Lisa Vertefeuille’s Christmas pop-up shop has popped away now, but I still wanted to share this column, because I was so inspired by her grounded wisdom and the idea of always checking in with your feelings, even if it means doing a U-turn. Lisa Vertefeuille is a purveyor of happiness. It’s not her official job description,…
Category: lisa richardson
When commitment is as easy as following your passion
Last year, at Christmas, I wrote a column about how our excessive consumption is destroying the planet. This year, I decided to soften my stance, and “lean in” to the whole festive thing (in as planet-loving way as is possible.) Kids and nutcrackers have proven a good assist. A friend recently accused me of having long harboured some…
Mapping the Mysterious
“The Lillooet River is such a mystery,” says Veronica Woodruff. “It’s so murky. Even where it’s only ten centimeters deep in shallow spots in the middle, you can’t actually see the bottom.” An environmental technician and founding director of Stewardship Pemberton, Woodruff paddleboards the river all summer and lives right beside it. “It doesn’t have…
Offshoots of a Slow Food Cycle: introducing Pemberton’s Beerfarmers
When I call Bruce Miller, he’s busy cleaning up the farm in anticipation of Sunday’s Slow Food Cycle. Hosting thousands of strangers on a farm requires some serious landscaping. Across the Creek Organics, Miller’s fourth-generation family farm, is set to be the heart of the event this year, hosting vendors Thirsty Whale Elixirs, the Pemberton…
Kindness, good. Self-kindness, better.
Being nice to yourself isn’t as selfish as it sounds. I’m standing in the kitchen talking to one of my best friends. We’re both crying. And we don’t have much time. The kids will be home soon. The visit will end. We’ll be back to communicating sporadically via time zone-challenged texts. “I’m having this crisis…
The bravest day of the year
In over 2 years of writing this column in the Whistler Question, I haven’t had anything close to the response this story received. Many thanks to Randy Lincks for allowing his powerful intimate images to be used, and to the staff, students, parents, and survivors, who gave permission for this story to be shared. It…
Own this space: Secrets about life I learned from my mountain bike
The psychologist was not telling me what I wanted to hear. We were skyping across time zones, navigating work, kids and continents and I had a pretty clear idea in my head of what I wanted from him. Damn head-mechanics. I was looking for an expert to back a theory – to offer up neurological…
Your flaws, my fix – how healing yourself can help others
Paul Sherman celebrates two birthdays. The day he was born, 41 years ago. And his rebirthday, the day he was brought back to life, after being dug out of an avalanche at McGillvray Pass by his companions, blue in the face, and unconscious. He was 35 the day he spent 20 minutes buried under the…
Pull up a chair, and take a friggin’ breath
There was the kid, on the cusp of two and three quarters, acting up. “Apparently it’s not the terrible twos,” stage-whispered my husband dramatically, from the wings of the boy’s wild air-slaps and projectile-tosses and whiny-growls. “It’s the terrible threes.” What are we in for? “Stop,” I said to the wee savage. “Do you need…
Rising Strong
It was the last question of the night. The panel had faced some tough ones, but it was a heckler-free crowd – friendly, supportive, curious. It’s not often, despite our proximity, that Pemberton women get to hear from Lil’wat women. Three Lil’wat Nation councillors, Lois Joseph, Maxine Joseph Bruce and Helena Edmonds, sitting alongside Pemberton’s…
Lisa Richardson Bylines 