Wild and Precious Life

Home. Giving myself some time. Taking a few days to rest, process, walk the dog, knit, read, take photographs, sip tea and keep walking this trail… My compatriot, Pam Bustin, put this poem by Mary Oliver up on her blog on Tuesday, and it gave me peace and solace and a finger pointing towards the bigger […]

Words Fail

It’s hard to write this, hard to be here. Most of you who read my blog might already know this from our other online connections but my brother died a week and a bit ago. I found out on the afternoon of Sunday the 16th, while I was launching my online course. I have said so […]

Fend for Yourself

“We need a … youth complex, a youth centre, somewhere for the kids to go and hangout and have some fun,” the hockey coach in Pimicikamak Cree Nation (Cross Lake) told CBC last week. “There are no arts, music, dance or self-defence programs, Harold Nachbaur said, leaving young people with nothing to do and nowhere to […]

Creative Calgary

I’ve been in Calgary for almost two weeks and so far I’ve been to two plays, two movies, two readings (one of which was mine, and another tonight with Ian Williams), three art exhibits, two museums (counting the Glenbow, which is both museum and art gallery). I’ve eaten gluten-free pizza, Mexican food and pho, found […]

Oh, Peterborough

I started this past Saturday night sipping dirty martinis with an old friend under a framed map of Rupert’s Land. A bright red swath swept northwest, right over present-day Manitoba and up to where The Pas would be. A scrawled date in black ink said 17-something. From there, I walked a few blocks west on […]