Banff

Happy March 1st....spring is on the way!!
Last week I went to a conference hosted by LIVN, Life is Valued Network, in Banff. Here's some pics of that experience...

This picture was taken on my drive to Banff, the sun was setting over the mountains and the view was breathtaking!

I had an opportunity to walk through Banff the evening of the first day of the conference. The sun was shining, there was snow in the community but not very much and it was warm. Such a glorious day for a walk, here's what I saw...

In Banff there are a lot of international visitors. While I was there I heard many different languages. The people are very friendly. I received smiles, nods of hello and some people stopped to briefly chat. One woman stopped us to say that the local art shop was a beautiful place to see. We went in to check it out and it was terrific. I couldn't afford any of the art pieces but there was great to look at. Expression through art is a powerful tool.

As we were walking, we found a store called "Rocks and Gems Canada". They had a wonderful selection of stones from the area. Stones are one of my favorite things to use and wear, I like worry stones, stone rings, I use rocks in the talking circles I lead and I use them to help me when I feel anxious, particularly when I have to give a speech that I am feeling anxiety about. They help to ground me and with a prayer, I feel connected.

We had a fabulous supper, chicken and rice, as well as entertainment with Don Burnstick. If you haven't had the opportunity to hear Don speak, please take advantage if you find out he is performing in your area.
Don speaks about his life, his issues and how he made his way through difficult times. He uses aboriginal cultural tools to speak about lessons learned.
This one part of his presentation speaks to the seven steps of ages we go through starting at birth, and in particular being a youth. He talks about youth being affected by SAD (Sex, alcohol and drugs) Powerful influences that affect how we see ourselves and others.
One of the gifts of the presentation were his thoughts about what we need to work through on our journey towards healing. He talked about working on ourselves through PRAYER, SHARING, CRYING and LAUGHTER.

This is one of the presentations I sat in on. One of my concerns has always been about how we address community based suicide prevention strategies, particularly in Aboriginal communities. I was glad to see that some work was being done in this area. This particular session was delivered by Dave Mascar, who has worked in Suicide Prevention for many years. I look forward to seeing more of his work in this area.

These last two pictures are from my drive back to Edmonton. I decide to go the long way north to Jasper but turning towards Rocky Mountain House. On the road were these Big Horn Sheep. 
They stopped to look at me and slowly moved on their way. They looked so majestic. Very nice and always a pleasure to see our four legged brothers and sisters in my travels.

Hiy Hiy, thank you Creator for the gift of this meeting!