Pray for the Amazon…

So for the past two days I have been stuck to my Twitter feed constant because it seems to be the only place I can get relevant information on what has been going on over in the Amazon Rainforest for the past 20-30 days.

I have never been so appalled, angered, saddened by the state of the mainstream media than I am right now. This is something that everyone should be talking about. Certainly not about how MIley and Liam are breaking up yet again. People have become so ignorant and complacent on these issues, that when the time comes, and we are on the brink of a dead planet, no one will care.

Oh Wait, we are already there!

The most we see being tweeted is #Prayfortheamazon , and like with school shootings and other issues, saying ” Sending thoughts and prayers” just isnt going to cut it. As Humanity as a whole, we are the ones who have the tools to actually make a difference.

I know now you may be asking yourself ” Well what can I do? I live half way accross the world in another country.”

This is what I found on wikihow.com, and sums up some of the small things you can do at home to help.

Shop Conscientsouly,
Avoid palm oil and the products that contain it. Palm oil is the most commonly used vegetable oil in the world, and over half of the packaged products in most supermarkets contain it. Unfortunately, expanding palm oil plantations have led to widespread rainforest deforestation. The exponential production of cheap palm oil has also endangered many species of animals, and many palm oil companies are guilty of human rights exploitation.

• You can avoid palm oil by avoiding processed foods. Consume mostly fruits, vegetables, nuts, and grains.
• Read labels and avoid products that contain palm oil.
• Learn the sneaky names for palm oil. These include (but are not limited to): vegetable oil, palm kernel, palm kernel oil, palm fruit oil, palmitate, palmolein, glyceryl, palmate, palmitic acid, sodium laureth sulfate, sodium lauryl sulfate, stearate, stearic acid, and sodium kernelate.

Refuse Brazilian beef. About 60-70% of the deforestation in Brazil has been the result of cattle farming, and this number is rapidly growing. You can help save the rainforest by avoiding this product. If you choose to eat beef, select grass-fed options local to your region, and say no to Brazilian-raised beef.^[1]

• Fast food chains use the majority of this beef. You can begin avoiding Brazilian beef by saying no to fast food burgers.

Buy sustainable coffee. Consumption of coffee can have a negative effect on the world’s rainforests. Coffee farms, like palm oil plantations, have also led to deforestation, and have also been known for their poor working conditions and human rights violations. You can work to lessen the ongoing damage to our rainforests by selecting coffee that is sustainably farmed.^[2]

• Look for a “Rainforest Alliance” label to show that this coffee was produced under sustainable conditions.

Avoid paper products or buy recycled paper products. Paper products contribute directly to rainforest deforestation. Products like toilet paper, paper towels, coffee filters, notebooks, printer paper, and others are created from rainforest trees. Do your part by using reusable materials whenever possible (such as reusable coffee filters or coffee mugs).

• When you must use paper products, select products made from 100% recycled materials.

Avoid wood products made from threatened rainforest woods. Despite the delicate state of the world’s rainforests, trees are still harvested to build guitars, furniture, and other products. Avoid products made of mahogany, rosewood, ebony, and other tropical hardwoods. Instead, opt for products made from white ash, black cherry, or maple woods.

There are also was to donate to help with deforestation, and planting trees.
One last thing is to get on your Governments case. Email, write letters, call, and call , and call for them to make changes and to help the amazon and all enviroments.

We only have one life to live, and there is only one planet to live it on. Once earth is gone, so are we. We should be trying to take care of our home alot better than we are.

Lots of love on this Thursday Afternoon.

Home

This is my home.

My Grandparents home in Gambo, Newfoundland.

I am now 33 years old and have spent a good chunk of my lifetime here.

Growing up, I didn’t live in Gambo, but I spent every summer here. School would be finished in June and it would only be a few days after, and this is where I would be.

We would go fishing, or play out in the backyard, or down to the swimming pool. If on the odd chance we were in the house, you can guarantee that The Toronto Blue Jays game was on. My Grandparents and I would sit down and watch the game, or at the very least it would be on in the background while we sat down to eat.

9 pm was lunchtime. Nan would be sure to have the table laid out with cookies and crackers, and anything else you wanted. There would be company showing up, and we would all be laughing and singing, or watch the Blue Jays game.

This home has always been a source of happiness and love.

Sunday Mornings was for Church. I would get ready with Nan every Sunday morning and head down to the Salvation Army Church for Sunday Service, and in the afternoon she would bring me back after lunch for Sunday School. At night I would be left with my Grandfather, so that Nan could go to the night service, which was usually an outdoor service in the summer.

