Is there such a thing as empathy burnout? If so, that is what I am feeling. All my get-up-and-go got up and went. For the last couple of months, I have received one piece of bad news after another. People I know and love have died, are dying, cannot get the surgery they need, or […]
Here are two books that I have recently finished. They are both well-written and engaging, but I am left wondering why I want to like the protagonists in the novels I read. The Last Trial by Scott Turow This is one in a series of books about defense lawyer Alejandro “Sandy” Stern. He is eighty-five […]
Recently I have been getting very frustrated with my phone and computer technology. They keep upgrading and making matters worse. I know you know what I mean. After every upgrade some key programs or settings get changed and it takes forever to figure out what happened. To add to my frustrations, I switched out my […]
Last week, I was idly looking for useful things to do when I opened the cupboard doors in my TV stand to see what I could clear out. (I’m experiencing a combination of Covid isolation and a late-life decluttering urge.) Inside the TV stand were some DVD’s that had been out of sight and out […]
Originally posted on Snowbird of Paradise:
Image courtesy of Tam Gorzalka From the moment a child is born, we want to reassure ourselves that our baby fits into our perceptions of what is considered normal. Normal numbers of fingers and toes, normal weight, normal health, and normal gender. The problem with that is that we have…
6 June 2021 Trigger Warning: This essay includes information about the deaths of indigenous students in residential schools in Canada. Canadians are shocked and horrified to learn of the extent of the genocide of indigenous children which took place at residential schools. It is a story that must be retold if there is to be […]
Today I learned that I have one ear longer than the other. You would think that by the time I got to be seventy-two years old I would have figured this out by now, but no. I found out today. The reason I found out was that I pierced my own ears today. If the […]
In Borden Park this morning, workers were preparing for an exhibition of animatronic dinosaurs which will be open to the public September 24-26. Today’s park visitors were drawn to watch the hive of activity from behind red metal fences. We peered through the spaces to watch dinosaurs, wrapped in plastic, being carefully manoeuvred into place […]
It is easy to dismiss murals as graffiti or even as vandalism but over the years, and the last ten years in particular, they have flourished and have become widely accepted. What was once sometimes rude and crude is now often artful and valued. Wherever I go, I enjoy seeing mural art. Most cities encourage […]
I stopped using Facebook in March 2018 when I learned that Cambridge Analytica had hijacked information about all of our Facebook friends. I might never have reactivated my Facebook account if Covid-19 had not put us in quarantine. I missed being in touch with family and friends and so I reconnected in December 2020. My […]
It all began about six weeks ago. Well, no. Actually it started several years ago when I first experienced osteoarthritis in my fingers and, coincidentally, insomnia. But, for the sake of this tale, the story began six weeks ago when I saw an ad on Facebook for CBD gummies. In case you have never been […]
This month I have read two books, each of which disturbed me for different reasons. I also re-read a book that I have previously enjoyed. The Widow by Fiona Barton Fiona Barton was a journalist before she became a novelist, and this book brings to the fore the complicated relationship that the press has with […]
On Saturday morning I lined up with a lot of other people to get a Covid-19 test. I had flu-like symptoms and the online health check advised me to get tested, so I went. Ahead of me in line was a father pushing a wheelchair designed for children with disabilities. In it was a boy […]
I am Isolating, more or less. When I picked up my on-line grocery order, I told the man who brought the goods to my car that “I am supposed to be isolating so I didn’t want to go into the store,” but he was too busy apologizing for keeping me waiting fifteen minutes. This all […]
My eldest son recently met an older woman who shocked him by saying “Our Prime Minister should be hit by a car and run over.” She was deadly serious. Her information sources had led her to believe that Justin Trudeau was such a threat that he needed to be eliminated. My response was first shock, […]
In my explorations this week, I checked out Parksville which is north of Nanaimo. I went there because I was told it was a place that was popular with retirees. I probably should not have gone there right after seeing Cathedral Grove because that was a sight that was hard to beat, but Parksville was […]
Cathedral Grove in MacMillan Provincial Park on Vancouver Island is glorious. The tree canopy in some places is eighty metres high and some trees are as wide as cars. When I was there this week parents delighted in taking pictures of their children sitting on huge fallen tree trunks and climbing over vast root systems. […]
Tonight, I learned that smoke suppresses rainfall. How ironic is that? (Scientific American) All day I have been living under a smoke-filled sky. I first noticed it this morning when I saw that the rising sun was orange. I knew from past experience that this meant the smoke from western wildfires was now over my […]
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