Tag: over 50

Posted on in Living abundantly, Living Life Large

#Busy, Tired, Stressed

busy-tired-stressedHow did this become our badge of honour?  I want to be able to say that I had a great day, a relaxing day, that I am organized and rarely feel overwhelmed. I want to say that there are enough hours in my day.  That I have time to make proper meals, time for exercise, time to meet with friends, time to read a book, time to watch a movie, a documentary or a silly sitcom.  I want to say it with pride because I actually do.  I have been able to create a simple life that most days is balanced and fulfilling.

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When I call my Mom (keep in mind that she is 96) and tell her what I have been up to, she says, ‘My you are a busy woman”.  I want to explain that yes, I have a full schedule but I am doing things I truly enjoy and I have a life that is very satisfying.  I know that she thinks being busy is very important or what I want her to say because that is what society dictates.  I know that my mother always ridiculed people who napped so I never tell her about my naps.  I love a nap…now that I am older and working much less….a delicious nap might last 2 hours….ok….2.5 hours.  Why not?  If I nap, I can stay up later and fill the time with one of my projects.

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Mom at 95

All this doesn’t mean that I don’t get busy, get tired, get stressed but when it does happen, I want to realize that this is not a state of being I admire.  I am looking at ways to continue working and by that I mean continue working past the average retirement age.  I want to work at things that bring me joy.  I want to undercover my passions.  I want to share them with others and earn my living doing just that.

I don’t think we need to wait until we are sixty to start this journey.  It seems important to excavate, explore and dig deep to find your authentic self now – today.  We all have one.  I left Canada at 48 with a plan to travel for a year.  I came home 2 years later….a radical activist and what felt like a very different person.

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I wasn’t a different person– I had just uncovered another part of me that I had missed.  It feels now like so much of all those personal discoveries are coming together – all my passions, all my interests, all my desires and yes, maybe all my dreams.

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SandraLaya Creating

peace, joy and love

 

Posted on in Home Life, Living abundantly, Uncategorized

Living Large in My Tiny Space

I do live in a tiny space and I love it.  I found this apartment 9 years ago when I moved to Toronto after 2 years of living in Haifa.  I didn’t think I would be here almost a decade later but I knew the minute I crossed the threshold that it was home.  It is just 500 square feet including the 100 square feet  of balcony.  I use that balcony in the warmer months and it was one of the non-negotiable items on my must have list – clean building, public transit, balcony, wooden floors and bathtub.

Morning coffee space
Summer bed

When I left Canada in 2004, I sold the house and most of what was in it.  My daughters took what they wanted for their first homes and I kept 3 antique pieces that I had inherited from my Grandmother, a coffee table my father had commissioned and 5 boxes of books and other treasures.  I safely stored them away in my brother’s home and travelled with 2 very large suitcases of clothing and shoes.

Handmade bench by my great grandfather
Handmade rocking chair by my great grandfather
Antique desk from Grammy’s home and mine for over 40 years

I purchased a few new pieces when I moved in – a Beddinge sofa bed from Ikea, a bookcase and a chair from Pier One and an Ikea cabinet I found on Craigslist.  The rest, I have to admit, I have found or inherited.  Yup, found, fabulous pieces set on the curb in my neighbourhood.

table find
This is a table I had many pictures of in my vision book and there it was on the street looking for me.

In my space I have created nooks – a reading nook, an office nook, a dining nook, sitting nook.  My space has a separate kitchen, a huge walk-in closet, linen closet and entrance.

Dining room
Living room

My living room converts to my bedroom with a quick flip of the sofa bed.

bed

…………and my kitchen space

I added  a baker’s rack to my kitchen and it holds extra bowls, baking pans, cast iron frying pans. I  have catered from this little space, held dinner parties for up to 10 and cooked daily for myself.

This year as I prepare to train as a Kohenet (a Jewish Priestess), I have added my altar.

altar

I love to nest wherever I land.  Do you?  How do you live in a tiny space?

 

 

Posted on in Living abundantly, Travel, Travel

Returning to Greece aka going home

Being back in Greece feels so comfortable….of course, I don’t speak Greek and of course, I still have no sense of directions….I can walk 1 km and have no idea how to get back but I don’t care……always possible to find a solution somehow.   There are so many things that are different here – the little elevators that hold a piece of luggage and 2 people maximum, turning on the hot water 20 minutes before a shower,  metal shutters over the doors and windows that always challenge me to operate.  The apartment where I have been staying in Athens has been completely renovated and the shutters work off a remote control.  Best of all I love hanging my laudry outside on the clothesline and bringing them in smelling of the hot sun.  It is a smell so delicious that I cannot stop breathing in the intoxicating fragrance.  In Toronto, I have a rack that I put out on my balcony hoping that my building manager won’t knock on the door and tell me to remove it.  It isn’t the same though.  I think there is a special scent  from the Mediterranean sun.

