Daniela Ginta, Freelance Writer

Gratitude makes the journey better. Kindness, too.

Category: Environment Page 13 of 19

To Frack Or Not To Frack

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On January 21, 2016

In Armchair Mayor Column, Environment, Life Stories, Social issues

Originally published as a column in NewsKamloops on January 15, 2016. 

Amidst the welcome news of the Kinder Morgan and Enbridge pipelines being shut down by the BC government, the fact that fracking is still considered an acceptable process for extracting natural gas is somewhat baffling.

After all, the earthquake that rattled Fox Creek, Alta., and a large area surrounding it, was no small matter. At 4.8 magnitude, the earthquake was serious enough to make the Alberta Energy Regulator close the operation indefinitely. The decision is a wise one and the earthquake a cautionary tale that no one should be allowed to downplay.

Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, comes with many risks. High-pressure fluid – as much as half a million litters of water with additives – is injected into deep wells in order to crack rocks and force out the natural gas trapped in the shale.

Aside from an increased risk of earthquakes (231 triggered by the shale gas industry between August 2013 and October 2014) that seem to increase in magnitude as more wells are being dug, fracking comes with a high risk of water contamination.

While some can argue that the province needs its natural gas project to continue in order to secure revenue and provide jobs, the controversial operations are bound to put some areas of BC and the people who live there at considerable risk.

The recent Fox Creek earthquake, as well as the two that occurred in British Columbia last year, share some commonalities: they were all caused by fracking and registered over 4 on the seismic scale. Hence the temporary (short or long-term) closing of the operations, yet unfortunately not severe enough to cause a re-evaluation of the process.

That many people in the area where fracking operations occur, as well as environmentalists, are showing great concern is only natural.

After all, natural gas giant Petronas, the company behind the huge LNG developments in BC, was discovered to have a poor reputation when it comes to safety matters. Not exactly what the public wants to hear about an industry that has been mushrooming in northeastern British Columbia.

And mushrooming is the right term indeed, as more than 7,300 wells have been drilled since 2005 in British Columbia. The trouble is, the more wells they dig and the more additive-treated water is pumped into them to release the gas, the higher the risk of earthquakes and leakage of toxic and carcinogenic compounds (yes, they are) into fresh aquifers. We can figure out ways to exist without natural gas, but there is no way we can ever exist without water. Which means that we have to preserve what we have at all costs rather than have so much of it used by industries that do not honour a green-energy commitment, nor admit the putative health and environmental effects they inflict.

 

As if an increased risk of earthquakes and water contamination is not enough, adding the release of methane into the atmosphere as yet another fracking side-effect (a 2013 report pointed out that the actual release is 70 percent higher than initially thought), should make us all wonder why fracking is allowed to continue the way it does.

After all, as with an oil spill in a pristine area, the effects of fracking can greatly affect a community. In Hudson’s Hope, BC, the site of five fracking wells and also the place of a continuous landslide which people blame on the fracking operation, the reality is as dark as could be, water-wise.

The only source of water for the community is contaminated with heavy metals, not that anyone claims responsibility for it. A report by the B.C.’s Oil and Gas Commission stated that the area has naturally occurring metals and is prone to land instability. How conveniently impaired one could say. Yet sarcasm aside, the reality is a sad one. The water advisory is still on and it’ll probably be for a while. People cannot use the creek the way they used to for generations.

Fracking is still happening near Hudson’s Hope and while the residents blame it for their water problems, truth is hard to come by when big money is at stake.

Call it cliché if you will, but human health and the health of the environment are priceless. And we just don’t have the luxury to spare any at this point. Nor should we be gullible enough to allow companies to convince us that fracking comes with low risks hence it should continue. The price in the long run (or not so long) could be a devastating one and the future generations, as well as the present one, deserve better.

About Trades And Why They Matter

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On January 12, 2016

In Armchair Mayor Column, Environment, Kamloops, Learning, Life Stories, Social issues

Originally published as a column in NewsKamloops on January 8, 2016. 

