For Mother’s Day today, Barry took Konan and I to the park for a walk. Part of the outing included going down to the river’s edge to see the families of geese that always hang out there.

I always smile at the fact that the local goose is the Canada goose. It’s cool to know that other Canadians, besides myself, are living down here!

But today I noticed something unusual about them:

Every family of Canada geese had not only the two parents and a gaggle of fuzzy little babies… but either a white or grey goose hanging out with the clan.

It looked like the regular geese were being bodyguards — or maybe nannies, or even guardian angels — helping mama goose with her family for Mother’s Day.

I tried to find out if this is a common phenomenon. Both Ducks.ca (Ducks Unlimited) and ItsNature.org talk about how Canada geese mate for life, and both take part in raising the goslings for a year… but I couldn’t find anything about white or grey geese joining the family.

In fact, according to ItsNature.org:

“Once the goslings are hatched they are often seen with the parents. The female usually leads while the other is behind the goslings, and they will react very violently to any approach, whether it be from human or even something so small as a blackbird.”

Hmm… maybe our geese didn’t get the memo, because none of them were being violent or aggressive towards the big white geese.

After some more searching, though, I did find a picture by Bill Allen (shown above) of the same phenomenon in Vancouver’s Stanley Park, and another picture from a guy somewhere in the southern U.S… so they do it all over the continent, despite what “official” goose facts say.

So Happy Mother’s Day to all the geese families out there who choose to buck the trends, break the rules, and do things their own way.

And Happy Mother’s Day to the human moms, too. May you also feel confident in writing your own rules, and maybe even have your own real-life guardian angel to watch over your family.

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!

Today is “May Day”… May 1st.

And every time I think of that, the distress call uttered by pilots and boat captains in trouble pops into my mind.

“Mayday, mayday, mayday!” I hear them calling.

So I started wondering, what it is about May 1st that’s connected somehow with danger?

Turns out… absolutely nothing.

May Day, the holiday, has been around for thousands of years. For the Druids of the British Isles, it was the second-most important day of the year, according to TheHolidaySpot.com. It marked the middle of the year, and was celebrated with cleansing fires — a symbol of the spring sun.

Couples would walk through the smoke for good luck… nothing distressful about that.

Then the Romans came, and they used early May to celebrate Flora, the goddess of flowers, through feasting.

By the Middle Ages, the day had transformed into a festival for children, complete with the maypole: an elaborate ribbon-strewn pole constructed by each village, all attempting to have the highest one (just like the “tallest building in the world” race that continues today).

Kids would take hold of the ribbons and dance merrily around the maypole, weaving them into one complete unit. Again, no distress there!

In contrast to all this celebration, the distress call (which is always uttered three times for clarity: “Mayday, mayday, mayday!”) has nothing to do with May Day.

It comes from the French “m’aider,” which, as any Canadian who has been through the school system can tell you, means simply “help me!”

Now why the heck didn’t I figure that one out on my own?

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!

Last week I posted a personal development riddle and promised to give the answer today — along with some tips for making it work for you instead of against you.

I must say, all the answers were great, and could certainly apply (as I’ll explain in a minute).

But the answer that the author of the riddle had in mind is “habit”.

Habits can be good, or habits can be bad. They can empower you, or they can bring you down. As one commenter said: “First, you make your habits. Then, they make you.”

Two people got that answer: Tara Needham and Mark Kemp. Because of that, I decided to give an unannounced prize of a little plug for each of them.

I’ve actually used Tara’s services; she’s a transcriptionist, and an excellent one at that. I’ve used a lot of transcriptionists for interviews, and I’ve been frustrated with the inaccuracies from many of them.

Tara has a great attention to detail, so if you do interviews or other audios for teleseminars, podcasts, webinars, or info products, and want to increase the value of your offering by including transcripts (or making it into a book), see what Transcription Team can do for you.

I’d never met or heard of Mark before, but his website sells unique gifts: recordings of messages from loved ones, burned onto CD, for a special occasion (wedding, birthday, anniversary, graduation, or whatever you want to commemorate).

I remember a few years ago a marketing brethren was hospitalized with a brain aneurysm, and some of us did something similar in a makeshift way; apparently hearing all our voices helped his spirits and memory. So this could be pretty powerful: check out Priceless Memories to record friends’ and family members’ voices for presentation and posterity.

