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Chantal Wiebe

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the strength of sue klebold by chantalw Wiebe

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latest fieldnotes

on fresh starts

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Every year, he remembers two anniversaries - our m

Every year, he remembers two anniversaries - our marriage and the day he asked me out. While I only remember our wedding date, he reminds me every January to the day that we started dating and that was 20 years ago now! I can hardly grasp that number. Twenty. Years. We have clung together through poor student living, difficult pregnancy and post-partum, and many other common challenges. But we have also chosen each other over everything else, and the way we protect that commitment has made all the difference. Love is not blind - it’s all seeing and offered anyway. Cheers to all the decades yet to arrive.✨

Don’t worry. Its okay to be secretly happy that

Don’t worry. Its okay to be secretly happy that it’s been all clouds all week for us! 🌴 #wiebetravels

When the body says no. I didn’t realize how busy

When the body says no. I didn’t realize how busy I’d been until we landed and crawled into bed: I could hardly get out of it all day. A nap by the pool. Then in bed again for the afternoon. Fatigue. Exhaustion. Vicarious trauma. Call it what you will. I can hardly keep my eyes open and I am not doing much of anything but I’m going to treat my body like my best friend and give her the rest she’s searching for. #wiebetravels

See ya later Winnipeg! We’re trading your parkin

See ya later Winnipeg! We’re trading your parking lot snow hills for sun and heat! #wiebetravels

Listen. From my rural Manitoba motel room, I told

Listen.

From my rural Manitoba motel room, I told him about all the lows and how much I cried on the road today. We can’t deliver on more than a thousand referrals and that’s just the ones we know about - more requests continue to come in.

But having a difficult time only reveals how difficult the work is, not how weak I am.
He listened. He encouraged. He also challenged my thinking as a best friend would. Whatever crowns I miss out on because of this invisible work, the lesson value alone is immeasurable.

So my reflection to you today is to take your heart out of your head and put it back in your chest. Let it pump in peace. And listen to that rhythm instead. ❤️⭕️❤️

I lost two plants this winter; both because they p

I lost two plants this winter; both because they preferred moisture and due to my travel schedule, I wasn’t checking them as regularly. I am trying to revive both of them but so far no progress. 😭 This snake plant, however, after months and months of rooting with no sign of propagation just popped a little baby! 🌱Learning the art of plants has been a process of patience and let’s be real, healing. Trusting the process and hoping in the unseen, that has been worth cultivating! 🌟 I know you think you can’t grow plants, but I promise, you can learn. And I promise it will change you. ❣️#wiebeplants

Last night I dreamt that I was late for a job - pi

Last night I dreamt that I was late for a job - picking up people for a meeting - from the home my grandparents lived in when I was a child. As I craned my neck, out of habit, to ensure the garage door was closed, I saw the silhouette of my grandfather standing still, looking in my direction. My gut told me to turn around, to go talk to him. Because of the rush I was in, I didn’t turn back. I told myself I’d get come back later. Because I didn’t want to disappoint or fail my obligations, I missed a really important conversation.
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The thing is, my grandfather died suddenly when I was 18. I don’t remember my last ‘hi’ to him and he’s never appeared in a dream.
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Within half the day after waking up with this on my mind, I learned from finally opening my work emails that beloved Elder, Don Robertson, had gone to the other side a few days earlier. I hadn’t known but my spirit must have. My heart dropped for the second time today.
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I captured this moment, when we honoured all our leadership team, and especially him, at our staff meeting 10 days before his passing. I sat with him at lunch and asked about his first job labouring for the Hudson’s Bay Company, teaching the Scots basic Cree, and how he came to be a minister in southern Manitoba.
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The day after this was taken, I’m honoured to have met with him and our leadership to have his vision for the direction of school psychology for First Nations students. He affirmed the importance of the work, and it was my last ‘hi’ to him.
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The privileges of my position with @mfnerc, to learn and listen, and to have Elders, continues to utterly floor me. With humility, I am deeply saddened for the loss to his family @davidrobertsonwriter and First Nations education. His light has gone on, but thankfully he had already been giving it away, one spark at a time, to all who sat with him.
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Ekosi. And ekosani. #servingmfnerc.

In the next week or more, every business and influ

In the next week or more, every business and influencer will broker promises in exchange for your money.
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Whatever you decide, don’t believe the hustle.
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See, this woman? She’s looking for herself too. But what she finds in her reflection, in her living and being, is that courage is and has always been part of her. She is already strong. The Bear teaching is courage, after all. .
Whatever you decide, don’t believe the hustle.
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Go ahead, establish a charity this year. Read 100 books. Work your network. Organize a blood drive. Design a clothing line, resell vintage housewares, or go back to school. Quit your job. Hire your first employee. Buy a barre gym membership and start bicycling to work. Take a class on writing a book proposal. Step out of line.
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But whatever you decide, don’t believe the hustle.
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Remember, Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy, with individual self-actualization at the apex? He actually developed this theory from the Blackfoot First Nation in 1930s Alberta, whom he lived with for a time. They, however, use self-actualization as the foundation for community actualization and ultimately, cultural perpetuity. That is, a person’s gifts and knowledge is for the good of group. One’s best is shared at personal cost, not hoarded for personal profit. It wasn’t until later that Maslow added transcendence to the top of his pyramid, but it was too late - all we know is individual gain.
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Whatever you decide, check if your motivation is recognition, status, or profit, over people. Would you still do it without any of those things coming true? Would you dare to look at your reflection as a non-instagramable self? .
#dontbelievethehustle (Painting: @sinclair.mindy)

The tree is almost as wide as it is tall and, alon

The tree is almost as wide as it is tall and, along with 800 lights, it has every one of our decorations. ✨

That means it has my grandfather’s favourite lantern ornament, some vintage wooden angels from my husband’s Oma, our boys’ choice of Winnipeg Jets ornaments (thank goodness they are black!), and years of post-Christmas sale decorations, including some from our very first Christmas together, some 16 years ago. 🥰

There’s toddler crafted popsicle stick mangers (serving the most essential role of side placement) and two Baby’s First Christmas hallmarks, which I thought were so important that I bought the only one left at the store even though it was pink - online shopping a decade ago was not what it is today and who has the courage to go to TWO stores with kids in tow?? 🏃🏼‍♂️🏃🏼‍♂️ Setting the tree is a big tradition for us and we have almost 10 Christmas-tagged storage bins. We love Christmas. ❤️ But we love it solely because we love Jesus. He arrived in humility and turned power on its head; he held nothing up more than the orphaned and the poor; he loved people so much he risked his life for them. 🌟

THAT is why we live how we live and though I am still learning to love (and forgive) like Him, it is the preparation of my heart, of making room, of putting individual gain aside, that gives me the most pressing gift of all.☝🏼 #seentodayirl

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