A habitude of gratitude

My Habitica party has posted a gratitude challenge for October, and the To-Do list item is to read this article: https://chopra.com/articles/25-simple-ways-to-practice-gratitude There was nothing in it that I didn’t already know, but it was a badly needed reminder nonetheless. I notice that we are steeped in negativity wherever we go. It is fun to complain …

Waiting for First Light: Out of the darkness of misunderstanding

Book review: Waiting for First Light: My Ongoing Battle with PTSD by Roméo Dallaire, with Jessica Dee Humphreys. Vintage Canada edition, 2019. One sunny day last spring, I was walking into a local restaurant to meet a friend for supper. On the way in, a rather bedraggled-looking individual asked me for a handout, saying he …

Geez and the 49th parallel

With the move of the iconic rebel periodical Geez out of Winnipeg and south of the border to Detroit, it is a jagged pill to swallow for a Manitoba subscriber to see yet another local treasure be swallowed up by the behemoth to the south of us. Jagged enough to trigger an angry, knee-jerk reaction …

Nothing to prove, except for everything

Left to right: Pebbles, Cinnamon, Taffy, Rusty The Approach The signs of spring are everywhere: warm sunshine, big puddles, and lots and lots of mud. Today I find the some of the horses lazing around on a pile of old hay. Cinnamon and Pebbles are lying down, and after looking to see who's approaching, they …

Four Relationship Killers

Master horseman Pat Parelli describes four “relationship killers” between humans and horses. In the wake of the recent tragedy in New Zealand, the mess that is Brexit, and events in my own life, I am struck by how clearly these translate to human to human relationships. Killer #1: Autocracy (I’m in charge) Leadership is natural …