Category: FreeForm

  • We Are the Story Keepers

    We Are the Story Keepers

    We are the story keepers. When I talk about story, I refer to the lines of meaning, the patterns of the universe that are perpetuated by the telling and retelling. As the conscious manifestations of the local area, we are the intentional tellers of stories. But we get it backwards, because we forget that we…

  • What I Thought About While Cutting Firewood

    Yesterday, I was out limbing fallen trees so that we can cut them up with the chainsaw without killing ourselves. It is good not to freeze to death. It is also good not to have logs fall on you while preventing freezing to death. What I was thinking about was this: When we first moved…

  • Rolling With It

    Yesterday, I passed a test, I think. First, I managed to lock myself out of the library at which I am the sole employee. Specifically, I left the key in my car, which my husband borrowed and then failed to return at the expected time. When I went to get the spare key, the keeper…

  • 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…

  • 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.

  • Weekly Photo Challenge: Entrance