Photo credit: by Antenna on Unsplash

I’ve been doing a series of video interviews for an event called Gather that I’m hosting—all about brave, honest conversations. In reflecting on what people are telling me when I ask them about brave, honest conversations I’m struck that at our core we are all seeking connection. That is why we come together—in friendships, families, community. To be connected.

Its easy to get lost in our busy lives and our...

#braveaf hashtag we created to draw attention to upcoming events we are hosting at bravelylead.com

I’m sitting at home alone on a Friday night drinking a glass of wine, watching romantic comedies, writing in my journal and nursing a massively huge vulnerability hangover. Massive.

My husband is away skiing in Japan, the child who lives at home is out tonight and I’m coming down from weeks of putting myself out into the world in open, risky and vulnerable ways. I’m feeling the...

Photo credit: Matteo Paganelli on Unsplash

I’ve led a number of really brave, honest conversations lately, where the space between people was laden with emotion, judgment, assumption and power imbalances. Being able to stay with the conversation, take people into it together and bring them back out again has taken all my skill, experience and leadership. And yet, in one situation I have no idea if I did things “right” or if I contributed to a status quo that is unsustainable...

This blog could really be titled how the circus came to town and I got totally lost in the chaos.

We moved this summer after living in the same house where we raised our family for 16 years. Like most moves, things didn’t go the way I planned. The chaos of the move spilled out into all aspects of my life.

I will be honest—I had PLANS, big ones. Plans about how things would go, how fast progress would happen, when all the tradespeople would be done in the new house, when the...

Photo credit: Austin Chan, Unsplash

There are a lot of elections coming up and a lot of leaders out there asking for your support. In some situations every single vote will make a difference as candidates put forward vastly different platforms and look for you to be on their side.

It’s the sides that trouble me. Politics is often presented as a conversation between winners and losers, those who are for and those who are against a particular issue. No one wins in the long run...

The setting for two weeks in the Canadian wilderness.

I turned 50 two weeks ago. I’ve never been someone who had challenges with birthdays; more often I’ve seen them as opportunities to reflect, be grateful and celebrate. Fifty has felt totally different—big, heavy, expectant; asking me what I am doing with this one short, precious life.

In anticipation of my fiftieth year, I wrote a blog about the things I was going to do over the course of the year—#3 on...

Me, wearing my super hero cape, stepping into my super powers that allow me to have brave, honest conversations.

No one is born knowing how to brave, honest conversations about issues that really matter. This isn’t a skill anyone comes out of the womb with, and being in a particular position or role doesn’t mean you’ve figured out how to talk about the tough stuff. It takes a combination of skills, knowledge, attitude and behaviour to be able to really have brave, honest...

A circle of chairs waiting for the conversation to begin.

I recently spent a week of afternoons at our local elementary school running a series of workshops about Brave, Honest Conversations with a group of grade 7’s and 8’s. These kids are 12 and 13 years old.

I asked them how they feel about tough conversations, and what would be a hard thing for them to talk about, and who they would talk to about it. I asked them how they needed to act, behave and think in order to be in a...

This isn’t a profound blog about finding meaning and beauty in death. Because the process doesn’t always work out that way.

All living things die. But the dying isn’t always beautiful, peaceful or gentle. It can be a struggle for the dying and those trying to support them. It can be a fight for dignity, the right to choose, a struggle to make hard choices in difficult situations.

My mother-in-law died today.

I’m equal parts sad about the loss of her fierce spirit in...

A picture I took of a protestor (with his permission) who set up camp outside the B.C. legislature week after week to protest tax changes.

It used to be that when we brought people together to talk about tough issues we had the idea we’d done it well if people were happy, agreed and thought our processes were good. Those days are long gone.

It used to be that we applied all our skills and knowledge to resolve conflict, eliminate outrage and earn people’s trust. Those are...