Burnaby NOW • Saturday, April 30, 2011 • A13
15 Soul Shake
29 What’s happening
32 Paper Postcards
SECTION COORDINATOR Jennifer Moreau, 604-444-3021 jmoreau@burnabynow.com
How to make every day a vacation Burnaby life coach offers advice in new book Janaya Fuller-Evans staff reporter
Gloria Tom Wing Staudt began her personal journey to a permanent vacation as a sleep-deprived new mother. Feeling overwhelmed, she went through a process of surrendering to a higher power, she says. “That was the moment I gave up the need to control and the need to know how everything would unfold,” Staudt writes in the first chapter of her book, Live Your Vacation. Staudt moved to Burnaby 17 or 18 years ago with her husband, Richard, when she was eight months pregnant. This experience led her to reassess how she lived and in turn to write a guidebook for others with clear exercises they can do to live a more consistently celebratory life, she says. The book was inspired by her mother, Staudt says. “I thought it would always be great, to have my mom write a book,” she explains, adding she wanted to be able to pass her mother’s wisdom on to her daughter in book form. But when Staudt went to see a psychic medium, she says, she received a message from her father, who had passed on, telling her to write her mother’s life story. She considered writing the book with her mother but didn’t want to put too much pressure on her, she says. Instead, she wrote a personal guidebook herself, but with her mother’s wisdom in mind. The primary message of the book is simple. “I am a masterpiece because I am born that way, and you are, too,” she says. The book gives concrete instructions on creating clear vision and commitment statements, as well as suggestions for shedding excess baggage. Part of living your vacation, she says, is letting go of the little things.
Larry Wright/burnaby now
New future: Gloria Tom Wing Staudt is sharing her vision for living a more celebratory life in a newly released book, Live Your Vacation. The book is available online through www.liveyourvacation.com. “You get upset, but it’s how quickly you get over it that counts.” While the book can be read from start to finish, it can also be a go-to guide on a page-by-page basis, Staudt says. “I feel you can open the book anywhere,” she says. “There’s a lot packed into there.” She received feedback while writing the book from storyteller and writer Richard Van Camp – CBC Radio’s writer in residence for North by Northwest – whom she considers a mentor, she says.
“You need to show more of you in it,” he told her, so she included more of her personality and experiences. Staudt attended Long Island University. She left Trinidad when she was 22. Her parents have been very proud of her accomplishments, as they were not formally educated themselves, she says. “They learned on the streets of Trinidad.” Staudt has a master’s degree in psychology and a graduate business certificate. She is the owner of Peak Success Coaching,
and past-president and member of the Rotary Club of Burnaby – Metrotown. Staudt has also chaired the Burnaby Board of Trade Business Excellence Awards. Live Your Vacation can be purchased at www.liveyourvacation.com, amazon. com, and 32 Books in Edgemont Village in North Vancouver. There are extras on the Live Your Vacation website, as well, to complement the book. www.twitter.com/janayafe
Information fair offers resources for caregivers and six speakers. The fair is 10 a.m to 2 p.m. at the Nikkei centre, 6688 Southoaks Cres.
Open house
HERE & NOW
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Jennifer Moreau
he third annual Burnaby Family Caregivers Information Fair is on today (Saturday, April 30). People caring for elderly loved ones can get information on resources. There will be more than 35 service providers there
The Rotary Club of Burnaby Metrotown is hosting an open house on Wednesday, May 4 in hopes of recruiting new members. The service group is inviting business leaders and professional to get involved in efforts to help their local community. The event is at the Holiday Inn Express Metrotown, from noon to
1:30 p.m. To RSVP, call 604-613-4045.
New principal
Michel Deslauriers is the new principal at St. Thomas More Collegiate. Deslauriers is replacing Darrell Hall, who is stepping down as principal but still teaching. Deslauriers is currently the assistant principal at Vancouver College, and he’s a STM alumnus and former faculty member. STM is also hosting a flapper-themed fundraiser on Friday, May 6, at the Italian Cultural Centre in
Vancouver. Tickets are $100 per person, and proceeds go to the school. Go to www.stmcdinner auction.ca to get a ticket. The Italian Cultural Centre is at 3075 Slocan St.
Spirit Fish
The Still Moon Arts Society is presenting a special festival celebrating natural waterways. They’re calling it the Spirit Fish Project, and it starts on May 7 with a “bike pilgrimage.” Participants can depart by bike from Renfrew SkyTrain station at noon
and follow Still Creek along the Central Valley Greenway to the space under the Kensington overpass. The main event is the Spirit Fish Festival from noon to 4 p.m. between the Kensington overpass and the Sperling SkyTrain station. (Organizers are holding the event beneath the underpass to have a natural covering.) There will be nature inspired art installations, performers, live music, a tea party, arts and crafts, origami boats and nature walks.
“It’s just about really calling to people’s attention the fact we have these amazing beautiful green spaces in the middle of our very urban environment,” said Rebecca Coleman. “It’s kind of like a secret.” If you want to decorate your bike ahead of time (adults and children welcome), the arts society is hosting workshops on May 3 to 5, from 3 to 6 p.m. at Slocan Park field house. For more information about the event, go to www.stillmoon.org. Here & Now Page 14