IMG_8864Soon after we arrived in Transylvania my youngest had set up shop in a corner of my sister’s yard to do one of the things he likes the most: forging. It’s not quite what you’d imagine a 9-year-old doing and yet he loves the concept, enjoys the time spent learning about fires no matter how cold it is outside and every step adds a new layer of appreciation for manual work and for the things people can make if only they take the time.

He learns about durability in a world that becomes more disposable by the day. It’s a valuable lesson often packed with a blister here and there, sweat and time; lots of time spent learning and making things. Also, researching the next step in learning.

I remember the first time we went to Fort Langley during the time we still lived in Vancouver, the boys were four and nine at the time. The blacksmith’s shop was the main attraction for them. And why not? To see a piece of metal being transformed through the sheer power of heat and by the hard work of a strong arm into a unique candle holder was fascinating.

And yes, we still have the candleholder. It’s a beautiful reminder.

That day opened the topic that has become a mainstay: blacksmithing and forging. Who does it, where can you learn about it and where can one find people who carry on the trade?

Well, we found a couple in Barkerville. Our trip last May saw the boys perched on the blacksmith’s workshop fence, sun and all, just to hear stories about the trade and observe the process of how each piece comes to be. They saw pieces of bar stock curled into pendants and hooks and tools that the people of then needed for everyday life.

Trades are something of a lost art for the most part. We live in the days of 3D printers and cheap offshore labour (unethical often but then again ethics often gets in the way of money making so the issue is conveniently obscured by justification) and that means that trades that create cradle-to-grave products to be sold at fair prices may be slowly disappearing unless we make sure they don’t. And we cannot allow that to happen because we have too much to lose.

Our recent trip to Europe added more to the argument. I read about an elderly man up north who recently passed away. He was known for the beautiful traditional wooden gates he made all his life. I listened to him saying that he leaves but a handful of people who will carry on the trade.

He also talked about the gates and other unique woodwork he made. Far from being ‘just a…’, the things him and others make in the area are stories. Of times past, stories of centuries-old faith and values, joy and sorrow, stories of life unfolding.

That’s when it hit me. People tell stories with their craft. That is some of the magic of it. The solid root of a trade is the tradition incorporated in it by generations of people who believed it should continue, by communities showing they need the craft and those who make it happen.

Such realizations only point to a simple truth: no culture is too far from another. We are united in how we aim to carry further our traditions, and for those who get to see the same craft and trades in various countries, they get to see how trades become the bridge that tells of universal values and gifts carried throughout time by each of us. If we choose to see the treasure held in hand-made pieces of this and that, whether they are for decoration or everyday use.

Trades and crafts can be a common denominator of the non-imposed kind if you will… the kind that reminds us of a thing we often forget. That cultures around the world have so much in common, and their old stories tell of the same way of developing crafts that see solid things made and also see stories told to generations coming. For survival.

We cannot trade the old ways that taught us to value work for the sea of disposable things we’re surrounded by nowadays. No one has anything to gain from it. In fact we all lose.

Progress is not forgetting old ways and making everything fast and disposable, but rather incorporating old trades into new technologies that maintain good standards and see the world better not by the number of things we see sprouting every day, but by the way they hold their own as time goes by.

There is something to be said about that and I think kids learning about it may well be what saves us from ourselves in the long run. And just like that, there is something to be said about a child lifting a piece of raw material, whatever that may be, and saying ‘Mom, you know what I could make of this?…’

That’s how stories are written. And that’s how old stories continue; because they must.

The Ripple Effect

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On December 18, 2015

In Armchair Mayor Column, Environment, Kamloops, Self-improvement, Social issues

Originally published as a column in NewsKamloops on December 4, 2015. 

BeautyIt was cold on Sunday. Midday came with gifts of sunshine as over one hundred people gathered for the Climate Rally at Riverside Park. Not a big crowd by many people’s standards, but enough to make a dent of some sort.

Among lots of green paper hearts with inspiring messages directed to the City Council, and people smiling as they had green hearts painted on their cheeks (or noses), hope reigned supreme.

Indeed, there is something about that recognition of a need to act together towards the greater good if the greater good is to be achieved at all. There is no question that the road is a bumpy one; global well-being is a tall order. Yet what choice do we have?

