Oh heck, here's one more

Victoria and Arleen Swimming with Frogs 

I've been going through my pictures and I just can't quit. This is another cool place at Au Grand Bois -- known as "The Spa" -- bathing suits optional (why bother, eh?).

Of Coffee and Compromises

Breakfast at Au Grand Bois 

Further to my post yesterday about the beauties of Au Grand Bois, here is another favourite story of mine. (By the way, the picture above is Doug, Darren and Lorne waiting for their morning coffee)

Arleen and Lenny, who are the stewards ("owners", for those of you who prefer the more familiar Western capitalistic jargon) of Au Grand Bois, came to me with a really funny dilemma after we'd all been camping there for a day. The problem was coffee. Serious problem.

Arleen and Lenny are not coffee drinkers. Arleen had made the choice to go with Fair Trade coffee. I drink fair trade coffee almost all the time myself, so this was a decision I supported wholeheartedly (wish Tim Hortons would pay more attention to this issue).

So, about a day into our week, Arleen was running out of coffee. She was absolutely astounded at the amount of coffee we were going through. Not only that, the amount of talk about coffee was something else she had never experienced.

So, what to do .. she had only budgeted for two cups a day per person. No, no, no, this would not do ... these are media people .. and one thing you don't do is limit the supply of coffee to a media person. I mean, how are we going to meet deadline? And even out here in the bush, we had deadlines to meet.

Arleen's first choice was to have me encourage all of us to drink less coffee. Not just for economic reasons, but because she sincerely believes that caffeine is an addiction that we can all kick with a little loving encouragement. Not gonna happen, Arleen. They'll shoot me at dawn. After they've had their coffee, that is.

Or she could buy more Fair Trade coffee and send the bill to us. But I was the organizer and budget-keeper, so I made the typical decision which is made in the hard-hearted North American economy. No extra financial cost.

My compromise -- we will stay in integrity for the morning, I told Arleen, and drink Fair Trade Coffee. I would go out and buy the ethically-compromised coffee for the afternoon. At least we can start the day with a sincere effort to support the impoverished coffee growers of the world.

I reassured her that I would take full moral responsibility for the decision. So to mitigate my on-going guilt about my decision having possibly harmed the Workers of the World, here's a word to all of you -- think of the farmers who grow your coffee. Buy Fair Trade.

And it has the added benefit of being shade-grown, which means they aren't clear cutting the forest to build mono-cropped plantations of coffee plants (trees? Can't remember if coffee is a tree or a shrub). And it's organically grown, so no nasty chemicals. And just about all the Fair Trade coffee I've had has been wonderfully good.

Yes, better than Tim Horton's. Even if it doesn't come with a Roll Up the Rim cup. That new car would just cause more pollution anyway. (note to my puzzled American friends -- you gotta be Canadian to understand that reference).

Reconnecting

Au Grand Bois in the morning 

Had a wonderful day yesterday full of connections from my recent and not-so recent past.

My first connection was a long phone call with Lenny and Arleen Proust, of Au Grand Bois in the Pontiac Region of Quebec (on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River close to Ottawa). I love the Pontiac -- it's where we had the audio art camp in 2002, and it was a fabulous time. They own 545 acres of woods - owning that much pristine land is pretty close to heaven on earth these days.

Lenny and Arleen used to run a children's camp until they decided they just didn't have the energy for 600 kids every summer anymore. Now they are looking for a new purpose, and they are thinking that they want to develop an eco-village. Which is a nother way of saying sustainable living, cohousing, people living together gently upon this earth. I like the term Intentional Community. I think that sums it up nicely. With 545 acres, there's a lot of room to spread out.

In recent years, I have thought many times that living in community is the way I want to live my life. It makes so much more sense from a lot of perspectives -- economically, socially, environmentally .. after all, we humans are pack animals. I don't think we were intended to live in our own little cages in high rise buildings made of concrete. Even if we do have a balcony garden and a great view.

Whether it's at Au Grand Bois, or in Nova Scotia or wherever, there's something calling out to me.

Oh, I need to get back to the woods ...

Waiting for the Ships

I don't see one yet ... 

The St. Lawrence Seaway opened this week. Ursalla and I took a long snowy walk this morning to see if we could spot our first freighter. Having driven a long way down the seaway, all the way to Riviere de Loup, I'm liking this big bit of water even more. I've always wanted to hop on a freighter and go all the way from the Gulf all the way to the Lakehead.

