Ada Limón – 1976

More than the fuchsia funnels breaking out
of the crabapple tree, more than the neighbor’s
almost obscene display of cherry limbs shoving
their cotton candy-colored blossoms to the slate
sky of Spring rains, it’s the greening of the trees
that really gets to me. When all the shock of white
and taffy, the world’s baubles and trinkets, leave
the pavement strewn with the confetti of aftermath,
the leaves come. Patient, plodding, a green skin
growing over whatever winter did to us, a return
to the strange idea of continuous living despite
the mess of us, the hurt, the empty. Fine then,
I’ll take it, the tree seems to say, a new slick leaf
unfurling like a fist to an open palm, I’ll take it all.

Copyright © 2017 by Ada Limón. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on May 15, 2017, by the Academy of American Poets.


https://poets.org/poem/instructions-not-giving

I was very excited this week to receive notice about a survey on which features I might like to see included in a proposed CWL phone app. I avoided joining the CWL for many years because of the perception that they just do coffee & cookies after mass. However, as I get older I am feeling a call to leave a legacy behind me and maybe I can do something with and for the church.

Well, it seems my perceptions are a little outdated! Checking the CWL site, I found their purpose aligns more with mine than I could imagine: the CWL today is an organization who “promote awareness and respond to political and social issues that affect all Canadians“. I can do that…

If you are a CWL member or a woman thinking of participating in some sort of action for social or political change, check us out (yes, I became a member last month!).

AND please consider taking part in this survey seeking desirable features for a new CWL phone app!

This is unreal, that every person around the entire world is isolating themselves, carefully trying to restrict their movement and the spread of COVID-19.

I caught a cold last week. Scared myself. I don’t know where I got it from — must have been during a trip to the pharmacy or the grocery store. I am very carefully staying away from people, so it’s hard to know. Maybe it was that fellow who pushed past me when I paused to give someone time to clear the aisle. Or maybe it was that woman who cut between me and the other shopper waiting in line for the pharmacist, keeping two metres between us.

It’s awful to have no control over my own safety when others refuse to practice social distancing.

On a positive note, having taught online for almost a decade and studied online even longer, I am well positioned to expand my virtual teaching repertoire to include my face-to-face classes. Looking forward to sharing my expertise with my colleagues.

Stay safe. Stay home if you can, but, more importantly, stay safe.

I am saddened, today.

In 30 years, little has changed for women in non-traditional careers like engineering. Micro-aggressions, unintended biases and isolating actions continue in the workplace, even mine. These behaviours foster persisting cultures of intolerance, resisting change.

True, many women work with amazing colleagues in their departments or elsewhere in their organizations, colleagues who provide support, solace and safe havens in times of stress. That wasn’t enough 30 years ago when those 14 women were killed.

We must foster a culture of heart, where we promote inclusivity, tolerance and the willingness to step up and speak up when we witness inappropriate actions, language and behaviour.

Let’s make a difference today for tomorrow.

To all of you to whom I said that being President would be just as much work as being Vice President: I was wrong.

The last half of 2018 was one of the busiest seasons I have experienced, about on par with writing my dissertation, which I am very grateful to have at last fully completed (convocation was last November). Coupled with my paying commitments teaching Mech410T at UBC during the summer and teaching a full-time load at Camosun College in the fall, Engineers and Geoscientists BC activities completely filled up my time: Professional Reliance Review meetings, Branch meetings, elections, the Annual General Meeting and conference, and then follow up meetings, presentations and promotional activities like photos and writing for the Nov/Dec edition of Innovation Magazine.

Everyone I am working with has been amazing: I am so very grateful that this President role brings me into contact with brilliant, courageous and forward-thinking professionals. I look forward to meeting our two new government appointed Councillors later this month and working with this new team to ensure the new Professional Governance Act provides regulators with the tools we need to best protect the public interest. Keep checking the egbc.ca website for Council updates.

I am also looking forward to connecting with our national colleagues in engineering and geoscience regulation. Already, I have trips booked through winter and spring to attend several of the provincial regulator AGMs and meetings of Engineers Canada and Geoscience Canada.

Should be a lot of fun!

From Engineers and Geoscientists BC, July 30, 2018 (view this online):

As many of you know, the BC Government has been engaged in a review of the professional reliance model in the natural resource sector. This process, and the reforms that are being recommended in government’s Professional Reliance Review report, could fundamentally reshape our professions and how they are governed.

These changes would impact all members, not just those who work in the natural resource sector. Continue reading →

Once again, I am honoured and humbled by the ongoing confidence of the Nominating Committee who put my name forward this week as a presidential candidate for the 2018-2019 Council of Engineers and Geoscientists BC.

Thank you.

Wow! I just noticed that I have not posted here since before the elections! Tells me how busy I have been with Engineers & Geoscientists BC Council, work and my dissertation.

With the new year as Vice President, I begin my Branch visits across the province, starting in two weeks. If you are a member of Engineers & Geoscientists BC and have a question about regulation or what Council is up to, come on out to one of the Branch meetings when I am there. I look forward to meeting as many members as possible over the next few months.

With the new term upon us at Camosun College, I look forward to setting up class tours in industry to consolidate our in-class learning. If you are an industry member working in the engineering community, let me know what strengths our grads currently have…and where we can help develop needed skills and knowledge. This week will be our team development sessions and review, so a great time to look forward.

I am developing a new course for UBC Mechanical Engineering this term, as well, and look forward to working with the academic team on this new online opportunity. All very secret, for now, but should be running this summer, if all goes as planned…

As to my dissertation, it is in progress and very close to completion (defence). I have a paper related to this work in progress for delivery in Utah later this year. I will add it to the list of publications when it is done.

Happy New Year!