One of the major threads that runs through my life is my love of Nature. It’s why I eventually moved and settled in SW British Columbia’s Metro Vancouver area.

As a child and teenager, I grew up on the South shore of Long Island, in Sufolk county East of New York City, and even though I was a suburban kid living in a development that people moved into as each house on the street was completed, I had 2 wonderful natural resources that nurtured these feelings; a pond at the end of the block, and a plot of trees across the main road that we set up a tree swing in.

I can’t tell you how many hours I spent fishing in that pond as a kid. You had to crawl under the chain link fence and then you could sit on a kind of pilings dock and fish for hours, or walk to other spots around the lake on a sort of trail. It wasn’t very big but you could catch sunfish, perch and bass in it.

My mom would give me a couple of pieces of good old TipTop White bread which I could take small pieces of and roll into little balls with my fingers. Then I stuck them on the hook with a bobber and caught fish. I would bring the larger sunfish home, cut off the heads and take out the organs and my Mom would cook them for me to eat.

How cool is that!

If you wanted to fish for the bass, you had to use a spinning reel and rod and lures. My friend Jimmy was really good at catching those!

The lake was also drained by a little creek and every spring there’d be tadpoles in it. I always caught a few in a jar and took them home to watch them turn into frogs.

But the one thing we didn’t have, was trees. There were no trees unless you went across the big main street into the nursery’s land. That’s where we set up our tree swing and for a few years, the nursery ignored it. But then they sold the property and a shopping mall was built there. Bye bye swing and trees, hello pavement, stores and parking lots.

My Dad was an avid gardener and when we moved in, he planted plum, pear, peach and apple trees in the back yard. But we had to keep them from getting to big or we’d never be able to pick the fruit off of them.

We also had the occasional big box turtle wander through the neighborhood. They were way cool, too.

So where else did I come into contact with trees?

My Dad was a high school teacher and he had summers off. So we would pack up the car with a tent and go camping Upstate in the parks there and that’s where I really got my first real taste of creeks and forests.

I was hooked.

Oh, did I mention how often we went down to the South Shore beaches on Long Island. That’s where I fell in love with the ocean and beaches.

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Fast forward 30 years and I’m now in SW BC doing a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of British Columbia studying the molecular genetics of fruit flies.

And living in a spectacularly beautiful province with beaches, forests and mountains just minutes away!

I fell in love with BC and never left.

That was 30 years ago and during these past three decades, I became a landed immigrant and ultimately acquired Canadian citizenship.

During the past 30 years, I watched as our landscape was altered by a growing population and the corresponding building of housing to provide for all the people coming here.

As an avid outdoors person (hiking running, snowshoeing, climbing etc), I also directly experienced the gradual changes in our wild landscapes; glaciers shrinking, snow coming later in the year or not at all, extinction of species that had thrived here for millenia, increasing numbers of forest fires, indiscriminate cutting of old growth forest simply for profit, and the list goes on. I don’t need to tell you all about it.

You know.

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So lately, I've become a member of a local citizen-based organization for the Metropolitan area I have lived in for more than a dozen years, the TriCities; Port Moody, Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam. We call ourselves TCUF, which is an acronym for TriCities Urban Forests and we advocate for not only maintaining our urban canopy cover, but also increasing it in the future to ensure a healthy urban environment and to help to ameliorate local climate disruption.

We harass our local city councils and mayors and city staff about getting more protective tree bylaws and putting in place programs to protect, expand, and maintain our urban forest and canopy.

We’ve had a couple of recent successful events including two conferences with speakers outlining reasons of how we can, and why we need to, increase the number of trees in our cities and the benefits that would bring to our cities.

All this has been to let you know of the latest group that all this work has spawned; the Urban Forest Action Network.

Below is a poster from our latest mini-conference with a QR code you can scan to sign up to connect with others in your area to advocate and support these efforts.

Don’t worry, they won’t cram your inbox full of emails every day. Just when something important is going to happen. And it is also a place to network and find others in your community to join with you to advocate for your community’s urban forest.

Have a look-see. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

It’s always nice to connect with people who think like you do.

And that’s always a good road to be on.

Until next time,

Rich

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Culturally Committed is sent out once a week on Tuesday to subscribers and features Kim’s latest reflections on her path of reconciliation and usually includes a teaching from George or other Indigenous teacher/mentors.

The February 24th, 2026 newsletter featured this teaching from George, and they both granted me permission to share it with you, my readers.

A few years ago, Teslas were highly desirable. They were seen as innovative, forward thinking, and even aspirational. More recently, many people have chosen to distance themselves from the company because of the actions and public behavior of its owner. This shift reminds us that the actions of one person can deeply influence how an entire organization is perceived. Leadership carries weight. Values matter. How someone shows up in the world does not stop with them. It ripples outward and touches many others.

In our First Nations communities, this understanding has always been present. We are taught from a young age that we are never only representing ourselves. We carry the teachings, responsibilities, and values passed down through many generations. When we walk in a good way, that goodness reflects back to our families and our communities. When our actions contradict those teachings, that reflection still exists. Accountability is woven into our ways of being.

I often think about a quote from the movie Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift. Sean is the main character, and throughout the movie he is mentored by Han. At one point, Han offers this teaching, “Who you choose to be around you lets you know who you are.” That line has stayed with me for many years because it speaks to how our relationships shape us. The people we surround ourselves with influence how we think, how we act, and how we respond when no one is watching.

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I also reflect on my father’s teachings. Throughout his career, he held many leadership roles and shared lessons that I now carry and pass on. One teaching that continues to guide me is this. “It is easy to fill a seat with a warm body, but leadership requires more than that. You have to do a heart count rather than a head count. What matters most is the heart people bring into the work.”

This teaching feels especially important in the world we are living in today.

It is no secret that Indigenous peoples are often looked down upon. We see this in the rise of denialism. We see it in the ongoing mistreatment of our people within the healthcare system. We see it in the over-representation of our children in child and family services. We see it in the continued crisis of murdered and missing Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQ+ people. These are not isolated issues. They are interconnected realities that our communities live with every day.

And yet, there is strength here too. Our people have found our voices. We are speaking up, pushing back, and refusing to accept harm as normal. We are fighting for justice, safety, and dignity. And we are not doing this work alone. Alongside us are siiye’yu, our friends, who are choosing to walk with us.

So I ask our siiye’yu to reflect. What does it truly look like to be a siiye’yu to me and my people? Are you willing to stand beside us when it is uncomfortable? Are you willing to speak up even when we are not in the room? Because if we are honest, some of the most harmful things said about Indigenous peoples are often spoken when we are not present.

As a siiye’yu, who are you choosing to be around you? Who sits beside you in your workplace? Who shapes the culture of the spaces you move through? One of the most meaningful ways to support Indigenous peoples in your place of work is through consistency. Consistency in values. Consistency in behavior. Consistency in how people show up. From the front desk to the back rooms, everyone must come into the work with an open heart and an open mind.

When that consistency exists, Indigenous people notice. We share where we feel safe. We share where we are treated with respect. Word travels through our communities. It is important to remember that organizations do not get to decide they are safe. Indigenous people walking through the doors make that decision. The recommendations shared in our communities are earned, not claimed.

Being a siiye’yu does not require perfection. It requires intention, humility, and courage. It means being willing to confront harmful behavior, even when it comes from colleagues, friends, or family. It means reflecting on how you show up both professionally and personally.

So I ask again. As a siiye’yu, are you willing to confront those who have wronged us? What does that look like in your work life? What does that look like in your personal life? And what does it truly mean to you to be a good siiye’yu to me and my people?

Huy ch q’u | Thank you
Wholwolet’za | George Harris Jr

I hope you enjoyed George’s teaching and maybe even found new ways to look at some of the facets of your life in a good way.

I especially liked the idea of doing a heart count of who is in the room rather than a head count.

May you continue to Take a Good Road,

Until next time,

Rich, a siiye’yu who chooses to walk with and learn from Indigenous teachers and anyone else he respects and with whom he resonates.

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A rock fish peaks out of a glass sponge reef near Gambier Island. Photo: Adam Taylor

Here in British Columbia, we have many rare and endangered species. Some are mammals, some are cetaceans, some are insects, some are birds, etc.

But one of our prized, rare and endangered organisms is the recently rediscovered Glass Sponge Reefs in our coastal waters.

They were thought to be extinct until they were rediscovered in Alaska, BC and Washington in the late 1980s.

The reefs are long-lived and slow growing, with ages greater than 200 years and growth at less than 10 centimetres/year (~ 4 inches). So if they get damaged they don’t recover rapidly, if at all.

Personally, I’ve never seen one, only pictures of them from folks who like to journey underwater but that doesn’t stop me from appreciating them. As a life-long biologist I celebrate all the forms of life on this planet and do my utmost to help them thrive, or at the very least, to help minimize damage to them by reprehensible actions.

Hence my charitable donations to many conservation organizations, local and national. That’s me taking one of my good roads!

Just a little bit sponge reef info for those of you that have never heard of them or just know about them in passing.

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As their title indicates, they are composed entirely of sponges, very primitive animals.

From Wikipedia’s Sponge page:

Sponges or sea sponges are primarily marine invertebrates of the animal phylum Porifera (/pəˈrɪfərəˌ pɔː-/; meaning ‘pore bearer’). They are sessile filter feeders that are bound to the seabed, and are one of the most ancient members of macrobenthos, with many historical species being important reef-building organisms.

Sponges are multicellular organisms consisting of jelly-like mesohyl sandwiched between two thin layers of cells, and usually have tube-like bodies full of pores and channels that allow water to circulate through them. They have unspecialized cells that can transform into other types and that often migrate between the main cell layers and the mesophyl in the process. They do not have complex nervous, digestive or circulatory systems. Instead, most rely on maintaining a constant water flow through their bodies to obtain food and oxygen and to remove wastes, usually via flagella movements of the so-called “collar cells“.

Sponges may be the sister group to all other animals, although the evidence for this relationship remains inconclusive. Fossil evidence of primitive sponges such as Otavia dates to as early as the Tonian period (around 800 Mya). The branch of zoology that studies sponges is spongiology.

So sponges have been with us for quite some time. A couple of years ago I put together an article looking at whether sponges or comb jellies were the sister group to all other animals.

So why should we care about these reefs other than the fact that they are a rare and fascinating life form?

• radiocarbon dating suggests that these reefs have been here for ~ 8500 - 9000 years

• they provide structure to continental shelf, which is fairly uniform along its length

• numerous small creatures make their home their: annelid worms, bryozoans, spider crab, King crab, shrimp, and prawns.

• the reefs filter the water - an estimated 100 billion litres of water per day which results in

• removal of almost 1 gram of carbon per square metre per day. This is pretty much the same amount that kelp forests and old-growth terrestrial forests remove.

I’d say that’s a pretty impressive list of ecological benefits for these simple creatures.

Which brings me to why I’m writing this article.

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It’s about the shrimp and prawns

Now I love to eat these little creatures and I especially love to consume them when they come from local sources. Pizza with shrimp, black olives and mushrooms is one of my fave combinations.

But that means someone has to go fishing for them.

And I don’t have a problem with that if it’s done in an ethically responsible environmental way.

