inspired by.
people, places, and things today, to provide hope, thoughts, and ideas for tomorrow.

inspiration is everywhere. i'm setting out to find it.
inspired by (the moving pen)… Sharon Singer runs writing workshops out of her living room in Toronto.  I attended her classes on a weekly basis for a few months last year; they are the ultimate expression of freedom.  Using a series of prompts, we were instructed to write anything we wanted in response, for a given period of time.  The group would then go around and read each piece to the rest of the group.  This practice of raw, uncensored writing elicits thoughts, feelings, and emotions that we would not otherwise have access to.  It is an incredible and unique process. “Using the pen to mine our experiences, thoughts and feelings, we encounter new ways to look closely at them, and to support their vital expression. The process carries us into raw unperfected ground, where the unexpected often surprises, as we dig in the soil and learn to sense the root/route.” inspiration is committing our pen to paper, and not allowing our inner critic to get in its way.

inspired by (the moving pen)…

Sharon Singer runs writing workshops out of her living room in Toronto.  I attended her classes on a weekly basis for a few months last year; they are the ultimate expression of freedom.  Using a series of prompts, we were instructed to write anything we wanted in response, for a given period of time.  The group would then go around and read each piece to the rest of the group.  This practice of raw, uncensored writing elicits thoughts, feelings, and emotions that we would not otherwise have access to.  It is an incredible and unique process.

“Using the pen to mine our experiences, thoughts and feelings, we encounter new ways to look closely at them, and to support their vital expression. The process carries us into raw unperfected ground, where the unexpected often surprises, as we dig in the soil and learn to sense the root/route.”

inspiration is committing our pen to paper, and not allowing our inner critic to get in its way.

inspired by (adventure playgrounds)… “Adventure playgrounds are places where children can create and modify their own environments, rather than relying on rigid equipment that only serves a limit set of programmed purposes: ‘In a sense, you and I have always played in adventure playgrounds. We created a fort in the kitchen cabinets, jumped from couch to couch across oceans; we snuck out through a hole in the fence to a new world. We climbed trees and hid in bushes. We played in the mud and the rain. We chased each other, made secret worlds …” inspiration is giving kids the opportunity to take risks, contribute to their surroundings, and develop themselves as makers of things.

inspired by (adventure playgrounds)…

“Adventure playgrounds are places where children can create and modify their own environments, rather than relying on rigid equipment that only serves a limit set of programmed purposes: ‘In a sense, you and I have always played in adventure playgrounds. We created a fort in the kitchen cabinets, jumped from couch to couch across oceans; we snuck out through a hole in the fence to a new world. We climbed trees and hid in bushes. We played in the mud and the rain. We chased each other, made secret worlds …”


inspiration is giving kids the opportunity to take risks, contribute to their surroundings, and develop themselves as makers of things.


inspired by (michele landsberg & stephen lewis)…

“GS: Define Feminism.

ML: It is the passion for equality and justice. For women, for men, for children. It’s that determination to have equality and justice, and fairness.

GS: So many of the conversations we’ve had, centre around the fact that if you want to deal with a lot of the challenges in the developing world - really as it relates to HIV/AIDS - it really is about the equality of women…so how do we just get to it and make it a better place for women? Do what has to be done?

ML: Well we don’t do it, it’s the people on the ground who do it for themselves, and that’s happening. It’s happening all around the developing world…

SL: …Where the real intervention should occur, it doesn’t occur, because men still call the shots. If you’re dealing with the United Nations, and the response to some of these struggles, there is no commitment to gender equality, except rhetorically…and it drives you crazy, because the absence of gender equality, the absence of taking seriously the most important Millenium Development Goal…is insufferable for women.  The oppression continues.” 

inspiration comes from the unrelenting fight for social justice. 

inspired by (shake up your story)…

“I have a problem with children’s books.  I think they’re full of propaganda…so I said I’m gonna counter this with my own propaganda.

If you notice carefully: it’s a homosexual couple bringing up a child.
Don’t like it? Shake it! And you have a lesbian couple.
Shake it! And you have a heterosexual couple…I don’t even believe in the concept of an ideal family…

Imagine history being taught differently. Remember that children’s book where you shake and the sexuality of the parents changes?  I have another idea, it’s a children’s book about Indian independence - very patriotic; but when you shake it, you get Pakistan’s perspective. Shake it again, and you get the British perspective.

You know, you have to separate fact from bias…I’m making a very important argument, and my argument is that the only way for us to teach creativity is by teaching children perspectives at the earliest age. After all, children’s books are manuals on parenting, so you better give them children’s books that teach them perspectives; and conversely, only when you teach perspectives, will a child be able to imagine, and put themselves in the shoes of someone who is different from them.

