November 29, 2023
At the outbreak of Russia’s attack on Ukraine in February 2022, Marina Sonkina decided to travel to Europe to assist Ukrainians fleeing the carnage through the Ukrainian-Polish border at Korczowa. As her book unfolds, we meet an array of refugees, just some of the many hundreds Sonkina encountered as a volunteer at the border refugee centre.
November 7, 2022
Ivan Coyote called it "powerful and poetic". In this piece I grapple with a question that haunted my childhood: What are you doing here? Honoured to have this work acknowledged by PRISM International magazine.
July 9, 2022
"In 1961 my mother committed my father to Crease Clinic, at what was then known as Essondale, the Hospital for the Mind. This was a euphemistic title for what is usually called a mental institution or lunatic asylum." This is the opening from All My Love, Alex, the second-prize winner in Event Poetry and Prose Magazine's 2021 Creative Non Fiction contest.
March 7, 2022
Journalling offers us a simple and effective way to deepen our own processes. The relationship we have with ourselves is the one that drives and dictates the relationships we build with others and with the natural world we inhabit. We can learn, grow, expand, express and discover our deeper selves through the simple daily practice of putting pen to paper. In this post (and video) I serve up my best tips for journalling as a tool for wellbeing.
January 25, 2022
Recently, I was invited to be a guest on the Surviving to Thriving podcast with Kathy Archer of Silver River Coaching. We took a deep dive into the many ways journalling can be used as a tool for leaders. Much of what we discussed can be applied to anyone in any walk of life. We offer three key insights, but honestly we cover so much more!
January 16, 2022
Leave With What You Came With is long listed for the BC Federation of Writers 2021 Literary Contest in the Creative Nonfiction category. This work is essentially a braided essay. It is a glimpse into the story of my father's institutionalization in a mental hospital in 1961.
January 5, 2022
How do you tell time? What signals mark the significant passages in our lives? Weather, nature, the aging body. Time is its own poetry.
October 17, 2021
On a macro level, there is a big global change going on. Change happens on the micro level, too. Who is this stress-crafting woman, awake before light to swim in a frigid dawn, sewing as the midwinter afternoon darkens, crocheting by moonlight?
May 14, 2021
My people came down from the mountains, brittle ghosts armed with blades and hacksaws. They were big eared, small-footed and had red-knuckled hands. They carried no expectations. The men were tough and canny, ready with violence, religiously upright, but secret drunks.