“To love someone long-term is to attend a thousand funerals of the people they used to be. The people they’re too exhausted to be any longer. The people they grew out of, the people they never ended up growing into. We so badly want the people we love to get their spark back when it burns out, to become speedily found when they are lost. But it is not our job to hold anyone accountable to the people they used…
Garden enthusiast friends and people who need calendars!! My very favourite project just published our annual planting calendar! Zombie Seedz is such a fun project to work on, and not just because it means I get to continue 20 years of creating with the fabulous Teprine Baldo! The world of seeds is so fascinating. This project happened because her main company, Semences Le Noyau Seeds, cultivates mostly heirloom seeds. If two varieties with similar genetics cross pollinate, the result is…
Well, it’s late at night (early in the morning) where I am, and most likely where you are too. But I’m sleepless. I’ve been thinking a lot about entitlement to righteous anger. And I think it’s keeping me awake. I had a “friend” explain to me today that if women are going to always cite the extreme, we’re unlikely to get men on board with our objective. He suggested we should slow down, be less aggressive. Things are changing. Just…
A couple of weeks ago, I accidentally posted a picture of me in Mazunte Mexico from Instagram to Facebook. I’m not sure why instagram feels less vulnerable, but it does. I feel the need to say something about why I’m in a foreign country during a global pandemic. I know it’s not a popular choice. I know there are so many people sheltering in place, not even going to the grocery store. To describe the experience of living alone in…
Seeing a lot of criticism for RBG, and it’s an important counterbalance to the sanctifying and hero creation of a mere human. But also. – Conservative America would love nothing more than to discredit her cumulative value. Because misogyny, anti Jewish sentiment, patriarchy, a whole lotta things. – Trump has feelings of obligation about appointing a woman. How does that make you feel? – The expectation of perfection is a cornerstone ideology of supremacy. – More than one truth can…
It’s been a weird few months. Not sure if you’re all up for an individual pandemic mental health tale, but here it is. At many moments, I have felt like hiding, fading into obscurity. Checking out. Running. In the wake of the closure of The Pace, I was desperate to get out of dodge. My plan was, do a mini reno on my (rented) place and sublet it for a couple of months, run away to Mexico and write a…
It’s international worker’s day! I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about financial literacy and debt in the last few months. I had the opportunity to be part of a conversation about debt, bankruptcy and commercial leasing this week, and so did my bankruptcy trustee, Carolyn (thanks so much, Which Nancy and Jen Sungshine!) Successful “business people” know how to use bankruptcy as a financial tool – worker bees and the precariously employed, so much less so. Someone asked a…
I have thought long and hard about a statement around the Oppenheimer park eviction notice last week. I live and work within a two block radius of the park, and I can honestly say, although I’ve experienced an increase in non violent crime at my business this summer, I’m pretty convinced the park is not the cause. This is why. I’ve come to understand that Oppenheimer tent city is a community. And it’s far from perfect. There’s respect, and disrespect….
One of my ultimately favourite Christmas memories is coming home to find that Laddie, our incontinent, geriatric Border Collie had pulled over the Christmas tree while we were visiting family, and given his regards to a variety of regions of the pale blue living room rug. My sister, who takes painstaking care in the details of each and every holiday, was frantically dismayed at this desecration of our Christmas vignette. Wild eyed, she flew around the room, yelling, crying…
I was on CBC this morning talking about shared workspace as a way to mitigate the modern epidemic of social isolation. The host of the show chortled and scoffed at my “utopian” vision. After listening to the broadcast tonight, I go to buy cigarettes at my corner store. There’s an Indigenous woman in a wheelchair outside the shop and she asks me for money. I don’t have any on me so I offer her a cigarette and hang around for…