The Globe & Mail – My Child Has Supersonic Ears

My six-year-old son Tyson has a gift called absolute pitch, also known as perfect pitch. It means that he is able to name any pitch he hears.

If you were to play a note on any musical instrument, he would be able to identify what that note is as easily as if you were to ask him the colour of his T-shirt. He even knows the note of everyday sounds: that the purr of our refrigerator is in the key of D, that our lawn mower blares in the key of A, and that our minivan honks in C.

Tyson began taking piano lessons two and a half years ago. His older brother had been taking lessons, and from the beginning Tyson begged us to take him too, but he was only 3 so we thought he was too young. Eight months later, we succumbed.

Read the rest at The Globe & Mail

Judo Canada – Learning How to Breakfall

In Judo, the first thing they teach you is how to fall.  Whether you are new to judo or a black belt, the breakfall or ukemi in Japanese, is the most important skill you learn.  For those of you who are new to judo, this may sound rudimentary but if you ask any sensei, they know that the ability to fall safely, so that one can get up again, is essential to growth and achievement in judo.  When you think about it, the wisdom of this principle is monumental.  It is a profound life teaching and something that really hit home for me in 2015.

2015 was the year I had been feeling very tired.  I had been feeling this way for years but I thought that I was just getting older.  I am in my forties and the mother of two active boys who were 8 and 12 at the time.  My husband Mark, and I were also in the midst of a daunting renovation; we’d torn down our house to build a new one and were doing a large part of the interior work ourselves. I thought my fatigue was a result of everything going on.

Despite my low energy, I’d found a way to carve out a few hours a week for myself doing judo which helped to clear my mind.  I had been taking judo for many years at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto.  I attend the women’s class which is full of wonderfully supportive women.  Every week, I would come out of class exhausted.  My muscles were tight and sore after almost every lesson, but in a good way.  It felt great to know that my body worked hard.

It wasn’t long after I earned my brown belt that I received some news that would change my life.  My doctors had found some suspicious lumps in my neck.  They did a few needle biopsies in my throat.  They suspected that I had thyroid cancer.  The news sent me into a state of shock.  What I hadn’t known then was that my tiredness was not because I was a middle aged mom, going through a reno.  It was because I had cancer.

Read the rest at Judo Canada

Here are a couple of my other blogs for Judo Canada.  Judo as Self Defence  and  Meeting Canada’s Most Influential Women in Judo

Translated into French here  Judo Canada

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Thanks so much for visiting. I hope in some way my stories resonate with you. I’d love to connect with you on social media.