But not every fisher person or company abides by those principles; often profit comes before ethical, environmental concerns. Get as many prawns as you can by whatever methods are necessary and damn the consequences to anything that might get in the way of that.

It turns out that prawns are caught in traps which can break off pieces of the sponge reef and release sediment that interferes with the sponges ability to filter the water, feed themselves and thus continue to grow.

In 2023, a commercial fishing vessel illegally dropped prawn traps into our local glass sponge reef areas. Luckily for environmentalists like myself, they were caught doing this and the case brought into court to determine punishment.

Verdict: of the 13 charges of illegality, the fisherman pleaded guilty to 7 of them and although they expressed some remorse, they were fined $250,000.00.

Alright!

That’s more than a slap on the wrist and one hopes, a deterrent to a repeat of these actions by anyone else.

In addition, their prawn traps were confiscated and they were prohibited from fishing for a year.

As you might expect, they appealed this decision to a higher court arguing the fine as much too severe and costly.

And to my great delight, the higher court embraced the importance and sensitivity of the glass sponge reefs and dismissed the appeal!

Woohoo!

Not often that we get such support from the legal branch of government.

And that’s why I included this in my Taking the Good Road.

Because IMHO, both of those courts took a Good Road.

Until next time,

Rich

P.S. This post was inspired by an article written by Ben van Drimmelin and published in BC Nature’s Winter 2025 member’s newsletter, an organization that I support and belong to.

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That’s their good road to take.

Just click on the pic to view the lesson.

Enjoy your Sunday. It’s clear and brisk where I live in BC and the mountains are covered in snow 😊

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See you next time.

Rich

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Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash

In a previous post about what $1T could buy, I shared a little chart put together by Thom Hartmann.

And that helped me to better understand just how much money $1T is.

A HUGE AMOUNT!

One of the political groups that I follow, Public Citizen, a group of lawyers and aides that has been suing the Trump administration right from the get-go on every illegal act they have been promulgating, sent out an email today. It was about the orange man’s insistence that the budget of the US military needs to be more than doubled, from $500B to $1.5T.

Even they admit that one trillion USD is a lot of money to wrap one’s mind around, so to help us get a handle on that amount, they put together a nice little paragraph about how many years it would take someone earning $37.5 million a year to reach $1T.

Almost 27,000 years!

So if you’re a CEO and you earn $375,000 USD, it will take you a hundred times longer to reach $1T.

2,700,000 years.

Even that’s a hard amount of time to comprehend. We’re talking the kind of scale that archeologists and paleontologists deal with when they look at fossils from long ago!

You know, dinosaurs and such!

And then they gave another listing of just what the extra $500B could provide.

Over the decades, how many times have we heard politicians (from both major parties) claim that the federal government can’t do more to help everyday Americans because “there just isn’t enough money”? How many times have they slashed some critical program citing worn out concerns about “the deficit”?

With the $500 billion extra that Trump wants for the Pentagon, every year, we could fund universal family leave AND provide universal, affordable child care for every kid up to four years old AND end homelessness AND expand Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing AND spend $100 billion annually to address the climate crisis ... and still have hundreds of billions left over for other priorities.

Ok, it still boggles my mind but I’m beginning to be able to comprehend this amount of money.

Oh, and let’s not forget, the current US debt is $30T. So even if they didn’t give that $500B to the military but used it pay down the country’s debt every year, it would still take 60 years to pay off that $30T debt, and that’s assuming no interest is being charged.

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So what kind of world do you want to live in?

That’s what it comes down to.

Me, if I had billions of dollars, I’d like to use it to help people out around the world who are in unbearable, desperate situations.

I’m not the kind of person that would buy a yacht, extra homes around the world, build personal safety bunkers etc.

Maybe you are.

I mean, hey, I own and drive a 26 year-old 4WD Suzuki and I love it. At some point I’ll have to get rid of it, but it gets me where I want to go. I’ve actually had people leave notes under my windshield wipers with their phone number asking me if I’d like to sell it to them!!

Nope.

Cause when I’m in it and driving, I know I’m taking the good road.

Bottom line: I believe we need to rethink everything we know about money and how it operates. I don’t have the brains for that.

Maybe you do?

Until next time,

Find a good road.

Rich

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That’s not an easy choice.

There’s no seduction there. No immediate payback.

In the Harry Potter books it’s “He who must not be named”, Voldemort.

The dark force.

And in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, it’s Sauron.

Again, the dark force.

It’s always there, always wreaking its havoc on well meaning people simply for the power and control it proffers to those who fail to resist and end up submitting.

It’s powerfully seductive.

But it can be resisted. And those are our heroes. The ones we root for.

Bilbo and Frodo, Leia and Luke Skywalker, Dumbledore, Harry, Ron and Hermione.

How many people do you know who saw those movies, or read the books were rooting for the bad guys?

Were you?

Well, in today’s USA, they are not fictional characters. They’re the current administration and head up all 3 branches of our government; Executive, Judicial, and Legislative.

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It’s not going to be an easy “battle”. And it may be that at some point in the future, it may require another revolution, although hopefully, it won’t require entering into a war with physical violence.

But it might.

My hope is that the forces of good can triumph over evil without having to take lives to make it happen.

Theoretically, in America, it’s assumed that it can happen peacefully at the ballot box.

We can’t assume that anymore. The whole voting system is being torn apart by the dark forces.

Yet, I still hope that there is a way forward that does not require violence.

That is my nature and how I conduct myself in this world.

How about you?

Gandhi did it in India with marches, peaceful protest and sit-ins.

As did Martin Luther King.

Minneapolis keeps the light shining, even in bone-chilling weather.

But it needs to keep happening.

In your community.

One-offs can be dismissed by the dark forces.

But thousands of peaceful demonstrations happening every day and week throughout the country cannot be managed by dark forces. They haven’t the personnel or the funds.

So get to it, unless you like the world those forces have brought to you; diseases we had eliminated with good vaccination policies, less access to Medicare and other public health services, higher prices at the the supermarket for you daily groceries, abysmally low minimum wages for workers, and the list goes on.

Now you know where I stand.

How about you?!

The ball is in our court. Time to start scoring.

That’s the good road to take.

Until next time,

Rich

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What Bruce said:

I wrote this song on Saturday [Jan 24], recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free, Bruce Springsteen

And here’s the lyrics:

Through the winter’s ice and cold
Down Nicollet Avenue
A city aflame fought fire and ice
‘Neath an occupier’s boots
King Trump’s private army from the DHS
Guns belted to their coats
Came to Minneapolis to enforce the law
Or so their story goes

Against smoke and rubber bullets
In the dawn’s early light
Citizens stood for justice
Their voices ringing through the night
And there were bloody footprints
Where mercy should have stood
And two dead, left to die on snow-filled streets
Alex Pretti and Renee Good

Oh, our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Singing through the bloody mist
We’ll take our stand for this land
And the stranger in our midst
Here in our home, they killed and roamed
In the winter of ‘26
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis

Trump’s federal thugs beat up on
His face and his chest
Then we heard the gunshots
And Alex Pretti lay in the snow dead
Their claim was self-defense, sir
Just don’t believe your eyes
It’s our blood and bones
And these whistles and phones
Against Miller and Noem’s dirty lies

Oh, our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Crying through the bloody mist
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis

Now they say they’re here to uphold the law
But they trample on our rights
If your skin is black or brown, my friend
You can be questioned or deported on sight
In our chants of “ICE out now”
Our city’s heart and soul persists
Through broken glass and bloody tears
On the streets of Minneapolis

Oh, our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Singing through the bloody mist
Here in our home, they killed and roamed
In the winter of ‘26
We’ll take our stand for this land
And the stranger in our midst
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis

ICE out (ICE out)
ICE out (ICE out)
ICE out (ICE out)
ICE out (ICE out)
ICE out (ICE out)
ICE out

Thank you, Bruce!

Please pass this one on to anyone you know!

Rich

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But after about a year, I left it to devote full time to playing with a band I was in. All my life I had been divided in what I wanted to do; become a biologist or a musician? I didn’t like how my research was progressing so I decided to give the music a shot and see how that played out.

After more than a dozen years of playing music, I had created a mountain of debt and decided it was time to go back to biology and keep music as a part-time hobby. Best decision I ever made.

So I went back to school part-time while working in an HIV lab as a technician (had to take a couple of low level “bio” jobs before I got that one) and after about a year and a half of working and taking bio courses again, I applied to and was accepted as a candidate for a Ph.D. in the Biology Department at Syracuse University.

So I know a little about climbing out of a big debt hole. If you work hard, and commit yourself it can be done.

But it ain’t easy.

It doesn’t seem like the current government in America quite understands that. Or what it feels like to live with such a high burden of debt that weighs you down both emotionally and financially day after day.

It ain’t easy.

So over the past 40+ years of Reaganonomics policies, the US has gone from a debt of about $800 Billion to our current one of $38 TRILLION. And the yearly interest payment to service that debt is $1 trillion dollars.

Think about that.

Yearly interest payments of $1 trillion.

Mind boggling.

$1,000,000,000,000.00

I can’t even imagine a quantity that large.

All those zeros after the one.

I think it’s time to seriously rethink that course of action, just like I did when I moved from music to biology to deal with my level of debt.

It really is time for a major change in economic policy, dontcha think?

But that’s not what happened, is it?

In a post just before Christmas, Thom Hartmann published a chart that showed just what one trillion dollars could provide for everyday American citizens to better their quality of life.

Here’s the chart:

Think about that.

That’s the yearly salary that the Muskman is now taking home as CEO of his corporation(s).

So that’s all I want to say right now.

If you want to know more, go and read the entire Hartmann article. There’s lots more good stuff in there to contemplate.

The Hartmann Report

Santa Claus for Billionaires, Debt for You: Thanks Trump

“The only thing wrong with the U.S. economy is the failure of the Republican Party to play Santa Claus.” —Jude Wanniski, March 6, 1976…

Read more

6 months ago · 348 likes · 50 comments · Thom Hartmann

That would be a good road to take to start this new year.

Until next time,

Rich

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There is still much work to be done in our Settler-Colonizer nation, which we call Canada.

One of the groups whose eNewsletter I get every week is First Peoples Law LLP. In today’s email, they “are resharing last year's blog post from Tumia Knott, spaləl̕, in which she shares her truths about the Day and provides an important perspective on its complexities.”

I want to share it with you, my readers, so here it is.

All My Relations. 🙏

Honouring and Supporting Indigenous Resilience

By Tumia Knott, spaləl̕

September 27, 2024

I struggle with National Truth and Reconciliation Day. While I know my thoughts may change over time, my truth right now is I really don’t like this day.

For me personally, partaking in some events on this day can be triggering and traumatic. While I try most always to have a positive outlook, it is a day I know will be sad and heavy. Despite the many well-intentioned events planned and organized throughout the country, it can be a lot to take in.

It is a day where I want to confront the disturbing insincerity of a day set aside for “truth and reconciliation” by a country that continues actions causing harm, denial of basic human rights and racism against Indigenous peoples. It is a day I would honestly prefer to run away from rather than face the reality and sadness of the hard feelings that surface. It is a day where I want to shield and protect our dear Elders from having to relive past traumas.