I’m making an argument that art and creativity are very essential tools in empathy. I can’t promise my child a life without bias — we’re all biased — but I promise to bias my child with multiple perspectives.”

inspiration is understanding stories from many points of view.

inspired by (caine’s arcade)…

Spending a summer hanging around at his Dad’s auto parts shop in East L.A., Caine let his imagination run free and built his own arcade out of cardboard boxes.

Refusing to let his lack of customers get in his way, Caine sat at the arcade, outfitted with his own toys as prizes, and waited.  And waited.  His first customer finally came through the doors, and was so inspired that he returned days later with a flashmob of hundreds of people ready to play.

After the flashmob, at the end of the day as Caine and his dad drove home, Caine turned to his dad and said, “Dad, this was the best day of my whole life.”

Since that day, the Caine’s Scholarship Fund & Caine’s Arcade Foundation was established, raising money to send kids like Caine to college.  We can find inspiration from kids like Caine, who refuse to listen when someone tells them that their dream is impossible, and who set out to make it happen.

inspiration comes from listening to, believing in, and fostering the imagination of kids.

inspired by (andy higgins)… Growing up, I quite involved as a competitive athlete.  I still remember, very distinctly, a series of talks I attended that were given by Andy Higgins.  Andy was the long time Head Coach of Track and Field at the University of Toronto, and served for 10 years as the Director of the National Coaching Institute of Ontario. Andy’s challenge to all of us was to use sport to become a better person - and he was not afraid to issue that challenge to his athletes at a very young age.  Most memorable to me was an anecdote he shared at the beginning of the first session: “I met Bernard years ago when he was probably in his early sixties.  I have never forgotten his way of demonstrating reach, possibility, to the young rowers under his care.  He told me that when they first came to the club, before they set foot in a boat, he would take them into a nearby grove of trees.  He instructed all his young charges to find a tree to climb and stand at the bottom of it.  He gave them the following instruction, ‘I want you to climb as high as you can in your tree.  When you are as high as you can go, I want you to call me.’ When a child called he would walk to the bottom of the tree they were climbing and call up to them. ‘That’s excellent, Jimmy, now listen carefully, I want you to go up one more branch and then come back down to the ground.  Have you got that Jimmy?  One more branch and then right down to the ground.” To me, this is how we guide people toward success.  You tell me how far you can go, and I will ask you to go just a little bit further.  But it’s manageable, and you know you can do it.  You do not fear that I am going to ask you to keep going beyond your capability.  You take that leap to something new, and then you are promised safety for awhile until you are ready for the next leap. inspiration comes from going as far as you think you can, and then just a little bit further.

inspired by (andy higgins)…

Growing up, I quite involved as a competitive athlete.  I still remember, very distinctly, a series of talks I attended that were given by Andy Higgins.  Andy was the long time Head Coach of Track and Field at the University of Toronto, and served for 10 years as the Director of the National Coaching Institute of Ontario.

Andy’s challenge to all of us was to use sport to become a better person - and he was not afraid to issue that challenge to his athletes at a very young age.  Most memorable to me was an anecdote he shared at the beginning of the first session:

“I met Bernard years ago when he was probably in his early sixties.  I have never forgotten his way of demonstrating reach, possibility, to the young rowers under his care.  He told me that when they first came to the club, before they set foot in a boat, he would take them into a nearby grove of trees.  He instructed all his young charges to find a tree to climb and stand at the bottom of it.  He gave them the following instruction, ‘I want you to climb as high as you can in your tree.  When you are as high as you can go, I want you to call me.’

When a child called he would walk to the bottom of the tree they were climbing and call up to them. ‘That’s excellent, Jimmy, now listen carefully, I want you to go up one more branch and then come back down to the ground.  Have you got that Jimmy?  One more branch and then right down to the ground.”