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My beautiful apartment in Athens, Greeece

Today I had lunch in a restaurant in Illiopoli.  I ate there once before and I remembered that the food is like home- cooked Greek fare.  Today I had Pastitsio with a half order of steamed Swiss Chard.  Pistitsia is a noodle dish cooked in a tomato meat sauce and covered in a Bechemel.

Pastitsio and greens
Pastitsio and greens

 

I am writing now on board a ginormous ferry that will take me from Pireaus to Heraklion on the island of Crete.  There I will cross the street and board a bus that will take me to Aghios Nikolas where I will catch a taxi to the Dulac Hotel. At this moment I am drinking my first Mythos beer – a cold mug of draught and it is delicious.  At least it is in Greece.  I lived at the Dulac for 5 weeks in 2011.  When they asked me what I did, I said I was very lucky to be able to do my work on the internet.  It was somewhat true.  Later when they learned what I was really doing in Crete (see previous blog), they were very supportive of our project – The Canadian Boat to Gaza – to break the illegal siege on Gaza.

 

Accommodations on board the ferry

F/B Crete II

The past 2 days I traveled 700 kilometres to the north with my wonderful friends Anna Stamou and her equally wonderful husband Naim Elghandour.   Anna is a candidate in the European Elections which are this week.  She is running for the Eco Green party.  She wears a hijab,  is a true Feminist and believes that women must be involved politically to make changes.  She is so intelligent, so caring and never stops working for change.   I know that I would not have been as successful with the preparations for the Canadian Boat to Gaza without their help.  We went to Xanthi to speak with women and men about the upcoming elections.  Xanthi has a Muslim community that has been there for centuries.  Until only recently, this Muslim minority was not able to obtain building permits to renovate their home or to build new homes.  They worked as farm labourers.  The women I met I had been educated in Turkey – sent to boarding school at 12 years of age because of the prejudice that surrounded them from the other Greek communities.  Today they are stronger and the laws have changed to allow all Greeks to own their homes and renovate them.  Today their children are educated in Xanthi and mothers and children do not have to cry at night because they are separated.  Meeting the women of Xanthi was wonderful.  We went to the center square where like all Greek communities, people of all ages gather in the evening.  One of the women is an English teacher and she speaks English very well.  She and her husband met while they were students in Turkey.  Now they have 2 adorable children – a girl 3 and a boy 1 ½. She invited us to her home that night for a late dinner and an informal conversation with several women.  Dinner was delicious- cucumber and tomato salad, lentil soup, fried potatoes, small meat patties and a traditional pastry – filo dough filled with potatoes and rice.

new friends in Xanthi  The wonderful women of Xanthi.

The trip was long traveling 7 hours each day but it was such a rewarding experience.  I got to spend some quality time with my friends Anna and Naim and I have made some wonderful new friends in Xanthi.

setting up the booth in northern Greece for the Anna Stamou, Eco Green party.  European Elections in Greece are May 25, 2014

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Posted on in Activist, Living abundantly

Story of commitment, a boat, justice and peace

Ten years ago, I planned a 1 year sabbatical to travel as a volunteer to 4 different countries.  The first stop was Palestine and it was there that everything changed.  I chose to stay for 2 years and become part of the struggle for a just peace for Palestine.  It was very important to me as a Jewish woman.  If you are interested in this story go to my blog at Sandra for Just Peace and read the archived blogs listed from January to June 2006. They tell the story from December 2004 – June 2006.  http://miriamswell1.wordpress.com/  I refer to this time as unpeeling the onion as I discover the atrocities inflicted on the Palestinian people.

