By MIMI LILIEFELDT Last month we met Ingrid Palmer, a truly inspirational member of our community. If you haven’t read the first part of her story, we covered how Ingrid, a Black woman, grew up visually impaired (later diagnosed legally blind), a survivor of sexual abuse and went from foster care to living in a […]
By MIMI LILIEFELDT Every now and then, if you’re lucky, you meet a truly inspirational person. In the last year and a half, we have all been treading water, living with uncertainty, learning new ways of being, and frankly it’s been exhausting. Most of us haven’t had the time or the inclination to think about […]
By MIMI LILIEFELDT Everyone has their own definition of success. For many it’s financial security, for some it’s creative fulfillment, and for others it’s a culmination of factors. For Dr. Mary Choi, a well-known Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine, a symbol of success is a fancy chair. Dr. Mary is a busy mother of four, and […]
By MIMI LILIEFELDT Over the last month, the world watched in alarm as the Taliban took over Afghanistan. For most of us, the realities of Afghanistan’s history are no more than “news stories” that never quite touch our own microcosm. Lately we talk about all the ways that we are privileged, almost any one of […]
By MIMI LILIEFELDT In a perfect world there is no racism; no inequalities, no injustices, nobody has to stand up for anyone else because there’s nothing to stand up for. In this utopian world we are all equals and treated as such. As it happens, we live here, in the real world. Our world is […]
By MIMI LILIEFELDT July marks the one-year anniversary of Black Lives Here. Writing this column has been a journey of taking small steps toward ending racism, opening the conversation within our Beach community, and self-discovery for many, including myself. During this year of meeting all these fascinating people and hearing their stories, I realized there […]
By MIMI LILIEFELDT Many people of various cultures and religions may not recognize it, but they live with generational trauma. Generational trauma starts with an event, and then over decades, the pain, coping mechanisms, and ways of seeing the world, get passed down to the next generation. As kids, most of us didn’t think of […]
By MIMI LILIEFELDT May 25th marks the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder. Last month, Derek Chauvin was convicted on all three counts, which elicited cries of relief throughout the Black community and its supporters. At last, if only for an all too brief moment, Black people felt seen as worthy of some kind of […]
By MIMI LILIEFELDT In this new era of enlightenment, it seems like every company, charity and government organization is looking for a way to “diversify”. Overall, the goal sounds like a good one and of course BIPOC are cautiously optimistic that our white counterparts are finally forging an attempt to make room at the table […]
By MIMI LILIEFELDT Do you believe the statement, “You can’t miss what you never had”? I’m not talking about material things, I’m asking if you think it’s possible to miss a feeling, a connection, or a bond that you never had? I spoke with Janelle Francisco, a mortgage agent with a Toronto mortgage group, and […]
