I love the annual word of the year from the various dictionary-makers – for what it reveals about our Zeitgeist. Feminism, youthquake and complicit are 2017’s, from the Merriam Webster, Oxford, and Dictionary.com. But we don’t just have to backcast. We can forecast too. And call down the power of a word, to focus or…
Category: lisa richardson
What Do You Actually Need to Be Happy: A Packing List (adapted for families)
I first had the chance to share this piece at Arc’teryx’s The Bird blog. Thanks to Sarah Leishman for giving me the green-light when I said I wanted to write “something about adventurers trying to maintain their minimalism after having a kid without writing a mommyblog…” My husband gets the job of going through our…
Making Self-Care A Habit (or Eat Breakfast Every Day)
I had a setback. Nothing major. Nothing life-critical. Nothing identity-shaking. I showed up for a class and it had been cancelled. And my day’s plans were derailed. It just required a deep breath, a shrug of the shoulders and a quick pivot. But I nearly burst into tears. I felt kind of undone. I thought…
The Dirt on Food
“Fuck calories,” says Krista Scott-Dixon (@stumptuous). “Fuck vitamins. Fuck ‘willpower’. Put real cream in your coffee. And have an avocado too. Your relationship with food and eating is your relationship with life.” Her book, Fuck Calories and Other Dietary Heresies rethinks nutritionism manifesto-style – it’s a 41 page debunking of dieting BS, distilled down to…
When Stone Speaks
In the History of Big-wall Climbing, Even Geology has Something to Say In May, this story I wrote for Mountain Life Annual 2016, was shared online at https://www.mountainlifemedia.ca/2017/05/stone-speaks-history-big-wall-climbing-even-geology-something-say/ Here’s an excerpt. “Every rock has a story,” my kid announces suddenly. He’s three. He speaks mostly gibberish. But the poet Anis Mojgani nailed it when he…
How to get your professional headshot done: the non textbook version
Jordan Manley took my portrait. I was short on a recent bio pic. My face doesn’t sell my work, so having an up-to-date headshot, despite what the enterprising types say, has just not been a priority. In fact, it’s something I avoid. But Jordan Manley was shooting photos to accompany my feature story and it…
The last flight of Dave “Lucas” McCord
The last time I saw Dave “Lucas” McCord alive, he pulled out his phone to show me his latest claim to fame. He’d made headlines in Iceland, where he was spending the summer, trading labour as a carpenter and driver for some paragliding friends in exchange for a place to stay. He’d been on the…
Talking totem poles with post-colonial First Nations artist, Lil’watul Levi Nelson
When Levi Nelson entered his piece, Anthropology, for the IDEA Art Award competition in March this year, he only told the judges half the story. The contest winner would have their painting bought for $5,000 and installed at the Joseph and Rosalie Segal Family Health Centre, the mental health wing at Vancouver General Hospital. It…
How Patagonia’s Worn Wear Program Will Make You Love Your Old Gear
This story first appeared at Mountain Culture. The other day I resigned from my day job. I walked out of the CAO’s office and into the washroom and realized there was a hole worn through the elbow of my shirt. Good time to be returning to freelance life, I thought. At least I can keep…
What winning the lottery really means
When the $2.2 million cheque arrived from the BC Children’s Hospital Lottery Foundation on Thursday May 11, it was one week since Lana McKenzie discovered she had bought the winning ticket. She had $33 in her bank account. The 44 year old former receptionist at the Village of Pemberton, and her husband, “Dumpy” Shanon Dumbleton,…
Lisa Richardson Bylines 