I recall last year wishing to stand in front of the TV as coverage of an Elder sharing their story from residential school caused visible pain and distress to my mom and other family members as they reflected on their own experiences and trauma. I feel for our warriors (my word for residential school survivors) having to relive past harms on this day. I wish this could be a day to lift this pain, not have it be re-worn.

I think as well of the often-impossible demands on our Indigenous leaders to be here, there and everywhere on this day. Be at this event – can you share words, can you help us, can you be here and speak at this part, can you also do this… and then, those same organizations being really offended if you can’t, or frankly don’t want to attend. Chief, Councillor, Elder, Knowledge-keeper - tell us what you think, what you want. Educate us, but you have to be here at this time and you have a 10-minute window. This is a lot to expect.

The day was created only a few years ago from the 94 Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. While it should be a day of healing, it can sometimes feel like a raw open wound. It feels one-sided with heavy and unrealistic expectations for Indigenous people to lead. This is where my emotions surface and I feel sad, angry and very confused. I wish this was a day where Indigenous people are only lifted, honoured and celebrated.

I don’t like what feels like the feigned duty of organizations and non-Indigenous governments to host an event on or near this day because it seems like the right thing to do. These events are the worst– to simply “acknowledge” the day and then move on to the next item on their yearly calendar. While there are beautiful, meaningful and impactful events that do occur, there also are those that feel forced and insincere. Those hosting events should truthfully check on what side of the line their event lands. Acknowledging harms of the past without taking action to prevent and address those harms going forward is meaningless.

I guess this is my truth part. Much about this day, to me, feels insincere.

Actions which provide direct support to Indigenous people, through supporting their Nations, their organizations, and their direct needs and priorities go a very long way. This should be the focus of this day, not reliving trauma, not placing unreasonable and unfair expectations on Indigenous peoples to lead a day that is not only theirs to lead. Truth and reconciliation requires building understanding, coming together, working and supporting each other in collaboration and partnership. We are not there.

My intention of sharing my truth here is a plea for patience and understanding, and to remember the potential differing impacts of this day on Indigenous people. We should all use this day as a day of kindness, of respect, of building understanding. While acknowledging the harms of the past and learning from history is important, there is more work needed to directly support health, wellness and healing for Indigenous people and communities and to truly honour the strength and promise of Indigenous resilience.

Tumia Knott, spaləl̕, is a lawyer with First Peoples Law, with a practice focus in Indigenous law and self-determination initiatives.

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And here are more resources FPL offers to further learn about and reflect on this and future days.

• National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation Lunch and Learns

• University of British Columbia’s “Reconciliation Through Indigenous Education” course

• National Film Board’s residential schools film collection

• University of Alberta’s “Indigenous Canada” course

• Indigenous Watchdog's status update on the Calls to Action

Check out our Residential School Resource List here for more resources.

First Peoples Law LLP is a law firm dedicated to defending and advancing the rights of Indigenous Peoples. We work exclusively with Indigenous Peoples to defend their inherent and constitutionally protected title, rights and Treaty rights, uphold their Indigenous laws and governance and ensure economic prosperity for their current and future generations.

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I hope you find this helpful in your own practices and reflections on this day, the history underlying it in Canada, and our current efforts to address the harms inflicted on so many Indigenous Peoples in Canada and throughout the world.

Until next time, taking a good road,

Rich

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The other day, I was watching an episode of one of my favourite TV shows, Northern Exposure, and in one scene, Dr. Fleischman apologized to Ms O’Connel for misconstruing what he thought was an action she had deliberately taken to keep him from attending a town social event.

After speaking with others in the town, he eventually came to realize that she hadn’t intentionally done any such thing and that he had acted in a bad way by accusing her of doing so.

So he apologized.

Said he was out of line and was sorry for unjustly accusing her of that action.

She accepted his apology.

And they were reconciled.

That’s a very simple act of reconciliation, but it doesn’t always work so nicely. Sometimes an apology is sufficient and sometimes it is actually an insult if that is all that is being offered.

In more serious cases, the party offering the apology may also need to make amends for the harm caused.

And therein lies the difficulty. So let’s look at the topic of reconciliation and see how, depending on the situation, we might do it in a good way.

If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you know I always like to start out unpacking the origins of the word itself.

So…

Etymology

Reconciliation can be broken into 2 distinct parts; the prefix re- and the body, conciliate. We’ll start with conciliation.

If you’re a TL;DR kinda person, this section is quite detailed so jump down to the section with bullets and bolded sentences to get its main takeaways.

From Etymonline:

We’ll start with the verb form:

conciliate(v.)

"overcome distrust or hostility of by soothing and pacifying," 1540s, from Latin conciliatus, past participle of conciliare "to bring together, unite in feelings, make friendly," from concilium "a meeting, a gathering of people," from assimilated form of com "together, together with" (see com-) + PIE *kal-yo-, suffixed form of root *kele- (2) "to shout" (the notion is of "a calling together"). Related: Conciliated; conciliating; conciliary. The earlier verb was Middle English concile "to reconcile" (late 14c.).

Here’s the noun form:

conciliation(n.)

1540s, "act of converting from jealousy or suspicion and gaining favor or good will," from French conciliation, from Latin conciliationem (nominative conciliatio) "a connection, union, bond," figuratively "a making friendly, gaining over." (see conciliate).

And here’s the adjectival form:

conciliatory(adj.)

"tending to conciliate," 1570s, from conciliate + -ory. Related: Conciliator "one who conciliates" (1570s). Conciliative "designed to produce conciliation" is attested from 1817.

And what happens when we add the prefix re- to it?

reconcile(v.)

mid-14c., reconcilen, transitive, in reference to persons, "to restore to union and friendship after estrangement or variance," also of God or Christ, "restore (mankind, sinners) to favor or grace," from Old French reconcilier (12c.) and directly from Latin reconciliare "to bring together again; regain; win over again, conciliate," from re- "again" (see re-) + conciliare "make friendly" (see conciliate).

Reflexive sense of "become reconciled, reconcile oneself" is from late 14c. Meaning "to make (discordant facts or statements) consistent, rid of apparent discrepancies" is from 1550s. Mental sense of "make (actions, facts, conditions, etc.) consistent with each other in one's mind" is from 1620s. Sense of "bring into acquiescence or quiet submission" (with to) is from c. 1600. Related: Reconciled; reconciling.

reconciliation(n.)

mid-14c., reconciliacioun, "renewal of friendship after disagreement or enmity, action of reaching accord with an adversary or one estranged" (originally especially of God and sinners), from Old French reconciliacion (14c.) and directly from Latin reconciliationem (nominative reconciliatio) "a re-establishing, a reconciling," noun of action from past-participle stem of reconciliare (see reconcile).

From 1729 as "act of harmonizing or making consistent." Other early noun forms included reconcilement (mid-15c.), reconciling (late 14c.).

And lastly, we can also add another prefix, ir- to get

irreconciliation(n.)

1640s, from ir- "not, opposite of" + reconciliation. Irreconcilement in the same sense is from 1737.

And here are common usages of Reconciliation from the Cambridge Dictionary.

a situation in which two people or groups of people become friendly again after they have argued:

the process of making two opposite beliefs, ideas, or situations agree

the process of comparing different financial accounts, amounts, etc. in order to check that they add up to the same total or to explain any differences between them:

Okay, that’s a lot of information.

Here are some of the important points from above that we want to keep in mind as we delve into the intimate, delicate, personal and politically sensitive arena of reconciliation.

• overcome distrust or hostility of by soothing and pacifying

• bring together, unite in feelings, make friendly

• act of converting from jealousy or suspicion and gaining favor or good will

• a connection, union, bond

• restore to union and friendship after estrangement or variance

• to bring together again; regain; win over again, conciliate

• to make (discordant facts or statements) consistent, rid of apparent discrepancies

• make (actions, facts, conditions, etc.) consistent with each other in one's mind

• bring one’s self into acquiescence or quiet submission

• renewal of friendship after disagreement or enmity, action of reaching accord with an adversary or one estranged

• act of harmonizing or making consistent

So, as you can see, this is not a simple, straightforward concept. That means we need to exercise care in how and when we apply it.

Let’s explore the many faceted ways in how we can use it in our everyday lives; on a personal level, to maintain our friendships, in our communities, in our nations, and globally betwixt nations when serious disagreements that present opportunities for reconciliation have arisen.

Personal Reconciliation

I don’t know about you, but I certainly have times where I felt that I wasn’t acting like the person I think I am, or want to be. Maybe I didn’t do a particular task as well as I wanted to.

Like this morning.

I decided I wanted to make healthy muffins with bananas, pecans and cranberries with honey. Sounds yummy, right?

So I took some old bananas I kept in the fridge (I always save them as they get really sweet!) and mashed them up. Chopped up the pecans. Made the muffin batter, spooned it into the muffin pan, and popped that into the pre-heated oven.

And sitting on the counter was the cup with the mashed bananas.

Arrgghh! Something else I forgot. When am I going to stop forgetting things like that!

I hate getting older and forgetting so many things!

Do you see where this is going?!

So I did what the title of one of my previous posts suggested.

Sit Down. Shut Up. Breathe.

I sat down, shut up, and took a few deep breaths.

Time for some personal reconciliation.

First, I did some email.

Then, I took the muffins out of the oven and let them cool a few minutes. And tasted them. Pretty good :-)

Hey, I made muffins!

My partner’s gonna love these when I bring a couple to have when we meet for bevvies at the cafe later.

And now I can make another batch with bananas and raisins cause the bananas are all ready to go.

Yummy!

I’m not all bad and wrong and everyone forgets things.

Ok, I’m ready to move on from that episode of beating myself up.

I’m personally reconciled.

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That’s a single person reconciliation. How about when more people are involved? Like disagreements between friends? Teammates? Families? etc.

Friends

(Disclaimer: there’s no way I’m going to talk about reconciling with an intimate partner! I’m definitely not an expert in this arena, as my partner will happily attest. And many people have written books about that so go read them if that’s what you’re looking for.)

Ok, back to friends.

The first step we need to take is to determine how bad the disagreement is. On a scale of 1 —> 5 is it a 2 or a 5?

In this case, we need to check in with our friend(s) to see how they rank it.

If I think it’s a 2 and they think it’s a 4.5, we definitely need to find out why? Often, we think what we did is really not very serious when actually, we hit a “trigger” that we weren’t aware of. Or vice versa.

This is a great spot to be in because not only does it offer us an opportunity to reconcile the disagreement, it also gives us a chance to get to know our friends in a deeper way. And that’s definitely a good road to take!

One of those Crisis = Opportunity situations.

This kind of reconciling may require actions from one or several of these categories from our above bullet list:

• bring together, unite in feelings, make friendly

• a connection, union, bond

• restore to union and friendship after estrangement or variance

• to bring together again; regain; win over again, conciliate

• to make (discordant facts or statements) consistent, rid of apparent discrepancies

• make (actions, facts, conditions, etc.) consistent with each other in one's mind

• renewal of friendship after disagreement or enmity, action of reaching accord with an adversary or one estranged

• act of harmonizing or making consistent

So the action(s) we take with a friend(s) will depend on the reason for and severity of the disagreement.