As the season have come and gone, serious changes have happened, good and bad.

I have grown up and married and have had children of my own, my Grandfather has passed away, and sickness has come knocking.

My Grandmother is the matriarch for my mothers family and I can only hope I can be half as amazing with my 3 children as she has done with her 8. She is a beautiful bright soul who doesn’t let anything get her down. She is always there with open arms.

This house is my home. For as long as I can remember this house ( and my Aunts house up the road) have been a proverbial security blanket for me and I’ve always felt safest here.

Have a beautiful Sunday everyone, I know I will because I am home🧡💜

Cover Reveal

The sequel to Crown of Feathers will be released in February 2020, and yesterday the cover reveal happened!

I am over the moon excited for this novel.

Crown of Feathers kept my heart racing through every chapter and I just could not put the book down.

Heart Of Flames promises to be just as amazing, if not better than its predecessor, and I am here for it all.  Below I will leave a link to paste magazine with the cover reveal and an excerpt from the upcoming novel. I hope you will all enjoy this novel as much as I am going to.

The Art Work for this cover has been created by the magical Kekao Kotaki, and I will leave a link below also for his website which you can check out and marvel at his amazing work. He is definately an amazing artist when it comes to encapsulating the image of fire.

I hope you all are having an amazing Tuesday. 🙂

Links:

Paste Magazine: Cover Reveal

Kekai Kotaki: kekaiart.com

~*The Lion King*~

July 19th is coming, and I have no chill!!!

It has been a long time since I have been this excited for a movie. Especially a remake, but The Lion King has been in my heart since it first debut in 1994.  Ever since the first time I heard “The Circle of Life”, and watched baby Simba be brought up high over the pride lands and presented to the Kingdom in the now iconic scene, this movie has held a very special place in my heart.

I’m looking forward to all the CGI effects and hearing Beyonce bring Nala back to life. As some people have come to say, she really was born for this part and fits perfectly into the role.

The Lion King was the first Disney animated feature to be an original story, rather than be based on an already existing work. The filmmakers have said that the story of The Lion King was inspired by the lives of Joseph and Moses, from the Bible, and William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Like the play, in The Lion King Simba, the main protagonist, is faced with the loss of his father who was killed by his power hungry uncle. Simba is then forced to battle his uncle for control over their kingdom, just as Hamlet does.

The Lion King sends important messages regarding friendship, love, and hope.

 

 

 

 

King Of Scars

“I am the monster and the monster is me.” Nikolai Lanstov

This amazing novel is the first of two in the Nikolai Lanstov Duology, and was one thrilling ride of a read.

Synopsis:
Nikolai Lantsov has always had a gift for the impossible. No one knows what he endured in his country’s bloody civil war—and he intends to keep it that way. Now, as enemies gather at his weakened borders, the young king must find a way to refill Ravka’s coffers, forge new alliances, and stop a rising threat to the once-great Grisha Army.

Yet with every day a dark magic within him grows stronger, threatening to destroy all he has built. With the help of a young monk and a legendary Grisha Squaller, Nikolai will journey to the places in Ravka where the deepest magic survives to vanquish the terrible legacy inside him. He will risk everything to save his country and himself. But some secrets aren’t meant to stay buried—and some wounds aren’t meant to heal.

My favorite character in this Novel:
Zoya Nazyalensky

Zoya’s character is so fascinating.

Bardugo doesn’t shy away from the more painful realities of those who have been hurt and abused by the Darkling. And Zoya is one of them. Zoya was a weapon in the Darkling’s grip, a tool of vengeance, and a sop to his pride. She, like many others, was as clay in his hands, and he’d poisoned her faculties for trust and love until they were so tangled with hate and guilt and shame that she hardly knew one from the other.

Zoya survived her abuser, she’s come so far only to behold the most wretched thing: the Darkling’s followers, in their inexpiable ignorance–or perhaps worse, their cold indifference–have built a monument to his crimes, the crimes Zoya had suffered, and declared him a saintly soul. This isn’t a mere tragic backstory. Knock down the magical elements and there are real, important issues here, foremost among which is how we often reward violence with exultation instead of making sure the abusers’ names remain forgotten. “Who would speak for Liliyana, for Genya and Alina and Baghra if she did not? Who will speak for me?” Zoya asks.

It was also heartrending to see how Zoya begun to wield her cynicism and irony as shields to protect her softer feelings. The kinder said she was cruel. But others spoke of someone with only witchcraft in her veins and no warmth. The more you spend time inside her thoughts, you realize that the thing to which Zoya assigned the name of “rage”—and only rage—was not actually that. It was only the mask it wore, because fear was weakness, and Zoya had sworn to never again be weak.