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Naomi O’Hara and me, Women in Black, Haifa 2004

I have been very fortunate to have traveled to many destinations but most of that travel was through work – as an activist and also back when I was a travel agent and travel instructor.  I travelled on fam (familiarization) trips with groups of agents and also as a Tour Escort.  When my daughters were growing up, our holidays usually were car trips to the east coast (New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island) or to Clearwater, Florida.  We did spend a summer in Oslo, Norway selling t shirts, costume jewellery and African crafts but that is a whole story in itself. Later I travelled as a peace activist.  This 3 week holiday is just that – a holiday- to visit an area I have fantasized about and to open a new chapter in my Life Story. Ten years later, I am still passionate to see this Just Peace become reality but it time for me to change how I am walking in the world.  I am rebirthing my business as a healer and teacher, “Miriamswell Healing Care” in Toronto.  I am a Reflexologist and a Doula who uses a variety of  healing modalities in my practice.  I facilitate workshops in foot massage, aromatherapy, homemade beauty products, homemade cleaning products, vision books, meditation and more.

Imagehttp://miriamswellhealingcare.com/

I came to Greece in March, 2011 for the Canadian Boat to Gaza.

The steering committee realized the only way to complete our project was to have someone on the ground in Greece.  They sent me to buy a boat.  The boat needed to be refurbished to take 45 activists from Aghios Nicholas, Crete to Gaza, Palestine.   I hired a captain and a crew. I hired a lawyer who we could trust.  Together he helped to open a company and a bank account. We chose a country to flag the boat.  We purchased insurance.  I found help to plan a menu for 45 people for 10 days and then purchased the food.  I also purchased $30,000 in medicines to take to Gaza.  Everyday involved a huge learning curve.  I was away from home for 5 months.  When the Greek government locked down our boat refusing to let us leave the port, we decided to stage an escape in protest.  The Greek coast guards captured our boat after about 20 minutes.  Everyone on board in a great Spartacus moment claimed to be the captain.

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Awesome international Tahrir team of Canadians, Australians, Danish and Belgium with our Greek crew

The Greeks were reluctant to arrest 35 foreigners so they arrested me instead since I was the registered owner of the boat.  I was arrested with two others, convicted and given a 30 day suspended sentence.

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Released from detention and overwhelmed from the support of my friends, Aghios Nicholas, Crete, July, 2011

Eventually the other activists left and I stayed another month in Aghios Nicholas living on our boat “The Tahrir”. Finally we had permission to leave and I sailed with the captain and 2 crew members to Turkey.  I even got to drive the boat for an hour or so, on my own.

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Me on the Tahrir, July 2011

Now I am back in Greece and this time I am a tourist.  I am here to see Greece without an agenda.  Greece holds many memories. I made lifelong friendships.  I am here to remember and I am here to appreciate this wonderful country.

Posted on in Living abundantly, Travel, Travel

More Provence, My birthday

My 58th birthday and I am just where I want to be –physically (in Provence with friends), mentally and emotionally.  Ahhhhh………..so Blessed. I always enjoy living in community.  This week I am doing just that.  We are 4 women  in this magnificent villa.  We range in age from 58 to 80.  We have a lot in common – radical crazy- ass activists, independent, self supporting, mothers, travellers, passionate about all we do.  Greta is the perfect host -so generous of her time, her home and her spirit. The days seem to flow organically with everyone moving at their own pace. Yesterday Greta drove me to Gourdon –a breathtaking village set high up in the mountain.  It has little touristy shops and a few lovely cafes.  I bought  jasmine eau du toilette –an  intoxicating fragrance that I love and always reminds me of the Mediterranean.

view from Gourdon
view from Gourdon

2014-05-12 14.20.03 Earlier in the morning we went to a nearby Farmer’s Market.  We bought fresh fruit, vegetables, sausage, bread and cheese.  I am shopping for the perfect market basket – serious business that will probably take me the whole visit to find!

Shopping in the farmer's market
Shopping in the farmer’s market
Perfect market basket
Seeking the perfect market basket

Today we had a beautiful birthday breakfast with Greta’s famous Swedish scrambled eggs ( a recipe from her Grandmother), crusty baguette, and delicious melons with banana slices. Of course, the usual pots of coffee and glasses of juice.  The table was covered with a very traditional Provencal print with matching cloth napkins in the outdoor dining area where we seem to spend a lot of our time.

Villa dining area and master bedroom balcony
Villa dining area and master bedroom balcony

My friends – Greta, Audrey and Mary gifted me with a huge bottle of pure lavender essential oil that I will have great fun when I get home making bath salts and bath bombs, eau du toilette and other cosmetics, room fresheners and cleaning products.   I will scent my  homemade beeswax candles and look through my book that my daughers, Raya and Tovah, gave me for my birthday more than 10 years ago “Lavender and Lovage” for more ideas.  At midday we drove to Juan les Pins – a sea resort where I swam in the Mediterranean Sea for the first time in 3 years.  The water was cool but not for a Canadian from the east coast…..pure bliss!!!  Cold beer in a cafe outside under the bright spring sun………………can you feel my JOY?