It has come to the point in time when we can no longer push the dirt under the rug and pretend the day can be filled with happy thoughts only (hope is happy, come to think of it, isn’t it?) but we have to take the proverbial bull by the horns and act.

In face of a challenging world climate, environmental, social and political, the one logical thing to do is to approach the said bull not individually but together. Strength is in numbers, and to that I’d add that inspiration and courage are as well. from times past until today, the concept of togetherness is one that helps build bridges where bridges have never been built and helps us climb mountains that any of us individually would find impossible to climb.

It felt good to see that on Sunday. Frozen feet and noses notwithstanding, a great heart was formed on the shores of the quiet, old-as-the-world Thompson River, and the rally ended with smiles. Now for the actual work.

Yes, as good and fuzzy the feeling, there’s lots of work ahead. Rally or not, the world is still warming up and that’s bad, but also good because we can use the heat in more constructive ways. Species are still disappearing (some faster than others) and yet there’s a heap of good people out there striving to share the word on saving them, starting petitions and raising awareness, adding clarity to our view of the world like never before.

There are many acute issues in the world. From climate-related to multiple war-plagued areas and the resulting humanitarian crises, clarity is perhaps what we need to acknowledge that unless we tackle them together, neither will be properly fixed.

The Paris-derived ‘Keep it in the ground’ campaign is the very case in point. India’s PM has launched an international solar alliance of over 120 countries, many of them developing countries where some of the people will go from no power to solar power and all the benefits that electricity brings along.

Environmental issues and poverty can be solved as the complex interwoven problem they have become. Killing two birds with one shot, except that in this case we would be fixing the said birds with one cure. That could save future unrest and maybe even wars.

It would not be boasting if we were to say that we’re witnessing history being made these days. Big in how we invest ourselves in saving the world and its people too. Big in how we make compassion and responsibility stand out, big in how big our hearts grow as we hold onto each other in order to breathe new life into the togetherness concept.

In times of unrest, whatever the nature of it is, usually more than one as everything is connected after all, finding solutions is an act of courage and a reminder that uniting over big warm-hearted purposes gives meaning to life itself, saving it at the same time.

Then again, big goals can appear intimidating at first. Which is why pursuing change in small steps and fixing the world, mindset-wise, starts in our own backyard.

BC has again, and infamously so, placed first on the child poverty list in Canada. This year again, 1 in 5 children in British Columbia are living below the poverty level. That is unacceptable. There is no sugar coating for this one.

In the days of thrift stores bulging with used items, landfills inundated with usable things and still lots of food finding its way in the garbage, the only word that can describe the situation, much to our shame, is “unacceptable”. Unacceptable indeed.

But many good deeds happen as there are many people putting money, time and consideration towards addressing the problem. It goes without saying that the provincial government has to step up to the plate and do the hard work on that end too.

Things are changing and for the better. Having knowledge is where we start. So let’s consider us walking the path already.

We can do it. Change how we treat the environment, put food on children’s plates and offer low-income families (single parents too) the gift of dignity. Address mental issues, understand the needs of those affected in our community and country-wide and press on to help war and disaster-affected people, the millions of them: those effected by the crisis in Syria and Iraq, those without homes and little food in Nepal, the tens of thousands in Sudan who are on the brink of famine.

Kindness begets kindness and we are all better when that happens. A single drop that falls in a lake will create ripples that will travel farther then we see with our eyes. The same with kindness. Our world deserves it. We, as its people, deserve it too.

In keeping mindful we are not living in fear but in hope. In unity over goals that honour life as we know it in all its entirety, we become better. Humbly so.

We Have The Power To Change

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On November 27, 2015

In Armchair Mayor Column, Environment, Kamloops, Learning, Social issues

Originally published as a column in News Kamloops on Friday November 27, 2015. 

IMG_0111Last weekend found us and the boys at Lac Le Jeune delighting in thick snow and sparkling hoarfrost. It could not have been more beautiful. A magical glimpse into winter wonderland, quiet and mysterious at times, and then sprinkled with noises of birds and boys and lake ice vibrating in long organ-like sounds as the boys were throwing handfuls of icy snow on the newly formed solid layer.