This clever, illuminating contrast between the girl we meet—and not entirely warm up to—in The Grisha Trilogy, and the woman Zoya has become in the wake of tragedy, is deeply arresting.

“Zoya of the lost city. Zoya of the garden. Zoya bleeding in the snow. You are strong enough to survive the fall.”

Zoya also offers a very interesting counterpart to Nikolai’s character. Both of them kept their minds captive at the surface, only very rarely allowing it to sink into the terrifying and unknowable deep. But even when their innermost thoughts stayed hidden from each other, they still noticed the weight of the secrets the other carried, even if they didn’t know the shape of the secret itself. I loved their dynamics so much. How they became inseparable, like the lines of a couplet that would lose their grip on their meaning out of context. I love how they had this unspoken agreement to not bullshit each other, to never back-pedal or soften or sugarcoat.

In conclusion, Leigh Bardugo never ceases to amaze me.  The Grishaverse is an wonderful world utterly, and extremely bewitching. It truly is one of the best novels I have read since the Harry Potter series. She has made this worl seem so real to me. I am in love, and cannot wait for the sequel to be available.

Story Time

Today I was going to write a book post. I was going to tell you everything I like about a certain book, and why you should run out and buy said book right away. I was going to post lovely pictures of the book with its beautiful dust jacket.

(DISCLAIMER: I am not writing this to hurt anyone. This is a past story and it has been almost 2 years since it happened. Life is Better Now)

Plans change. I have a story stuck in my head that I think you should hear.
So for all of you lovely people, today is…..wait for it…

#WednesdayMotivational

A little over a year and a half ago, I went through a really tough life changing period in my life. It was the week after Canada Day, and everything in my life crumbled at my feet.

Alcohol was involved, Cops were involved. Now before I go any further, no I wasn’t drunk, no I didn’t fight someone in a club, or anything like that. It was supposed to be a fun time though. The Grandparents had taken the 3 kids for the summer, so I was free to do as I pleased.

I wont get into detail as too what happened that night, or name names, but it was just a pivotal moment in my life, and after that everything changed. I do not write this to make anyone feel bad for what happened.

The aftermath of that night is still fresh in my memory though. As I said, the children were away with the Grandparents, and I was left alone in a big house. Left to my own brain to rerun everything that had transpired. I spent the next 7 days waiting for a doctors appointment. 7 days, at 24 hours a day, equals 168 hours I spent awake.
I wasn’t scared or terrified, but I just couldn’t shut my brain off to go to sleep. Netflix and smoking became my best friend. Energy Drinks and Pepsi were my go to drink, and I barely ate anything. I binge watched the heck out of Grace and Frankie, and movies in between.

I think this was the lowest point in my life because I truly felt I had no one around me close by to talk to or help get me through this. I was completely and utterly alone in my mind. My family was a 7 hour drive away, and the very few people I did know in this town were busy with their own lives, and I felt like I would have been bothering them anyways with my own problems.

So I stayed awake, and I thought, and I cried. Not the quiet sob, or silent tears streaming down my face. I ugly cried. I bawled my eyes out until they were red and sore, and my chest felt like it would cave in at any moment.

When I was able to gather myself together, I would just leave the house to walk to the store for smokes, or more energy drinks or Pepsi. I know that was probably all contributing factors to my staying awake, but in that moment I didn’t care. The outside world was a blur. Nothing in that time mattered.

I finally got to see my doctor that Thursday, and ended up being prescribed something to help me get some sleep. I spent the next 24 hours in bed in and out of glorious slumber. I felt refreshed enough after that to gather myself up and hold my head high again and carry on.

Carry on I did!

In the weeks following that event, I moved out of that town and closer to my family, so close that I live with them now, and things have never been better. They help me with the kids, and I am able to focus more on working on blogs and writing.

The whole long lengthy point of me telling you this story is so that if you can take anything away from it, I would want you to know that in a moment of your deepest despair, no matter how bad or ugly things are getting in your moment, it will get better. It may not be tomorrow, it may not be next week, but the sun will shine again, and you will come out on the other side like the true warrior you are.

You Will Survive This!

It took me a long while after to realize, one of the hardest moments in my life was also one of the best because if it didn’t happen, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I wouldn’t be as content and happy with my life and the path I am headed on now.

I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday, and that this week is good to you.

Keep Striving for Greatness.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Harry Potter

I have been mulling over the idea lately of revisiting the Harry Potter Series.