No boats today, but I know they're down there somewhere. My sister Lori called me from the middle of the Ambassador Bridge yesterday to tell me she'd seen her first one. I'll just have to go for more walks.

The riverfront is one of the best things about being in Windsor. I used to have an apartment right across from Dieppe Park where the Hilton Hotel now stands. It was a really colourful place -- home not just to me, but also a whole bunch of drug dealers, hookers and cockroaches of many shapes and sizes. At 20, I wanted to live where life was really happening, you know, not in some comfortable suburban building where everything is so ordinary. I needed to gather material to be a real writer. I needed to get down there in the gutters of humanity and experience that life was more than watching the soybeans shrivel up and turn brown in the bucolic farmland of Essex County. Yes, there are many stories from my days in the Alvin Apartments.

Je digress .. my point was going to be that I had a fabulous view of the river in that apartment. Best view in the city for $115 a month (lots of onshore entertainment in the apartment building too for no extra charge).

Back to the boats -- focus on the main story, Vic.

The ships were so close you could read the names on the bow. Windsor is the only place I've lived where you get to see a steady parade of ships going somewhere. In Vancouver, they sat in the Harbour. In Hamilton, only a small percentage of the traffic even entered the harbour. I've always felt energized by going places. If I can't go, I still get a real kick out of watching trains, boats and places even if I'm not on them.

And back in those days, I could look at a Canada Steamship Lines boat (which is just about all of them these days) without going, yuck, Paul Martin. Whoops. I forgot. He sold them to his sons when he became Prime Minister. Blind trust and all that.

I'm getting a tad cynical here. Back to thinking about pure pleasure, about sitting on a blanket next to the river reading a book, and seeing if I can decipher what country the ship is from.

I'm probably shipping out from Windsor myself the beginning of June. So I'm hoping we'll have a sunny May and that the trees leaf out real fast. That's another nice thing about Windsor, it's summer down here before the leaves have barely budded in Ottawa.

I'm going to enjoy the last couple of months here.

Car-free living

Wow, those cognitive distortion busting and anxiety management lessons I've spent so much time on are really coming in handy this morning.

I'm just laughing. There's nothing else to do about it (except for political action, more on that later). My insurance broker got back to me and told me they would insure me but would raise my rate from $77 a month to $425 a month.

I laughed at my broker when she told me. And laughed and laughed. The idea that I would give an insurance company $425 a month when I don't have to is just absurd. And said, I guess I'm going to be living in the city then and bike and bus and take cabs and rent cars when I want to get out of town. And then I gave her a lecture on how not having a car was going to keep us alive longer anyway. And how the insurance companies wouldn't be able to get away with this if more of us decided to give up our cars.

I was nice to her, though. Really I was. It's important to depersonalize these things a lot of the time.

And then I told her that, since I won't be driving anywhere I'll have lots of time to lobby for public auto insurance.

I'm just glad I have the choice in this.

The larger picture does bother me, though. My insurance agent is in South River, an area not known for availability of public transit. And an area where many, many people are barely scraping by just to support their families. One accident (and a minor one at that) has the potential to impoverish a family.

When visiting South River, I have heard many people refer to South River as the "welfare capital of the north". Well, hell if people can't afford to go to work, what choice do they have? I know, this isn't a problem that's limited to South River -- I am only using them as an example. And I'm not picking on my insurance agent because their only control over this is to go into another line of work .. But this was also heavy Mike Harris/Ernie Eves territory, and we know that neither Harris or Eves really cared all that much about the plight of the welfare mother who can't get auto insurance. And somebody voted them in. So in that sense all the South Rivers in the province and the people who voted for them are responsible.

As for me, I am fortunate that I have the choice. Maybe I'll move to Halifax and just rent a car every now and again to get out to the shore. Or maybe I'll move to Ottawa which is a cool city with great bike paths. I have options .. if I do decide to go further with this, it will be mostly for the benefit of those people who don't.

And of course to blow off some steam in a socially productive way.

Nationalize the Buggers!

I haven't done a political rant in a long time. So please indulge me.

I've been looking at my various options, figuring out where I want to live for the next little while. Still want to go to Nova Scotia and live a life of rural bliss. I may end up in the city, which I'm not totally adverse to as long as it's a liveable city. Rural Nova Scotia would be my first choice.

Here's the obstacle -- I schmucked my car in December. My fault, I admit it. But nobody was hurt (except the insurance company's bottom line, that is) The other woman's car only had a paint smear on her pretty white SUV. My passenger doors got punched in (the picture in on a previous blog entry here). They wrote me a cheque and said "your first accident won't have that big an effect".

