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Lucky: A Chronicle and a Calling

Our dear, first-found cat, Lucky, took his final breath as he lay silently between us in bed on the afternoon of Thursday, February 20.

Lucky was a singular cat who made a cat-lover out of me against all odds.

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Thoughts on December 10, 2020

International Human Rights Day, 2020

The byline for this year’s theme is Stand up for Human Rights

And on this day in Canada, 212 elected representatives in the House of Commons stood up, one by one, to poison the spring from which the spirit of human rights flows. One by one, 212 drops of poison.

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Slow death and the felling of trees

A long and wiry man perches high above my head, chainsaw in hand. I know little about him, except that his name is Lee and he and his bride are homesteading half a mile down the road from my coastal home. Read more

This land is my land: Robert Latimer and the plundered landscape

A slow pan to a classic frame. A solitary man stands on high ground in evening light, surveying land, sky, and settlement. The soundtrack is subtle but arresting: distant wind, giving way to the soft but urgent tapping of a single atmospheric note, then a persistent throb of airy, fluttering strings. Read more

Venom without malice: On first meeting a rattlesnake

A reptilian head appears from behind a large rock. Curious to decipher a species quite unlike the now-familiar collared lizard or whiptail, I sharpen my focus. And sharply, the threshold question is settled. This is a snake. Read more

“All stories are about wolves”: Thoughts on the Northern Gateway Pipeline

It’s the scale of it all that first assaults the mind.

Four and a half minutes into his January 9 TEDx talk – “The true cost of oil” – Garth Lenz projects an image of a 400 ton dump truck loaded with bitumen from the Alberta tar sands. Read more

Putting it out there: Blogging as declaratory practice

Writing augments life. That has been my experience. All that I see and feel, all that I think and know – it’s all better when I write.  Writing slows me, clears me, heartens me.

Hence this blog. Read more