Yes all 7 books. 1 through 7. The entire Harry Potter series.

I have put the question out to facebook/instagram and would like to throw the question out to all of you in this space as well.

My Idea is to take a month and reread each book, post discussions and go through each chapter, because it has been a long time since I have read the novels, and I feel like its time. I would love to take a month and turn this blog into read Harry Potter month. Try different recipes from the novels, have a Author day and talk about J.K Rowling and all she has contributed to the world with this series.

Having said all of that, I am posting this question to all of you.

Which Month is better, July OR October?

I have these to months in mind because they are both important months in the novel.

July is when Harry received his letter to Hogwarts, had his birthday and found out he was a wizard from Hagrid.

October is a month for all things magical and wizard like. This is the month when people like to see costumes for Halloween.

So which do you think is the better month?

Comment down below or find me on instagram @cburt2023, and vote on my insta story which one you think would be better.

Have a great day everyone!

Girl, Stop Apologizing!

(Photo http://www.thehollisco.com)

I preordered this novel weeks before it became available on chapters.indigo.ca. I finally received my copy yesterday via UPS. I am halfway through reading already, and I could not be more pleased with this purchase. Rachel Hollis has hit every cord in my heart so far. Every page is one enlightening moment after another.

If I could ever recommend a Self Help/ Goal Achieving book for anyone to read, it would be THIS!

She knows how to reach your heart and your unspoken thoughts with every word she writes. She is able to speak to the little girl in my heart, who was always trying to please everyone but myself. I had tears in my eyes, and was nodding my head in agreement and hadn’t passed the introduction yet.

The layout of the book is out of this world:

Part 1 is 9 different excuses to let go of.

Part 2 is 7 behaviours to adopt.

Part 3 is 6 skills to acquire.

I love how she is able to incorporate her own life lessons into each excuse,behaviour and skill. She isn’t just tell you what to do, but how she lived it and what she did to get through it.

I know this book is going to be attached to me for a very long time, and I hope that all of you go get a copy too.

10/10 rating on the book.

I hope all of you have a great week. Sending much love from me to you.

Happy Valentines Day💕

That sums up this post.

Happy Valentines Day.

I hope you have people close to you that you love and love you.
I hope you know you are loved.
I hope you take the time to breathe today.
I hope you know you are a magnificent being.

That’s a lot of hope, I know.

Today, know how truly blessed you are. If you are alone on this Valentine’s Day, why not treat yourself to some me time. Even if that is just taking a bubble bath and sitting back with a coffee and reading a good book.

Treat Yo Self… to some chocolate, and a good movie.

This day doesn’t have to be about all the material stuff you can give someone, that true just collects dust in a corner. Do something nice for someone else.

If you have a spouse/partner, help with the house work, or offer to make a meal. Come together as a team and show your loved one that they are appreciated.

Sending all my love to anyone who reads this.

The Happiest of Valentines Day to you All from Me.

F.O.F

I’m having a deep session of F.O.F today.

It’s been in the back of my mind for months now, maybe even years. It’s been the one thing that holds me back in a lot of my everyday endeavours.

What is F.O.F? Well I’m glad you asked. F.O.F stands for Fear Of Failure. It’s that tiny nagging voice that crawls up from the dark recesses of the furthest, deepest corner of the mind. It spreads doubt and fear of everything you try to think of, create , or do. It tries to make you believe you aren’t good enough. It crops up at the worst of times, asking the doubting questions and attempting to extinguish any spark or flame you may be trying to ignite within your soul.

At the best of times it can feel like a road block or wall has been built right in the middle of the path to your dream. At the worst of times, it can feel like chains around your neck, wrists, and ankles. The chains haul you down under the water, trying to drown out any thought of doing something new and exciting.

F.O.F will say why try that? No one is going to want to see it anyway. No one will want to hear what you have to say. You aren’t important enough to even be thinking of that.

You need to stamp that voice out.

Don’t listen to that voice, because if you do… you’ll never experience any of the beauty life has to offer.

There will always be people who want to hear what you have to say, and want to see what you have to bring to the table.

You Are Important!

You have been placed on this Earth to do great things. Destiny has a way for you.

You may not see it right now… but you will find your path.

Let your light shine, and don’t let a single person try to dull you out.

You Are Beautiful inside and out!

Besides what so wrong with failure?

If you fail at one thing, it’s just the opportunity to try something new, or try again till you get it right. Don’t let failure hold you back.

In the words of Rachel Hollis:

“You were Made for More”