Where to begin?
I had the greatest difficulty to decide which part of my Vancouver visit to write on first! So I will cover a bit of everything and then break it down bit by bit, later on.
Many, many high points; indeed the low points fail me now. The dominant theme of this trip seemed to be consciousness of humanity. I am more hopeful than ever, now, that we are coming into our potential and will see the evidences of this manifested in contributive ways.
My hosts, both from Canada, did their country proud. I had such a welcome into Canada! At the very least, the service in Vancouver was very courteous and hospitable as a general rule. I enjoyed downtown Vancouver which isn't very different from most metropolises, except that it is very, very clean and you can sense the 'green' energies and efforts ongoing. The city is rated one the greenest, if not the greenest, in the world.
Beautiful VCR
The weather was fantastic the entire week. Bright and sunny and no rain that I can remember. Chilly temperatures from time to time but I expected that. It didn't at all take away from the atmosphere. The IAF Conference I participated in as a workshop leader was educational and it opened my eyes to the state of the art in my field of facilitation, especially where it relates to its application to Diversity. My enrichment came from people who were proposing inclusive practices and delving deeper towards self knowledge and vision fulfillment such as Shoshonna Cogan and Nanci Luna Jimenez, both of whom I had also met last year at the European Conference in the Netherlands. Meeting with other Barbadian colleagues there was also really enjoyable especially dancing together to the calypso band on the second last evening!
Then began my official tourist activities with the visit to Victoria by ferry via Grenville Island, along with my host Peter Brown[humanwave.gaia.com]. What a beautiful island! Victoria is the capital of the province so the Parliament buildings are located there.
Sunny Victoria BC
A much deeper immersion in Humanwave and its philosophies and actions over the years helped with the enrichment of this time. It is so encouraging to see how many others greatly desire a conscious consideration of humanity in modern life and will be willing to 'stick their neck out' to see the change they envision occurring, however small!
Then onto Mayne Island to see and 'work' with my beautiful, vivacious and fully living hostess Ms. Terrill Welch, [terrill.gaia.com] a Woman Behind Women! This was surprisingly one of the most comfortable work activities I have ever participated in as somehow both Terrill and I took quite a risk and decided to co-facilitate a pretty significant workshop, having never even met in person until the day before the activity! Neither of us is of the nature to co-facilitate because of the specific nature of our content and our methodologies, but somehow we both knew it was worth the try. And most definitely it was a good decision to do this! Participant feedback was excellent, which makes the difference in facilitation and we are looking forward to doing this again as soon as it is feasible. Terrill's book 'Leading Raspberry Jam Visions: Women's Way ' targeted at Women Leaders has been serving me very well for many months and I endorse it unhesitatingly for both female and male readers that wish to learn more about thoughtfully rounded human leadership.
Another beautiful island although far more rustic than Victoria, I had the opportunity in Mayne Island to go hiking, to hear the peacocks, frogs, sheep from the below farm and birds do their thing while they lived contentedly among the humans and to witness deer strolling around also unconcerned. Like I said, this was no usual business trip! I enjoyed not feeling the need to dress 'business-like' to do my job and to have the sense that there was no requirement except to show up and zero in and to perform.
Mayne Island arrival
A significant high point for me was meeting up with someone I would consider a hero to me and that is Patricia Fitzgerald, a grandmother on Mayne Island who has willingly taken the responsibility of raising two young and challenging children in the interest of their future wellbeing despite her advanced age. A true, true lady, I felt honoured to even be in her presence, to hear how enthusiastic she is for the future, to hear of her 'net savvy' and excitement for the Obamas and indeed for the upcoming, more conscious generation. Again, a real inspiration! Patricia continues to be very active in the community, helping the homeless along with other senior citizens, all while raising two young children in really challenging circumstances. I continue to applaud Patricia for her dedication.
Patricia Sherrilene
My visit concluded with a meeting day in Vancouver with one new person and one dear friend from GAIA. The new person was Louise Uwacu [http://web.me.com/louiseuwacu ] who was just a picture in contradictions but absolutely refreshing! Louise is a Positivity Activist – therefore a sister of mine! - who hails from Canada via Europe, via Africa. Her eyes are fully open and so is her heart and she shares this positivity with the world in every way she can. I was so pleased to have the opportunity to meet Louise in person while she works on marketing her book 'The Nightmare of a Positivision', which I am eagerly diving into at present. Do, please, consider buying a copy.
Louise Terrill Sherri
And last but not least was my meeting with Mila [armila.gaia.com], proper name Armila Shakya, a friend that I have 'known' for maybe a year or so but couldn't even imagine when we would have the privilege to meet in person since she was based in Nepal and me in the Caribbean. Thanks to an incredible alignment of the stars, my first visit to Canada coincided with Mila's relocation there as well, and to the very same city I would be visiting. This was definitely a very high point and auspicious occasion for us all!
Terrill, Mila and I discussed so many topics which crossed culture, which spoke to motivation and human intent to help bring some relative equality to the world as we know it, to improve and rationalise education, to make it possible for developing countries to actually develop and to compete in the real world. We were all concerned about Mila's own social enterprise Phelge Nepal [http://www.phelgenepal.com.np/], employing people in Nepal, and explored how to ensure consistency of employment for the workers there at a time when the greatest concern worldwide is cutting costs... We continue to think on this...
Mila Sherri Terrill
My immersion in what would otherwise have been a pretty routine visit to a new country was certainly enhanced by the depth of conversations we were able [and willing] to have around basic human issues which we all felt were approachable with sufficient desire: to reduce suffering in the first instance and to move us to satisfaction in the second.
Canada was good to me. I hope now I can bring this energetic goodness and place it further into my work.
With sincere gratitude and appreciation.
Sherrilene
Sherrilene M. Collymore
The Human Quality Headquarters
Help
Sign In
QaR
July 2009 
Sherrilene
Access: Public
