Deborah Barnes

05/28/2026

05/12/2026

THANK YOU 💞🙏🏾💞

This is a sad goodbye and heartfelt Thank You to who is closing their doors forever due to the challenging times that are affecting small businesses these days.

Your brand paid attention to women of All sizes and shapes. Helped us to feel seen And comfortable.

My experience with you has been life changing. Being in your campaigns gave me an opportunity to embrace my body as it is. No small thing to do publicly! That choice, to finally let the ties that bound me fall away, has permanently altered the way I live in this world.

Less shame, more Here I Am!
Less restriction, more ease.
I will be forever in your debt.

I know I'm not the only one whose life you changed for the better.

We will miss you.
..and thank you Karl O'Reilly for making me feel so comfortable in front of your lens. And of course for championing me on!

🙏🏾💞⚘️

05/10/2026

!URGENT!

This is not at all what I usually post on my page. Might even be a first. Something about this situation moves me deeply and I want to be a part of helping to save this little barred owl's life. I'll take this down when there's been some resolution.

COLEBROOK PARK AREA OF SURREY

This owl has a rat trap snapped tight to its leg.

Please keep an eye out for it. Don't approach or attempt to help Please.

Immediately call 604 946 3171 to report to the Owl Rehab Society. Try to quietly keep it in your sight if you can until.they arrive so that you can direct them to the location.

If you see anyone disturbing it, understand that they are probably trying to help and calmly let them know of this kinder alternative.

How incredibly frustrating and sad. Praying that this little one can be saved. (From us)

We are truly its only hope of survival.

Please Share.

Thanks everyone.

🙏🏾💞🙏🏾

05/05/2026

Guess it wasn't that important after all!😅🤣🤣🤣🤷🏾‍♀️

04/25/2026

And all of a sudden I am aware

Aware of where I am sitting
Who I have become
The ease in my body and in my mind

It’s a moment in time
Revealed to me in a flash of crystal clear consciousness.

The words, the feelings, the opening of doors on my journaling pages.
Noticing how utterly perfect the moment is.

Look at me, I say to myself!
Sitting on your patio in your leopard print attire
Taking a photo of yourself for the instagram
While you drink in the heat of the sun and the brilliant blue of the fresh Spring sky.

Look at me, I think to myself.
How the Hell did I even get here?
Living THIS life.
THIS life filled with wonder, opportunity and joy and Contentment.

THIS life with all the perks I never knew I could have.
The Fluevogs, ha ha! A home that suits me perfectly.
Organic grass fed butter.
A ‘career’ that somehow has an engine of its own, keeping me engaged and debt free.
Old friends and wonderful wonderful new friends - a true sense of community on a very broad scale.

What I’ve always had is Hope, and a strong belief that things will Always work out.
Usually not the way I’d planned, but often in a way that I couldn’t possibly have dreamed.

Throwing all this down here quickly so as not to lose this wonderful feeling.
Sharing, because I want to.

How is Your day unfolding?

Deborah Barnes
Coach / Mentor / Life Strategist
Calm success, one step at a time.

Email: [email protected]

I acknowledge with humility and gratitude that I work and live on the ancestral, traditional and unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-waututh) Nations.

04/14/2026

5 Sides of the CX-5

Wonderful to be a small part of Mazda's 5 Sides of the CX-5 campaign.

A cool marketing campaign with 5 distinct short films. I think this is the longest of the bunch at 4 min 35 sec. Love it when a brand breaks out of the norm.

Directed by the phenomenal Paul Hunter and gorgeously shot by none other than Hoyte van Hoytema

was a force to be reckoned with. Not only is she a talented actor - she's a brilliant singer, dancer, stunt person. Truly inspired by her!

I learned something new. How to work a string mop. Maybe not the most glamorous role I've ever had, but man oh man was that corner of the diner CLEAN!!
Staff must have been wondering what the serious Heck when they went in to work the next morning!😂

Always grateful to get asked to come play. ❤️

04/11/2026

"Undercurrent"

Ever grateful to who understood the assignment.

I am a whirlpool.
A Vortex. A Maelstrom.
A lens looking both inward and outward.
Formidable.

You caught me Ian Redd! 💞
It’s a twist to see myself this way. 
Feelin' the Power. 
It’s givin’ me ideas.

