Author: Bambi

Yesterday night, Bambi had to stop preparing this post to deal with an urgent matter (MANY thanks again, Diana ❤️! A thank you to Louis too ❤️!). Well, this unfortunately scary yet common encounter made Bambi think even more about this post’s topic.

Specifically, she thought about questions like the following: when does giving up on some dreams, or even fears, is the wisest way for us in dealing with acute or chronic stress and in learning new ways of coping? When, and how, do we live with life’s bigger risks? Or when should we aim to get ourselves out of an uncomfortable or potentially dangerous situation? In other terms, when is it wise to completely avoid a risky situation and when is it better for us to keep taking calculated risks (in line with our values, personality, circumstances, impact on loved ones, etc.)?

Bambi has many personal examples, related to the above, from big dreams to smaller ones, from little risks to bigger ones, from irrational to legitimate fears (or both at once), yielding different decisions, depending on her different life’s stages, or on the presence or absence of transitions or crises, etc. She will spare you her personal examples because she is convinced you also have your own stories to think about, if you wish, with regard to the questions she raised.

The above being said, Bambi was writing the following first paragraph (bold text) in the middle of the night when encountered her highly stressful situation. Remember, we have a personal relationship with stress. We are not triggered or afraid or upset by the same stressors. Of course, even the same major stressors (e.g., wars, natural disasters like fires or earthquakes, pandemics, etc.) do not affect us in the same way because we are simply unique, each one of us, in our perceptions, coping strategies, physical and mental vulnerabilities. There is also variability in our support systems or access to the needed resources, etc.

Following the first paragraph, you can read the rest of the post, which was completed today, after a good night of sleep : ). Of course, there is nothing like sleep to help us recover from stress, acute yet strong or more chronic. Who knows? Maybe Bambi’s thoughts remained the same, but the little yet scary story she went through, along with the care of her friend and spouse made Bambi more convinced of the underlying idea shared below.

In a few hours, it will be Sunday August 18, which is a day, declared by someone called “Mr. Give Up” as being the “Never Give Up Day” (https://shorturl.at/x4a0c). Of course, it is great to teach ourselves and encourage others to be motivated in pursuing meaningful goals. Bravo! Bambi’s problem is surely not with this concept as she believes in personal agency, creativity, and hard work in achieving life goals. Her problem is specifically with the word “Never”. This post serves to explain why to the best of her capacity. You may or may not agree.

Yes, she will repeat it again: likely like you too, Bambi believes in personal agency in searching for/finding what is meaningful for us, in embracing our commitments, directions, and/or goals. Of course, she values inner (or intrinsic) motivation and hard work. However, sometimes in life, we face challenges with which we may decide, when the timing is optimal, to give up to allow ourselves the freedom to take other challenges or to make different, perhaps more suitable or meaningful, dreams come true.

Indeed, as per the wise words of Dr. Hans Selye, captured in the “vintage” brief video, shared below, that she loves to share with her students when they learn about stress: He began with his famous quote that “Stress is the salt of life“… and he ended the interview with the idea that “Sometimes in life, we have have to know when to give up“. Of note, his inspiring comments start at 1.54/2.58 minute of the YouTube recording, precisely after the journalist asked him about his own attitude about stress.

To what extent do you agree with Dr. Selye’s self-flexibility in the attitude toward stress? Or do you tend to be someone who might be resistant to allowing yourself to go through what this late yet GREAT, Hungarian-born Canadian, endocrinologist and scientist was talking about? If so, does this make you genuinely happy when you stop to think about it? Or, are you someone who would be more easily open to self-growth (whatever this means to you)? Mind you, sometimes self-change may be part of an adjustment journey during or following crises, illnesses, and other personal challenges, including grief.

Whatever your answer(s) to yourselves, while reading this post (if any), may you have peace of mind. May you be happy, whatever happiness means to you. Remember to be a good friend to yourself, at all times… and especially when coping with “your” stress.

Bambi woke up this morning to a blood-curdling article in L’Orient Le Jour, showing a propaganda video of Hezbollah’s tunnels (https://shorturl.at/qxCfA), which is entitled in English “‘The size of a city’: Hezbollah releases most explicit footage of tunnel network” (https://shorturl.at/5BJGk).

After watching the shocking video, she could not help not to wonder why don’t members of this organization use their brains to build a much needed subway station in their small yet dense country? When she read the readers’ comments in the original French article, she noticed that a couple of them also had a similar thought.

Regardless of this apparently sarcastic yet sad thought, assuming that the Hezbollah tunnel network would be located in South Lebanon, and maybe partly south of the Litani river, didn’t the UNIFL see this coming, that is during its construction that must have taken a long time? Furthermore, even if the answer is not hard to guess, who funded this tunnel network? Bambi is asking the latter since Lebanon is sadly an Iranian colony (via the Hezbollah, that is by proxy).

