Donkey Sanctuary of Canada

"Go to your happy place." Good advice: mine would be the Donkey Sanctuary of Canada on an open day (Sundays and Wednesday, May-October), when visitors can mingle with the rescued donkeys and enjoy companionable time with these lovely critters on a 100-acre farm. On several occasions, I have tried to explain to people what a wonderful place lies hidden on Concession #4 in Puslinch, near Guelph (just off Hwy 6), but I seem to lack the words to express adequately how calming and rejuvenating an experience being near the donkeys really is. This is not simply equine-love that so many women share, rather I feel a deeper, fellow-creature empathy for these lovely fuzzy animals every time I visit. And the donkeys that have been rescued (some find the sanctuary when their loving owners can no longer care for them and have nowhere else to put them) have such heart-wrenching stories of pasts filled with loneliness, neglect, and even abuse, that you can't help but feel the waves of compassion for these beautiful beasts that emanate from the place and from all the people involved in making this sanctuary a reality. I am gushing, and you must think I am using superlatives to describe this place, but maybe the pictures will convince you to visit and absorb the calm (don't we all need a little calm in our hectic 21st-century Southern Ontario lives?) and get a little country air while supporting such a worthwhile charity.

Peter (front) and Katy (back), never apart for more than a moment; true love for these donkey-spouses.

Earl Grey shows perfect donkey colouring, and he adores mingling with the guests in the barnyard.

Donkeschoen (love that moniker!), peeking behind a tree, seeking the shade, is a very large donkey: the friendly, people-enjoying donkeys in the barnyard always move so slowly & peacefully that the large ones are not intimidating at all.

Donkeys and mules and hinnies love their dust baths; of course, every time I tried to snap a photo, this one would stop rolling around. They are remarkably agile for such substantial creatures.

Close-cropping the grass while they wait for their regular meal. They like to eat the sweet grasses found in Southern Ontario, but they get fat on those green, sweet blades and leaves, so the sanctuary tries to keep them on more of a natural desert diet of hay and dried straw.

A mule who stopped rolling in the dust just as I snapped the shutter, of course. You can still see the dust wafting away in the breeze. Mules, hinnies, and even donkeys, can be all different colours: the white is pretty striking.

Pansy is one of the sweetest donkeys on the farm (they have +50 equines on site); she was spending a lot of time near the fence, hoping people would help brush her winter coat, which she needs to shed before the summer heat sets in.

Another donkey gets brushed by the adoring children. Snuffling the ground for little nubs of green grass the entire time, but not moving much while getting well-brushed by helpful lil 'uns.

On this day, most of the donkeys has their heads down gobbling up any tiny scrap of green: donkeys have to eat all day in the wild to get enough calories to keep going, something like 30,000 jaw movements each day.

A hinny gets a little snippy with a mule in the mule-pasture. A hinny is a domestic equine hybrid that is the offspring of a male horse and a female donkey (called a jenny); a mule has a mother horse and a father donkey (called a jack).

More mules in their segregated pasture. Mules do not like goats, but donkeys adore goats, so the farm's 2 goats have to be careful which paddock they jump into: there was an incident on the day we were there, and one of the goats was roughed up by the mules after leaping into their yard (luckily I didn't see it, just heard about it).

Summer is 42 years old. She is standing at the door to the barn because it is her usual mealtime. However, it's an open day, and she'll have to wait until the visitors clear out.

She is not pleased at having to wait for her supper. She is so elderly that her winter fur does not shed naturally and must be clipped in late spring so that she does not overheat and get too itchy in the summertime.

Donkeschoen again, one of my favourites that day: donkeys' ears are very expressive -- this posture means, you're doing it right, keep scratching right there. When they really like a particular caress, their bottom lip droops, which we got to see often on this day, and I think you can even notice it a little bit in this photo.

Donkeys are my favourite equines (although zebras and horses and hybrids are all pretty cool too). I hope that some of these pictures encourage you to seek out an afternoon of remarkable peace and animal-friendship at the Donkey Sanctuary of Canada (tips for visiting in this pdf file). Seeing these photos makes me want to go all over again, even though this latest trip was just this past Wednesday.

Restaurant Review, April 2012

A Taste for Thai Food

Pretty much my favourite type of food: thai curries fill me with warmth and satisfaction.
This evening we tried a new Thai restaurant on Locke Street, Hamilton. At Siam Dish, the meal delighted; the menu included a satisfactory number of vegetarian choices; the service was attentive and helpful; the renovated decor (former pizza joint) spoke of careful colour selection and attention to detail. I highly recommend this place, with a proviso that the two-pepper notation on the menu means MEDIUM hotness, so not for the heat-fearful. I don't have much else to say about this lovely new restaurant, except that I will tell everyone I know to try it, and I will definitely return soon, probably before the end of the month. The pics:

The first thing that captured my imagination: origami napkins.

