-
Giving Up on Truth Will Set You Free
If you get nothing else from this website, please take away the possibility of this: The pursuit of Truth is a fool’s errand. Fool’s Errand 1: The Impossible Task We grow up in a world of competing stories. Call them culture, call them religion, call them beliefs; at heart, they are stories about the world,…
-
The Wonder of the Heavens
My entire life would have been different if it weren’t for the constellation of Orion. It was the signpost that arose in my life saying, “Astronomy! Over here!” I don’t remember much in the years before I saw Orion (I was about 10 at the time), but from that point on, every birthday and Christmas…
-
Entering the Fallow Time
It is a blustery day in Cape Breton. The river is dark and capped with waves, the sky is dark and a not-quite uniform grey. The leaves are starting to turn, and we are down to the final few days in the garden, in a race to get the greenhouse covered before it is Too…
-
Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner
On Writing is a wonderful book. It is a fine piece of storytelling from a fine storyteller, and full of concrete and useful advice. But I think it steered me wrong in one respect. “Don’t,” Stephen King said, “put your desk in the middle of the room. Place it in the corner to remind yourself…
-
When My Children Took Me Swimming
On Friday last week, we went to the new, fancy swimming pool in town. We’ve been swimming in oceans, rivers, inlets, hotel pools, and all sorts this summer, but it was our first trip to the new pool. The thing I notice when taking my kids swimming is that most of the other adults are…
-
The Girl Effect
Here is Something To Think About As I thought about this post this afternoon, what I thought was that I have made a mistake. I have volunteered to write about something that my mind shies away from, something I can’t confront, something I can’t accept. And that is this: in many places in the world,…
-
The Storytelling Incident
This was supposed to be a post about internet comments, but that one got out of hand. A lot of my writing is like that. Check back later to find out about Levinas, the use of knowledge of as club to stop conversation. I have a child. I have three children, but for the purpose…
-
Thinking about Thinking
You might not be surprised to hear that I’m big on metacognition. It’s one of my things. It might actually be my thing. I have struggled with this, because in the academic world I was brought up in, one does not become an expert in process, one becomes an expert in object. The topics in…
-
On the Road: Learning to Play
Welcome to the September Carnival of Natural Parenting: Parenting Through Play This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have shared how challenging discipline situations can be met with play. Please read to the end to find a…
-
Just The Highlights, Ma’am
My daughter assures me that this was the best part of the trip across Canada: She was also impressed with the ground squirrels, Richardson and otherwise: To sum up, the best thing about Canada is apparently the abundance of small furry animals. She also was highly focused on playgrounds and opportunities for swimming. These were…
-
Forest Yoga
Forest Yoga, a photo by djking on Flickr. In Cathedral Grove, I found my inner tree.
-
Notes on the End of a Trip
Here we find ourselves in Vancouver, and I’m alternating between thinking that my kids are going to get bored (since they now are wanting nothing more than to watch TV until their eyes fall out), or that we didn’t leave enough time at all to explore a new city. This evening, my son said, “I…