Well, I'm not so sure. My own insurance company isn't even getting back to me. And on-line quotes are ranging anywhere from $2200 a year to $5700.

Well, I will be damned if I am going to allow myself to be held hostage to these thieves. One accident. And not even a big one. Come on.

On the other hand, this hands me an opportunity to put into practice one of my beliefs -- that if more people found alternative ways of living, like going car-free, we would have a cleaner, more sustainable environment. And a car is also a very expensive habit, both in terms of money and our health (so much healthier to be biking and walking)

And if more of us said "No, that's fuck YOU" to our insurance companies and said, hey, we can live without you, maybe they couldn't continue these extortionate rates.

Well, that felt better. I'm now going to walk the dog .. it's a beautiful day. And then I'm going to call my MPP to ask "hey, time to put public auto insurance back on the table".. (no high hopes here .. my MPP is an NDP, but the NDP did wuss out on public insurance when they were in government, so ...) But at the very least, taking political action does make me feel less powerless.

oh, ya, another thing. The accident will come off my record in ten years. But then they'll continue to be able to charge exhorbitant rates because I haven't had insurance for ten years. Under the current system I can see no immediate way to win this one. So I'm going to have to look long term and do some political action if I want to see any changes.

The State of the Airwaves

This is a repost of a message I put on Airdaily, the listserve of the Association for (of?) Independents in Radio in the States. This is a good read for anybody who is interested in radio, music and/or cultural nationalism.

******************************************

Hey folks -- if you're interested in finding out how commercial radio is faring in Canada, the latest submission by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters is a fascinating read.

"That Was Then .. This is Now" can be found here.

Even if you're not specifically interested in Canadian broadcasting, the summary of how all the different kinds of audio delivery are affecting commercial radio can be applied to other national contexts as well.

In terms of the language of this report, you will find a lot of similarities to the position and tone of the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters, the lobby group for the commercial stations in the States). I am very thankful that up here in Canada, the CAB and commercial radio does not have a lock on the airwaves like they do in the US. They're still trying, though.

The CAB's position papers always start with the premise "the sky is falling". And if it's not already falling, well then, it's about to fall. And of course they resist any kind of regulation .. unless of course it's to their advantage and then hey, save us Big Mommy Government.

Fascinating reading, even if the whiny tone is real annoying ...

Vive la Canadienne,
Victoria

Soft Focus

Self Portrait 

Some would say this isn't focussed clearly but I really like this picture ...

Lots of snow

Snowy days in South River 

This is my dad. My mom took this picture to try to entice us to come up to visit them. It's the snowiest year since they moved up there in 1992.

I love snow and snowmobiling, so this is a good idea. They've got a nice place that's almost like a resort up there on the lake and it's really beautiful. And I can let the dog off the leash and she really likes that too.

Hope it doesn't get mild before I get up there.

Looking Upriver 

Dog and Ice Floes 

Becoming an Eye Person

Learning to See 

For years I have resisted working with visual images. I've always believed that it is too optimistic to think we can do everything well. I've been hesitant about venturing outside of audio expression because if I spend time on the pictures, will I still be able to do audio just as well?

I've had a change of heart ... I figure I've been doing audio now for over 20 years, so if I spend a little time learning something else, it won't detract from my sound work.

And so last summer I went out and bought a video camera. And yesterday I got a cute little Canon still digital camera. It's probably very simple by professional standards but to me it has gazillions of features and makes me ask "where do I start?"

And I answer, like I would tell anybody asking me how to get started in audio, you just go out there and do it. You learn by doing.

That's what I did today. I took pictures of tree bark (as you can see above), shards of ice piling up on each other, some of the historic buildings in Olde Sandwich Towne.

I even have a little 30 second video mode on my still camera and was able to get a sheet of ice on the river scraping the edges of another sheet of ice. The sound was also remarkable ... I am inspired to go down there again and get some more ice floe images.

It's a whole new experience -- I know what kinds of sounds I am drawn to because of all the years I've spent sound gathering. I've always used my microphone to try to hear beyond the obvious. To really work my eyes and see beyond the obvious is the next step.

And yes, there is a film in the works. It will likely take me about five years but it is happening. It's a theme I started working on back in 1999 as an audio documentary. The images are so stunning and startling that to do it in sound alone will only tell part of the story.

That, I think, is an important idea -- if you don't need pictures, don't use them. If you do, it doesn't honour the story to tell it halfway by leaving them out.