To see that world, animal tracks included, just a few steps away from the busy city life, is to be reminded of why I keep going back to the same plea I’ve been at for years now: let’s save the world. It’s so worth it.

Holidays approach and that means joy, but so much of what we identify with winter joy has been commercialized and comes with an expiration date. So much of what children associate with winter joy nowadays has to do with the short-lived exhilaration of packages, and so much of their interaction with nature itself has been reduced over the years.

We can all do more with the nonmaterialistic joy that comes from connecting with nature and understanding its mysteries rather than attempting to conquer it in any way.

Yes, the planet can only hold so much garbage and only so much ‘reusable’ debris can be disassembled (by people who have no other choice in countries we don’t think of often enough) before the excess starts showing in inelegant ways.

The word is out about plastic being all over our big blue oceans. Again. An estimated 8 to 12 tonnes of plastic is dumped in the ocean annually by coastal countries and if more is produced, more will find its way into the water.

As for biodegradable plastic, let’s just say it’s not what it sounds like. Science has recently spoken out about that too. There is no miracle biodegradable plastic that disintegrates after we dispose of it unless certain conditions are met, so companies need to rethink their products and customers like us have to reuse what we have and avoid buying more plastic.

We’re far enough inland to not find the odd plastic bits during a stroll on the shore, but the Thompson Rivers are suffering from the same disease, albeit at a smaller scale. It’s not hard to spot the unsightly bits when you’re out and about.

Yes the planet is a small place to be after all. Our growing population needs some new rules of engagement and because we have more choices than so many people in the world who are already feeling the effects of climate change, we have to give it a good go.

I’ve been told and I’ve read countless times that one person cannot make a difference; not when it comes to climate change in the era of greedy corporations. Why do we keep saying that? Who’s to benefit from it? Not us, not in the least. Overconsumption of goods has the individual as the problem but also as the solution. Worth a try.

On the eve of COP21 and amidst so much world turmoil (much of it tied to economic reasons), choosing to focus our gaze on the sea of plastic that’s engulfing us, both at sea and on land, and looking close enough to our world suffering from human activity wounds, whatever their nature, we have to consider making better choices by buying less or recycled, eating less meat and driving less. A matter of much needed civic responsibility rather than a pre-Christmas Grinch-like attitude.

Seeing the wealth of offers for Black Friday and beyond makes me ask a question that is as uncomfortable as it is obligatory: is it right to give our children the illusion that the world is well and bountiful and the Christmas cheer is to be welcomed without a worry in the world? Or is that akin to pulling the rug from under their feet as they make their way into tomorrow?

A recent scientific report documenting the glaciers in Tibet warns of fast melting, which could leave almost a quarter billion people with less water for daily consumption, agriculture and household or commercial purposes. Glaciers in Bolivia, Pakistan, Austria, Canada and the US are not far behind.

Earlier this year, over 300 sei whales ended up stranded in a fjord in southern Chile in what National Geographic called the world’s largest stranding ever. The causes are yet to be found. It could be the ocean water that is getting too warm and acidic and thus causing an algal bloom toxic to marine mammals, or a high concentration of pesticides due to agricultural run-off, or floating garbage.

If we think of animals as our canaries, we should approach their occasional unexplained sudden demise with interest, for our well-being and theirs are tightly interwoven.

This is not scaremongering but facts derived from scientific reports. They point to things happening and that means we have to change our course of action. Hence the climate meeting about to take place in Paris.

Various actions are possible at various levels. We can pressure our newly elected government to reassess some of the hasty environmentally-unsound decisions made by the previous government, we can keep informed about new exploitation projects that may jeopardize our land or waters (like the drilling to be done by Shell off the coast of Nova Scotia) and make enough noise to hopefully prevent environmental disasters, and we can choose to leave enough manufactured goods on the shelves to reduce demand and thus reduce pollution. There’s more of course.

