We all know, or hope we do that change is a constant and inevitable. We consciously or unconsciously choose our attitude and feelings towards change. When a baby is born or you change where you live, or you change your career ...or partner. We have an attitude and feeling about all these events. That number one, affirms we're alive and human beings able to experience an array of emotions.



If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we aren't really living, Gail Sheehy says. .

My survival was challenged on July 14, 2001. Once dancing and singing internationally, that abruptly changed as I had to re-learn basic skills like walking and talking again. I had been diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury. After being discharged from the hospital and slowly regaining clarity from my coma, I had to choose how I was going to live now. I was clear that I was alive and survived. I would like to share with you realities that have made themselves abundantly clear. Once we recognize we are vital, vibrant human beings we can chose how we're going to live and experience our reality. When I was learning to walk again, of course I was focused on success as we all were when learning this basic skill. I fell down, cried and dwelled in frustration for a while, but then get up and try again.

A great businessman Henry Ford said, "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right." When you believe in yourself you can do incredible things.

I didn't choose to stop entertaining and was still shell shocked from my new reality but I knew what I had to do. I began singing and dancing lessons and the patience it took as I started back at one, two, three was enormous. Do or Die though, and I was gladly not died so I was doing, right. I also thought I was behind the 8 ball due to this mishap and needed to be a contributing factor in the world again.

I knew the persistence and belief in myself it took to walk therefore this "failure" did not stop me. Thank heaven successful people make more mistakes than unsuccessful people. This was a relief, as I knew I continued to make mistakes. I felt that in order to further my career, I needed to move to the mainland, Vancouver so I did. Living in Vancouver I was in acting class, doing background work and dropping in at the local studio to take dance class. In the paper one day I found an audition for a dancer to travel with a band. I went and got it. The band members were Australian and they impersonated the Beatles, Mic Jager, the Beach Boys and many others of that era. We were called Sixties Mania. We ended up in Wendover, Nevada where our band did a show at the State Line Casino. Many of the patrons were an example of how I didn't want to live my life. They would be tied up to ventilators while smoking and dropping change in the slots. One day another dancer, Claudia came into my room with the paper and pointed out an audition for a singer who could dance at Universal Studio Theme Park. I believed I was a dancer who could sing but Claudia, her boyfriend, another member of the band and I all ventured out to the audition. To my astonishment I was hired and by the next year I was in Japan. I flew into Tokyo and then Osaka where the entertainers house and Theme Park were. We arrived there just before the stroke of midnight, 2001. This is where I was enjoying a successful career as a dancer/singer at Universal Studios theme park in Japan. Suddenly all of that changed when I was hit by a taxi and hospitalized in Japan in a coma for two months. I was air lifted back to Canada and committed myself to re-learning basic skills. Today I used my love of dancing, singing and piano for my own style of rehabilitation. Having to re-learn basic skills has created a deeper gratitude for the simplest of things which I feel compelled to share. My unique life experience of 29 years has adorned me with an inimitable perspective.

I am still learning and many years I thought I was a dancer first. After experiencing what I have, I now know I am a unique human being with many skills and attributes, who once upon a time danced well.