Having said that, there’s no guarantee that we can actually achieve a reconciliation. But that is often our first impulse and goal. The breach may be too deep a “gulf” to bridge. Or the other party may not be interested in continuing to be our friend. The issue may be irreconcilable.

And that’s sad, but true.

In that case, all we can do at the moment is accept the loss, experience a regret, and move on.

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What about larger groups of people?

Larger groups

Again, In all honesty, I don’t think I have the qualifications to speak to how to reconcile larger groups.

This is a big topic with too many facets to cover in a short post like this. There many resources both digital and hardcopy that you can access and explore about how to achieve reconciliation.

If I accomplished nothing else, I hope I shed a little light on a word and topic that is so important to so many people, especially in the province and country where I live.

As a Buddhist, I’ll leave you with a quote from one of the people I admire.

Reconciliation is never simple but it is always worth the effort required to achieve it.

Until we meet again,

Keep on taking the Good Roads in life.

Rich

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The graph’s title should read:

The number of Republican counties receiving significant federal assistance has ballooned since 2000.

The number of Democratic counties receiving significant assistance has less than doubled since 2000.

There are almost 10 times more Republican counties receiving significant assistance since 2000.

Does anyone see a trend here??

*I copied this graphic from Michelle Teheux’s April 25th feed. They are a person well worth following!

Until next time,

Rich

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I find this so disheartening to see the emergence of such a small extreme hard right-wing faction trying to deny the efforts of our British Columbia universities, governments and citizens to achieve Reconciliation by taking the small step of offering a land acknowledgement. Rather than just another personal visceral rant about this case, I’d like to present word-for-word what The First People’s Law, a firm dedicated to fighting for Indigenous Peoples’ rights, had to say about it in a blog article on their site.

Their expertise is enlightening.

“UBC Professors’ Attempt to Deny the Facts of Law and History

April 24, 2025

By The Honourable Harry S. LaForme & Bruce McIvor”

In a two-minute segment that has received close to 375,000 views on YouTube the Baroness von Sketch Show skewers the performative allyship that often underlies land acknowledgements. First Nation playwright and performer Cliff Cardinal also deploys humour to throw light on the hypocrisy behind many land acknowledgements. His critique is less gentle mocking and more fierce, unsettling truth-telling about Canada’s ongoing colonization project. When he first performed his solo play “William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, A Radical Retelling” (recently touring as “The Land Acknowledgement, Or As You Like It”) in Toronto in the autumn of 2021, the discomfort of some audience members drove them to the exits and to request a refund.

We have also been known to criticize mindless land acknowledgements that lack serious calls to action. Nonetheless, many Indigenous people would agree that land acknowledgements have an important place in the national discourse. They name uncomfortable truths in a public forum and invite Canadians to consider how they might take personal responsibility for their country’s historical and ongoing lack of respect for Indigenous rights.

For this reason, a lawsuit recently filed at the Supreme Court of British Columbia is deeply troubling. Four tenured University of British Columbia faculty members and a recent graduate have asked the Court to forbid UBC from declaring or acknowledging that it is located on “unceded Indigenous land”. They also want the Court to prohibit UBC from requiring or encouraging others to declare or acknowledge the land is unceded and oppose the University’s stance on diversity, equity, and inclusion and the Palestine-Israel conflict.

The professors argue that by declaring or acknowledging UBC is on unceded Indigenous land, UBC is offside of the provincial University Act’s requirement that the University be “non-sectarian and non-political in principle.” Their argument is that land acknowledgements are political statements that silence them and other professors who believe Canada is fully sovereign over the lands of British Columbia. They argue that UBC has created an environment where academics who disagree have difficulty securing a teaching position, a promotion and tenure.

Acknowledging that UBC is on unceded territories is not a political statement—it’s a recognition of fact and law. This is not a question of differing opinions over which reasonable people can disagree. The Canadian Supreme Court in the 1973 Calder decision recognized Aboriginal title as part of Canadian law. Aboriginal title exists where Indigenous people have not ceded, i.e. yielded or given up, their legal interest in their land to Canada. Because of this legal and factual reality, Canada and British Columbia have expended millions of dollars negotiating modern-day treaties. UBC’s Vancouver campus is situated on the unceded territory of the Musqueam Nation and its Okanagan campus is situated on the unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan People. Canada does not have a treaty with Musqueam nor with the Syilx Okanagan Nation and its member communities.

UBC’s campuses are on unceded territory—full-stop. This is not a matter for debate, alternative viewpoints or ‘alternative facts’—it’s a matter of law and history. Acknowledging this reality is not a political statement. Denying this truth and seeking to silence its recognition most certainly is.

Denialism comes in many forms. From the Papal Bulls of the late 15th century that led to the Doctrine of Discovery to Canada’s genocidal residential schools policy, Indigenous people have been subject to the denial of their rights and their very humanity. The UBC professors’ lawsuit is the latest example of this long, shameful legacy. It’s a warning shot that signals any progress made towards reconciliation is vulnerable to the same reactionary forces that have gained momentum with the return of Donald Trump to the White House. Support for truth-telling and affirmative action is beginning to crack. Recently, one of Canada’s most prestigious national law firms ‘paused’ its hiring program for Black and Indigenous law students. Private and public sector institutions in Canada have a responsibility to maintain and defend the hard-fought progress that has been made based on Indigenous people’s strength, goodwill and willingness to tolerate and negotiate with settlers.

Politicians are also responsible. Aside from the occasional statement in support of ‘economic reconciliation’, we have heard little from the federal parties on what their government will do to ensure Indigenous rights are respected and reconciliation moves from rhetoric to reality. It’s up to Canadians to insist that their politicians make their views known on these important issues before they cast a ballot on April 28th. Do they endorse the regressive intimidation advocated by the UBC professors or will they commit to the hard, uncomfortable work of truth-telling?

Responsibility to defend truth-telling extends beyond our institutions and those who seek public office—every one of us from coast-to-coast-to-coast is responsible. Canadians are rallying around the flag in response to Trump’s threats to make Canada the 51st state. They are filled with a renewed pride in the principles, values and institutions that differentiate Canada from the United States. This renewed national pride must include support for one of the fundamental differences between the two countries—Canada’s constitutional protection for Aboriginal rights and its willingness to confront its painful history of colonization.

As with the audience members who walked out on Cliff Cardinal, these UBC professors can always vote with their feet. They are uninvited guests on Musqueam’s and Syilx Okanagan’s territory. If they cannot bear to acknowledge that fundamental truth they can always leave. If they choose to stay and benefit from UBC’s unsanctioned occupation of unceded territories, they are morally and intellectually obligated to acknowledge their personal complicity in the unlawful displacement of the Musqueam and Syilx Okanagan. At the very least, they cannot be allowed to silence others who are committed to the hard, uncomfortable work of reconciliation.

The Honourable Harry S. LaForme is a member of Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation and the first Indigenous appellate court judge in Canadian history.

Bruce McIvor is a member of the Manitoba Métis Federation. His latest book, Indigenous Rights in One Minute: What You Need to Know to Talk Reconciliation will be published in May.

Please pass this along to anyone else you know who seeks allyship with First Nations Peoples in Canada or elsewhere.

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Until next time,

Rich

I’ve been in serious writer’s block depression mode for too long about what’s going on in The Orange Man’s (TOM’s) America. It’s time to get my arse back in gear and start pushing back in my own small, single person way.

As a start, since I’ve put 2 words, Democratic and Genocide as this post’s title, let’s break them down and talk about the two independently so we’re all on the same page to start with.

Genocide

This is a highly charged word!

How did it arise, and how is it currently interpreted?

The word “genocide” was created in the early 1940s by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jewish lawyer. Etymologically, he derived it from two “roots”: genos (Greek: γένος, 'family, clan, tribe, race, stock, kin') and -cide (Latin: -cidium, 'killing'). As you can see, the genos root appears in many other modern words such as genetics, genes, genealogy, etc.

Specifically, in the article in which it first appeared, Lemkin defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or an ethnic group" by means such as "the disintegration of [its] political and social institutions, of [its] culture, language, national feelings, religion, and [its] economic existence"

Now that’s a mouthful and bears further unravelling.

Destruction of Nations and Ethnic Groups

Also known as cultural genocide, this has happened many times throughout human history as a result of invading armed forces colonizing and converting the populace to their political and/or religious view to eliminate the opposing factions. Here are some recent examples.

The most famous is the Holocaust where Hitler and his German Nazis sought to eliminate Jewish peoples in Germany and other countries they took over.

Another example is the usurping of Indigenous Nations’ lands in North America, with the ultimate goal of eliminating their cultures and belief systems by attempting to convert them to Western European worldviews and assimilate them into the “new” countries.

In Canada, Indigenous Peoples’ lands were taken from them, the people “herded” into small reservations, and their children taken from them and placed in Residential Schools at an early age to prevent them from learning about their Native culture and to convert them into Christians. In this case, the goal was to eliminate their culture by forced assimilation in the hopes that the whole “Indian” problem would cease to exist because there wouldn’t be any more Indians.

Destruction of Political and Social Institutions

Political Genocide

In TOM’s USA, anyone who is not a far-right MAGA Republican is considered a traitor because they are not loyal to him. TOM defines loyalty as the unquestioning support to anything he suggests or imposes upon others who are courageous enough to question his actions. And it really helps if they’re willing to donate a lot of $$ to him and causes he values. In former times, this was called political bribery and was considered a serious form of corruption, but nowadays, for TOM, it’s business as usual. The new normal so get used to it!

Social Genocide

If you are LGTBQ or any other designation of non-cis gender, this is not a good time to live in the USA. TOM has decided that only cisgender White, Christian men and women should be recognized as legal human beings. And it seems, at the moment, to be ok to be a Semite (Jewish person). Because TOM often touts antisemitism as one of the things he’s firmly against and willing to persecute others for.

And while TOM hasn’t actually stated it out loud, there is a very strong bias against blacks and other people of colour, as evidenced by the difficulties continually being imposed upon their ability to vote and/or register to vote.

Which brings me back to the title of this post.

Democratic Genocide

TOM and his MAGA buddies have continued to define anyone who is a member of the Democratic Party as a despicable Communist Socialist who wants to limit other people’s freedoms and rights.

What a bunch of bovine excrement.

It doesn’t matter to them if it’s true or not. In TOM’s current political system, anyone who is willing to offer a non-MAGA point of view is an evil person, and any political party they belong to is evil. So, the obvious goal is to eliminate that party and point of view.

And since the US Constitution legally supports the right to have an opposing point of view, it’s time to eliminate that as well.

Because, well, all those laws just get in the way of creating power and wealth and a single leader dynasty.

Hence, Democratic Genocide.

If TOM doesn’t like a system, or it doesn’t add to his wealth, loyalty or power, eliminate it.

Simple.

Eliminate it.

Genocide.

And that is definitely not a good road to go down, IMHO.

Ok, I think I’ve made my point.

TOM is committed to Democratic Genocide, and the sooner it happens, the happier he and his loyalists will be.

But I have one more thing to say.

