There is a special texture of silence for me in a cottage when my adult children leave. A fear – "Please drive safely. Remember there are deer along the road. Moose too." Weekend drivers taking less care as they head back home after a sun-kissed weekend. Canadian wildlife is no joke, no matter what form they take. It feels like sweet torture really, this letting go. A process that repeats with every leaving. Getting both easier and harder with time. We had a lovely weekend together....

It all started with a question: what was my part? Back in 2020, in the dark days of the beginning of the pandemic, I began to look for my part; my part to help us through. Everyone and everything were full of fear. We didn’t know what was safe to do, or where to go, or what would happen to us if we got “it.” In the early days, people were dying in significant numbers. Thanks to public health and vaccination programs, we'd not seen anything like this in Western countries for more than a...

I start each fall with the best of intentions. And this year, I was on it. Early. After the trainwreck of last winter, I wasn’t going to let my seasonal blues get the best of me. At the first sign of falling light levels, I had my happy lamp out and would meditate in front of it. This year, I had an “anti-depression plan:” stay connected to people I like; tend to my physical well-being with movement; meditate daily; cook good food; book music and cultural events to anticipate. It started out...