It's energizing to be exploring new ways of telling the story ... however it wants to be told.

Cheering on the Team

Do they look like me? 

These are my two adorable nieces Emily (the little one) and Elizabeth (the almost-a-teenager one).

My brother in law Mikey sent this picture and a note:

"In anticipation of the gold medal for hockey later today, my girls are pumped!!"

Maybe next year we'll get Elizabeth and Emily on the ice!

Go Canadian women, big and little!

The Language of Aggression

Oh no. I'm a warmonger.

After my last post about militarism and peaceful protest, this is a really ironic thing that I'm writing about.

For the past few weeks I have often caught myself using militaristic language. When I'm in a situation requiring me to be large and in charge, my language changes. Examples of recent turns of phrase that I've used -- "I'll just blow it out of the water", "subtle as a hand grenade", "pinging off problems one by one like ducks in a shooting gallery".

Hardly peacemaking and gentle words. I am trying to notice when I do this because it does reflect when I'm preparing to go to battle over something. They're very little battles, mind you. But my language shows when I am in a "power over" , rather than a "power with" mindset (these are phrases used by Starhawk , who is a really wonderful witch (pardon me, that's "Wiccan") from California who does really great social change work)

Fascinating. Good example of personal change through linguistic awareness. Goes to show how our mind affects our words and our words affect our mind ..

Why I'm Holding an Anti-War Sign

What good does it do? 


I went to a vigil a couple of nights ago. That's the soft word for a protest.

I don't do this an awful lot. My last public demonstration was in the volatile days of the Mike Harris Reformatories. (The Hamilton Protest was amazing .. the best in the province).

Partly my participation was about the need to do something, anything .. because the road ahead looked very scary (it was). And I had also hoped that large numbers of people would send a message that the the government had to listen to. (They didn't -- they just dismissed us as saying we were all little bad union members who were the puppets of our big bad union bosses.)

So, okay, back to Friday night and the picture above. And what were we protesting. Or vigilling. What we were doing. I didn't know. There was a military conference happening inside the Windsor Armouries. So we were there.

Now, I'm not usually a fuzzy thinker about these things and there I was anyway. Even though I wasn't clear on the agenda -- was it an anti-war conference? Or one of those funny ones where everybody says they're against war but then start talking about how we can stop war by giving more money to our armed forces and finally buy those new helicopters or whatever the army wants today ...

I didn't know. And I didn't spend the time to find out. Because, in the end, it wasn't about the conference and its agenda. It's about our agenda. And I think the the reasons why I went say a lot about my beliefs about why we go to demonstrations, and their value.

See, what happened was this -- Ann, a friend who organized the vigil, felt really strongly that there needed to be a presence at this event. She was getting a really lukewarm reception from others and whether or not we should be there. The reason why I went was because the thought of her standing outside in the snow, one person with a picket sign was brave. And committed. (And kinda sad too). So I went to stand with her.

I needn't have worried -- twelve other people came through. Maybe because they (unlike me) understood the agenda of the conference and felt the need to be there. or maybe, like me, they were there to support Ann. Or both.

I don't think it matters. Do the people we are trying to reach really care that we are standing out there with our "no war" signs and candles? Probably not. What protesting, or vigilling, or demonstrating, or whatever you want to call it, does is give us space to be with each other. And to support each other in the struggle.

Maybe we are just small voices calling out in the wilderness. But remember -- it's an old premise of the social empowerment movement that our voices get stronger when we put them all together. And being with people working together for a common goal helps make it easier when we get up in the morning all by ourselves and work yet another day for the good of the world and its inhabitants. The people around us who support us make it possible for us to keep on going, especially when we are tempted to say what the point?

So that's why I was carrying an anti-war sign. Even if I wasn't clear about what was going on at the conference itself.

(By the way, the picture above is me, and my friends Shawn Hupka and Mary Atkinson.)

Happy Valentine's Day everybody -- for those of you without sweeties out there, your best sweetie is yourself anyway. Go buy yourself some chocolates. Or whatever you want to do to show yourself how much in love you are with the person you are.

A Passage to India

I have been burying my nose in travel books and web sites trying to get a handle on my itinerary. My good buddy, Dave Kattenburg of Earth Chronicle Productions has just scored another grant. We've worked together lots of times before and last fall he asked me if I wanted to be part of his project. This time, he said, he'd really like me to do some of the international travel to gather material. In the past, it's been me doing a lot of the domestically focussed research and he's the one who's gone overseas.

