Writer’s Mental Health
The Marvel of the World
I’m sitting at my desk in front of the window at the cabin, looking out on the laneway and the creek. I am trying to write. I am trying to be present to the All-That-Is. I’m not doing very well. Monkey-mind and an inner voice that tells me it’s all shite after all. A thunder…
Read MoreThe Wheel Turns To Remind Us
A blessed Lughnasadh/Lammas to all. After a brutal spate of heat (that many are still suffering), I woke to a cool wet morning. The creek has been alarmingly low these past weeks. The deer tiptoe across and barely get their hooves wet. It rained for a couple of hours last night, but hardly enough to…
Read MoreNuclear calm?
I am old enough, God help me, to remember “duck and cover.” Back at the dawn of time, in the height of the Cold War, even in a small town outside of Montreal, Quebec, we school children of the era understood that “duck and cover” meant a nuclear bomb was headed our way and that…
Read MoreTo Go Gently, Or Not? Thoughts on Impermanence
I have a dear friend, Mark, who may be one of the most compassionate, kind, and intelligent people I know. He is also very tall and absurdly handsome. (How he will guffaw if he reads that last bit!) He tells many interesting stories, and this is one of them: Once, back when he was a…
Read MoreMary Oliver, Brother Phap Dung, and Small White Dogs (My Dog Is Dying, Part III)
A NOTE TO READERS….. The title of this blog says almost everything. I will add a few things, though. This time is EXCRUCIATING. So much so that I will not be answering phone calls for the foreseeable future. Answering emails will be touch and go… and forgive me if you comment on this series of…
Read MoreMy Dog Is Dying (Part II)
A NOTE TO READERS….. The title of this blog says almost everything. I will add a few things, though. This time is EXCRUCIATING. So much so that I will not be answering phone calls for the foreseeable future. Answering emails will be touch and go… and forgive me if you comment on this series of…
Read MoreEven So …. #21
Day ? of the pandemic. A robin builds a next to the bedroom window; a wren builds a nest by my office door, a chickadee builds a nest by the windchimes hanging from the arbor, in spite of everything. A big old watersnake guards its territory by the creek bank and startles me so that…
Read MoreEven So…. #19
It’s been a few days since I last posted, because things got busy, even so. A very old friend, Michael Cheeks, passed away from cancer. I’ve known Michael since I was eighteen. Born in Guyana, Michael ended up, with his beautiful wife, Linda, in Yellowknife, in the Northwest Territories. Michael was a big man, well…
Read MoreEven So …#17
Day ? of the pandemic. I woke this morning to the news that someone we know, who used to live two doors from us has passed away from Covid19. The circle of friends, acquaintances, and loved ones grows tighter, closer, in spite of everything. I came across a quote from Peace Pilgram today: “With inner…
Read MoreEven So ..#10
Day ? of the pandemic. A friend I haven’t seen in 35 years reached out to me from an island off the coast of British Columbia. So much to celebrate about her wonderful life, in spite of everything. A friend’s daughter who has suffered a terrifying health crisis was embraced by a circle of caring…
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