What we are seeing with TOM is just a symptom of a deeper disease. And we keep trying to treat the symptoms but never actually the disease itself.

The underlying problem or political disease that created all these symptoms is the USA’s first-past-the-post, winner-take-all voting system.

This all could have been averted long ago if the US had embraced and implemented a proportional voting system where everyone’s vote counts.

Because then no one party would ever have full control like TOM and the MAGAs do now.

More about that another time.

Until next time,

May you find good roads to travel down in these trying times.

Rich

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I remember the first time I attended a zen buddhist meditation session. For many years before that I realized I was an atheist, which cut me off from my Hebraic religious upbringing, but I’d started to feel like I needed a spiritual practice. Like a hole in me that needed filling. I’d checked out a few other spiritual practices that were not part of my Jewish background, yoga, sufism, transcendental meditation, etc. And none of them were filling the bill.

As part of my search, I had contacted a professor of religion at a local university. He was quite willing to help so we had a weekly lunch and conversation around some books he had published that looked at various different religious practices. At one point, he suggested I give the local zen group a try. I’d read a fair number of zen books and liked what I had read about it but to actually do it?!

So I found out when and where they met and one day I went there. It was in a church basement, it was cold and damp and smelled slightly mouldy and as soon as I sat down on one of the mats and cushions I knew I had found the spiritual practice I had been searching for.

I sat with them for many years and connected did weekend and week-long retreats with several different roshis (zen teachers who had been given dharma transmission by a recognized zen master in that lineage).

The group eventually changed locations and built a small zendo in the leader’s attic which we all fit into quite nicely.

So jump ahead some 30 years and I’ve moved to Canada, become a Canadian citizen and still sitting in zen meditation with a local group that I connected with soon after moving to Canada to continue my professional scientific studies.

Every Spring, the group has a period of practice that focuses on a particular aspect of zen practice and this past month our dharma teachers have been looking at a series of fascicles by the zen teacher, Dogen Zenji.

While there are several “streams” of zen practice in the West, the 2 main ones were brought over to North America from Japan. One is called Rinzai zen and originated from the teachings of Rinzai aka Lin Chi also known as Linji Yixuan (traditional Chinese: 臨濟義玄; simplified Chinese: 临济义玄; pinyin: Línjì Yìxuán; Wade–Giles: Lin-chi I-hsüan; Japanese: 臨済義玄 Rinzai Gigen, who was born and lived in China in the 9th century C.E. (~809 - ~866). The other is called Sōtō zen and is based on the teachings of Dogen (1200-1253) also known as Dōgen Kigen (道元希玄), Eihei Dōgen (永平道元), Kōso Jōyō Daishi (高祖承陽大師), and Busshō Dentō Kokushi (仏性伝東国師).

The images of these two teachers shown below were taken from their respective Wikipedia pages.

Rinzai zen which is the practice I first immersed myself in is famous for its many koans and they are assigned to students to try to “solve”. This koan practice is the one most people have heard of and immediately think of when they think of zen meditation. And there are several large volumes that have the koans and various commentaries on them by other famous zen teachers.

The very first koan I was assigned was “Hearing this sound, how should you realize yourself?” The sound referred to was the zen master banging his baton on the floor while we sat facing each other. I did eventually “solve” that and get another one.

Soto zen practice does have koans but does not put the same kind of emphasis on them as Rinzai practice. Soto practice is more about “quieting” your mind to achieve greater awareness and insight into what is called Buddha nature. Dogen was also a prolific writer. His writings were saved and have been passed down for centuries.

Soto practice as described in Wikipedia’s page on Dogen is basically a

“…kind of sitting meditation in which the meditator sits "in a state of brightly alert attention that is free of thoughts, directed to no object, and attached to no particular content.

Cast aside all involvements and cease all affairs. Do not think good or bad.

…settle into a steady, immobile sitting position. Think of not thinking. How do you think of not-thinking? Without thinking.”

And that’s a simple example of Dogen’s style of teaching! His writings are often way more convoluted than that.

A few days ago, one of my teachers was giving the weekly zen talk that centred on Dogen’s teachings and after reading a particularly twisty section of language like that above, basically summarized it for us as simply,

“Sit Down, Shut Up, Breathe”

Wonderful.

Sit down, shut up, breathe. How much simpler does it get, right?

Anyone can do that, right?

But as I “sat” with it and pondered it a bit more deeply, I realized that that’s not as simple as it sounds. And that’s what I want to talk about in this post.

It took me a while to set the scene for this post but now I’ve done that so take a seat and let’s see where this “zen bus” takes us in our daily lives.

Sit Down

That sounds pretty simple. I mean, how hard is it to find a place and sit down?

Ok, I’m sitting down. Now I need to

“settle into a steady immobile sitting position”?

Hmm….Is that all that’s being talked about? The physical act of placing one’s butt on a stable surface and not moving?

I mean that’s exactly what I do in the zendo and also when I sit down on the couch to watch some TV!

Is that what we’re talking about? Not!

I think more is implied.

So let’s dive a little deeper into this whole idea of sitting down.

There are many ways and places to sit down and for people with disabilities, even that can be challenging if not impossible. I remember one of my zen teachers working with a student who was permanently bedridden. So no sitting down for them.

Or is there?

Here I’d like to suggest that “sitting down” is not just a physical act. Oh, it can be that, for sure, but in our daily lives I think it’s more than that.

How about thinking of sitting down as a “stopping” moment. A stepping back.

A pause.

A stepping back from our normal routines and habits. Pausing. It could be anywhere’s from a brief moment to a few seconds to a few minutes to a few hours to a few days to a few months… You get the idea.

In this pause, for however long it is, you alter what you have your attention focused on. What’s occupying your physical, emotional and mental states.

Think about it. When have people in your life asked, told, or suggested that you sit down.

It’s usually for a good reason. Maybe you’re very upset and driving them crazy with your pacing back and forth. Maybe they want to discuss an important issue with you. Maybe you’re about to be fired from your job. Maybe you want to tell your partner you’re going to have a child. Maybe you’re on a council that has to discuss important issues that affect members of its community. So many possibilities.

But in a lot of cases, somehow humans have found over eons that the best way to get clarity on whatever we uncertain about is to sit down, pause all other actions, clear your mind, and then think about it.

You need to pause.

And why is that?

Because when you do that, you bring your attention to your awareness of who you are, where you are, what you’re doing, how you’re doing it and so on.

So it’s more than just the physical act of sitting down.

There’s a fair amount of popular self-help psychology and tips telling you to take a similar action and it’s not that different. And how you go about it may be exactly the same thing! But the reasons in that space are usually to increase your happiness, relieve stress, remember to do other stuff, etc. Which are all good reasons for taking those moments.

But this “sitting down” is different.

It calls us to stop and then to “wake up” into a state of increased awareness.

So I think you get the idea. The physical act of sitting down can have a huge psychological and/or emotional impact on how we are behaving or “seeing” what is going on both for us and around us.

And now we’re ready for the next step.

Shut Up

Most of the time, when we use these two words, we’re asking someone else to please stop talking, and usually in a not so nice way.

And there’s often resentment about being told in such a direct way, to stop yammering.

When was the last time you said “shut up” to someone in a nice tone of voice. Please shut up? LOL! Not going to work.

But here we are directed to shut up.

Again, is this only appropriate to tell ourselves to shut up when we sit down to do Soto zen or other forms of meditation?

I’d like to suggest it has much broader application.

So how might this admonition apply and be used in our everyday lives?

And can it apply to people who are unable to speak, for whatever reason? Say neurodivergence, a speech disability?

I don’t know anyone whose mind isn’t constantly thinking and having thoughts about this, that and the other thing. My mind never stops!

Do I need to go shopping? Did I remember to make the bed before I left for work? Do I have enough food to make dinner? What am I doing this weekend? And it goes on and on. And these are just the tasks we occupy our time with. And music. Tunes constantly playing all day long underneath everything else.

What about all our opinions? And emotions?

Arrgh, I just hate it when they do that! What did they mean when they said “blah blah blah”? What did my boss mean when they said that and looked at me?! Oooh, they’re so cute! I really like it when we do this. I love this person to pieces. Meh, on this task, etc.

Our minds are constantly talking to us.

This is where we get the opportunity to tell it to shut up.

And if you do that, how long does that last?

Hah! Probably not more than a few seconds if you’re lucky.

Yet, it is possible to have your mind shut up for longer than that. But you need to practice doing that. Zen mediation is one way to practice it but not the only way.

There are all sorts of methods and videos and other self-help stuff to assist you in accomplishing this.

So it’s not a magical thing.

Yet, when we are able to shut up our mind, it is kind of magical. It’s certainly not a normal everyday occurrence for most of us. Definitely not for me! And I sit zazen almost every day!

But there is one way that has been proven to work for a lot of people over hundreds of years.

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Breathe

We can live without sitting down or shutting up for long periods of time. And the elimination of either of those won’t kill us.

But for most humans, being deprived of breathing in air for more than 3 minutes is fatal. Oh, there are some who have trained themselves to go without breathing for a bit longer but not much and they are rare individuals.

So as long as we are alive, our body doesn’t stop breathing. And you don’t want it to!

But maybe we can use this to our advantage when we combine it with “sitting down” and “shutting up”.

What we can do is to pay attention to our breath and breathing.

Focus on our breathing in, breathing out. Repeat ad infinitum.

Again this is used in zen meditation practice but is not limited to it.

In our daily lives, isn’t it nice when a good friend or associate notices we’re going a little off the agitation deep end and kindly suggests that we “take a deep breath”, “relax” and “calm down”.

And it’s great when we can remember to tell ourselves to stop, take a deep breath, calm down. Come to centre.

Doing that, stopping, taking a deep breath, really centres me and brings me back to a more relaxed and alert state of well-being and awareness.

Just become aware of your breath. If you like, you can count your breaths, but don’t go too high.

In zen practice one teacher recommends paying attention to and counting 4 in-breaths and out-breaths. And then starting over again. Repeat, repeat, repeat….

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? If you’ve never done that, try it. And you’ll be amazed at how quickly your mind goes off on a tangent! It want’s to think about something! Anything!

And it’s boring. So of course, whose mind wants to do something that boring?!

Yeah, but it works.

Hard to argue with that!

Take Home

Ok, my goal here wasn’t to turn you all into zen meditation practitioners but rather to explore how a simple zen teaching which has been passed down for centuries can have positive impacts on our daily lives and well being and you don’t need to do zen meditation.

Rephrase it if you like. Maybe something like “let’s take a brief moment to pause, quiet ourselves down, and take a few deep breaths”.

Thats sounds very nice, is polite, and mirrors what so many other people tell us but somehow, I prefer and resonate better to the imperative that Sit Down, Shut Up and Breathe brings with it.

It’s simple, to the point, and works.

And FWIW, it’s how all the other creatures on this planet Earth conduct their lives. Plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, you name it. They’re all sitting down, shutting up, and breathing.

So that’s the good road I’m sharing with you today.

Until we meet again,

Rich

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But not everyone can do that.