MUA Goddess!👑💞

04/07/2026

I SHOULD DO SOME SITUPS

Been putting off writing a post for months.

It’s a must do. Cuz of what’s under the resistance.
Hum hawing. 2nd guessing.
Must get out of head. Off my ASS. Do the Thing!

(My ASS has been uncomfortably shifting in my special ass-magnet chair for months.)
Mind on spin cycle for equally as long.

Only way I’ll get forward momentum is to move Forward.

So.

Sitting in New area.

Usual desk and office chair annoyed me.
Something about the ‘view’ was irritating.

Been gazing at my water bottle.
Lost in no thoughts.

Mind drifting to…
Bowl of fruit - uninspiring.

Cat mat needs de-furring.

(Just re-did my closet, it's beckoning)

I should refinish my kitchen island.

Lookin’ around.
Mind following along - not quite catching up.

Doors wide open. Spring breeze is divine.
20 flies have joined me.
Having a circle party in the living room.
Where do they go when the party’s over?
They never seem to stick around…

Laptop open and ready to receive!
Spattering of useless thoughts there.
Yup. Nope.

Spring outfits!

Maybe take a break and try that new dance routine I saved on Instagram.

Listen to those little chickadees...those rockin robins!
I’m back in ’62. Backyard Spring smells.
Mud pies not quite baking in the coolish sun.
Stupid huge Port Moody slugs.
Nasty in-between toe memories.

Ticking in the walls, whirring from somewhere, clanking fridge...gurgling oil diffuser… buzz hootenanny happening over there with the flies

Wind chimes.

Aura of impatience.

Just put down a Word deb.
Focus. Grrrrrr. That word is anathema to me.
So is discipline. Don't tell Me what to do!

Mind on stutter mode.
Doing anything but the task at hand.

Want to dream and drift.
Resisting the doing And the giving in.

Hopeful, mildly grounded, distracted, self aware (I am ridiculous), stonewalled, bloated.

Fridge full of fresh salad fixins calling me. Ugh.
All that washing and chopping and assembling.
All that health in a bowl.
Giving it the side-eye.

I should do some sit-ups and lunges

Forward momentum. Posting this.

One and Done. (atta gurrrl deb)

02/25/2026

Miss Earl so much. Jake is def takin the brunt with all my sniffin & kissin.🙏🏾💓

11/15/2025

EARL

May 21, 2021 – October 29, 2025

My heart is so heavy, but I feel like I need to let my friends know why I’m not at my best just now.  My little Earl is gone after only 4 short years.  I’m having a really hard time wrapping my head and heart around it.  I’m ok.  But also, really not.

I was on a shoot in Mexico City when my friend who was looking after Jake n Earl called me.  

It was 2 a.m.
I had only been asleep for about an hour and had to be up in 2 hours to make my way to set.
It was a struggle to gather myself into reality.  To face what I was being told.

Earl was in emergency. They’d been giving him compressions for ten minutes.

He wasn’t responding.

The vet asked if I wanted to call it.

Sleep-deprived and in shock, I felt -

Panicked. Calm. Empty.

After some background from the vet, I called it.

Thanked my friend for being there for my boy. Hung up. Fell back into another world.

My Earl was gone and I hadn’t been there for him.

I hope somehow, somewhere he knows how desperately sorry I am.

I couldn’t let it hit me, couldn’t allow myself to ‘go there’, because  

In a couple of hours, I would have people relying on me to perform, to bring my best energy to set and to the role they’d given me.  That whole day was so surreal. So out of body.

It wasn’t until I came home to Vancouver the next morning, said goodbye to my friend, and looked around that I allowed myself to fall apart.  When I walked into my home, he wasn’t there to greet me.  There was no Earl.

He was Always there — eagerly waiting for me at the door.

Every Time, I’d scoop up his heavy body, kiss him, and bury my face in his fur.
Hold him so Hard.  Drink in his everything.  Tell him what a good sweet boy he was.
Look into those wise eyes and tell him how much I loved him.

Now there are only places where he used to be.

His tree, his perches, his hideouts, and his special bird watching table on the patio.

He is everywhere, and heartbreakingly nowhere.

Earl was loving and sweet and clumsy and curious and funny and quietly wise.

Jake and I will be missing you forever, my beautiful beautiful little Earl.

💔🙏🏾