I am very lucky to have Shirley as my nextdoor neighbour. She is in her eighties and lives alone. She’s more mentally and physically capable than some forty year olds I know. She takes loving care of her garden in the front and back every day. She takes an interest in my kids and always […]
I was recently reminded of a great Buddhist proverb. A monk worked his whole life to achieve enlightenment. When he finally attained it he was asked how he did it. He replied, “Chop wood, carry water”. Then he was asked what he would do now that he had attained enlightenment. He replied, “Chop wood, carry […]
“This is fun for us”. We’re in the ski lodge having lunch and I’m showing my 7 year-old nephew a photo of his mother cross-country skiing up a hill. He’s just come off a morning of downhill ski lessons and is getting ready to go back out to ski with his cousins. He looks at […]
I never know who will take me up on going for a walk – if anyone. Usually there is one person who walks with me and my volunteer partner. Sometimes there are two, sometimes none. We walk with men who are staying at a shelter in my neighbourhood. My idealistic idea was to start a […]
I leave the group of parents I chat with in the mornings at the school after dropping our kids off and start heading west. I’m in my immediate neighbourhood for the first couple of blocks, so often see familiar faces and friends and we wave and say hi. Once I cross the bridge over the […]
I self identify as a jock. It’s taken me until my forties to become comfortable owning the term. I mean, it must have been obvious to others long ago. As a kid, when given my choice of camps to sign up for, I would always choose Sports Camp. I never asked which sports they were […]
I have a very vivid memory from early motherhood etched in my brain. My son Hugo was under two-years old and we were flying from Halifax to Toronto together (my husband was driving). I remember Hugo’s age specifically because if your child was under two you didn’t have to purchase a separate seat as they […]
I know it’s cliché to have a New Year’s resolution, and most of them tend to be forgotten within a month or two. But I do like the idea of taking a moment to reflect on my life and whether I am making decisions which reflect my values. That’s what I’ve been doing lately and […]
I’ve just finished reading a very interesting book evaluating some potential trajectories of where our species could be headed: Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari. There were many eye opening insights for me in this book. One of them was how quickly artificial intelligence is advancing and how it is very likely that in the […]
Most of us accept that nowadays there is very little gap between our work and personal lives. We are connected to our work through devices at all times, and many of us feel that we’re ‘on call’ or representing our workplaces regardless of our physical location or the time of day. For this reason, many […]