Our host and server, and the restaurant moniker.

The decor when you first walk in to Siam Dish.

Dan really liked that window, so I took a pic. Lots of people came in while we were there.

Upstairs, totally renovated too.

Don't be afraid to bring a crowd, upstairs is huge.

This is the table Dan wants next time, upstairs and with a window seat.

Vegetable spring rolls, nice and crispy. Super-hot, quick to the table.

Spicy Green Beans (2-peppers notation, medium-spicy), comes with rice. Beautiful deep-fried tofu.

Panang curry, strong flavours of thai basil, slightly thicker sauce, mountains of tender chicken.  Delectable! Had coconut rice with my main. Had enough entree leftover for my lunch tomorrow.

So glad to have another nice local restaurant to support. And Thai close by, makes me so happy.

This Blog Post Is Not Really about Personal Branding & Networking

This is the blog I was planning to write:
Those personal branding and networking breakout sessions at the "Inspiring from Within" conference were awesome and def inspiring. Donna Messer had to follow a juggler, but she really energized the room, networking with more people in 10 minutes than I probably have in the past 10 months. Blah, blah, blah, enthusiam ... blah, blah passion ... blah, leverage ... blah, blah. Big question: "What do I do in my life and work to show that I care?" Hmm, good question.
Excellent lunch, followed by breakout session #2 with Bobby Umar. He almost lost me on the first PowerPoint slide, which had "its" in 3 spots that should have read "it's," but I forgave him, and we moved on. A brand is a promise, what you remember. Get more feedback ... blah, blah, blah, engaged leadership ... blah, blah interpersonal intelligence ... blah. Big question: What do you promise to bring to your life, your work, and your community that can make a positive difference? Yeah, don't have an answer for that one right this minute either.


Then a week passed, and this is what I thought when I sat down at the computer to actually write this blog entry: "That just sounds like a lot of work." Both those motivators wanted their audience members to ask themselves many self-invasive questions: Why did I want to be here today?  Who are you beyond your job? How does this person benefit from knowing me? What do you want to share with the world? What can I help you accomplish? What are you passionate about?


I tried reading online about personal branding and networking, attempting to recapture some of the fervour that Messer and Umar had engendered in me during their workshops. The more I read, the more I realized that I had no answers for these piercing questions because I had been "entrenched in low-awareness living" for some time. It's easier that way, and most of my life has been committed to the pursuit of easy, leisure, downright repose; I am a very self-indulgent person at heart. I know this about myself, and I feel no guilt over this lifestyle choice. My fondest memories of childhood involve spending an entire day ensconced in bed reading a Harlequin romance novel (likely a Betty Neels, and, no, I wasn't convalescing).

After a little more thinking, I began to doubt that I could possibly sustain the flare of passion that these people ignited in me in my personal life. I admire their passion and enthusiasm and commitment to their profession and relation to others/the world, but that is just not me; or, at least, not me at this moment, in this life. I realized, however, that I could take their advice and apply the practical tips and innovative tricks to my work, helping the journal develop its brand and reach out to network better in the world community of scholars in eighteenth-century studies. I am passionate about that part of my life, always trying to make the journal better and reach more people: my mantra is "The more eyes on the research the better."


For anyone reading this entry hoping to learn something about personal branding and networking, here are a couple articles and one video I found online.
BRANDING
Personal branding advice from Barney Stinson.
How to come up with a personal brand statement.
Bobby Umar at Tedx at UWO:

NETWORKING
5 (6, with the bonus) Keys to Networking Success
Everyone seems to offer 5 keys to network success
And the best advice ever, an oldie but a goodie: how to network 1980s-style with Heather Locklear.


P.S. I think I really am just a "Stever Stifler" type at heart, curious about how to pursue the dream, but realistic about my own level of gumption:
Chris "Oz" Ostreicher: [On being sensitive and getting girls via the "sensitive" angle] You ask them questions, and listen to what they have to say and shit. 
Steve Stifler: I dunno, man, that sounds like a lot of work.

