The Dam recently published a newsletter for Spring 2013 focusing specifically on mentoring. I was asked to write a piece for the cover which I thought I would share here as well.

Hope you enjoy!

My mind went directly to my friend Lee and her family who I knew were in Boston so that Lee could participate in the Marathon. Lee had been an important mentor to me when I was a teen, one of the adults who treated me with respect and like an equal... that's so important.

When I finally had an opportunity to text, I first went to Facebook and saw what I was looking for; at the top of my news feed was a post from Israel, Lee's daughter, informing everyone that they were all okay.

We came back inside after getting high together and sat across from each other at the table. Everything was hilarious; we laughed way more than we should have. We kept meeting eyes and laughing all the more... but there was more to the look; we were sharing something together... nobody else at that moment was sharing what we were sharing.

It was a pretty normal night hanging out at 'The Curb' as it was known in Heart Lake. The parking lot area behind Canadian Tire in the Heart Lake Town Centre was home to the skateboard culture of Heart Lake throughout my years of high school during the warmer months. It was affectionately known as "The Curb" because of the long curb that we spent time waxing, the skaters spent time grinding and the onlookers spent time sitting on.

This video by Shane Koyczan is not new but I just saw it for the first time due to a Facebook link. Give it a watch.

The Coldest Night of the Year is an annual walk that started in 2011 in support of the homeless, hungry and hurting. Now in it's third year, this walk generates hundreds of thousands of dollars for organizations across Canada who are on the frontlines of working with those who are pushed to the margins of our communities.

One of my amazing sisters sent me the following clip. She knows me well because I was drawn right into the powerful and passionate words of a man I admire greatly, Dr. Cornell West. In the clip he talks about why it angers him that President Obama had plans to (and since has) swear his presidential oath at his inauguration on the Bible of Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which was this past Monday (and should be a holiday North of the border as well to honour this great man). Take a look.