One of my professional mentors wasn’t able to actually apologize. They wouldn’t admit to, or acknowledge any hurtful or disrespectful act they performed. And because I and other mentees were under that person’s “wings”, we weren’t able to ask for or insist on one due to what I can only say were institutional power imbalances. To invoke their displeasure could have dire consequences on our future careers so we all just let the incidents slide whenever they arose.

I like to think that I’m pretty ready and open to giving an apology when I’ve done something that needs to be reconciled. Recently I was at an event where around 200 people were dancing in a crowded room and I inadvertently banged someone with my elbow. I immediately apologized by saying “Oh, I’m so sorry” but the dancing was pretty frantic and since they hadn’t acknowledged my apology, I wasn’t sure the person had heard me. So when the music stopped, I sought out that person and made a more direct apology to them.

Unfortunately, there was so much noise in the room and because of my hearing loss and inability to hear people speak in those kind of situations, I heard them say something to me but I couldn’t understand the actual words. And I wear hearing aids so my hearing is not ideal in the best of situations. But the person who I was apologizing to was wearing a mask to prevent infections and I have found that even in quiet rooms, I have trouble understanding people speaking to me when they are wearing a mask.

Arrgh! Not a good situation.

Just for the record, I often wear and am totally supportive of people wearing masks, especially in crowded events like that one, and if I really need to hear or speak with someone I’ll usually ask them to step aside so we can converse in a quieter space. Or I’ll lean in closer and ask them to speak louder.

But for reasons that I’m not totally clear about, in that situation I told the person I couldn’t hear them and just walked away from them.

Not my best moment, for sure.

Apparently, that upset them even more and they ended up complaining to the event organizer about my actions. Because they had more they wanted to say to me and I had just walked away without giving them that chance.

So the organizer gathered myself and that person and took us to a quieter, less crowded space where they could remove their mask and tell me what had upset them so much.

Two things; the actual physical event and my walking away from them after I tried to apologize again.

They communicated how they felt I had not treated them with respect, especially as I had walked away from them “so abruptly” as they put it.

The conversation was more detailed than that but that is the gist of what I want to reveal here.

I’ve been ruminating about that whole incident trying to see how I could have acted better and how it could have played out so that we both felt complete and reconciled about it.

But one thing I realized is that the person never actually accepted my apology!

I apologized twice and they didn’t accept either one.

What was that all about?!

Did they think I was faking it? If that was the case, I certainly wouldn’t have sought them out to repeat my apology!

So I did a little internet searching about apologies and I feel a little more justified in how I acted. Had they actually said to me some words to acknowledge that they accepted my apology and my willingness to seek them out to bestow it, I think it might have gone in a different direction.

Here’s a couple of suggestions from this article:

If you’re still upset and not ready to let it go yet:

You should say so, but be careful with your language and tone.

Some examples: “Thank you, I needed to hear this apology. I really am hurt.” Or, “I appreciate your apology. I need time to think about it, and I need to see a change in your actions before I can move forward with you.”

Don’t criticize the transgressor, as hard as it may be to hold back in the moment. “Avoid negative strategies like contempt, attacking the person’s character, or mocking them, or rolling your eyes at them,”

While you shouldn’t sweep your feelings under the rug, you also don’t want to hold onto your grievance too tightly or for too long (even if it’s tempting to make the guilty party squirm as much as possible). Numerous studies have found that forgiving others has positive benefits for your mental and physical health. It’s also possible to forgive someone without letting them off the hook.

“Forgiveness is not the same as reconciliation. It doesn’t mean you need to go make nice,” he writes.

That’s sort of the ideal way to act.

But instead, they decided to take my action as a signal that they could correct my behaviour that had led to the incident in the first place. And so they went to the organizer to have them “reprimand” me for my actions.

Essentially, they attacked my character.

Arrrgh!

I’m now thinking that that is NOT accepting a sincere apology. That is sabotaging it and using it to advance your own personal vendetta or agenda.

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And for that, I feel even sorrier for the person. They actively avoided me for the rest of the dancing event, which extended into the following day.

Look, I’m not trying to come off here as someone who acted ideally.

No way!

What I think is we both needed to act in better ways.

So maybe we can all learn a little more from this exchange about how to respond to someone who apologizes to us in a well intentioned way.

Reconciliation is often not simple and straightforward and requires mindful care, honesty and compassion.

And I hope and trust that I’ll be more careful in how I respond with or to an apology in the future.

Because that’s the path of reconciliation, and that’s a good road I want to take.

I’d love to hear what you think about all this.

Until we meet again,

Rich

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I had my first asthma attack when I was about 10 years old. I remember it vividly.

My family was on a tour of the popular underground Howe Caverns in Upstate New York, when all of a sudden, I started having trouble breathing. So much trouble that within a few minutes, I started wheezing, couldn’t walk anymore and my father had to carry me on his shoulders. Luckily for him, and me, and if I remember correctly - we’re talking more than 60 years ago! - pretty soon we reached the last part of the tour which included a boat ride on the underground river so I didn’t have to walk and he didn’t have to carry me anymore.

That episode resulted in me going to the doctors every week or so to get little doses of popular allergens injected just under my skin to identify which ones were triggering the asthma and, in the summer, the hay fever attacks. And I got medications to help alleviate both the hay fever congestion and stop the wheezing of the asthma. Because I didn’t know when an asthma attack would strike, I always carried an inhaler that would stop the attack right as it was getting started. Nipping it in the bud prevented it from getting any worse and usually eliminated it.

What all this meant was that as far as sports went, I couldn’t participate in any sports that required a lot of running because after running for a bit, I would start wheezing, get short of breath and have to stop. Or if I did want to run, I had to make sure to have my inhaler along so I could keep running if the wheezing started up.

It was very frustrating because I was actually, for my size, a pretty fast runner and like most young people back then, loved to run and play. And I hated always being picked last for a team because they knew I might not be able to keep up with everyone.

So, for the most part, running was out.

What could do though, was ride a bike!

I loved riding my bike.

And as a young adult, I actually had 2 bikes stolen from me.

I did get a better lock when in 1976, I bought my first real “light” bike. A red Schwinn Super Le Tour, 12.2K model with all lightweight Japanese parts.

Pretty sweet, eh 😊

I still ride that bike and have that lock! Hard to think that it’s almost 50 years old! And they both work just fine. Over the years I’ve customized it a bit because at some point, I couldn’t do the dropped handlebars position anymore so I switched in some more upright seating, changed the handlebars and put the gear shifters on them instead of the lower frame tubing as you see in the pic.

Hey, I thought this post was going to be about running!

Patience, dear friend. We’ll get there.

To continue.

Because of the asthma and its effects on my ability to run, I learned to love walking and hiking. And even while hiking I had to have my inhaler with me. But there was one important lesson I learned from having asthma during all those years; unless it was a really really bad attack, I could always get where I was going by just putting one foot in front of the other, over and over, and I would eventually reach my destination.

That’s a lesson that has become an intrinsic part of who I am.

Sometimes I apply it literally, especially when hiking. It’s how I get to the top of mountains other folks don’t, but most of the time, it’s metaphorical.

As in just write another post. And in both cases, I don’t hurry the process. That never pays off for me.

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I could tell a lot more stories about that but let’s leave them for another time.

Ok, let’s move on to the story of my running.

Life went on, I’m in my 30s, got married, fathered a daughter, and then separated and divorced.

During the separation before the divorce, I rented an apartment with 2 roommates.

And yup, you guessed it, one of them was a runner.

And not just a recreational runner for health and wellness benefits, he liked to run hard and long. As in marathons were his thing.

We became good friends and he was convinced that even with my asthma, he could help me to start running if that was something that I was interested in doing.

Uh, YES!

He described how when he was injured one time, as soon as his injury started to heal, he would get on all his running gear, do his warm-up stretches and then go outside and for the first few days, he’d run from the telephone pole in front of his house to the next telephone pole. About 100+ metres.

That was it.

Same thing next day.

After a few of those days, he’d up the distance to 2 or 3 poles.

I think you get the picture. Within a couple of months, he was back up to marathon distances.

One foot in front of the other. Repeat.

Since I was already in pretty good shape from all the walking and biking I did, he started me jogging on distances a little bit longer than a 100 metres and before I knew it, we were running in a local 5 km race event! And then a 10 K race.

I wasn’t running fast like him, but I was running!

I loved it.

Eventually he got a job as a professor at a university several states away and got married so we rarely saw each other anymore. We stayed in touch for a few years but eventually that wound down.

A shame. I missed our friendship and camaraderie.

And I ran in the rain, the sun, the snow, the hail, whatever the weather was, I just dressed accordingly and off I’d go.

Alright, a few years later and I’m working on my Ph.D.

Still running and walking and hiking and biking to and from the university.

And one morning, I get up off the futon I slept on on the floor and a spasm of intense pain forces me down to lying on the floor in a fetal position.

It was really bad intense pain. 11 on a scale of 10!

I was barely able to crawl to my phone and call a friend for help.

I got some serious pain killers, an elastic back brace, and went to a local, well known chiropractor to help with my recovery. She asserted that my running days were over as the X-rays showed some spinal damage that would prevent me from doing that.

I saw the X-rays and was convinced that she was right. But once I started recovering, I would still be able walk, hike and bike.

So that’s what I did. And got regular chiropractic adjustments from her for a while. Then she left town.

I started seeing another chiropractor and he gave me a set of exercises to do.

Ugh, I’m not good at following exercise plans like that. But these kind of reminded me of what I thought Tai Chi looked like. I didn’t really know what Tai Chi looked like but still, they triggered that in me.

I asked him, “Hey, I know I won’t keep up with this exercise program. But they look kinda like Tai Chi. What about if I find a Tai Chi teacher and do that instead?”

“Absolutely! Great idea!” he said.

I had always wanted to do a martial art, had been doing yoga for a bunch of years, so I found a local Tai Chi teacher and began learning from him.

Again, without going into intricate details, Tai Chi is known to strengthen your leg muscles, massage your inner organs, improve your balance and coordination, and stretch all the same things most of the common yoga asanas cover.

I was hooked. It just felt right.

I still had the occasional moderate asthma attack and still needed and carried around my inhaler. I’d purchase a new one every 6 months or so. Easy to do because the one I used was an over-the-counter brand at the time.

That was over 30 years ago, I’m in my mid 70s and I’m still practicing and learning Tai Chi. Yet another story for another time.

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Ok, back to the running story timeline.

I’ve received my Ph.D. and have started a postdoctoral fellowship in a molecular genetics lab at the University of British Columbia.

To put that in perspective, all the previous stuff happened while I was growing up and living in New York State. My Ph.D. was awarded by the Biology department of Syracuse University.

So, I’m doing this postdoc at UBC and I realize I’ve been there over 6 months already and have never used my inhaler!

What the….? How can this be?

Apparently, the West Coast rain climate and environs lacked all the allergen triggers that initiated my asthma attacks!

I haven’t had any asthma since I arrived in late 1995. A bit short of breath now and again but nothing that needed medication or an inhaler!

Finished my postdoctoral work and took on a few different scientist jobs in prostate cancer research with both the Vancouver Prostate Centre and the Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre at the BC Cancer Agency.

Eventually, I left the “bench”, did some training in project management and communication, and got a job at one of the branches of the BC Cancer Agency that was about an hour from where I lived by bus and skytrain.

