When I go out for dinner, I usually read the whole menu to discover what I might want to eat. My family members and friends usually have no problem deciding what they want. My husband finds his selection right away. Not me. I use the process of elimination. No, I don’t want that or that until I narrow my choices to about three, or two on a good day. This

Polaris, or the North Star, is in the same location in the northern hemisphere every night from dusk to dawn, neither rising nor setting, and is also the brightest star in the sky. It symbolizes direction, guidance, stability, and purpose. In Norse folklore, the North Star was at the end of a spike around which the sky rotated. In Mongolian mythology, it was a peg that held the world together.

In the BBC Planet Earth documentary series, there is an episode about a group of fish called “schooling fish” swimming together to confuse predators. The stalker, like a shark, can’t pick out an individual fish, and therefore, the chances of the whole group getting away are greatly increased. Herring are among the more spectacular schooling fish aggregating in great numbers with chains of schools reaching 100 miles long. Emperor Penguins

Downsizing usually means reducing in size, the process of replacing something larger with something smaller, or in the financial world when companies cut the workforce to diminish operating costs. I’ve used this word a lot in the last several months. For instance, to explain to my friends why I moved, “Oh, we’re just downsizing.” We donated antiques, boxes of children’s games and toys, books, clothes, furniture, outdoor equipment, tools, kitchenware,

Long ago Greek philosophers agreed that human emotions, like love and fear, were linked to the heart. Plato (429 – 347 B.C.E.) argued that the chest was at the center of love and Aristotle expanded it further to expound that the human heart was the seat of spiritual and mental functions. We now know that the limbic system, a group of interconnected structures deep in the brain, is responsible for

Webster’s definition of moving is to change one’s residence or location. But it also can mean in motion –a fast-moving river or producing a strong emotion –an unforgettable and moving book. Or being mobile –she was moving so quickly I hardly saw her. It’s interesting that the same word used to describe changing your residence also explains having a deeply emotional experience. Moving has never been easy for me. Making

Home is defined as a place where one lives permanently or semi-permanently and can be a fully or semi-sheltered space with both exterior and interior aspects. Other meanings include the intangible feeling one gets in a location, a sense of peace from loved ones, or an environment where one feels most comfortable, loved, and protected; making the cliché home is where the heart is so true. I’ve lived in more

Many are familiar with the Chinese parable about good and bad fortune. In summary, the folktale tells the story of a poor Chinese farmer who lost his horse. All his neighbors offered their condolences, “Oh, what bad luck”. The farmer simply said, “Maybe”. Shortly after, the horse returned with a herd of horses. The neighbors exclaimed, “Oh, what good fortune!” The farmer simply stated, “Maybe”. While his only son was

AI or artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines or software, the opposite of the intelligence of human beings or animals. Cyborgs exist only in fiction, but the concept is becoming more and more likely as scientific research makes significant progress with each passing year.   I can hardly keep up with it. Social media changes and trends so quickly, it’s no wonder I fall behind. Just when I think I

Always for most of my life now I am in the mountains in summer to hike up and down steep slopes, wade blue-green rivers avoid encounters with grizzlies maneuver snowfields, sleep under the stars. Fill my days and nights with clean air, breathe deep and long. Remember who I am. The girl who wandered over the West to become wild. To romp through meadows full of bluebells and fields of

For the past several months, I’ve been working on my new fiction novel set in the Depression Era of rural British Columbia. Originally, I had planned to situate the book in the Laurentian Plateau and Hudson Bay Lowlands of my ancestral roots, which would’ve been a wonderful foray into my heritage. However, I decided on the backcountry areas of my young adulthood –the rich and colorful lands of British Columbia.

According to a recent poll, the odds of an author getting their work published in the book publishing industry is around 1%. So, for example, the Hatchett Book Group published around 2100 books last year. Using the poll’s calculation of 1%, that would be just 21 authors who had their work published or at least accepted by the Hatchett Book Group in 2022. It’s no wonder that many authors today

When I was young, I thought I was the only person born on my birthday, and therefore no wonder it needed to be celebrated. After all my family members had different birthdays. However, that changed in second grade when a classmate had the same birthday as me. At first, I thought she was lying but she not so kindly pointed out that there were thousands of people who had the

Recently, when driving back over the bridge I take to get to my property, on a rainy Friday afternoon, a tool fell out of a truck bed from a pickup driving in the opposite direction. It looked like a hand saw but I can’t say for sure because I only saw it out of the corner of my eye as it hit the pavement and rolled in my direction, hitting

When I packed for my trip to Australia a few months ago, I selected a medium-sized duffel that would suffice for the six weeks I’d be away from home. I stuffed clothes and shoes that I might need for the hot summer season in Australia on one side of my bag such as a pair of Chaco sandals, my swimsuit or swimmers as they are called down under, shorts, t-shirts,