I told him I thought I'd like to go to Asia. Part of the reason is that India has just now opened up the airwaves and I really want to meet some people who are trying to put community radio stations on the air. Also, because there are a lot of good environmental stories, especially in the Himalayas.

We just got the word last week that the application was successful. So it looks like I am going. Not until the fall -- my teaching gig isn't up until the end of April, and that's when the hot, hot summer starts in Southeast Asia. Followed by the monsoons. So it will likely be September or October before I shove off.

This will be a much different than any other experience I've had before. I've been to England alone, Holland alone, out to BC, to many of the States -- I think I am a more seasoned traveller than some. Anybody who has ever travelled to India has told me that none of the rules of the rest of the world apply there. They often invoke words like "overwhelming" and "chaotic".

While checking out hotel prices, I've noticed a few selling points that are unusual for North America -- cold AND hot running water, bacteria-free filtered water, a choice of air conditioned and air cooled rooms .. have to check out what the difference is.

I have also been told that despite the difficult conditions, there is also a vitality, energy and spiritual base that we just can't match here in North America. I have been told that there are 330,000 Hindu gods and goddesses. Even though India is a big country, that's still a lot of gods and goddesses per square mile.

And so my research continues. I have to start lining up some stories before I know for sure where and when I'm going. I hope to do some stories in Sri Lanka and Thailand too.

Some of this will also depend on what I have going on over here. If I don't have much happening, maybe I'll end up staying for a few months. I can write and edit just as easily from over there as I can from here.

Ah, yes, this nomadic lifestyle has it charms and its challenges. Overall, it's very cool.

It could have been much worse

Okay, so waking up to Stephen Harper's smiling face isn't exactly my idea of a great way to start the day.

But hey, I can live with it and hope that the next couple of years gives Canada a really good look at what Reform/Conservatism/Republicanism could do for this country (as in DESTROY it). Sure, there's always the possibility that Mr. Grumpypants is going to become Mr. Happyface until he gets his majority and then the moral majority will settle in forever. But we do have to hang to every shred of hope we can find in the political landscape, at least for the time being.

Myself, I don't see how we could have returned the Liberals for yet another dysfunctional minority government. And we really didn't have anybody else waiting in the wings to replace them, did we? (I refuse to call them Conservatives. They're still the Reform Party.)

And, on the really positive side, it is wonderful to see all the little orange markers on the Globe and Mail website showing where the NDP got in -- even though the popular vote didn't increase for the NDP, the number of seats did.

And yay Hamilton for going orange again. It was especially fine to see labour guy Wayne Marston stomp Tony Valeri into the industrial dirt of Hamilton East. (My bets are that Sheila Copps was in there somewhere helping Marston. after what Valeri did to her, I hope she got her revenge). And my riding in Windsor West returned a solid NDP candidate, as well as Joe Comartin in Windsor/Tecumseh(I especially like Joe because he let me sublet his apartment in Ottawa a few years back).

All in all, a very good day. I spent election day being a Deputy Returning Officer for a poll in Windsor West that most had people in it from "The Projects" (aka, social assistance housing), which is not usually known for high voter turnout. Our poll, poll 56, had one of the highest voter turnouts in the area. We had a lot of new voter registrations, especially from new Canadians. This is a very good thing.

I also got to know the place where I'm living a lot better. My poll clerk, Carol, knows a lot of people from the projects because she lives over by Glengarry, which is one of the other project zones in Windsor. And a lot of her former neighbours now live in our poll.

I found out a lot of interesting stuff about our neighbourhood, like:

- there are about 160 prisoners in the Windsor jail just down the road from where I live
- you don't want to live on Peter Street (I used to live there)
- there's still quite a bit of racism out there, most of it aimed at Muslims - there were more than a few comments bandied about that were pretty tough to listen to (still don't know how to respond to racist comments -- sometimes I challenge them and other times I just shut up and say what's the point of saying anything?)
- people just want to provide for their families and have a good life. None of us are different from each other in that regards. Where we differ is our various versions of what that means.
- this neighbourhood is very much like the Stinson neighbourhood in Hamilton, from whence I just moved. And that I would rather live in a mixed income and lifestyle neighbourhood with all its complexities, than a place where everybody tries to be the same as the next person.

A fascinating day. It's going to be a fascinating couple of years. Or six months. Or four years. However this silly political situation plays out.

What is it about cars?

Goodbye, faithful friend 


The salvage company is coming to take away my car today.