As a reminder, the UNIFL is the “United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon”, which Bambi has thanked on this blog more than once. From its original web page, one can read the following about its mission: “Monitoring cessation of hostilities and helping ensure humanitarian access to civilian population. Originally, UNIFIL was created by the Security Council in March 1978 to confirm Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, restore international peace and security and assist the Lebanese Government in restoring its effective authority in the area. The mandate had to be adjusted twice, due to the developments in 1982 and 2000. Following the July/August 2006 crisis, the Council enhanced the Force and decided that in addition to the original mandate, it would, among other things, monitor the cessation of hostilities; accompany and support the Lebanese armed forces as they deploy throughout the south of Lebanon; and extend its assistance to help ensure humanitarian access to civilian populations and the voluntary and safe return of displaced persons” (https://shorturl.at/tyut4).

All this being said, enough of wars, please. Enough of suffering for the innocent people. Enough of tunnels, drones, missiles, and airplanes. Time to build bridges of diplomacy and prosperity instead… and why not a metro system, for real, at the same time?

Did you know that today has been declared, by God knows whom, Tell a Joke Day as well as National Roller Coaster Day (https://shorturl.at/hIkjB)?

Bearing the above in mind, how about forgetting the world’s troubles for a few seconds with Rudy. Yes, the talented Mr. Rudy Ayoub who is acting, in a short video related to roller coasters (likely a coincidence), along with his highly narcissistic dad and Tyler. As usual, all characters are played by Rudy himself.

This being said, if you happen to have a joke you would like to share with Bambi either on this blog or, more privately if you prefer, she would love to hear it. Please, make no mistake: she enjoys jokes not only today, but everyday!

This post is simply meant to share 16 pictures and 2 videos that Bambi took at the Sackville Waterfowl Park a couple of days ago. We are truly blessed to have such a peaceful yet animated piece of heaven in the middle of our small town.

For those who do not know the Maritime Provinces in general and Sackville (Tantramar now) in particular, “this award-winning 55-acre park, which is minutes from the highway and a short walk from downtown, features: 3.5 kilometres of accessible trails and boardwalks, including a section of the Trans-Canada Trail, 160 bird species (including 26 confirmed breeding species), and 200 species of plants” (https://shorturl.at/nFKMZ).

Of course, as usual, the post will end with songs. With or without music, currently embracing nature or not, may you all have a safe and a nice day or evening (depending on your time zone). This being said, if times are tough on you, remember that you can teach yourself to nurture patience and build your resilience while hoping for a better tomorrow.

To begin with, Bambi is both proud of and grateful to Ms. Zeina Farah for having shared with her a moving Byzantine chant for Saint Mary in Arabic ❤️.

May Mary protect the gifted Zeina as well as her birth country and loved ones. Well, the latter wish seems biased, or rather selfish, because Zeina happens to be first Bambi’s cousin once removed :).

Happy Feast of Assumption of the Virgin Mary to this blog’s readers who love Jesus’ mother.

As far as Bambi is concerned, she is thinking of her late mom now who used to sometimes call Saint Mary “Im el Nour”, which means “Mother of the Light” in Arabic. She is also thinking of her dad who is honouring Mary in his prayers. May she protect him et al.

May the hope and beauty of lights always shine to: (1) enlighten the darkness in our troubled world and (2) the one that may reside within ourselves, all of us.

This being said, now is the time for Bambi to wish Acadians a “Bon quinzou” (yes, tomorrow) or Happy National Day. In doing so, she offers them Mr. Michel Fugain’s song!

Last but not least, Happy Birthday to Bambi’s childhood friend, Fadi. OK, she is allowing herself to make him a few hours older/wiser now :). “Akbel El Mieh“, Fadi ❤️!

Bambi just read that “Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos has said that Nicosia has completed preparations for potential evacuations of foreigners from Lebanon and Israel, amid fears of a potential escalation in the Middle East... The plan involves the organized evacuations of citizens via the Republic of Cyprus, followed by their transfer to destination countries, as part of the humanitarian assistance that we provided in 2006 and 2023” (https://t.ly/wVjbp).

Eighteen years have passed since the July 2006 war and the region is sadly still in the same storm, with innocent people potentially evacuated, via Cyprus, to other destinations.

When will innocent people live without having to be evacuated again and again?

When will all those playing war games, and flirting with fire, JUST stop?

Maybe the international community is working hard, behind the scenes, to prevent a wider escalation? If that is the case, best wishes to reason and hopefully to peace in this part of the world, including Lebanon.

The Lebanese republic is already slowly agonizing. It surely does not need a wider war with endless grief. Instead, it badly needs neutrality. And how about political resurrection and economic stability?

To conclude this brief post, Bambi thanks Cyprus for existing in the middle of the troubled Middle East. For those of you who are not familiar with geography, the beautiful island (republic) of Cyprus is just 25 minutes by air away from Beirut while being about 40 minutes by air from Tel Aviv.

