Tag: mindfulness
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Celebrating lost days
A few days ago, I was taking a break amidst a busy ten day stretch of teaching and I had met a friend for a quick coffee catch up. As we shared the highlights of our schedules, I admitted sheepishly that right before things got busy for me, I had spent a couple of days…
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Disturbing the peace
A few days ago, I received a lesson from a duck. I was on my daily walk and I stopped to watch a number of mallards as they appeared to be peacefully swimming along the reeds of a slow moving river. They were casually foraging for food when I noticed this one duck repeatedly pecking…
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The power of surrender
Without being overly dramatic or unrealistic, I think it is fair to say that the province in Canada in which I come from is on fire. Well, 6 days ago there were 477,498.9 ha of Manitoban forest burning. Coupled with the hot weather and the winds that have been blowing on and off, this number has surely…
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Mindfulness of Houseplants
Recently, a friend was in my house commenting on how healthy my houseplants are looking. My jaw nearly hit the floor. I have never been known for the health of my houseplants. In fact, I have been known for bringing them into work so those colleagues of mine, who are fortunate enough to have a…
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I am NOT always right
It’s been birthday week in my household. Three birthdays mean plenty of cake and a few moments of what the Irish call ‘banter’—or some good old fashioned teasing in a friendly sort of way. For example, as we all sat and watched my daughter blow out her candles, my son claimed to know what she…
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Do our expectations get in the way?
I can remember being a smug teenager who constantly reminded my mother that if she was going to place expectations on me, she was only setting herself up for disappointment. I have no idea where I got the confidence to make such an assertion and at such a young age; however, it was not far…
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Lost and found
For quite some time now, I have been inspired by a beautiful poem written by David Wagoner called “Lost”. This past week I discovered that Wagoner based his poem on a traditional teaching given by Indigenous elders in the Pacific Northwest (U.S.A.). The story goes that a child asks an elder what to do if…
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Easter: a chance to begin again
Easter has always been my favourite time of year. I was raised with a multitude of Easter traditions (fundamentally born of my Ukrainian heritage). These traditions range from church on nearly every day of Holy Week to dying eggs and baking something called Babka bread, or “little grandmother” bread. Easter, for my family, is an…
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What’s your prescription?
Recently, I have been delivering a programme on Rest and one the practices that we do is setting our personal prescriptions. What does this mean? To begin with, it’s an exercise taken from Claudia Hammond who is a BBC radio presenter and delivers the podcast ‘All in the Mind’. It’s the practice of what she…
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This is to mother you
This past weekend, my daughter was complaining about a sore back. In her complaint, she asked me to make a doctor’s appointment for her. To which I reminded her that she was nearly twenty two and perhaps it was time that she makes her own doctor’s appointment. She laughed and replied that she was tired…
My Silent Place 