Nature

An Ode to Grief

It all started yesterday, as I was watching the TED talk by Johan Rockstrom. I am in the process of updating and tweaking a course I will be teaching at the School of Inspired Leadership (SOIL) this coming January, heading there for the third year in a row. This two-week course takes the students on An Ode to Grief

Witnessing Courage

22 willing and engaged participants. 2 wonderfully supportive assistants. One me. A journey of 4 days, marking the retreat part of the Right Livelihood Quest, which we finished at the Whidbey Institute several days ago. Actually, the whole journey was of 3 weeks, if we include the first part of the Quest, which sets up Witnessing Courage

Remembering to Appreciate

Today’s Reflection is about Appreciating What Is I am spending the Christmas holidays with dear friends on Cortes Island, which is a combination of a drive and 3 ferries north of Vancouver. A journey of about 7-8 hours, which is absolutely worth it. While I have been many times on Cortes in the summertime, winter Remembering to Appreciate

Life According to Four Basic Laws

Today’s Reflection is about a different set of laws to guide one through life. I think we live a very complicated life these days, though perhaps not necessarily by choice. There are rules, laws, regulations, permits, by-laws, stop signs, and many more visible and invisible chains that supposedly enforce a proper, civilized, and respectful behaviour Life According to Four Basic Laws

Four Years. Go!

Today’s Reflection is about the gift and the blessing of meeting extraordinary people.  The woman, a mother of a family of five, called a family meeting. Her husband runs a very successful business, and they have three kids, ages 11 (or 12), 8, and 6. The woman is running The Hunger Project organization (https://www.thp.org/), and Four Years. Go!

Feeling the Silence

Today’s Reflection is about the pleasure and importance of a time-out. The Olympics are here, in Vancouver. Media, people (a lot of them), road closures, protesters, security, and the focus of the world on Vancouver. A perfect time to leave the city and disappear somewhere quiet, away from all the noise and the predictions of Feeling the Silence

Breaking the Chain

Today’s Reflection is about our Western view of the world. And about some of the implications of this worldview. The idea of “The Great Chain of Being” is originally attributed to the Greeks, and particularly Aristotle. This idea proposes that all beings are arranged in a single continuum, a natural scala, according to their “degree Breaking the Chain

Mussel Beach Campground

Today’s Reflection is about a vacation, Nature, and our human ways of being in, and with, the world around us. It is early morning, and I am sitting on the beach of Mussel Beach Campground, which is on the very West Coast of Vancouver Island, hidden behind Ucluelet, yet right on the ocean. While there Mussel Beach Campground

A Language Older Than Words

Today’s Reflection is about the end of a year and a beginning of another. And, I believe, a lot more. This past year feels both very long and short at the same time, which I find interesting. What happened last year? Some of the global-scale events that come to mind include: The extradition of Radovan A Language Older Than Words

Into The Rain

Today’s Reflection is about being in, and with, Nature. Something that many of us, city dwellers, have forgotten. It was late, dark, and raining here in Vancouver. And the world was beckoning me to come and visit and wander the streets. I felt the need to answer the call… A dark, quiet, windless, and rain-ful Into The Rain