{"id":291,"date":"2011-04-11T10:00:23","date_gmt":"2011-04-11T14:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thequeenofmyself\/?p=291"},"modified":"2011-04-06T10:58:59","modified_gmt":"2011-04-06T14:58:59","slug":"interview-with-a-canadian-queen-%e2%80%93-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2011\/04\/interview-with-a-canadian-queen-%e2%80%93-part-1.html","title":{"rendered":"Interview with a Canadian Queen \u2013 Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently attended a talk by Canadian author Catherine Gildiner<\/a> and was quite taken with her good humored wisdom. When I read her book, <\/em>After the Falls, I was hooked. She graciously allowed me to interview her and I would like to share her answers with you. They offer a revealing and inspiring description of a woman coming into her power.<\/em><\/p>\n

It is also my pleasure to offer copies of <\/em>After the Falls to the first three women who contact me <\/a>to request one.<\/em><\/p>\n

Interview with a Canadian Queen \u2013 Part 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

QMD – I understand that you did not begin to write until you were in your 50s. Can you please tell me about that? What made you want to chronicle your early life?<\/strong><\/p>\n

CG –<\/strong> I was a psychologist for twenty-five years and then one night at a dinner party I began telling a story of\u00a0an event that occurred when I worked in my father’s drug store from the age of four. I was delivering drugs with the black delivery car driver and we were snowed in and I had to stay overnight at his house.\u00a0The woman who had the party worked for CBC (Canadian Broadcasting\u00a0Company). She encouraged me to\u00a0write\u00a0up the tale. She suggested I enter it into a short story competition. However\u00a0once I started to write \u2014 I wrote a whole memoir!\u00a0Then I\u00a0sent it to a publisher\u00a0and it was immediately published and on the best seller’s list. I decided at that point to begin a full time career in writing. I was already fifty so I decided\u00a0I didn’t have that much time left.<\/p>\n

I concentrated on my early life because\u00a0I had such memorable people in my work as a young child, they seemed to\u00a0be screaming in\u00a0my head to be written about.<\/p>\n

QMD – What was your first sense of yourself as a self-identified person, separate from what society expected of you? <\/strong><\/p>\n

CG –<\/strong> A bully was harassing me and hurting me. He was pulling out my hair in bunches for months. I went to my teacher and parents but their solutions did not stop the bullying. Finally I stabbed the bully in grade four with a compass. He collapsed.\u00a0And I finally let him have it. I was kicked out\u00a0of school and was forced to see a psychiatrist. That\u00a0was\u00a0a fairly dramatic consequence for a Catholic school in the 1950s.\u00a0I had a sense that I was not doing what was expected of me but I really didn’t care. I had protected myself. It wasn’t what\u00a0Catholic school expected from my parents. I however realized I was on my own and I had protected myself. If people thought I was crazy I REALLY\u00a0didn’t care. It was quite freeing really.<\/p>\n

QMD – When and in what circumstances have you felt yourself to be powerful? <\/strong><\/p>\n

CG –<\/strong> I have\u00a0felt powerful several times.\u00a0I worked on civil rights in the 60’s.\u00a0\u00a0Even when I was a young kid I went out in the night\u00a0and\u00a0decided to paint\u00a0all the black lawn jockeys (lawn ornaments) white. When it was written up in the paper as “vandalism” I still felt powerful for doing it. Any time that I worked for a\u00a0greater public goal I felt a surge of personal power.<\/p>\n

QMD –\u00a0 What powers, strengths, visions, are you working on manifesting now? <\/strong><\/p>\n

CG –<\/strong> I am not working on any powers in the external sense.\u00a0I feel I have a lot of those. I am working on trying to manage my anger and type A personality so that I can better enjoy my personal relationships.\u00a0If you want to talk in terms of\u00a0visions, I want to see myself as\u00a0someone who accepts others and accepts myself. Hard driving gets you all kinds of\u00a0external rewards (PhD, money, books published, psychology private practice)\u00a0but at 62 you find it wears out\u00a0your motor and replacement parts are hard to come by.\u00a0I\u00a0have bought a farm so that I can calm down and appreciate nature and solitude.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow Interview with a Canadian Queen \u2013 Part 2<\/p>\n

* Please send me your thoughts about power. Also stories of your own empowerment. When shared, these ideas and examples are extremely inspiring to others. Thanks.<\/em><\/p>\n

***
\nThe Queen welcomes questions concerning all issues of interest to women in their mature years. Send your inquiries to thequeenofmyself@aol.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

CONSULT THE MIDLIFE MIDWIFE\u2122<\/a>
\nQueen Mama Donna offers upbeat, practical and ceremonial guidance for individual women and groups who want to enjoy the fruits of an enriching, influential, purposeful, passionate, and powerful maturity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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