Katie Leggitt

I believe everything happens for a reason.  That much I know for sure, but what to do when those meaningful events occur, often leaves me with some questions. This past week had a strong, overriding theme: Leadership.  Monday I hosted Easter dinner and fed 14 people.  From my own two hands.  I had help, especially from my niece Sarah, who is awesome, and I was able to delegate when needed.  Tuesday I went to Mega Day, an intense, action-packed day aimed at motivating and inspiring students through leadership.  It was held at Heritage High School on the South Shore.  Heritage is now the home of my old high school, RVR.  RVR and Macdonald Cartier joined and formed Heritage.  You wouldn't know it, walking through the halls...  I graduated ten years ago, but the only sign of RVR is a big collage of athletic pictures and one of four gyms named after the school.  That's okay.  Things change, but going there and seeing those pictures reminded me of those times.  High school. The f

"I'm not funny.  What I am is brave."  Lucille Ball said that.  She's been on my mind all week.  Originally because I decided to get her portrait tattooed above my elbow, or my funny bone, as a reminder to myself of my love for comedy... But once I came across that quote, it set the tone for the week.  Leading up to tonight.  Sunday Night Improv at Theatre Ste-Catherine.  More specifically, biting the bullet and doing the show already. I've done comedy shows for years now.  I've been doing SNL skits with friends since high school.  I've channeled crazy characters for no good reason, disgruntled New Yorkers in awkward social moments to playing old ladies in the classrooms I visit.  Just for kicks.  To make others laugh, to lighten the situation and sometimes to illustrate my point through someone else's perspective.  But somewhere in between trying to build a career and dealing with a minor identity crisis, I lost my comedy edge.  My flare was gone.  

I don't know about you, but the whole chakra system makes a lot of sense to me.  When certain parts of me are out of whack, I usually turn to its chakra for significance.  Believe it or not, thinking about chakras has helped reduce my tendency toward hypochondria.  It allows me to think about my ailments a little deeper and ask myself what's really going on in my life. So lately my neck and throat have been bugging me.  I chalked it up to recovering from quitting smoking, but I still don't feel like my throat ever fully recovered.  Last night during the TV on the Radio concert it was killing me.  Stiff, achy and maybe even swollen.  Previous and recent hypochondriac response led me to a series of tests and as usual it turns out, I'm super healthy. Came up with squat.  Wow I actually sound disappointed. The throat chakra is associated with communication, and the color blue.  Generally ailments in this area might indicate a difficulty in expressing one's creativit

A few days ago I took a trip down memory lane.  I had to drive to Saint-Bruno to get my tires changed.  I was early, so I continued down the 116 to visit my old house in Saint-Hilaire, where I grew up. We sold it about five years ago when my grandfather moved into a retirement home and my mom bought a condo.  It's a big house, with a big yard, and too much work required by either to upkeep.  So they sold it to a young couple with little kids who renovated the entire place. If you've ever gone apple picking in Saint-Hilaire, then you know there's that long stretch of road up the mountain, after you're greeted by the wicker/wire family who's collecting apples.  My house is a little in and to the right of them.  I turned left onto DeRamsey, the most familiar stretch in Saint-Hilaire, to me anyway, and slowly cruised along.  Flashbacks of rainy nights, tears, footstep-counting and bike rides came to me.  It's somewhat of a long walk from the 200 bus stop, and as

I was talking over cookies and fruit salad last night about shedding old habits. Lobsters shed their shell roughly once a year.  It takes approximately half an hour.  To do this, they risk a great deal of harm while they are being fully vulnerable, exposed and lacking protection. When it's done, it will eat the shell to recover minerals that will help harden the new one.  I took a class once by Stephen Sims, author of River of Awareness, who spoke of this.  He says that lobsters will "go to the reef" in order to shed their shell.  And symbolically like the lobster, we too feel vulnerable and exposed when transitioning, when we "go to the reef." I feel like I'm on my way back from the reef.  Some day I'll have to go back again I'm sure, only to shed another skin to reveal a better, enlightened way of living. For now I'm happily riding this current and enjoying the rewards.  Being able to look behind me and think about the way I lived my life i

I bumped into somebody I hadn't seen in a long time recently, and caught myself delivering old news.  She was someone I considered a mentor for a long time, and someone who has made a big impact on my approach to youth.  When I saw her and she asked how I was, I gave her a quick rundown of major changes in my life that occurred since I last saw her, which included the life-changing breakup between my ex and I.  Since that happened, my life has developed in so many positive ways, due to the lifestyle changes I have made, people I've met and having gotten back in touch with myself. But she was like, "didn't that happen a year and a half ago?"  I realized she'd heard about it through mutual coworkers.  And I felt embarrassed.  Holy shit, have I not let go of that yet?  There's so much good stuff going on in my life right now, and that was the pivotal time that allowed me to make changes, but it's true.  It's old news now. At what point do our stor

I'm going to half-ass an attempt at updating on how my sugar cleanse went. Half-ass, because it's Friday night, it's been a helluva week and I want to watch a movie before midnight, damnit. I just got in from my high school's Willy Wonka production.  It was great, but at the break, I was tempted to buy some chocolates, partly to support the kids' fundraiser for Japan, and partly because I thought I wanted some.  The truth is, for once in my life, I really had no desire to eat any at all.  My body understood, and I listened. Before I tell you what I managed to eat on my 3-day mini detox, I'll tell you that it was way harder than I thought it would be.  I mean, I painted a house in 40 degree weather on the Master Cleanse last summer and found it easier.  Okay that's so not true, but giving up sugar made me appreciate food's natural sweetness way more. The first day as I wrote in a previous blog, I drank a coconut-strawberry smoothie, with hemp seeds.

Growing up I was told that I wasn't a mistake, I was a pleasant surprise.  An unplanned pregnancy but welcomed with lots of joy anyway.  I'm pretty happy to be here even if nobody was planning on it.  I guess the universe was.  :) Today I learned a lesson in making mistakes. I used to work for a customs broker and making mistakes were a big deal due to money and time and things you can't really undo, but now I work for people, with people.  Making mistakes now means there's human repercussions.  Hurting people's feelings or pissing them off is just how it goes when you slip up, and then you have an emotional mess to clean up and apologize for afterwards. I am thankful for getting a degree in Human Relations.  I feel very well equipped to deal with people in sensitive situations.  I've learned to take my time, choose my words wisely, and approach others with a calm manner when shit goes down.  That doesn't mean I won't swear like a trucker and write

I'm getting déjà-vu as I write this.  As I was signing in, flashbacks of dreams and memories that never happened came to me.  As if I know what's going to happen next.  I had a conversation with my cousin Kate in my early twenties about déjà-vu, and I loved her take on it so much that it's become part of my philosophy.   Déjà-vu moments are like little checkpoints in life that are telling you you're on the right track.  Like someone is encouraging you and rooting for you behind the scenes and déjà-vu is a way of marking it.  When I get them, it feels like I've dreampt this exact moment years ago, before I knew the people around me or how my life's path would unfold.  I've never had a negative déjà-vu experience.  It always happens in moments where I'm doing something that makes me feel good.  Like I planned for it before I got here, and I mean got here, in this life.  I was planning to write a blog inspired by the sweetest banana I ever ate.  I guess I