a bunch of people tagged me on facebook with the “25 things about you� meme. i’m going to try and do this a) really quick and b) restrict my answers to the kinds of things discussed here on this blog, namely psychology, creativity/art, spirituality, books and lefty stuff (you know, social just...

welcome, welcome, welcome! this is the 12th edition of the buddhist carnival – one year of a monthly celebration of bloggers who write about buddhism. as usual, i’ll post it in two parts. it occurred to me a while ago that there is something decidedly un-buddhist or at least un-zen in a buddhist...

this week, prime minister stephen harper will issue an official apology about the abuse that happened during canada’s apartheid time, when for decades, first nations (aboriginal) children were taken away from their families and boarded in residential schools where they were to be made into white p...

a while ago, alex shalman interviewed 34 people on the subject of happiness. following up on this, he created the happiness project, a group writing project where everyone who wishes answers questions about what happiness is for them. these posts then are gathered on his blog, here. below are my ans...

today, the appeal division of the national parole board overturned a board panel’s decision to deny robert latimer day parole. latimer, who has served seven years of a life sentence for killing his severely disabled daughter, will soon be released to a half-way house. here are a few blog react...

today is international stand up to bullying day.  students and lots of other people all across canada and the world wear pink to mark the day. last year, two students in nova scotia (canada’s east coast) donned and distributed pink shirts after a classmate fell victim to homophobic bullying for w...

a few years ago on easter, first united church in vancouver’s downtown eastside carried a cross through the neighbourhood. it was a big, simple cross – and there were needles stuck all over it. the christ of the drug addicts. an image i will never forget. there is much about the message of t...

the three wise men the three monks are inviting us to write about compassion. compassion: literally, to suffer (passion) with (com-) another. in latin, this suffering did not only refer to the suffering that occurs in pain, it also generally refers to things that we don’t actively instigate – th...