This story ran in the Whistler Question on July 5 2016. The online archives are no longer available, so I’m happy to repost it here. Photos courtesy of Randy Lincks. Signal Hill has one of the highest ratios of aboriginal students in the province – 40% of the elementary age kids come from a First Nations…
Falling therapy
“Advanced Women’s Climbing”, an all-day clinic offered at the Arc’teryx Climbing Academy in Squamish July 21-22, seems innocuous enough when I sign up. I have taught enough women’s only ski clinics to know that an all-yin environment can instigate some great breakthroughs. What I hadn’t anticipated was that our guides, Arc’teryx endurance athlete and mountaineer…
How to be a safe place in a dark moment
Suicide prevention training being offered in Pemberton, August 16-17 In the seventeen years that Nada Shureih, now 34, has been living in the Sea to Sky corridor, she has been personally affected by at least a dozen suicides. The most recently released figures from the BC Coroners Service, (from a summary of suicide deaths between…
Across the Divide
When I saw the book on Emma Gillis’ desk, I laughed so hard, I snorted. “Shall I put your name on it?” asked Pemberton’s Library Director, in her fantastic Irish brogue. “Sure.” When I pick it up from the Holds Shelf a few weeks later, I sneak it into the house and hide it under…
Know Thy Hoe – Delta’s Farm Roots Mini School deserves extra credit for breaking ground
I was pretty stoked to discover Farm Roots Mini School via a friendly tweet from Brooke Moore, about her enjoyment of my story about Pemberton in Kicking Horse Coffee’s Full Press Journal. I had the chance to follow up with her a year later, and learn more about the program, for this Coast Mountain Culture piece….
Breaking Points
Once, when I was really under pressure, blocked by my own ambition, I plagiarized. I stole an entire paragraph of someone else’s writing and offered it up as my own. The story ran in the newspaper. I was sent a cheque. And cashed it. No one ever found out. Except my mother, who was suspicious…
On the gift of attention: Best of Pemberton 2018
Once a year, this really nice thing happens to me. I genuinely thought this year, my time was past, so it was truly a surprise to open this week’s Pique newsmagazine, which celebrates some of the grooviest things about the place I live. And take a moment to realize this weird work I do, locked…
Grow Your Own: Revolution
Thanks to Feet Banks for asking me to write about seed libraries for the summer issue of Mountain Life, out now. (And also for his always judicious and amazing editing, and gentle suggestion that my original opening about the impending apocalypse might be a bit too much for bummer to keep people reading.) Give peas a chance at…
Mindless
What would a food journal or time tracking app tell you about your habits of consumption? On Friday, February 16, at 2:30pm, I downloaded the Moment app to my phone. I’d been reading about the rise of addictive technology and thought I should see where I stood. It’s been running in the background of my…
Stucum Wi: Wanosts’a7 Dr. Lorna Williams walks in wisdom, Part 2
My son heads off to kindergarten in September. Game-changer, friends say. You don’t get as much time as you think, say others. I can’t wait to learn to read, he says. What just happened to the past five years? I think. He will catch the school bus, from our driveway, through Mount Currie, to school….