I’ve always loved to incorporate exercising into going to or getting home from school or work. So what I did then was take the skytrain in to where I worked and then got off at a stop that’s about an hour’s walk to where I lived.

Well, I hadn’t had any “back attack” spasms for a good number of years.

So I start thinking, everything feels pretty good, maybe I can actually run a little bit of the way home.

Mull that over a bit and decide to actually give it a go.

The first week I try it, I start walking and after 5 minutes, when I’m loosened up, I run for one block.

Hmm, no problem. Let’s up the distance.

The next week I run for 2 and then 3 blocks.

Still no ill effects.

Rinse and repeat and before I know it, it’s a few months later and I’m getting off the train a couple of stops earlier because I’m running all the way home and it’s taking me less time than it took me to walk home from the closer stops!

Wahoo, I’m running again! In spite of what the chiropractor said!

That was almost 20 years ago, I’m now retired, and I haven’t stopped.

I’ve run 10 Ks, half marathons, I even ran one marathon and decided never to do that again, although never is a long time ;-)

Oh, I’ve had to lay off now and again for minor injuries like shin splints, or knee pain, but (knock on wood) I haven’t had any back issues.

And I’m convinced that’s due first of all to my Tai Chi practice and secondarily to the biking, walking and hiking that I have done.

Why do I do it?

I can’t begin to tell you how much joy running sparks in me.

For so many reasons.

At this point I usually run 4 mornings a week including one LSD (long slow distance) to stay in shape for half marathons and the occasional 10K, hike 2 days a week and have one day of rest.

A few years ago I did trail running and street running but trail running is kinda out of my reach these days. Besides, I like hiking on trails so I can stop now and then and really feel the forest or wherever I’m hiking. And take photos, or pick mushrooms, etc.

So now it’s all street or urban park gravel trail runs.

Do I get the classic endorphins runner’s high?

Yup! But more than that I get a deep feeling of accomplishment of having overcome the asthma and physical impediments that others told me would prevent me from running again. And to run a half marathon is something I would never even have dreamed was a possibility for me when I was a young person.

Out of the realm of possibility.

Other people did that, not me!

But I persevered.

One foot in front of the other. Repeat.

For me, that’s one heckuva joyful road to take. Even when the weather sucks like it did this morning.

Until next time,

Rich

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When I entitled this thread “Taking the Good Road” on my Substack platform, I was modelling it after how Indigenous Peoples often conclude a statement about manifesting an action or intention with the phrase “…in a good way.”

I thought that “taking the good road” was a well chosen paraphrase and in alignment with that kind of intention. And because the articles I write and post in this thread are mostly about my own efforts at personal restoration, reconciliation, decolonization, uncovering subconscious biases, destigmatization etc.

However, I’ve been thinking about the whole concept of colonization and the theft of Indigenous lands through various political channels and that has caused me to think about this title.

And just what a road is.

Is there such a thing as a “good” road when looking through these lenses?

What I’ve come to realize is that I didn’t give this title the kind of necessary deep thought that now I think I should have. So today, after pondering it for a couple of days, I want to go a little deeper and ruminate about the whole idea, concept and physical manifestation of a road.

So what exactly is a road and how was the term derived? (Cmon, you know I love to find out how words came into being!)

Let’s travel down that path together and see what we come up with.

Definition and brief history

The online Etymology Dictionary tells us that our current English word “road” came from:

Middle English rode, from Old English rad "riding expedition, journey, hostile incursion," from Proto-Germanic *raido (source also of Old Frisian red "ride," Old Saxon reda, Middle Dutch rede, Old High German reita "foray, raid"), from PIE *reidh- "to ride".

Wikipedia tells us that “Historically many roads were simply recognizable routes without any formal construction or some maintenance.”

It also informs us that the oldest known engineered road in the “Old World” was a timber trackway constructed over 6000 years ago in the Southeast part of London known as Plumstead. (a trackway is a beaten or trodden path)

And again from Wikipedia,

“Historic roads (or historic trails in the US and Canada) are paths or routes that have historical importance due to their use over a period of time. Examples exist from prehistoric times until the early 20th century. They include ancient trackways, long-lasting roads, important trade routes, and migration trails.”

Aha! Migration trails.

This gets us to a kind of bottom line where we can sort of think of a road as a way to get from place A to place B that has been traveled by enough people over time so that it is recognizable and reasonably straightforward to navigate.

Roads, Colonizers and Settlers

Ok, so we’re starting to get a sense of what is and what isn’t a road.

Let’s jump back a little more than half a millennium to when European explorers first came upon the North American continent. And for the moment, let’s ignore that they thought they had reached India, and thus mislabeled the resident Indigenous Peoples they encountered as Indians.

I think it is safe to say that there were no actual roads anywhere on this continent at the time those explorers first arrived.

There were roads in South America built by the Inca People but not in the lands Indigenous Peoples called Turtle Island.

Yes, there were certainly well traveled routes that the Indigenous Peoples used for both seasonal migrations and for communicating with clans in their tribe and other sovereign Nations that lived nearby in overlapping or distinct territories of their own.

But these trails, paths, and/or ways were never maintained in the manner that Old World European roads were.

So the whole idea of roads was a Colonial Settler concept that was ultimately imposed upon the Peoples that already inhabited this land. Because roads were critical to the whole idea of doing business and accumulating wealth.

Many Native Indigenous Peoples in Turtle Island actually discouraged accumulation of personal wealth because they had found that for one person or group to have more than everyone else led to disharmony within the Nation.

This is why the Indigenous Peoples in the lands now designated as British Columbia, and where I live, invented the Potlatch. When someone in the tribe had too much, they had to give it all away to help provide for others that had less and so they wouldn’t feel that they were better than anyone else because of their “wealth”.

Ok, back to roads.

When Settlers first began arriving, the first thing they did was to recreate the way of living that they had been brought up with. And that meant stably built homes in permanent communities with roads to connect homes and places of commerce or town and village centres.

And because they settled there to extract resources such as trees and ores, they needed roads to export and sell them to distant buyers, and get them to ships for transporting goods to and from other distant and distinct places of commerce.

Whether Indigenous Peoples had any similar trade routes or designated places of exchange of goods with other Indigenous Nations is not really important because even if they did, as far as I know, they didn’t have intentionally constructed and maintained paths of travel to accomplish that. (please correct me if I’m misinformed about that!)

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And remember from above that our word road has its roots in phrases like “hostile incursions, forays, and raids”.

So the first roads in North America were not built with the intention of improving a given area ecologically or even with respect to Indigenous Peoples’ needs, rather they were constructed to enhance the movement of military forces, expedite the removal of resources and facilitate profitable business exchanges between those extracting removing and accumulating resources to those who desired to further enhance their value and sell them for a profit.

And yes, ultimately, many Indigenous Peoples used them for trading furs and other goods with Settlers. But they didn’t help put them into place.

Kinda like what we see in our times with LNG pipelines and the extraction of timber from old growth forests, minerals from mines, fish from rivers, etc.

Thus, in my mind I have begun to realize that roads are just another form of making permanent colonization and settler occupancy.

And we’re not even going to discuss the whole situation associated with the building of a rail-road across what is now known as Canada.

Thinking about it through these lenses, I started to wonder whether there IS any such thing as a good road?

Yes, myself included, we all drive our cars or take buses from to get from place to place using roads because that is what they are constructed and maintained for and that’s how we’ve been raised to live. But there are so many negative associations with this using of roads, including pollution, inappropriate land usage, climate disruption, and a whole host of other negative aspects.

Let’s fantasize for a minute.

No one has a car, there are no trains or planes, we can’t just get up and go visit someone 15 miles or more away from where we are unless we own and can ride a horse or arrange for someone who has a horse to take you there in a horse-driven carriage.

Not very romantic or practical for our modern world, is it?

That’s what you’d call a future dystopia and many sci-fi authors have explored the ramifications of that kind of life and society.

Back to the idea of a good road.

Are there good roads?

This is the question that I asked myself that started this whole shebang.

Knowing what we now know, is there such a thing as a good road? Has there ever been such a thing as a good road?

A little historical fact; the early world’s greatest road builders were the Romans and the reason they built and maintained their roads was to quickly move military forces between Rome and all the regions they had conquered so that they would remain under the thrall of Rome’s Caesars and Emperors.

So what about MY personal use of roads.

I’m an avid hiker and runner.

For hiking, I almost always have to use a car to get to the trailhead and often, that is a great distance from where I live. So if I want to continue to hike and explore new areas, I need to use roads to get there.

Yet, when I come across a portion of a hike that’s actually on a former logging road or mining trail, I am usually disappointed and often think of that as the “bad” part of the hike.

Kind of paradoxical, isn’t it. I need roads to get there but don’t like it when roads are part of the trail.

Hmmmmm…..

As a runner, most of my running is on neighbourhood roads and accompanying sidewalks. In past years I did a fair amount of trail running and really loved it but eventually my body started to tell me to give that one up. Tripped and fell one-too-many times.

I still occasionally run on manicured paths through forests but mostly along roads.

And like everyone else I know, I travel a fair amount for shopping, lessons, dates, vacations, visiting distant friends and family, etc.

It’s something we’ve come to expect of our world; that we can pretty much go wherever we want even if it’s into a war zone!

Roads are a huge part of that mindset.

I’d certainly be lost without roads.

But that doesn’t mean they’re good.

Ultimately, I think it’s that we’re addicted and there’s no way we’re going to give up this addiction. Roads bring too much joy and feelings of freedom.

Ah, to be on the open road, heading to places that you know will give you pleasure and bring happiness.

So in conclusion, I think I will leave the title of this thread alone for now. I could rename it and maybe sometime in the future I will.

But for now it stays.

Because I think I do consciously try to take “good roads”; physically, emotionally and spiritually. And I hope you do too.

May you find your own “good roads” to take.

Wishing you all my best,

Until next time,

Rich

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A little less than a week ago, I turned 75. That’s a bit hard to fathom; I’ve been alive and on this planet for 3/4s of a century plus another 9 months for the time I spent in my mother’s womb.

Wow!

It was definitely time to have a party to celebrate!

And I didn’t want to have a big bash, so I only invited my close friends. People I could unabashedly celebrate with.

So it was small gathering and because a lot of my good friends are also musicians, there was lots of good tune playing that happened throughout the afternoon and evening.

And an abundance of good food and beverages for sharing.

One thing I specifically asked everyone was please don’t bring presents. I wanted their presence not their presents.

It was great celebration and the good feelings are still resonating in me from that gathering.

I’m a big fan of the Marie Kondo idea of sparking joy! And this definitely sparked lots of joy!

And that made me think about what it is to celebrate and how one needs to be in order to fully celebrate.

What I came to realize is that just like with love, where you can’t fully share love with others unless you love yourself, you can’t share celebration with others unless you can celebrate yourself. 🥰

So I’d like to share with you some of my traits, qualities and actions that I celebrate about me. And I hope you don’t take this as bragging. Especially as I certainly have other traits, qualities and actions that are definitely anti-celebratory. But let’s stay with the positive because we’re into taking a good road right now.

