Karen Toews
Scripting Vibrant Living Beyond An Empty Nest
Scripting Life For the Season You’re in Now
This is Karen
I’m Karen Toews, a woman excited to share how at every age we can work for and achieve changes that will support our desires for a full and purposeful life. I’m blessed to be doing that, multitudes of others are, and I’d love this to be your experience too.
Living for Health and Purpose
Nutrition, activity, mindset, emotions: many pieces fit into the complex mix for creating our healthy and purposeful life for every age and stage. It’s all out there – eating plans, fitness workouts, formulas and fads of what you should do to feel and look…
Adventures
Adventure has a different definition for everyone. Regardless of age, adventure can be alive and well in our life.
Feeling the Distance, Missing my People
When we moved to Nova Scotia in 2007, other than our realtor and the neighbours next door, everyone was a stranger. This was going to be home; intent on meeting people, I’d strike up a conversation with practically anyone: at the grocery store, on…
A December getaway, without breaking the bank
October was a hustle: a wonderful time of family and anniversary partying. November’s schedule, planning ahead for December’s holiday season, was no less busy. But there was no questioning or negotiating with the task logged in my daytimer for November 28th. “Plan a getaway”. Soon:…
Celebrating 50 years … a family weekend
Our wedding photo tells the truth: Derryl and I were mere children when we vowed “I do, I will”. Fifty years later, thinking about this ‘crazy-big-number ‘milestone, I’m excited to share a photo-story of our celebration with family, and community friends who have become…
End-of-Summer, Photo-Visit Blitz
My late summer’s pilgrimage to western Canada was two-fold: first in British Columbia with my husband’s family, then visiting my kin in Alberta. We travelled by air to the furthest south-west part of British Columbia – Abbotsford – for a Toews reunion: delicious in…
Photo-blog: Cape Breton pulls out the stops for Mom and Son hiking
“Hey Mom, I have a two-week window to come see you and Dad: end of June into July.” Yahoo! Our son Brad was coming to see us. I love these calls from our kids – other family too for that matter, as everybody lives…
Hello 70’s
June 22nd I turned my life-calendar ahead to another decade: the 70’s. Seventy feels like a ridiculously big number that makes me wonder, how on earth did this happen already? This is how. I have been busy doing life with a web of family…
Grateful for my Body. Today.
A couple weeks ago, clear as an audible voice I heard: “Karen, are you grateful for your body?” Though the question caught me off guard, answers fill pages in my journal where “so help me God”, the truth hits the page. Thoughts and laments…
Treasures and the Tide
The summer of 2022 in Nova Scotia gave us exemplary, spectacular weather. September raised the bar with beautiful warm days, leaning into its East Coast pattern of saving its grandest days for the fall season. To soak in the ocean’s warmest time capsule of…
Photo-Blog: First Visit to Newfoundland
I bought a new bike to replace my older, heavier one. That was in March: when the weather and roads were still not compatible for a test run, but I needed a carrot to shore up motivation and spirit that my hip and back…
A Turnaround Week of Wonder
Merriam-Webster defines wonder as “a cause of astonishment; to feel curiosity or doubt, rapt attention or astonishment, at something awesomely mysterious or new to one’s experience.” My curiosity about wonder uncovered synonyms like: marvel, phenomenon, caution. What’s the big deal about this six-letter word…
Rescripting Life With The Pain
In January I wrote Life Disrupted: My Season of Wintering and never imagined that here in May, my life and physical activities would still be so restricted by pain. A short reprieve in February gave me an injection of hope – thank you! –…
A Photo-Blog: What’s in a Flag
The Canadian national flag was inaugurated in a public ceremony on Parliament Hill, Ottawa on February 15, 1965. Before this, our national flag was the Union Jack and the Canadian Red Ensign flew from government buildings: both emblems attached to our British heritage. In…
Life Disrupted: My Season of Wintering
It was like any other morning. I pulled back the covers, swung my legs out of bed and stepped down, ready to rock and roll. Whoa! Pain in my right hip triggered a nerve to go berserk down my leg, stopping me in my…
Family Moving to Nova Scotia: A Dream I Didn’t Even Think to Wish for
When I get messages from my kids – texts, emails, phone calls – they’re special news bulletins I read or pick up as fast as they come. Text April 11, 2021 “Hey Mom, are you and Dad available tonight? I’d like to chat about…
Do first Solo Campout – 2021 ✓
My wish to do a solo campout had simmered long enough. This was the year I made it happen. Conditions were right: I had a beautiful destination in mind (important detail to me), I could easily explain my whereabouts to local hikers, and ‘warm…
Sole Sisters Hike Mont Mégantic
Winter, 2021. I was on a Zoom call with my husband’s sister. She and her husband live in another country two time zones away, share life in a communal family household, and were then working from home. Not surprising that we rarely connect; my…
Are we having fun yet?
Twelve of us in ten boats were paddling the Atlantic shoreline near Canso, Nova Scotia. We had navigated through rocky inlets, shoals, surf, the wind’s wanton shifting in direction and velocity; we’d schlepped gear to where we could find suitable camping spots. We’d been…
“boundary” – what comes to your mind
The place my husband and I call home borders the LaHave River, where we’re situated amongst other acreage dwellers both upriver and down. Our property in this bit of Nova Scotian paradise borders the forest, where residents of the animal kingdom roam and occasionally…
asking questions, being the real me
If I were to identify a question of the year that I’ve been asked and have asked it’s “how are you feeling today (i.e. living with Covid-19)?” Today, I feel cloistered. Strict policies like stay the blazes home put my comings and goings on…
Rescripting thoughts for “i Can help myself”
At a gathering with some high-activity friends one of the group stated “I can’t help myself!.” Have you said that too? I have. This time, an image of casually handing over control grabbed me full stop. How can I help myself is a good…
what’s in my backpack for 2021
I am a woman in her 60’s who doesn’t have to log on to work-from-home or home-school young children. I’m able to choose my daily schedule including writing projects, work and play activities, freedom to hike local trails or beaches where I live in…
rewriting life after stroke: acceptance, self-discovery and hot pickled Peppers
UPDATE NOTICE October 19, 2021. Christine shares her latest journey following another stroke in June, 2021: again meeting the challenge with resilience, gratitude and a positive attitude. I met Christine in 2001 when she and her family moved to my hometown in Alberta, Canada….
What’s nourishing you now?
If you ask yourself or a friend what’s nourishing you now the response could be a recap of a day’s food consumption. As a foodie and holistic health advocate, I’m all in for paying attention to what we eat. Yet we crave more than…
Rescripting ‘this’ Story
Covid-19’s upheaval is trying to sabotage my story. I want a script with intimate gatherings around my table, traveling, hiking with friends on a trail, elbow-jostling and close-up conversations. This happy-buzz story where people like me thrive, has been traded out for isolation, restriction,…
Less vulnerable with a script
We are being told: regularly wash your hands with soap and water; practice social distancing (two metres apart from people other than those in your own home); do not go anywhere except for essential services. I’ve followed this script for a month and will…
a novice observing Lent
I learned about Easter in my Christian upbringing and often participated in programs and musical performances re-enacting the story of this religious holiday. But I was never taught about observing Lent. As I grew up and met a broader scope of friends of the…
Karen Toews 