We are fortunate to live in a world that comes with so many perks for so many of us. It is nothing but honouring to remind ourselves that we can also sign up for the duty of doing all that we can to save the world that has given us so much, from the enrapturing beauty of a sunset over snowy mountains to the miracle of seeing life appear, whether it is a leaf bud, a butterfly or the birth of a baby.

By not keeping silent about unpopular topics (like this one) and by acting in ways to show it, we can achieve something. No action is small enough to not count.

In solidarity with the rest of the people being loud and visible on November 29, please consider visiting Riverside Park at 1pm to participate in the Climate Change Rally. The world will thank you for it.

If Lakes Could Sing… Oh, But They Do

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On November 25, 2015

In Environment, Kamloops, Learning, Life Stories, Motherhood, Self-improvement

Day to beThe morning snuggle and read with little boy are obligatory. You gotta have the right book too. It has to keep little kids ask for one more chapter until, pushing their face into your neck, delighting you with their gentle warm breath as they whisper sweetly ‘One more, Mama, pleeeease?’ you yield, and when the chapter ends the game starts again. Oh no, not this time. No becomes yes and the sun coming through the window splatters on the page you’re about to read. Same irreverence as the child… Can you blame them though?

We’re reading E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web (again, and pretending we have no clue about what’s coming) and little boy’s apprehension of spiders dissolves with every page Charlotte proves her love and devotion towards the pig called Wilbur who can truly make you question your meat-eating habits if you’re still at it.

True to form, last week’s end saw the boys learning about animals in our little school. Past the usual anatomy and physiology – miraculous on their own of course, we snuggled to listen to talks about whether animals feel or not, courtesy of Carl Safina, an amazing scholar with a penchant for saying it like it is and an ardent desire to save the world.

We listened, and then we got very silent as we paused to think how to place all that we heard in the context of human compassion and how it should (must) influence the way we take from here onward.

WonderingsMy wild boys’ eyes could not be rounder as they learn of these things and their questions more pertinent. Truly, children have it right. Their minds uncorrupted and their ears still able to perk up and hear the sounds of the world many adults tune out. The world that matters because it keeps us alive with it.

The same old question that makes grownups roll their eyes at times… ‘Can one person change the world?’ Idealistic and dream-like, but dreams have to start somewhere. Learning is dreaming is pursuing. Children have that flame alive and burning. They say ‘I can’ until we tell them enough time ‘It’s not possible’. Then the flame subsides.

Learning comes with listening to songs that can change the tune of your own if you allow the child within to keep alive, not just in playfulness but in how you write ‘Possible’ on dreams.

This world and that A bit of a rethinking of life as we know it, but as we’ve come to discover daily, the mandate of our school at home includes shaking off limiting beliefs and making room for thinking, debating and realizing that on a good day, we’re merely seeing a sliver of all that wonder of the world.

There cannot be gratefulness for opening your eyes to a new day unless you’re poised to learn why you can do that and that seeing all that you see as you go about your day is a string of happenings that your mind can choose to learn about and understand, and in doing so you’re ever more in awe of how much you don’t know.

Hence we learn about ignorance too in our school. The value of not knowing, which, as you admit to, takes you past the slimy reality of superficial knowledge, a dreadful disease of our world, and leads you into what becomes a path to never stray from. Knowledge of the world.

It comes with square roots, and fractions, with spelled and misspelled words, it comes with French greeting phrases and stories of early explorers, with science experiments that tie you to ‘Why?’ forever, with understanding that we may be but one thread in the life tapestry. Learning to hang onto, learning that other threads are equally important if we are to tell the real story. Resilience is as much a word as it is a concept. A goal. Just like compassion.

So we learn. Learning comes with waking up mindful of what your next steps, careful enough to not step on someone’s dreams and smiles, and if you do, to have the strength and humbleness to ask for forgiveness.

SilentWhat you can seeBy the time the week ends we’re spoiled by sunshine and venture to out searching for winter wonders. Boys and snow go well together. Most times anyway. We find it: magic. White and silent, it lives where your hot breath has an echo, among tall trees with beards of snow and forest paths sprinkled with myriad tracks of animals that tell stories… stories that tie into our learning, stories we can learn.

