My name is Bonnie Penner and I am a firm believer in freedom with deep convictions that community is built through connection and contribution. I'm purpose driven, action orientated, transparent compassionate and empathetic.
It is my belief, purposeful embracement of struggle creates trust, reveals Vision and produces passion with unstoppable drive. In essence, choosing to embrace life's challenges generates trust and achieves inner peace, regardless of what life throws at you!
As an educator, activist and formulator, I started my business Organically Clean in 2010 at the Kelowna Farmers' Market which I rebranded in 2013 to Zero Xeno. I created a non-profit society, the Bravery Foundation, in March of 2022, in response to the unjust war in Ukraine. The Bravery Foundation received 'Charitable at Law' designation on July 1, 2022, and is now a Canadian registered charity.
Even though past experiences have taught me that embracing struggle is key to unlocking the doorway of trust, it hasn't been easy. It has however, created new realities in my life that once seemed impossible.
Many years ago, a simple mistake taught me a life lesson that helped me recognize the value of struggle and its connection with trust.
As one of our homeschool projects, my boys and I decided to hatch baby chicks in a homemade incubator in our living room. All the books and articles we read warned us to NOT help them as they struggled out of their shell. They said the chicks needed to fight to hatch and if they didn’t, they would die. What they neglected to tell us was WHY this was true.
Each day we carefully turned the eggs and kept the humidity and temperature just right. We candled the eggs and saw the little chicks form inside their shells. Finally hatching day arrived and with great anticipation we watched as they piped their way out. After hours of anxiously waiting, we couldn’t resist peeling away some of their shells. They seemed so helpless as they fought to be free and we thought how could a little help be that harmful.
Sadly, we learned the hard way that the yolk sack, which later becomes the chick’s intestines, remains outside their body prior to hatching. The purpose of the yolk sack is to nourish the little ones through their struggle. It provides the last bit of energy required for them to successfully hatch.
After many hours of anxiously watching our chicks struggle, we decided to pull away some of the shell and help them hatch. To our horror we discovered their intestines hanging outside their body. We frantically tried wrapping small cloths and tape around our prematurely hatched chicks. We were desperate to provide artificial struggle so their intestines would retract to where they belonged.
Mournfully, we watched as they died one by one. This experience was awful. Especially after we discovered our lack of trust in embracing struggle is what led us to do things we thought were helpful.
Thankfully we learned from our mistake, and later successfully hatched not only little chicks but ducklings too! We were sure to share our experience with other homeschoolers so they could learn from our misjudgment.
“Struggle causes one to look beyond the possible, so the impossible becomes possible!”
Embrace Struggle!
It is my belief, purposeful embracement of struggle creates trust, reveals Vision and produces passion with unstoppable drive. In essence, choosing to embrace life's challenges generates trust and achieves inner peace, regardless of what life throws at you!
As an educator, activist and formulator, I started my business Organically Clean in 2010 at the Kelowna Farmers' Market which I rebranded in 2013 to Zero Xeno. I created a non-profit society, the Bravery Foundation, in March of 2022, in response to the unjust war in Ukraine. The Bravery Foundation received 'Charitable at Law' designation on July 1, 2022, and is now a Canadian registered charity.
Even though past experiences have taught me that embracing struggle is key to unlocking the doorway of trust, it hasn't been easy. It has however, created new realities in my life that once seemed impossible.
Many years ago, a simple mistake taught me a life lesson that helped me recognize the value of struggle and its connection with trust.
As one of our homeschool projects, my boys and I decided to hatch baby chicks in a homemade incubator in our living room. All the books and articles we read warned us to NOT help them as they struggled out of their shell. They said the chicks needed to fight to hatch and if they didn’t, they would die. What they neglected to tell us was WHY this was true.
Each day we carefully turned the eggs and kept the humidity and temperature just right. We candled the eggs and saw the little chicks form inside their shells. Finally hatching day arrived and with great anticipation we watched as they piped their way out. After hours of anxiously waiting, we couldn’t resist peeling away some of their shells. They seemed so helpless as they fought to be free and we thought how could a little help be that harmful.
Sadly, we learned the hard way that the yolk sack, which later becomes the chick’s intestines, remains outside their body prior to hatching. The purpose of the yolk sack is to nourish the little ones through their struggle. It provides the last bit of energy required for them to successfully hatch.
After many hours of anxiously watching our chicks struggle, we decided to pull away some of the shell and help them hatch. To our horror we discovered their intestines hanging outside their body. We frantically tried wrapping small cloths and tape around our prematurely hatched chicks. We were desperate to provide artificial struggle so their intestines would retract to where they belonged.
Mournfully, we watched as they died one by one. This experience was awful. Especially after we discovered our lack of trust in embracing struggle is what led us to do things we thought were helpful.
Thankfully we learned from our mistake, and later successfully hatched not only little chicks but ducklings too! We were sure to share our experience with other homeschoolers so they could learn from our misjudgment.
“Struggle causes one to look beyond the possible, so the impossible becomes possible!”
Embrace Struggle!
by Bonnie Penner