make it more likely to be successful.

So, what do we know about dreams of a better world. They won’t wait. We have to do stuff about it now. We have to BELIEVE that we can have a better world. We have to inspire others to believe that we can have a better world. We have to have actionable goals. We have to want to inspire others to make things better. As I say, the world can be a better place, we can work toward making it so. Select what you want to improve. Make sure it is a worthy goal. Then put some energy into it and get others on board. You can make this a better place. I can’t do it alone, you can’t do it alone, but together we can do it. We can find actionable goals, we can find ways to make it happen. We can find ways to respect each other and be tolerant and still make a living. It is not impossible. People have been doing the impossible since time immemorial. There has always been something impossible that has been accomplished because someone BELIEVED it could happen! So, it’s up to you dear readers and listeners. Do you want to wait or do you want to do something useful while you are waiting? I leave the end result up to you. As Brent Butt,
Canadian comedian has said, “It's weird when people mock others for being "woke". Like that's a bad thing. Like it's better to be "mentally unengaged with your eyes closed in the dark". I have to agree with him. It’s never too late to be ‘woke up’.

Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures!

Keep watching for more e-books and more formats! We’re always working on something. Thank you! The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://anchor.fm/a--j-pei-treasures/...

Our 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://anchor.fm/a--j-pei-treasures

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

Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-...

Amazon: https://music.amazon.ca/podcasts/879a...


All my e-books can be found on:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/E.-Jean-Simpso...

Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi... or 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...

E. Jean Simpson

Assumptions: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

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 and am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree or not, at least I hope it makes you think. There are every day assumptions that we make…and some of those may be faulty. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned!

As Darren Shan said, “We all make basic assumptions about things in life, but sometimes those assumptions are wrong. We must never trust in what we assume, only in what we know.” There are some things like, food cooked in an oven is hot upon coming out remains a safer assumption to make. To make this assumption will result in avoiding injury. However, there are assumptions we make, that unless we are in the know about how things are done, we will be making false assumptions. For example, people assume that because a Government has certain vehicles, that they had choices in the vehicles. Having worked for Government some years ago, I can safely say that this might not be accurate. Often things such as vehicles are done through contracts that have to be honored and some maintenance is as well. Some maintenance should not be, but that’s a whole other kettle of fish. This might mean that they have to honor a contract to buy a certain type of vehicle size or variety from a certain dealer. Of course more modern alternatives do exist, but they may not be among the ones that the agency has the right to choose from.

Another assumption is that the head of a particular Province or Territory has all the information at their fingertips. That they know the rubbish that is going on in a particular area. That could be furthest from the truth. Many years ago, I worked for a Government Department. I won’t say where or which one to protect privacy though it was well over 20 years ago. The point, however the agency was part of the group working toward trying to get the Province a higher rating. Now, I knew that the particular road they would have to take to their showcase property would be horrible and the bumps and grinds that would occur to the agency leaders would be a sure detraction from the goal. I informed the second in charge of what I had observed and suggested that if they wanted to have an increase in prestige, they would be much better off to take a helicopter to the destination. Goal was achieved. They had listened to me…a lowly secretary. However, I also chose the right person to tell it to. One of the bosses, I wouldn’t have wanted working with a puppy let alone people. The other was a decent enough man and I wanted to help his career. I’m sure in some small way it did the job…they did have a rise in the rating. This does illuminate further the idea that the politicians in question might not have any clue whatsoever as to how bad the current situation is for one particular area.

One of the reasons I try to have back up with either facts or with real life experience in my blog posts and podcasts is that it helps to back up what I am saying and why I say it. I’m not just blowing smoke up your skirts dear readers and followers. I don’t rely on assumptions of logic. As C.C. Hunter said, “But you are making assumptions without all the facts, and that's not a sign of intelligence.” If we want to make a point and have it taken seriously, it is imperative that we not make the point out of the blue with no indication of why we are making said assumptions. Of course, this is not to put down people making assumptions. People have to make judgements somehow.

As Douglas Adams has said, “The hardest assumption to challenge is the one you don't even know you are making.” This is a difficult one. You see, people assume things which can make them miserable. Things like life is fair. This assumption is one that underlies a lot of the anger and upset that exists. Once people give up that assumption, there is a whole lot of stress taken off. Life is, in fact not fair. Good people get hurt, people are rewarded for bad behavior without even thinking about it. If life was fair, then everyone would have enough food on the table, a place to live, be able to pay their bills, not be living pay check to pay check. Life is not fair. Leave this assumption by the wayside and you see that you need to speak up when things are wrong. People might not understand. You can do your civic duty. You can try to improve your little corner of the world. Past that, we cannot change the world overnight. We can’t even get people to agree to wear masks. How can we even consider that the world will be fair and we have a chance at world peace?