Now, about those other answers, and some tips for making habit your friend…

>>> CONTINUE READING The Answer: Who Your Constant Companion Is…

My latest article for Life As A Human focuses on the zen practice of drinking tea:

That’s another reason to drink tea: it turns out it’s good for the body, mind and spirit. Tea has played a part in meditation and other spiritual rituals for eons.

Yup, tea doesn’t just nourish the body and treat its ailments; it also affects our mind and spirit through our moods, mindset and meditation.

Read the entire article here: Tea Time for the Body, Mind and Spirit.

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!

Barry passed this little gem of a riddle onto me about the constant companion we all have, who can be good or bad to hang around with.

I’ve seen it hold people back far too many times… but as the riddle tells you, this companion can also propel you forward:

GUESS WHO I AM….

I am your constant companion.

I am your greatest helper or heaviest burden.

I will push you onward or drag you down to failure.

I am completely at your command.

Half the things you do might just as well be turned over to me and I will be able to do them quickly and correctly.

I am easily managed — you must merely be firm with me. Show me exactly how you want something done and after a few lessons I will do it automatically.

I am the servant of all great people and, alas, of all failures, as well.

Those who are great, I have made great.

Those who are failures, I have made failures.

I am not a machine, though I work with all the precision of a machine plus the intelligence of a person. You may run me for profit or run me for ruin — it makes no difference to me.

Take me, train me, be firm with me, and I will place the world at your feet. Be easy with me and I will destroy you.

Who am I?

I’ll reveal the answer on this blog in a week… along with some tips on making it work for you instead of blocking your progress.

In the meantime, submit your guess as a comment on this post by clicking here.

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!

“I don’t have the time!”

Well, if you don’t, in theory, neither do I. You see, time is the one constant that all us human beings have. After all, we each have the same 86,400 seconds per day to do what we need, want, and have to do.

Somebody once said that life gives us only two things: opportunity and time. Now, when you think about the old adage, time is money, can you see how that really means that life gives us money?

If you weren’t born with a silver spoon in your mouth, that might not seem right, but it really is. See, whenever you do something, or get something, you use up one or more of three resources: time, money or energy.

And really, since everything in the Universe is made up of energy at a quantum level, all three of those are energy. So let’s take energy out of the equation and say that you either use (spend) time or money. Always. Every second of the day. All 86,4000 of them.

In return, you get a certain level of value back (another form of energy). You can trade time for sleep (value), trade money for food (value), trade time and money for a date with someone special (value), and on and on.

Now, you know from high school physics class that energy can not be created or destroyed; it can only change forms. So when we say we “make money” or “make time” for something, what it really means is that we’ve effectively turned one into the other… or another type of value into one… or one into more of the same.

Huh? If that’s about as clear as mud, just stick with me for a minute (see, I’m asking you to give me some of your time… and I’ll give you value in return, in the form of some thought-provoking information).

>>> CONTINUE READING Why do you keep telling people this…?…

When it’s cloudy or rainy, people describe it as “dreary” or “miserable.”

It seems like giving our power away to let the weather affect our emotions. But in my newest article for the online magazine, Life As A Human, I report:

After a bit of digging, I got confirmation of the fact that light (and, by extension, weather) does indeed impact the way we feel.

Continue reading my article here: Light Up Your Life: How Seasons Affect Our Moods.

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!

My newest article for Life As A Human is about your health and wellbeing (and mine). It starts off:

I’ve been thinking a lot about sleep lately…

To find out why, and how much sleep you really need, read the article here: To Sleep, Perchance to Dream: How Much Sleep Do Humans Really Need?

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!

My latest article for the online magazine Life As A Human reads, in part:

Isn’t it interesting that what starts out as a scary new situation soon becomes a new comfort zone? As we all grow and expand, so does our level of what’s comfortable (read: safe).

What’s your comfort zone… and how do you get out of it?

Read the entire article here: Outside Your Comfort Zone: Taking Risks for Personal Growth.

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!

I’m also a regular contributor to the new online magazine, Life As A Human. In my latest article, I say:

In this case, that girl in the mirror is a trusted and perfectly matched opponent. I know she won’t hurt me, and I won’t hurt her. She can glare at me, and throw punches my way, but she only does it in reaction to what I do to her.

Read the whole article, about getting in touch with our inner power, here: Sparring with the GIRRL in the Mirror.

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!