The other morning, my kid woke up with an idea in his mind. Literally, the first words out of his mouth, still prone and pyjama-clad, were: “I’m going to make an Inukshuk. Where’s the LEGO?” As someone who enters the day like a hard drive in need of defragmentation, files all scattered and hard to…
How to Tell Your Husband You’re a Witch
Originally posted on Longreads:
Lisa Richardson | Longreads | April 2020 | 15 minutes (4,084 words) On a Friday afternoon, pre-COVID-19, my husband dropped some ice-cubes into glasses, ready to make us screwdrivers and cheers to surviving another week of working/parenting/wondering where the hell the years were going, only, the vodka bottle was empty. “Oh…
The pandemic might not make me a better person
Day 20 of our self-imposed isolation and I have to confess, I haven’t really maximised the opportunity to self-actualize. Not that there’s been any shortage of resources or recommendations shared by beautiful loving-minded friends – how to work from home, how to be healthy when completely alone, how to learn a second language, spring clean…
Reflecting on the question, What’s to Come?
View this post on Instagram Even in your self-isolation and social distancing, tele-commuting and homeschooling, adapting and responding, may you feel deeply connected and supported. May you do your part. May you find sanctuary in your breath, in the trail, in looking up at the sky, in the air outside — even if simply from…
Emotions last 90 seconds so why am I still freaking out?!
Here’s the phenomenal nugget of information that dropped into my lap last week (the original source was Thich Nhat Hanh’s book Peace is Every Step; neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor also writes about it in her book My Stroke of Insight): emotions last about 90 seconds. After 90 seconds, the feeling has been metabolized. What lingers…
Who are you when you’re free to be yourself?
“What about you?” asked the other parent, on the sidelines at karate, having just shared how much she loves sewing. “What is your hobby?” My inside-voice did a quick stocktaking: that week, I’d been watching mini-documentaries of forest gardens and permaculture success stories. I was still stuck on the idea of the Divine Feminine rising…
Soil matters: Climate activists in our midst
“EVERY FARM HAS ITS OWN PERSONALITY,” says Amy Norgaard, a soil science student at the University of British Columbia, and former farmhand and market manager with Ice Cap Organics. Her two-year-long Master’s thesis, which she will defend in late spring, required her to travel between 18 different organic farms across southwest B.C., the Pemberton Valley,…
Sweat your prayers
I walked tentatively into the temporary dance space. Dozens of people were there already, sprawled on the floor, stretching casually. I could tell from looking at them that they were “body” people, the type of people who naturally gravitate towards a 5 Rhythms movement workshop, “a moving practice for Freedom” promoted with a photograph of…
Seija Halonen: the art of radical self-expression
Feet Banks has an incredible radar for incredible people. Whenever he has asked me to profile someone for Mountain Life, I come away stoked for the encounter. Seija Halonen was no exception. The Untamed Issue is out now. Seija Halonen strikes you quickly as one of those rare people who has no skeletons in her…
How to be a checklist Ninja
The first item on Alexandra Franzen’s to-do list for Thursday was drink two big glasses of water. We overlook the easy wins when crafting our to-do lists, says the author of the newly released The Checklist Book, and we shouldn’t: when we accomplish something, even something small, that feeling of satisfaction stimulates the body to…