As Margaret Mead is credited with saying, “The assumption that men were created equal, with an equal ability to make an effort and win an earthly reward, although denied every day by experience, is maintained every day by our folklore and our daydreams.” The only great truth is that we run things on faulty assumptions and we live life by following them. Further, as Daniel Handler has said, “Assumptions are dangerous things to make, and like all dangerous things to make, bombs, for instance, or strawberry shortcake, if you make even the tiniest mistake you can find yourself in terrible trouble.” Of course the degree of trouble is determinant on the type of assumption you are making. Making assumptions about constructs like freedom, fairness, and life can lead us down the garden path. There is another saying about what Assume makes out of us, but I think I’ll skip that one. Most children know this one by heart anyway. Maybe that too is a faulty assumption. Time will tell.

The most important thing one can consider when it comes to assumptions is that they are just ways of thinking about things. We either have to prove or disprove them. To put this in more scientific terms, “Assumptions, by their very nature, are hypotheses.” (Victor Bogart Ph.D.). Which seems the safest way to look at every day assumptions. It doesn’t suggest that people are wrong or right, just that we have to look at what is given and decide if it is something that is provable or not? Is it something that we need to look deeper into? Is it something that we need delve into further?

If you doubt the importance of testing assumptions, you just have to look to business to prove that it is terribly important. https://www.collectivecampus.io/blog/... indicates that a great number of start-ups fail due to lack of testing of the assumptions of market fit. So, whether you write a blog post and/or podcast or you run a business or even a Province or Country, you cannot go wrong in testing assumptions and understanding that there is far more to assumptions than meets the eye. Assumptions made without finding out the facts behind them are just hypothesis floating in thin air. In fact, most of science and business benefits from testing of hypothesis and in making clear the assumptions. Further, https://www.farreachinc.com/blog/risk... explains assumptions and risk. There is a whole field of Statistics that deals with assumptions and evaluating them. So, it is definitely a complex area of study for those interested in it. But, for the general person, it is sufficient to understand that not all assumptions are going to fare well in reality. Assumptions are the main thing being tested in the experimental world and there, it is important to examine assumptions in order to construct better tests.

So, the trick to assumptions is knowing when there is a safe assumption such as hot food coming out of a hot oven will be hot and knowing when there is not a safe assumption. That is why politics, running anything and life in general is hard. We have to weed out when we need proof of what we say and when there are self-evident assumptions. However, even then there is going to be a difficult time to sort out the wheat from the chaff. We can only do the best we can do. Just learn to hold assumptions loosely.

Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures!

Keep watching for more e-books and more formats! We’re always working on something. Thank you! The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://anchor.fm/a--j-pei-treasures/...

E. Jean Simpson
The Big Kids Magical Path to Colours in Nature

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Small Town Life

Hi and Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson Author Blog Post and Podcast. I’m your host, Jean usually coming to you from the beautiful Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada!! This week, I am on the road live from our neighbours in New Brunswick, 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 and am a humanitarian and speak from that viewpoint only. Whether you agree or not, at least I hope it makes you think. If you want to find out more, then stay tuned!

Before I get to the actual podcast and blog post, I have spent the past month living with my parents and helping them out in the Miramichi region of New Brunswick. There seems a lovely small town vibe to the place. The local CO-OP (Beaubear CO-OP) allows phone in orders. They are friendly and helpful. The neighbours seem to help out each other. I thank the area for their help and patience while I stumbled through getting orders made and the help getting my parents to appointments.

There are the same issues in many small towns...medical care is hard to get. People don't seem to want to make waves. This is not different from most small towns. It is a shame that Doctors and Nurses are not as interested in the small towns. It seems everyone wants to live in the larger centres. They miss out on the nice place to raise a family. Same on the Island. Anyway, this is my shameless plug for small town Atlantic Canada.

So, what do we know about small town life or small area life? Many people seem to find more problems with it than solutions in some media. First, if you are in a small town, you have a place you can raise children in relative safety. This is not always ensured, but something that belongs under the purview of everyone. The town will be how the people allow it to be. So, if there is not a parent coalition of some sort, and children are allowed to raise themselves, then you may have problems. If there are parents that ensure their children are involved in some sort of social activities, then they will be brought up respecting each other if the parents want that for their kids. So, there is a plus there. If you have children, join some of the parent run things. You can have an influence in what your children are exposed to.