Posted on in Living abundantly, Travel, Travel

On my way to Provence

I chose to start this blog at a time when I am turning a new page in my life story.  It is time for that change and I am calling this holiday to Europe the first chapter, the first page of my new life story.

There are so many things that I love and that bring me pleasure and those are the things that I want to write about and that I wish to share. For me it is important to embrace things I love, acknowledge them and share them.  I love to travel, I love great food, I love my daughters and my grandson, I love new adventures and I love to embrace life!

Provence isn’t just a destination for me – it is a place that I have fantasized about, dreamed of, read books about, watched films about and always knew that one day I would visit.  I never doubted it but I wasn’t sure how I would manifest it. When Greta invited me last year, I knew it was closer to my reality.

Provence – the lush gardens, mountains, forests and water.  Provence – farmer’s markets with delicious foods – baguettes, cheeses, sausages and delicious melons and other fruits and vegetables.  Provence – villages playing Boule, friendly shop keepers, unforgettable dining experiences, meals a la fresco.  I have come here to find it all.  I want to feel, touch and taste every experience.

I flew overnight from Toronto and arrived at 7a.m. in Paris.  A few hours later, I boarded a train to Antibes in the south of France.  The trip took about seven hours.  I could have flown to Nice but I wanted to experience that train ride across the country.  I really enjoyed it watching the French countryside pass by and the scenery changing.

When my daughters were young, they had a story book called “ Orlando and His Little Friends”.  Orlando went on holiday with his parents and he met new friends along the way – his little while friends.  My girls have teased me for years about being Orlando because I love to talk to people and make my own “little while friends”.  Checking in at the airport, I met a woman and we started up a conversation in the line.  We found we had things in common and we were both on our way to Paris.  We decided to give the special Air Transat lounge a try.  The airline had a special on and the lounge was $36 for 2 hours.  It included alcohol, a buffet meal and a quiet calm atmosphere.  It felt like traveling first class and was a great start to the holiday.  I  traveled to the airport by TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) – I recommend it because it is cheap and easy – subway to Kipling and then the express bus to the airport all for a $3 ticket.

I am visiting my friend Greta Berlin who owns this magnificent villa in the south of France.  It is so beautiful – 3 large bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a gourmet kitchen, large living and dining room and a view that catches your breath every time you look.

View from my bedroom window
View from my bedroom window
The patio off the gourmet kitchen
The patio off the gourmet kitchen

 

Posted on in Living abundantly, Who am I

Sixty in the City

For 3 decades SandraLaya Ruch has been inspiring women to live their lives to the fullest. She is a firm believer that anything is possible and each of us must dare to dream. She encourages women not be held hostage to our victim story but to use our survival as a reminder of our strength and possibilities.
Ruch, began her global activism for the rights of women and children as a young woman. For almost 10 years, Sandra played a prominent role at Canada’s only national Feminist peace organization in Canada, the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace (VOW). As a committed peace activist, she lived and managed numerous initiatives in conflict areas working with International Feminist organizations. As a result of her human rights advocacy, Ruch has been arrested and detained several times both abroad and in Canada. Her speaking is a journey about conflict, crisis and commitment to living a meaningful, substantial and significant lifestyle.
From her extensive women empowerment experience and expertise, Ruch provides timely insight for women and how they can begin to see and manage conflict differently. She is a sought-after speaker on strategies for social justice and empowering women to come into their voice.
SandraLaya Ruch is the founder, and CEO of Sixty in the City which helps empower women to live meaningful lives. Ruch views conflict and crises as pivotal moments in our lives that can deepen our significance or destroy it. Ruch sees extensive conflict for women at work where levels of anxiety are heightening, not lessening. Often anxiety stems from women’s desire to have life work balance. Given the fact that most today’s organizations continue to advance and promote employees who work more hours and carry more stress, women face enormous conflict. The manifestation of this is detrimental to women employees and their respective employers. With Ruch’s 30 year women empowerment background, she provides organizations with a customized speaking programs, aimed to equip women with a completely new perspective on conflict, how to embrace it and to enjoy it.
Both a Mother and Grandmother, SandraLaya raised her daughters independently facing many of the struggles familiar to single parents. She is no stranger to domestic violence and the dangers that women experience in a patriarchal society.
“We must look for the opportunities waiting for us”. SandraLaya Ruch

Sixty in the City

sixtyinthecityblog.com