Spectacle and the Spectacular

A juggling orator, swag that could make Oscar attendees blush, a keynoter with a bone through his head, and an all-you-care-to-eat candy buffet continue to rove around in my head as slightly disconcerting images from Friday's daylong seminar, which occasionally seemed more like indoctrination than motivation. The "Inspiring from Within" conference planners nailed the "inspiring" part, walking the fine line between spectacle and the spectacular with keynote speakers Dan Thurmon and Michael Kerr. As I described the actions and content of these two speakers to someone that evening, he replied, "You sound like you've been brainwashed," which made me stop short and rethink my response to the day's substance. If the conference's title meant that I would be changed, rejuvenated, restored, and that I could accomplish all that from within, with my own gumption, and apply it to my working life, then the two keynoters overloaded me on the "inspiring" and sometimes failed a little bit for me on the "from within" part. These two high-energy performers, a busking lecturer and a prop-comedian who motivates, felt like an overload to see on one day, for me. One flashy to pump us up before heading into the daylong conference always works before long sessions of sitting, but I probably would have enjoyed the closer more who presented a message that really tied in with the conference title, gave us more concrete examples of how we could use what we had learned during the course of the day to find that inspiration from within on a daily basis instead of having to attend a jump-starting annual event.


Having seen only a few motivational work speakers live (unless a Billy Graham sermon counts), I may not be the best judge of this particular event's success. But growing up as a Baptist, and having attended many evangelical baptist church services, I know that when a keynoter who does backward, standing somersaults and juggles while atop a six-foot unicycle fails to receive a standing ovation, he might not have been the best choice of motivator for that particular crowd. Granted, first-thing in the morning on a Friday presents challenges for any performer; however, his actions were spectacular without claiming a single "Woo!" from the audience, that I recall.


Dan Thurmon, the juggling, acrobatic speaker, spoke about the reality of all life being lived "off balance," requiring constant adjustments, which he helped us all visualize with his handstand on the rickety podium (too dangerous to enjoy seeing! for me, anyway) and his ride around the crowded room on the six-foot unicycle. Thank goodness I was taking copious notes all day because mostly what I retained of his performance are images of dangerous stunts and a renewal of my wish to avoid buskers. He stressed the fallacy of multitasking, which I read about in stories responding to a Stanford report, by explaining that juggling is not multitasking, rather when he juggles he completes one task at a time with excellence, and then the next task with excellence, just really really fast.

After 2 breakout sessions (will blog about those successful, and definitely inspiring, workshops later) and a superb luncheon, we gathered to round off the day with the final keynote by Michael Kerr, who advocates bringing more humour into the workplace. I can get behind his message, but by the end of a day of pretending to be interested in everything that so many different people were saying at me and smiling and smiling and smiling at everybody because you're supposed to be pleasant at an event filled with your work colleagues, I found Kerr's content and approach a little exhausting. I have a sense of humour, don't get me wrong: some of my favourite experiences in life have been at improv comedy outings, watching silly movies like Nacho Libre, and raucous karaoke nights. Kerr's prop comedy amused us all, and his enthusiasm and delivery received "Woos!" from the audience at the end (but again no standing ovation). One of the "Woo!"-ers was me, I must confess, owing to his infectious love of what he was doing and his genuine desire to help us all find more in life to laugh about.


Beyond the silly props (an unlit torch, a flower-petal headband, a rubber chicken; yes, a rubber chicken), Kerr delivered an important message that did reach us through his spectacle of mussed hair and wild facial expressions: having fun can create an inspiring workplace, and we all have the power to choose our attitude. Ouch! I need to remind myself of that on most mornings, especially during proofs-correction week. Emotions and attitudes are contagious, another good reminder that I might have to post on my bulletin board in my office for my own daily reminder, as I find myself occasionally feeling and acting a little sour, a little acerbic in my middle age. His key point for me was "Reframe" wherein we again all have a choice about how we react to a situation. Adopting a healthy perspective of positivity and learning to see and enjoy the accidentally funny in your environment can certainly turn around your attitude about life and work. Luckily for me (because my brain seems to be on idle too often lately), he offered concrete suggestions of how to reframe and relax and celebrate the fun parts of your daily life. Those examples and solutions and tips are the best part of any keynote speech: inspire and then guide too. I won't list them here, but the prompts for incorporating more humour into the workplace were spectacular, and I highly recommend Kerr as a speaker for any motivational event.


There, did I sound indoctrinated just now? I keep returning to my reaction at the end of the day and how describing the spectacle of the events to someone who wasn't there stressed the showy, the curiosity, the inculcation of positivity that obliterates the need to think for oneself. In my first attempt at describing the day's speakers and events, I failed to relate the spectacular ("having a quality that thrusts itself into attention"), the vivid impressions, the substance mixed in with the show, what the keynoters said that could have inspired some sort of change in me. After the conference, I was definitely inspired, not by the spectacle, but by the keynoters enthusiasm, commitment, and enjoyment of their chosen work. Their wholehearted engagement with their job, with the audience, with life, defined "spectacular," and that's what I ended up really wanting to share with anyone who asked me about the conference.