Last summer, I joined a group of random strangers, from all around the world, to meet up via zoom, and support each other as accountability buddies, going through a free online foundations training in Active Hope. I’d heard about it when Manda Scott interviewed the co-creators of the training on her podcast. I’d had the…
Not Alone
Arc’teryx invited me to connect with their athlete, Sarah Hueniken, and filmmaker Heather Mosher, to write a piece about their film, Not Alone. Gripped magazine called it “one of the most important climbing films ever made. Mosher has done an exquisite thing with Not Alone, one that I hope everyone gets a chance to see….
Lift and drag: on being voted Pemberton’s Favourite Writer
The Best of Pemberton issue that Pique newsmagazine puts out, landed a month ago. Everything is moving slowly in me these days, so it took a while to formulate a response to being anointed Pemberton’s Favourite Writer. As a friend recently shared, compliments tend to make one’s mind explode. Well, specifically the phrase that The…
ReBird™ Takes Flight
RESPECTING NATURE BY PROPELLING CIRCULARITY: Arc’teryx launches its circularity initiatives What’s the problem? The fashion industry manufactures 100 billion garments annually – enough for every human on the planet to buy something new to wear every month. Three out of five of those pieces will end up in landfill within the year. This hyper-acceleration of…
Zero Waste Chef is my jar-hoarding alibi, and she could be your next favourite kitchen accomplice too
I am a jar hoarder. And the Zero Waste Chef is my alibi. I have a weird inability to throw old jars into the recycling bin. Instead, I tuck them in the drawer, for future use. (And every now and then my partner silently stages a protest slash intervention and culls them all. And I start over,…
How do we grow our tolerance for discomfort? Keep asking how.
I read recently that if you want to get to the heart of something, ask the question “why?” five times. (So, parenthood has been preparing me for something!) “I worked in group dialogue for years: often in dialogue to do with conflict and peace,” wrote Pádraig Ó Tuama, poet, theologian and host of the Poetry Unbound…
Beyond Treeline – nominated for a Canadian National Magazine Award for Art Direction
I have just received a copy of Dr Suzanne Simard’s much-anticipated book, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest. She was deep into the writing of the book when I had the chance to speak with her in 2019, about her work, and the way it had been incorporated into Jordan Manley’s…
“What do you want?” is not a trick question
I wasn’t a straight A student (I totally flunked art) but I did pretty well, by which I mean to say that I have always liked being asked questions and getting answers right. Honestly, I’ve realised that my favourite phrase to hear, coming from my husband’s mouth, is: “You’re right.” (It’s rare.) But there’s one…
Speak the Wild Words
Use your words to conjure the more beautiful world your heart knows is possible. Her name was Brooke. It had been a name chosen carefully for her by her father, so when she read that the word “brook” was being struck from the dictionary, along with a host of other words “redundantly” featuring nature, it…
Piece by Piece: Finding Outer Peace with Mountain Guides Julia Niles and Christine Feleki
The path to inner, or outer, peace, isn’t one-sized fits all, as I learned in some illuminating conversations with mountain guides Julia Niles and Christine Feleki, for this post for Arc’teryx. Photos By: Robin O’Neill Julia Niles has never been one to shirk from struggle – you don’t pursue a career in mountain guiding unless type…