Boys follow the path that takes us to the lake. We are at Lac Le Jeune where last visit saw us braving minus 21 Celsius, freezing toes and fingers asking for mercy. That was then…

taste of magicToday is cloudy and quiet and we’re not hoping for sun as we’re too enraptured by the whiteness of thick snow. But sunshine pushes the clouds aside and we’re stuck in sparkling beauty. I have one thought as I stare at small blade-like crystals of hoarfrost… ‘If this ever ceases to exist as such, we are poorer for it. Lost.’

Being overwhelmed by magic that reduces you to that one thought gives reason to choose the one path that makes sense after that: simplicity. Aiming for what matters.

wonder...It matters to have boys run and scream with joy as they see ice crystals perched on low branches and on the side of the lake, it matters to be there with them.

It matters to stoop down to observe tracks, signs of life, big and small, to decipher the voices of the woods, the words they write for us to heed; it matters to realize that there’s no better place to see than where everything seems hidden. Everything we need to see to learn is always in front of us, wherever we are.

Boys and musicIt matters to have the boys throw handfuls of snow on the thin ice that hugs the lake surface in a tight embrace and see their faces light up with wonder ‘Did you hear that?’ Yes, the ice sings. More? It’s a game that keeps on going. It has to. For them to learn, for them to never be afraid of joy, never ashamed of playing to get there…

The lake sings, the sun is shining brightly, birds and boys do the pitter patter on snow and under the trees, each laughing in their own way, each quarreling just the same, maybe to remind of imperfections needed to keep humbleness in place.

It matters to have that moment stuck in your heart forever, to understand that it is not in what we strive for on the outside that we find shelter in but in what we carry with us, deep inside, in how we find ourselves hopeful enough to never give up searching for better days, and wiser by having experienced the hopelessness of lost days…

To be is to learn. To learn to be. And magic is all.

The Magic Of Social Conscience

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On October 23, 2015

In Armchair Mayor Column, Environment, Kamloops, Learning, Social issues

Initially published as a column in NewsKamloops on October 23, 2015. 

HopeThere is something to be said about caring. It brings out the best in people, it really does. The 2015 elections proved it, and there are numbers to show for it, as 68.5 per cent of all Canadians took to the poles to exercise their right to vote.

That is quite a feat, given the lethargy of previous elections (largest turnout was in 1993 at 70.9 per cent) and it shows many things: that social media can work wonders when used the right way, that many people are not ill-intentioned but often less informed and unaware of the importance of their contribution, and that with eno ugh determination to vote, we have built the path towards a new starting line.

Whoever you voted for, it is the end result that counts. We have a fresh start in how we do things. Promises have been made, hence promises will have to be delivered.

If you peruse the press you will get to see a whole range of opinions about the 2015 election results: from deeply impassionate ones celebrating change in leadership and our new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, to doubtful pieces where the authors wonder if our new PM is up to the challenge.

It goes without saying that the job of guiding a country in a balanced, wise way is no easy deed. Many eyes will be following our PM’s every move, the press and political analysts will be discussing his decisions, the many groups and individuals he met during the course of his campaign will be expecting to see the promises made to them come true.

Many of us expect to see many of the controversial policies and trade deals revisited and the terms adjusted to match our national values and leave our dignity as a country intact, and we expect to have the past and the future looked upon with kindness and respect.

Because there is a lot of work to be done, we have to turn our gaze from the PM’s office at times and gaze inward instead.

Sure we want issues minded, both locally and nationally. The change that Canadians brought on with their vote has to reflect more than just the most visible change of all, which is our newly elected leader. But change starts with each of us.

If only we can become so keen in keeping our own actions and decisions to match our promises to ourselves, to our loved ones and our communities, instead of being focused solely on how our leaders perform their jobs, we’re bound to accomplish more than just applaud or criticize.

In other words, we have to make this new start a start in how we live our lives: at a family level, community and beyond. We voted and we did so with the expectation that our voices will be heard and minded.

We have to make sure that our voices will be persistent enough and our message clear. More than that, we need to focus on living in a way that shows that social conscience, the very thing that sent us to vote, is thriving in Canada.

