Category: reviving ophelia

July 22 – U

On By randysanghaIn 2016, 365 days, 365 days of gratitude, 80s, 80s music, accounting, aging, appreciation, art, aunt, babysitting, back handed gratitude, bc pavilion, beauty queens, blue collar, bonds, Bootlegger, brother-in-law, brothers, bullies, burnett, canada, charlies angels, classroom, clone club, coaches, confidence, cousins, cyberworld, dad, daughter, David Bowie, delta kappa epsilon, Disney, doctor, education, elementary school, england, entertainment, ethnicity, europe, extended family, facebook, family, females, first impressions, football, former student, fraternity, freud, friendship, Gilligan's Island, golden years, grad date, grade 12, gratitude, gratitude blog, growth, gym, happiness, high school, Hilary Duff, hockey, hockey dad, I Dream of Jeannie, iggy azalea, india, Indian, indo-canadian, inlaws, inspiration, instagram, internet, landlord, learning, librarians, life, mariah carey, McDonald's, mcnair, mental health, mentors, Miss India, Miss Universe, mothers, mulder & scully, mumee, music, neighbour, new westminster, niece, nursing, orphan black, outside comfort zone, parenting, photography, plus sized, Pokemon Go, pop culture, Prince, professors, psychology, punjabi, Quebec, queensborough, reality tv, religion, renters, reviving ophelia, Richmond, richmond high, robert bateman, robin thicke, role model, rome, sarcoidosis, schizophrenia, secretary, senior citizens, separation, service providers, sesame street, sibling, Sikh, sister, sisters-in-law, son, soul mate, speech pathologist, sports, Star wars, steveston, strangers, student, student teacher, students, Survivor, tatiana maslany, tattoos, taxes, teacher, teaching, technology, teenagers, tenants, thanks, the truth is out there, therapy, Thompson, Thompson Twins, top model, trans, true to yourself, tyra banks, Uncategorized, uncle, Universite de Laval, Universite Laval, vancitybuzz, vanessa williams, walking dead, weight loss, westwind elementary, white boys, wife, witness, women, xfilesLeave a comment

363/365 – people to thank who have had an impact on me.  Wow, only 3 more gratitude posts left including this one!!  When I started this journey a year ago, I was a little nervous as to if I would have 365 people to thank.  I didn’t want it to come down to posts such as thanking my mailman for the flyers he delivers in that they were the ones that led me on to some awesome deal!! ; )  Early on in these posts, I started hearing from friends that so and so had made “the list”.  I didn’t understand what that was until I was told that it was my “gratitude list”.  That put some pressure on me to say the least as there was now a “list”.  I didn’t want it to be a list and I didn’t want it to be some type of contest.  Then I heard that some people mentioned they were in the 80s and others were in the 200s!  I do have to make it clear that I haven’t had an order as to who I thank and thus whatever number gratitude post it was has no relation to ranking.  Most posts are the night before or a couple of days before.  Yes, I saved my dad for his birthday as I did with my children for theirs, my mom was first because well she is my mom but save for them and the final two gratitude posts, no one had a day or a number.  The list by the end of Sunday is far from complete.  I could thank another 365 people who got me to where I am today and this is what today’s gratitude post is about – to all of the people I didn’t name and there are hundreds of you that have impacted me!  So many former students, co-workers past and present, family members, inlaws, bosses, professors, fellow students, random strangers, neighbours past and present, friends, backhanded gratitudees (bullies and the like), service providers, celebrities etc, etc – just so many people who have made me who I am and to all of you un-named in this past year, you are part of this gratitude journey just because you were not personally mentioned here doesn’t mean you weren’t recognized by me.  To all the new people that will come in to my life, thanking you in advance as some of you will change and influence me in new ways.  Thank you to all of you who came along with me on this 365 day journey as well.  Your encouragement and support has gotten me to this end point.

March 19 – reviving ophelia

On By randysanghaIn 2016, 365 days, 365 days of gratitude, advice, appreciation, assistance, confidence, dad, daughter, domesticity, family, first impressions, growth, insight, learning, life, mothers, outside comfort zone, parenting, reviving ophelia, true to yourself, Uncategorized, valuesLeave a comment

238/365 – people to thank who have had an impact on me. We value physicality in girls yet mentality in boys. You may say you don’t but for most people it’s a default to focus on physical attributes when talking about their daughters (“you’re so cute” “my pretty girl” etc) and mental attributes in regards to theirs sons (“wow, that’s so clever” “you’re so smart”). Only the very enlightened of us use those latter words to describe their daughters without focusing on their physicality. I wasn’t so enlightened until I read the chapter on fathers and daughters in Mary Pipher’s “Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls” a book mainly aimed at mothers of daughters. I was the dad who told my 3 year old daughter how pretty she was and how cute she looked and rarely focused on her intelligence until I saw that she was modeling her outfits and carrying purses and looking at herself in the mirror. The chapter in the book saved me! It mentioned that however the first significant male (aka father) values the daughter is how she will value her worth especially with other males. I was devastated that I was responsible in creating this image that she had. I started consciously valuing her intellect and focusing on things that she created rather than what she looked like. When she asked me how she looked, I would throw it back on her – in essence, the onus was for her to be happy with her appearance rather than seek the approval of a male. I also consciously made comments in regards to the overly skinny, overly male-reliant, overly appearance-obsessed females in the media to get her to think in a different way of what it was to be female. I have an amazing, strong, independent daughter who focuses on her mental attributes much more than her physical attributes. If I had anything to do with it, it is all because of what I learned from Mary Pipher. I have touted the merits of this author many times over to fathers of daughters and mothers who have fathers of daughters in their lives.  She changed the way I parented and if this gratitude post has that same type of affect on other fathers, I’m so very happy for their daughters!