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One of the things I’ve always had fun with is finding words to form an acronym or initialism.

Today the acronym/initialism is RICHARDS/ZOBEL, which just happens to be my name. 😊

(Note: the S/Z is because in my family tree, the original spelling of our surname before ancestors in my family immigrated to North America was with a Z. Many of the immigrants changed it to S but there are still others around the world that use the Z so I included both)

And I’m not limiting the caps to a single word.

So here are the traits, qualities and actions I like to celebrate in myself and that bring me joy or help me spark it in others:

R: resourceful, respectful, responsive

I: integrity, insightful, innovative, invested, introspective, intellectual, individualist, inclusive

C: compassionate, caring, cute, creative, composer of tunes, conservationist, communicator

H: heartful, hale, healthy, hiker, handy

A: artistic, allyship, allegiance, agnostic/atheist

R: reliable, reconciliatory, resilient

D: decisive, dependable

S/Z: sincere, spiritual, zen buddhist, secure, zest for life, sane, somewhat social, social justice

O: organized, original, outspoken

B: bold, brazen, biologist, biochemist

E: ethical, educated, environmentally concerned, egregious, epistemologist, emotional, equitable, enjoy life

L: lively, long-lived, laugh a lot, lovable, loyal

And those ones above are just what occurs to me at this moment in time. Feel free to add anymore you can think of, LOL!

What I would really love is to see you do the same for yourself.

Celebrate who you are in whatever ways you can think of, and they will not be the same as everyone else because each of us is a unique, amazing, wonderful individual. 💖 (Except people like the Donalds and Elons of the world)

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And that’s all I want to say about celebrations at this moment in time.

May the roads you take be good ones worth celebrating and may they spark joy for yourself and others.

Till our paths cross again.

Rich

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There are so many posts these days about how to do more, better, faster and on and on.

And there’s just as many posts about slowing down, doing less, and paying attention to detail(s).

Like yourself, I’m a sucker for a lot of them. I want to do more of everything and do it better and faster and at the same time, I want to slow down, do less and pay more attention to how well and completely I do whatever it is I’m doing.

I want to write more posts, get more subscribers, make more money, and yet still have time to do all the other things I like to do.

Bottom line: not very realistic.

Part of my problem is that I’ve always lived my life according to a few tried and true pieces of advice; “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you”, and “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. And on top of those two, one of my favourite things to tell people is that I can resist anything except temptation!

You can see my dilemma.

I just can’t have my cake and eat it too! Or in my case, my cookies. Here’s a typical batch.

So what can I do about negotiating these contrary needs and desires.

Well, luckily, one factor that has been playing a helpful role is that I am getting older! I can’t run as fast or as long, stay up as late, drive as fast (safely, that is!), hike as high or as fast, backpack for as many days, and you get the picture. Age is definitely a limiting factor.

That's just the physical stuff. There's also difficulty remembering some things which is really frustrating. Like deciding to go to a room to get such and such and by the time I get to there, I've forgotten what I went there for. Or I find something else there, take that, go back to where I started and realize I didn't get what I went for so I have to go back and get it!

Now a lot of people who experience these kind of aging effects get pretty frustrated. And they piss and moan about how they can’t do what they used to be able to do and on and on.

When I think about me doing that, what I realize is that acting in that way and exhibiting those emotions—anger, frustration, disappointment—is not how I want to be or how I want to interact with other people. That it’s not a good road to be taking.

Because when I look deeply into those powerful and in this case, negative feelings, what I see is that they often stem from a lack of gratitude and appreciation.

A lack of gratitude and appreciation.

Hmm, really?

A lack of gratitude and appreciation? Tell me more.

How does a lack of gratitude or appreciation result in anger, frustration and other negative emotions?

Is it simple or complicated?

Thank you for asking; here's my answer.

These days, I’m much more concerned with connecting with actions that “spark joy” to quote Marie Kondo. Feelings of appreciation, gratitude, connection, love, companionship and so many others do just that, they spark joy.

It’s kind of a tidying up of feelings and emotions and keeping the ones that really serve you in life.

Here's a simple example.

I tell a friend I'll be to their place at such and such a time. If I get on the highway and get in the left lane, going 15-20 km/h over the speed limit like everyone else in those lanes, I can be there in 20 minutes in normal traffic.

But if I drive the speed limit in the far right lane, I'll get there in 23 minutes. A whole 3 minutes longer!

Now I have several choices; If I still want to get there at the agreed upon time, and I want to have less stress getting there, all I have to do is leave 3 minutes earlier. Or message them and let them know I'll be a few minutes late. Which is what I usually do 😉

See, there's this factor I discovered many years ago when I played in a band.

I called it “curb time”.

There were 5 of us in the band and one of us had purchased a van so we could travel together with all our gear. It worked really nicely. But that meant picking each other up and loading etc. So at practice, we plannned the times each of us would be picked up for the gig.

Guess, what?

The van was always late by the time it reached the second person!

You see, we hadn't figured in the time it would take to ring their doorbell, for them to get out the door with all their gear, lock the door, say goodbye to their sweetie, walk to the van, load their stuff in it, and finally take a seat!

Curb time!

Once we started factoring in curb time, everything went much smoother.

And that lowered our stress level, we traveled better, and we played better at the gig!

All because we factored in a little curb time.

Guess, how long curb time was....

Three to four minutes.

Yup, about 3-4 minutes for each person and since there were 4 members that needed picking up, that added around 12-16 minutes so we added 15-20 minutes into the pickup planning time and bingo, problem managed.

Jump forward many years and I'm in administrative positions in my professional career. I noticed the same problem would arise during meeting and conference scheduling; the organizers would schedule the next speaker or event to proceed directly after the previous one finished. There was no time allotted for people to change rooms, for the media people to get the next speaker’s presentation set up, etc.

Even when the meetings were done remotely using Zoom or other meeting platforms.

They needed to add in the curb time.

Once we started doing that, meetings progressed smoothly, attendees and presenters were much happier and feelings of gratitude and appreciation were definitely increased and acknowledged by all!

So I have looked at all the different things in my life that I schedule by times in the calendar and always remember to add curb time.

Does that translate into having less time to do things so less gets done?

Sometimes yes and sometimes no.

But what I do is check in more closely with priorities.

And that brings me to the Eisenhower matrix.

You know the Eisenhower matrix? It was developed and made popular by the late Dwight D. Eisenhower, General and former President of the United States!

Use the matrix to separate all your activities into four priority levels, one of which (Not Important/Not Urgent) is immediately dropped.

I look at what I want to accomplish and see where they fit in the matrix.

Periodically my partner and I construct one to see how to best give attention in our life for maintaining our home and our relationship.

Everything that's not urgent and important gets tossed.

And I'm just beginning to realize that one of those urgent and important tasks is to express our love, gratitude and appreciation for each other on a regular basis.

I can be pretty remiss in that because often I assume it's there in our daily interactions. But both of us need to hear it and we greatly appreciate it when we do.

And you know what they say about assuming. To assume is make an “ass” out of “u” and “me”.

So, I think I've pretty much said all I need to about this idea of downshifting. It's nothing new.

Less is more.

We've all heard that.

Now it's time to live it.

Incorporate it into your daily life.

And do it with a good heart. Because no one wants to be the recipient of frustration and anger, especially if it's hurting them, whether or not that was the intent.

If you can't do that, maybe you need to seek someone who can help you with that.

There are people who are trained to give that kind of assistance.

Personally, I think most of us don't need professional help.

We just need to remember to treat other people and ourselves with respect and kindness.

May the roads you take be good ones and spark joy for yourself and others.

Till our paths cross again.

Rich

Ever since I was in my tweens, I have loved hiking and camping. For me, that is one of my top good roads to be taking.

These days I generally hike twice a week; one day during the week with my best friend and one weekend day with my partner.

It was hiking that led to my learning how to climb so that I would be more comfortable and proficient when scrambling was part of the ascent to summit some peaks. And that was almost 20 years ago! Where does the time go?!

One of the things I like about hiking is that it gets me to places where I can also use another of the good roads I have gone down in this life; photography. I always used to carry my camera until smartphones came along and could take a pretty good photo.

But when push comes to shove, and I know I’m going someplace where the vistas and landscapes are going to be awesome, I always take my trusty Canon EOS SLR.

Since this hike is one of my favourites in the area, these days, I pretty much only take smartphone pics with my iPhone.

Over the past few weeks, I hiked there by 2 different routes. For the first one, with my partner, we ascended to the lake using the trail along the creek to hike among the old growth trees — and there are a lot of them on that trail! —and then took a couple of other trails to get back to the car, including one that brought us to a really huge tree, The Hollyburn Fir.

The second hike started at a completely different place and started along a “road” that eventually became a trail and went past a lot of private cabins on Hollyburn. that route goes to Blue Gentian Lake and then up to West Lake and the Hollyburn Lodge before following X-country ski trails to get us back to the roads in the woods and eventually to the car.

So here’s a few pics for you to vicariously enjoy these hikes with us. I am also an avid iNaturalist contributor and love to take pictures of plants, flowers, mosses, lichens and any creatures that will hold still long enough for me to get a picture that I can upload to iNaturalist for recording the location and getting both the common and scientific names for the observation.

First hike, end of August.

Starting out and going up along the creek.

And a beautiful waterfall about 2/3s of the way up to the lake.

Once up at the lake, there is one old picnic table and we were able to sit there and eat our lunch. Another one of the reasons I like to hike is to be able to have lunch-with-a-view.

It was a light rainy, foggy misty day and here’s what the lake looked like.

And here’s a picture of the flowers that give the lake its name.

Actually, although they are gentian flowers and they are blue, their common name is King’s Sceptre Gentian and their scientific name is Gentiana sceptrum. It is found all up and down the Pacific West Coast from Bella Coola, BC to San Francisco, California.

And here’s one of the old growth trees and the Hollyburn Fir with my partner in the pic for size comparison.

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Here’s a video of the fir if you want to get the full experience.

And a few of the mushrooms and lichens we saw.

A fine day out, for sure!

Second hike to Blue Gentian and West Lake, early September.

The second hike to the lake was with my best friend and hiking buddy over the past 20+ years. It was a much clearer, warmer day as reflected in this pic of the lake and also the image that started off this post.

From here, we made our way up to West Lake.

Below are some of the interesting plants, mushrooms and lichens we saw on this hike.

Going from left to right and top to bottom these are:

1. Smith’s bolete

2. Bolete mould

3. Dusky Fork-moss

4. Coiled-leaf claw-moss

5. Admirable bolete

6. Purple Brittlegill

7. Frosted Grain-spored lichen

8. Copperbush

9. Merten’s sedge

So that’s pretty much all I wanted to share about this wonderful place. If you’re in the neighbourhood, like to hike and only have a few hours to spare, don’t pass up this area. You won’t be disappointed.

And in the spirit of Taking the Good Road posts and reconciling and decolonizing these lands, you need to know that these trails and lakes are on the unceded lands and territory of the Squamish and Tsleil Waututh Nations who have resided here for thousands of years.

Until next time,

Enjoy and cherish your own Good Roads.

Rich

P.S. Please don’t use any of these photos without my permission. Thx.

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