Sigh ... funny how attached we get to our cars. We've gone a lot of miles together, often just the car and I. From Ottawa to Kentucky. And back again. And yet another time from Ottawa to Kentucky. Many more times after that. Down to Nova Scotia this summer.

We've had a lot of good times. So I was really surprised when all it took was a not-very-violent collision at a slow speed in a parking lot to do her in. I figured it would only be a couple thousand bucks damage.

I sure don't know much about car repairs .. the bill would have been over $6000. So, the insurance company says, we'll write you a cheque. Got to admit the settlement amount was more than I expected. And Barry is the real winner here -- my original plan (before the accident) to pay him for half and keep the car. Only I told him I wasn't going to give him a penny more than half of $4000. So he's got a whole lot of reasons to be happy right now. And I could have told him that the insurance company only gave me $4500. But I didn't.

I am not going to get another car right away. I can go without one for the next few months until I get a more solid revenue stream happening. Then I'll probably lease something new. Or, if my friends Sarah and Shawn go to Korea, I'll buy their 1992 Volvo -- it's a kick ass car (in a Volvo kind of way .. isn't that something like referring to something from Ikea as "kick-ass"?)

What I mean is it's Swedish cool. Which is a whole bunch different from North America cool.

Oh, and by the way, I am alright. Nothing damaged except my ego. 'Cause it was my fault. Can't believe it -- I've driven thousands and thousands of miles all over this continent and the first time I get into an accident it's in a big-box mall parking lot going 20 kph.

I think I can still say I'm a good driver -- one accident in over 25 years of driving isn't a bad record. Even if I got a ticket for failing to yield. Would have been worse except I put my head down on the steering wheel and cried after it happened. The cop was real nice .. the tears did not hurt even if they were unintentional.

Time for another ramble ...

My friend Lil sent me an email and told me that she checks here every now and again to see how I am doing. Reminded me that I haven't done an update in a while, and that people sometimes do go here if they haven't heard from me in a while. So I should keep this up.

It's a quiet Sunday evening and I am listening to some Beethoven sonatas, and it feels like a good time to say more than "ya, hi, I'm okay".

I'm better than okay, actually. I'm doing really well. Having a small bout of "but what am I going to be doing in May?" but doing a good job of telling myself that May is a long way off (got a gig until the end of April). And that things have worked out really well thus far, which should give me every reason to believe that this trend will continue. So I opened up a bottle of wine and I think I'm getting past the momentary little bit of fear. And looking at Nova Scotia real estate ads and seeing that one of the houses I like has dropped to $59,000!

I am amazed at how well things are going. I started teaching my radio broadcasting course (better be careful here .. I have my blog address on the bottom of all my emails, accessible to any student who wants to have a look). Not that I'd say anything different if they weren't reading anyway. I think the funniest thing is being called "Professor" .. I'm just not used to it yet. It's shaping up to be a really good group, and it's really good to be able to share all this knowledge that has accumulated over the years. I have been looking over all the radio handouts I've written over the years and realizing that I've got a lot of my material written already. Maybe I should write a book.

Jobs have been falling into my lap ever since I arrived here. I haven't even had to look. The latest job offer is to model for digital animation classes at St. Clair College. Because it's animation, the poses change fairly quickly, with no more than ten minutes per pose. So it's not like I have to sit there, or stand there, or lie there, or stand on one leg for hours and hours at a time. I think it will be a good exercise in keeping still, and keeping quiet. (Some of you will think this is very funny). My friend Sarah is the one who passed along my name -- she says she just goes into meditation when she's doing it, and the discipline is very helpful in terms of getting grounded and centred.

At this point, I have no idea how long I will be in Windsor. It has the reputation of being "Velcro City" .. because arriving here is like backing into a piece of Velcro -- hard to tear yourself away.

That's okay for now. I have changed a lot in the past few months -- I don't have "goals" any more. I do have hopes and dreams, and things I am working towards. The difference, the way I see it, is that goals are things one is going to accomplish come hell or high water. Hopes and dreams are a lot more fluid .. things that would be good to do if that's the direction that life takes us. I remember somebody saying (quite) a few years ago that plans are good, but even the Soviets only had five year plans. So I have started to think it's a lot better to let things evolve, rather than try to force them. (Haven't entirely broken myself of the habit of needing to bulldoze things through, but I am making progress).

More later.

Happy New Year everybody!

Just a quick post so you know I'm still out here.

Life is good. Still having fun.

Hope you are too.