To me, this is how we guide people toward success.  You tell me how far you can go, and I will ask you to go just a little bit further.  But it’s manageable, and you know you can do it.  You do not fear that I am going to ask you to keep going beyond your capability.  You take that leap to something new, and then you are promised safety for awhile until you are ready for the next leap.

inspiration comes from going as far as you think you can, and then just a little bit further.

inspired by (digital youth network)… “Digital Youth Network gives students tools to be engaged, articulate, critical and collaborative. Facilitate the ability to become creators – designers, builders & innovators – who can envision new possibilities.” I was first exposed to DYN at a talk given by Dr. Nichole Pinkard, who founded the Chicago-based project.  A few of the things she said that stuck out to me: 1. Youth need performance spaces in which the media they create can be seen and appreciated by others, if they are going to be inspired to create great work.  It’s equivalent to a basketball player honing their skills and getting to play a game in front of all of their friends and family - they get to perform that skill in a public arena.  We need to provide this opportunity to youth who are creating and remixing digital media. 2. We must allow youth to choose their own deliverable.  You need to learn what your kids can do - you don’t have to teach them the literacy, you need to allow them the space to explore it and to make use of it. 3. We never say no to a project a young person wishes to pursue.  We say: if you can bring your mother and your grandmother in to see it, and you can defend it, then go ahead - you’re okay. inspiration comes from empowering youth.

inspired by (digital youth network)…

“Digital Youth Network gives students tools to be engaged, articulate, critical and collaborative. Facilitate the ability to become creators – designers, builders & innovators – who can envision new possibilities.”

I was first exposed to DYN at a talk given by Dr. Nichole Pinkard, who founded the Chicago-based project.  A few of the things she said that stuck out to me:

1. Youth need performance spaces in which the media they create can be seen and appreciated by others, if they are going to be inspired to create great work.  It’s equivalent to a basketball player honing their skills and getting to play a game in front of all of their friends and family - they get to perform that skill in a public arena.  We need to provide this opportunity to youth who are creating and remixing digital media.

2. We must allow youth to choose their own deliverable.  You need to learn what your kids can do - you don’t have to teach them the literacy, you need to allow them the space to explore it and to make use of it.

3. We never say no to a project a young person wishes to pursue.  We say: if you can bring your mother and your grandmother in to see it, and you can defend it, then go ahead - you’re okay.


inspiration comes from empowering youth.
inspired by (the watershed school)… I first heard about the Watershed School, located in Boulder, Colorado, at an experiential education conference i attended in January, 2011.  The school was started by a group of people who believed that their model of what education should be, could not possibly fit into an already existing institution. I am particularly blown away by the ways in which they have connected their coursework to real-world experience.  Courses like ‘Farm to Table’ and ‘Water and the West’ allow students to draw connections in the world, while opportunities like ‘Robotics’  and ‘Studio Arts’  give them space to explore their passions. Check out some more sample courses by clicking here. “Place-based education provides students with opportunities to connect with themselves, their community, and their local environment through hands-on, real-world learning experiences. It is rooted in the integrated core curricular activities of science, social studies, communication arts and fine arts, and is expanded upon and applied by extending the classroom into the schoolyard and the neighborhood. This approach enables students to see that their learning is relevant to their world, to take pride in the place in which they live, to connect with the rest of the world in a natural way, and to develop into concerned and contributing citizens.”-Jack Chin inspiration comes from understanding your connection to the world around you.

inspired by (the watershed school)…

I first heard about the Watershed School, located in Boulder, Colorado, at an experiential education conference i attended in January, 2011.  The school was started by a group of people who believed that their model of what education should be, could not possibly fit into an already existing institution.

I am particularly blown away by the ways in which they have connected their coursework to real-world experience.  Courses like ‘Farm to Table’ and ‘Water and the West’ allow students to draw connections in the world, while opportunities like ‘Robotics’  and ‘Studio Arts’  give them space to explore their passions. Check out some more sample courses by clicking here.

“Place-based education provides students with opportunities to connect with themselves, their community, and their local environment through hands-on, real-world learning experiences. It is rooted in the integrated core curricular activities of science, social studies, communication arts and fine arts, and is expanded upon and applied by extending the classroom into the schoolyard and the neighborhood. This approach enables students to see that their learning is relevant to their world, to take pride in the place in which they live, to connect with the rest of the world in a natural way, and to develop into concerned and contributing citizens.”
-Jack Chin

inspiration comes from understanding your connection to the world around you.

inspired by (deepa mehta)…

I was lucky enough to meet Deepa Mehta on Saturday night at the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards Gala in Ottawa.  At once poignant, beautiful, and warm; it was quickly evident that her films are a reflection of her personality.

“…maybe put one foot in bravery, and one foot in cowardice. and how would you say your line then? One in hatred, and one in love. Or one, without saying anything.

All art is political. We all know that. And it should be, but it has to be about a story.

It has to be about real people within that story, that are maybe dealing with an issue.

It has to be honed in and represented by something that is living, breathing, that talks, that stops, that decides to sit in a corner and weep. 

Issues are boring. Feelings are important.”

inspiration comes from feeling.