One day recently, I stood near the 49th parallel in Saskatchewan—the Canada-U.S. international boundary. If you look closely at this photo, you can make out a fence line at the top of the hill, representing the boundary, and a Canadian flag flying atop the highest peak on this side. I watched a hawk glide effortlessly…
I’ve been researching my genealogy. It’s important to me, in part, because as an adoptee, basic information about who and where I came from was a secret. That’s a recipe for heaping some heavy stuff on an impressionable child and creating an adult who is hyper-sensitive to feelings of abandonment. Now, however, thanks to DNA…
I came across this wisdom from the Sufi poet, Rumi, this morning. Humankind is being led along on evolving course. . . and though we seem to be sleeping,there is an inner wakefulness that directs the dream,and will eventually startle us backto the truth of who we are.~ Rumi, Selected Poems Earlier, I had been…
I’m sitting in my favourite chair under the gazebo in our backyard, where it’s currently 36F / 97F. Beautiful. There’s a slight breeze that might explain the absence of mosquitoes. They’re ridiculous this year. I resorted to burning those green coils I haven’t seen since my parents used them back in the 1960s. They’re probably…
I’ve just been out puttering in the garden. It’s a holy place. Truly. This morning, I harvested dill, tucking it away in the freezer for when I want to make borscht; and parsley for soups when the weather turns. I planted another couple of rows of radishes, and just puttered. Pulling the odd weed, dead-heading…
The origin of the quote isn’t clear. Widely attributed to an 18th-century English writer, historian, and politician named Robert Walpole, but also to 17th-century French essayist, Jean de La Bruyère. “Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think.” But honestly, any of us from the beginning of human…