Speaker Profile : Marie MacDonald leads a rich and varied life as a mother, wife and consultant who has run her own human resource development company since 1989. She is an experienced facilitator, keynote speaker and executive coach and has worked with many organizations supporting them in riding the wave of phenomenal change. She has worked extensively with groups to increase their resilience and maintain personal and organizational health during complex change. Marie brings a humorous, infectious and powerful presence to the processes of transition and believes 'Walking the Talk' of our own wellness provides the personal resilience needed to thrive in our fast paced world. Her clients have described her as someone who brings heart to organizations
Marie began her first full time job in 1972 as a childcare worker in a psychiatric treatment center for young children. After she completed her Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Masters of Social Work at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Marie moved to the west coast. She spent eleven years in a number of government management positions in the field of child welfare. At the time of her first pregnancy, Marie left the management stream in government and accepted a position as a college instructor. This allowed her to create some balance between parenting and furthering her professional aspirations.
In a short time Marie was successfully juggling life as a parent, a college instructor and professional consultant. She worked extensively with groups in the areas of Organizational Wellness and Change Resilience. Marie's dynamic, energetic and humorous style brought her great success and her business grew.
With a second child on the way and her father facing a potentially terminal cancer diagnosis, life suddenly became more serious. Her father's illness galvanized her keen interest in wellness and the mind/body/spirit connection. The challenge of balancing her own life however, was becoming increasingly more difficult. At age 41 with 3 and 6 year old daughters, Marie was diagnosed with breast cancer and her world came crashing down.
"Grief makes a precious incision on the soul and has the capacity
to allow you to understand who you really are and what you want."
~ unknown author
Ironically, the day after her diagnosis, Marie was presenting a Wellness Workshop at a conference and was struck by the fact that 'Talking the Talk' of wellness was not enough. Her illness would take her to a much deeper level of understanding. A wake-up call had been sent and received, her keen interest was no longer an academic discussion, 'Walking the Talk' was key to her survival.
The Shift...
Not everything that is faced can be changed.
But nothing can be changed until it is faced.
~ J. Baldwin
During Marie's seven-month recovery period, she stopped for the first time to ponder and reflect on what she really wanted in life. 
Like many people living in a fast-paced world, Marie and her husband saw years fly by as they juggled careers, family responsibilities, personal and social lives. They made a decision to focus more on living in the now, having more fun, joy, and time together as a couple. From this new perspective they decided to put everything on the table and reconstruct their lives in a way that supported wellness. Old goal posts had changed, new ones were set, and certain elements of the old ways were dropped over time. The challenge of course was to figure out how to do all of this. As Marie commented to a friend, 'I know I need to be more spontaneous and live in the moment and that's fine if I could just get a schedule of the moments'!
"The goal was to make sure we were doing what we wanted with our lives, and living our dreams today".
'The way we lived our lives was put under a microscope. Toxic elements in our family relationships, friendships, work dynamics and aspects of city living were re-evaluated'.
For over a year following radiation treatments Marie's energy was severely depleted. She began to consider her heart to be her energy 'battery' and 'deposits only' became a guide in choosing activities. She taught her children that sometimes 'Mommy' was closed for a while and needed to rest. One day she overheard her six year old telling her three year old, "Don't bug mommy when she's closed or she be closed all night"
This began the continual process of filtering decisions, plans and ideas through a lens to determine if they were supportive to health. The challenge here for Marie was that this was the first time in her life that she consistently put her own needs first. She knew intuitively that drawing personal boundaries and honouring her own needs were part of her healing. A few years later, a decision was made to leave the city of Vancouver for a slower paced friendlier life in Victoria. This meant leaving behind high paying jobs, academic tenure and support networks in exchange for a life with more ease. (and less rain!)
"Do not follow where the path may lead.
Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail".
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
During the last four years in Victoria, Marie has experienced many challenges in maintaining balance. The process for all of us is a lifelong journey and not a quick fix. As Marie has become more resilient, she has increased her effectiveness in supporting the many organizations and individuals she works with to do the same. She defines resilience as the human capacity to bounce back, to face, overcome and possibly be strengthened by change.
As part of 'Walking the family talk' Marie and her husband Gus created a timetable where Gus was able to take an artistic sabbatical and develop his passion for music and composition. One of the products of his work can be heard on Dr. Nancy Wardle's CD, 'Calm Down', for which Gus composed the music and supervised the recording in his home studio.
The demands and challenges of the twenty first century living requires that we focus not just on head, but on heart. Marie had to learn to listen to her heart in order to 'Walk the Talk.'
Speaker Profiles : In each future edition of "Well", we will be featuring an article by, or profile of, one of our Speakwell speakers. This was the first.
 Congratulations to ex Speakwell employee Guy LeMasurier who has received a
grant of $22,000 for a state-wide, pedometer-based intervention in Arizona. It is part of a Healthy Aging 2010 initiative targeting adults between 50 and 64. Guy will be reporting in more detail in the next
issue of 'Well' |
