2020 unleashed a series of events that took me by surprise. Although my intensifying struggle with my hair had been brewing for some years, epic health crisis, the emergence of COVID and lockdowns emboldened me to try something equally dramatic. After years of wrestling with my hair, I decided to give up the struggle and explore the unknown territory of wearing wigs.

At the dawn of our 29th wedding anniversary, we are celebrating a long-dreamt milestone, the fulfillment of our home mortgage! 

One of the joys of life and friendship is having the opportunity to watch extraordinary women grow and come into their own as the years progress. I have the privilege of knowing many fabulous women who are doing amazing things and am excited to feature them periodically in my new "Extraordinary Women in Focus" article series.

February 2021 is upon us, and I have fully embraced the love theme of Valentine's Day by decorating my home in an unprecedented way. There are pink flowers, white ribbon, hearts, lights, candles, and traditional colour-themed candy.

Everything that speaks of whimsical romance and creating lifelong love and it makes me happy.

Walking down the aisle almost three decades ago, my husband and I may have been voted least likely to succeed in marriage, but somehow we beat the odds. This season has me feeling grateful while contemplating our lives together and what secrets we might share about creating lifelong love.

As December drew to a close and 2021 was dawning on the horizon, I was decidedly shy about emotionally investing in new year goals.

I have always advocated making life plans and daring to dream, but my optimistic agenda was drop-kicked and knocked unconscious last year. When I woke up, the world had changed, and so had I.

Still, nothing inspires dreams and new year goals like a pristine, blank calendar and the promise of a fresh start.

My friend eyed me inquisically, and I found myself unburdening years of negative experiences trying to connect with hobbyist groups in search of "support and encouragement." It was apparent that I had found precisely the opposite. Not that all these groups were terrible and didn't have support to give. Just that they were too intensely focused on their own agenda to welcome someone who didn't share their cult-like devotion or think outside their formula of success. Sometimes it was just collective limiting beliefs that I chafed at, and when I proved them wrong, I found myself facing suspicion or outright jealousy. Instead of group support, I'd encountered varying levels of sabotage.

During my sedation, I was aware that things were not going as planned. The combination of fentanyl and morphine I was given while sedated had an effect on my perception of real and imagined events. In Part 1 of Life Tsunami: Surviving the Unexpected, I lay out the facts that lead up to my surgery, two weeks of sedation and the aftermath I woke up to. This article, by contrast, features the imaginary experiences I mistook as reality. The following narrative is fiction except for the rare occasions where I reference real events that intersected and influenced my dreams. It is a comical, yet sobering glimpse through the looking glass of medicated unconsciousness.