Tag: mental-health

  • I Don’t Want to Play Anymore

    TRIGGER WARNING – This post discusses depression, intrusive suicidal thoughts, parenting conflict, perimenopause, and legal struggles. Please take care reading — and see the resources at the end. There’s a phrase that’s been running through my head lately: I don’t want to play anymore. It sounds childish, maybe even selfish. But in truth, it feels…

  • Navigating the Justice System: A Maze Without a Map

    I never realized how impossible it is to navigate the justice system until I was thrown into it myself. You would think there would be one place to go for answers, or at least a central point of information, but that simply isn’t the case. Instead, the justice system is a patchwork of different departments,…

  • Starting Over: Job Hunting After a Lifetime of Running My Own Businesses

    I haven’t looked for a job in decades. Since I was 23, I’ve been an owner and director, building and running businesses through recessions, family crises, sleepless nights, and survival. My name is still on the paperwork. I’m still a shareholder and an executive director in several of these businesses. But after an ex-parte motion…

  • When Systems Fail Our Children: A Mother’s View

    Yesterday was supposed to be a joyful milestone: my son’s first day back at school after the summer holidays. He had been bouncing with excitement, jumping up and down, thrilled to ride the bus and see his friends. For a child with some social interaction challenges who has been attending counselling during the summer, this…

  • Surviving Back to School Season: Parenting, Health Scares, and Fresh Starts

    This was the year I was going to be organized. I said to myself. Somehow the summer vanished in a blur, and of course the last two weeks were jammed with so many activities that I feel like I now need a vacation from our vacation. Sorry teachers—my kids are being returned half-feral, with mosquito…

  • Rapids, Wolves, and the Real Joy of Being Myself.

    “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” – Helen Keller I’ve learned recently that Helen Keller was right. Life has to be a daring adventure — because the alternative is to simply exist, and existing isn’t enough. If you never take risks, never laugh at the wrong turns, never feel your heart…

  • Ready Isn’t a Feeling It is a Decision

    I read something the other day that’s been echoing in my mind ever since: “You’ll never feel ready because ready isn’t a feeling, it’s a decision.” It hit me because it’s true in ways I wish I’d known years ago. For so long, I thought I had to feel ready before I could act. I…

  • From French Vanilla to Financial Freedom: Investing After Financial Abuse

    💸 Even If You’re Starting with $10, a Broken Heart and Nothing Left I don’t have a pension. Not because I didn’t work — I did.I raised kids. I managed a household. I helped build businesses from the ground up..But I wasn’t the one with the paycheque. That was by design. And when it all…

  • From Healing to the Battlefield: A Litigation Plan is Being Born

    A year ago, six months after my husband was arrested, I was barely functioning, lost in a fog of trauma and PTSD, struggling to make it through each day. But in the past year, I’ve found my fire again. Through therapy, self-reflection, and the unwavering support of incredible women and men in my life, I’ve…

  • Justice Feels Unjust: Paper Doesn’t Protect People

    ✎ Legal Reflection: When Justice Feels Like a Pinky Promise I live at the end of a dead-end road. On paper, that might sound peaceful. In reality, it’s isolating — especially when your closest neighbours are the surety for your abusive ex’s bail. Yes. The people vouching for his release are the people living closest…