Supply chain issues, though they affect every type of town and city around the world, they can sometimes be felt more keenly in smaller towns. But, if there is more than one shop available, they will be able to get around that too. It is up to the local stores to seek out sales opportunities and this is not always easy. They complain about a lack of jobs, however, I've seen most small towns looking for people to work at the various local stores and food chains. Teach your children that they can work any job and all jobs should be respected and they will see any job as good. Shop owners, don't let people disrespect your staff. People will respect you for standing up for your staff. Teach your kids the skills they need to be successful. Not everyone wants to or can work at management jobs. I was never that interested in managing anything. Too many headaches. Yet, I have a good education. I also have medical conditions that makes it hard to do some jobs. I had one job I really enjoyed and found that they had something I had an allergy to. I couldn't keep the job and they ran out of funding for me. It was a mutual decision in that way. I liked the job, but there was something, a cleaning fluid or something and I seemed the only one affected. Though the particular job was in a large city, this issue can crop up at any job place.

The biggest difficulty with small town life is having enough doctors and nurses and other medical related people. Often, it seems that the medical profession wants to be where the action is...which is the big city or town. They miss out on the small town atmosphere. They miss out on being at the top levels of change in the area. They miss out on the challenge of learning about a variety of things and many don't bother to find out about various things as a GP. They prefer to be a specialist. They miss out on being a big fish in a small pond. However, the towns are somewhat responsible for the issue. I've seen everything including doctors being hired on contract. This does not encourage doctors to come to smaller towns. Most Emergency areas tend to have at least 2-3 different people to see before you even get to see the doctor. Unless you're brought in on a stretcher, you're in for a wait of several hours. This could be remedied by having doctors, nurses and other medical personnel being in on the decisions of the protocols. In some cases, the protocols are quite old or made by people who have not had to wait in waiting rooms or deal with patients. Then you find short tempers and following long never ending protocols that require several visits for one thing which seems a waste of time. Some things could be handled with a short call. This is something that every small town needs to have dealt with. It seems endemic.

Most small towns or small areas are very close to nature areas. On the Island, there is never a huge distance to get to a park or the water. If you like water sports, there are lots of things to do in the summer, spring and fall. The winter is a little different. However, there are skidoo trails and other things for exercise. Most places have small gyms, libraries etc. Your life is only limited by your own imagination. There is often availability of fresh produce and hand made products. It depends on the area, what is grown, what is fished, etc. Every small Maritime town is accessible within an hour or two at the most to a major city or town of some description. For example, on the Island, we have Charlottetown, PEI, Moncton, NB and Halifax NS are closest.

There is more fresh air and ways you can enjoy the smaller and slower lifestyle. People seem to focus on big events and big cities. This is a mistake. In your local area, there are school teams. You can go to events in nearby areas. You can become part of the community you live in. You have options. Once you have done the work to establish your name in the community, then you can progress in your chosen career. Make no mistake, no one gets a free pass.

Immanuel Kant is credited with saying, "The nice thing about living in a small town is that when you don`t know what you`re doing, someone else does." People tend to find multiple things that they can do. If there is something you can't do, there is someone around who does just that. Often there are shops that specialize, but at the same time, some tend to do a lot of different things. It's far more varied than some people think.

As, Anita Bryant is credited with saying, "I think there is something special about living in a small town. Everyone knows your business and there is an intimacy you don't get in a large town." This is something that can be a double edged sword. In a small town, there is gossip. I find mostly it is something to ignore. Judge for yourself from your experience, not from something that someone has passed around town. By the time it has passed through a dozen or so people, who knows what it is. Of all the things, people knowing each other can sometimes be a negative and sometimes a positive.

Nick Notle said, "Living in a small town, one of the keys to survival was your imagination." I think that we find a lot of creative people make a start from a small town. Lucy Maude Montgomery and Maude Lewis are just two famous names from Atlantic Canada. There are many more writers, musicians and other talented people. When you live in a small town, you have time to determine what your talents are and how you want to use them. There is a freedom to do that. You are not required to be a social butterfly, but if that is your desire, it will happen and you can be involved or uninvolved as you wish.

So, these are just some reasons you might want to think about moving to a small town and establishing your medical career or your professional career in the Atlantic Canada region. If you have a work from home job, you have a chance to work in quiet or in obscurity as much or as little publicity as you wish to work with.

I think I just wanted to give a small idea of the variety of lifestyles choices that are available in small town Atlantic Canada. I think that most people know what is available in big cities and larger centres so no need to elaborate on those. I hope that this has given you a small taste of what you can do with a quieter and small town lifestyle.

Thanks for listening to my podcast and/or reading my blog post and thanks for your interest in A & J PEI Treasures!

Keep watching for more e-books and more formats! We’re always working on something. Thank you! The podcast that matches this blog post can be found on Anchor FM: https://anchor.fm/a--j-pei-treasures/...

Our 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://anchor.fm/a--j-pei-treasures

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

Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/e-...

Amazon: https://music.amazon.ca/podcasts/879a...


All my e-books can be found on:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/E.-Jean-Simpso...

Smashwords (my Affiliate link): https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi... or https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...

You Can also find us on:

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E. Jean Simpson