Between the fear of a wider war and the fear following an earthquake, Beirut’s beauty remains charming, thanks to its “corniche” (or coast road) landscape.

As reported by L’Orient Le Jour, and according to the German Research Centre for Geosciences, the earthquake mainly affected Syria and Jordan. However, the tremor was felt in Beirut and in other regions of Lebanon as well (https://shorturl.at/6Nzfq).

Of note, this 4.8-magnitude earthquake was also felt in Cyprus and Israel as per L’Orient Today (https://shorturl.at/CkCbJ).

May everyone in Beirut and in the rest of the Middle East be safe and sound from potential man-made as well as natural tragedies.

Bambi thanks Louis for making this post possible while admiring him for being a rainbow to his loved ones during their respective clouds ❤️❤️. As for you dear readers, more related pictures may be shared in the nearest future. Stay tuned… and remember to make a wish while looking at this stunning rainbow :).

Thank you, Mr. Levitt, for warning the Canadian public about the tragic meaning of the loss of Dr. Jordan Peterson’s application to the Supreme Court of Canada for leave to appeal against the decision of the College of Psychologists of Ontario.

First, for those who do not know the author, Mr. Howard Levitt is senior partner of Levitt LLP, employment and labour lawyers (Ontario, but also Alberta and British Columbia). Of note, he practices employment law in eight provinces.

As a reminder, the decision in question wanted the stellar Dr. Peterson to undergo a “compulsory reeducation for various views expressed on social media, all of which were unrelated to the practice of psychology” (https://shorturl.at/qYg0v).

As Mr. Levitt explained, “the complaints which resulted in the college’s order were made by people who had never been his patients, and indeed, who had never met him. They were also mostly American and clearly politically motivated. I was honoured to act on Dr. Peterson’s appeal, but was not involved in the original decision that led to the appeal” (https://shorturl.at/qYg0v).

Sadly, “this decision is a tragic loss both for the 25 per cent of Canadians who are regulated by professional and trade associations and for Canadians generally. It is an invitation to extortion and the pursuit of personal vendettas, as anyone can now threaten a practitioner with loss of their professional licence by filing complaints against them to their professional associations” (https://shorturl.at/qYg0v).

“As for the punishment assigned to Dr. Peterson, he will attend the reeducation sessions and undoubtedly run intellectual circles around his “educators“. 
The very idea that Dr. Peterson, one of the masters of social media, requires social media training by comparative incompetents, is both risible and ludicrous”. 

Mr. Levitt’s column is slightly longer, but Bambi selected some of its key parts, for your convenience. The bold text indicates the most worrisome as well as absurd parts.

Please do not make the mistake of thinking that this can only happen to others or to BIG names, like Dr. Jordan Peterson. Indeed, “You are Next” was Dr. Peterson’s title of the interview with Bambi about her own case. Now is her turn to borrow his own clever, yet worrisome, words: indeed, anyone can be next following his own legal decision.

Some may think highly of, and even like or are grateful to, Dr. Peterson (like Bambi) while others may be indifferent about his story. Yet others may be rejoicing because of his “assigned punishment“. If the latter option is where you find yourself, how about trying to be wiser now? In other terms, please do not fall into the trap of finding joy into Dr. Peterson’s legal disappointment. In case you did not know it, this emotion has a German-based name, which is schadenfreude (Schaden means harm while Freude means pleasure). Once again, your own future legal misfortune and/or absurd punishment (may God forbid) could also be the target of the schadenfreude of another unwise person.

This being said, Bambi thanks Mr. Levitt again while continuing to stand in full solidarity with Dr. Jordan’s Peterson’s right to write any thought on his social media platforms. It is up to us, the online readers (whether we are on social media or not, like Bambi), to decide whether we agree or not, to learn from him, and to grow.

Bambi is thankful to Dr. Peterson for his inspiring courage and for his willingness to make the next step as public as possible. Last but not least, bravo to him et al. for his new online academy (https://petersonacademy.com/). What an achievement and all the best!

To conclude this post, it is Bambi’s hope that professional associations, like the esteemed College of Psychologists of Ontario, will know how to re-commit to only protecting patients from harm within the practice of psychology.

Bambi’s heart is deeply touched by the lovely and generous gesture of her friend Gloria.

As you can see below, Gloria thought of Bambi when she saw “her” (as a figurine) at a store during her travels :). Not only that, she also took time off her busy schedule, taking Bambi out to offer her a cute gift, which is now exposed at her house.

This post will end with a message to her friend: Thanks, sweet Gloria. In addition to being proud of you for all your achievements (i.e., past, current, and future ones), Bambi loves you ❤️. Your kindness, beautiful smile, and our chat brightened her day. Please keep being yourself, including your inspiring values, positive mindset, and wise attitude in life!