Weaving compassion and care into our everyday life and into our societal fabric might just be what we need to heal the many wounds we kept on hearing over the last few years, many of which have been deepening as they were ignored.

The strength of a nation lies with every citizen. We need to address the well-being of marginalized groups and seek solutions for poverty, mental illness, and addictions. We need to open our eyes to see around us, and our hearts to feel.

We need to revive communities and reinforce the strings that keep them connected because that will see us all safer and better. We need to infuse our personal lives with kindness and do our best to influence the community we are part of to do the same.

These elections are not and do not have to be just about a change in leadership. They are about change from the roots up. A new beginning is always like that. It fosters hope and the desire to wake up to better days.

Raising Boys In A Factual World. Notes From Our School

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On October 19, 2015

In Environment, Kamloops, Learning, Life Stories, Motherhood, Self-improvement

sunIt’s Friday and sunny. Little boy has his midday piano class and the tune of ‘Hot cross buns’ flows around the living room and trails all over the house, chasing big brother outside where he can read ‘The story of science’ without any hot buns crossing his mind.

The topics of today were bones and the wonder of movement. We ran barefoot and then with shoes, we noticed how our heads and their content shook uncomfortably as we landed on our heels and then we discovered how the body knows what to do when you let it do its thing. Barefoot? Worth trying (though in Kamloops some running trails require some separation between you and cacti; they truly are merciless.)

Boys and sun chasing each other around the back yard, learning about feet, bones and joints, backbones and postures and why breathing and walking and feeling light in the head and heart are so intrinsically and magically related.

Why does it take more effort to sit with your back straight? Why does it get easier as you do it more?

We’re indulging in bad posture until we don’t notice anymore. But our bodies know what’s right. Slouching, bad attitude, giving up before you start, they are related. Can you slouch when you walk? Not for long. When you choose to have a good posture, your body becomes more flexible and your movement fluid.

Little boy says with confidence ‘Mom, I do not find skeletons creepy anymore. They really cannot stand or walk in real life, they just can’t since there are no joints…’ A perfect conclusion! Right in time for Halloween. Knowledge is power, now the boys see why.

The week was rife with learning: math, geometry, plant physiology, reading short stories and learning words. I love hearing the sweet impressions upon reading, I love seeing my boys’ thoughts come out in words that describe what they read and see while reading.

‘The description of pines covered in that first snow, Mom, I love reading descriptions like that because I can see it right in front of me…’ The love of books and stories is the one the boys will hold close forever.

worldGiftsWe learn of the place we live in through morning hikes. How much can you see on a given morning? They write lists upon returning: downy woodpeckers, red squirrel, magpies, robin, Saskatoon bushes, dried up arrow-leaf balsam root, kinnickinnick, juniper, bunchgrass, snowberries, prickly-pear, clouded sulphur butterfly, big leaf maple. I get gifts of beautiful rusty maple leaves.

Tomorrow we will see more or less. No two days are the same.

No day of learning is the same either. We learn about being kind, considerate, remember that one person’s perspective is but that: one person’s perspective. Facts take it from subjective to objective.

Facts of life. No judging, no assuming, no making someone self-conscious but allowing them to keep their dignity, as we keep ours, by stating facts and allowing space for people to find solutions.

For three days in a row, the boys snuggle together to read about the gold rush. They giggle, wonder at how it all happened and ask each other ‘would you have done it?’… Eyes rolling side to side, looking for the right answer, reading some more and … time to play outside. There’s so much of the day left still. Learning of a different kind, though playing and figuring things out, through seeing things that we learn about in our little school.

‘Mom, I can never look at leaves the same way. They are so much more than just leaves…’ Reverence.

‘Are we eating cells when we eat fruit and veggies just like that?’

togetherReverence makes room for humbleness. There’s so much to learn, yet it’s through the small steps that our minds dare take the greatest leaps towards places unknown. Curiosity. More learning… to open eyes, to reach hearts – our own in the first place, to understand that life is precious in all aspects of it.

To make moments, days, time with each other, with ourselves, with life itself, worth it.

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