According to research, the average person has approximately 12,000 – 60,000 thoughts daily. 80% of thinking is attributed to negative thoughts driven by the fight-or-flight pattern of the brain, and 95% of those thoughts are repetitive. Doesn’t that make the saying about repeating oneself “like a broken record,” “beating the dead horse,” “washing the same dirty laundry,” or “like a parrot” so true? Neuroscientists suggest that because we are caught

What can’t you own but use every day? What can’t you keep but spend frequently? What can you lose and never get back? The answer? Time … This is the last day of 2024. Another year around the sun. How many have you done thus far? Did 2024 pass quickly for you? It did for me, and once again, it made all those clichés so true—time flies, beat the clock,

This time of year, a common practice is gifting, giving something to someone without expecting anything in return. It can be a watercolor drawing of the sunset, a crocheted blanket, a handwritten poem, fixing up the garage, or shoveling snow off a roof. One can also buy just the right gift for their loved ones, from a bicycle for a child, tickets to a concert for a teenager, or the

The coldest temperature ever recorded near where I was born and raised was -73° Fahrenheit in 1935. In those temperatures, frostbite can happen in minutes on any exposed skin. Blood pressure lowers, breathing becomes shallow, and there can be a slight thickening of the blood, which can cause chest pain in some. I’ve not experienced that extreme cold, but I came close. It happened in the winter of my seventh-grade year.

It seems I discovered the healing power of nature (or maybe nature found me) at a very young age. Growing up in a small town in northern Canada, close to Muskeg country, the wilds were out my front door, and whenever the chaos of my home life got too chaotic, I always found refuge walking the small trail down to the lake. There, I’d find a spot and sit for

In the north, November can be a stark month. Gone are the brilliant gold, scarlet leaves of autumn. Gone are the hot, lazy days of summer. Many birds fly south to warmer climates. Some animals slow down by finding shelter and preparing for their long winter nap. Tree buds go dormant. The sun rises in the southeast as the days shorten. The winter constellations become more visible in the early

The fear of dying is quite common, and most people state that the thought of dying is scary, at least to some degree. Some reports indicate women fear death more than men, and others argue younger people fear death over the elderly. It’s not something we talk about at a cocktail party or having coffee with friends. “Oh, hello, nice to see you. Are you afraid of dying?” I doubt

October is usually the time of year I start seeing pumpkin flavors advertised at supermarkets, coffee shops, and eateries: pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin crème brulee, pumpkin bread, and tarts, cookies, soups, cheesecakes, and muffins, building up to the holidays and, yes, that infamous pumpkin pie. I don’t mind pumpkin flavors now, but I hated them for a long time, avoiding anything with pumpkin in it. One afternoon, when I was

Suffering is defined as the state of undergoing pain, distress, or hardship. For example, war will cause widespread suffering; my friend suffers a lot during the winter when it’s cold, and his joints get stiff; or, because of her unimaginable guilt, she suffered greatly. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t suffered at some point in their lives, be it physical, mental, or emotional. We all know what that feels like,

None of us know how long we will live, but would you want to know if you had a magic ball that told you the precise time of your death? Perhaps you might say yes if you are young and your magic ball reports that you have 100 more years to live. 100 years is a long time and why think about that now? Would you want to know if

If you’ve read my memoir, Wandering (2023 Gray Wolf Books), you may recall that I toured England, Scotland, and Wales before embarking on the overland journey to India (Chapter 28). I did not share much about those few months before taking the Magic Bus to Greece because I couldn’t choose which experiences to include and which ones to leave out. So, I opted to keep it simple. Anyway, one of my

My favorite subject in high school was English Literature. In my junior and senior years, my English teacher had a soft spot for poetry. We delved into the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, and Robert Frost and even dipped into Rumi and Pablo Neruda. I ate it up and wrote hundreds of poems, trying to emulate or capture what was in my heart. I did share some of

Several of my neighbors shouted. “The ice rink is ready! The ice rink is ready!” Many fathers, including my stepfather, had spent weeks clearing and preparing a space for the six apartment complexes to play ice hockey and for their families to ice skate on family night. The last few days had been particularly cold in the Canadian North allowing the ice to become clear as glass. My mother cheerfully

If I accept the Oxford-Webster definition of success, which is “achieving wealth, respect, or fame”, then I can count the successes or the near successes in my life on one hand. In high school, I won my school’s public speaking contest. I proudly wore the first-place ribbon on my sweater throughout the evening after I announced to my family at the dinner table, “I’m going to regionals.” I could hardly

Not long ago, I spent an overnight at a swanky hotel in the city. Does anyone use the term swanky anymore? Anyway, it was a nice place. The rooms overlooked the harbor. A fluffy robe and towel were provided for the spa, the swimming pool, or the hot tub. Since I had some time before my dinner engagement, I decided to change into my swimsuit and go for a soak.