This is living.
This is the Why and the What of living here, the philosophy that informs the choice, the foundation for everything. If you’re curious about what’s going on behind my eyeballs (hey, me too!) or why I might do things the way I do them, this is where you’ll find those kinds of thoughts.
It’s in Living that we discover what we’re made of, what really matters to us, and how to live with fidelity to our values. In this version of Living, it’s the record of (among other things) my “no daylight” practice, the ongoing work of making sure my claimed values and my actual choices are locked together – no daylight can creep between them. It all comes back to land, to husbandry, stewardship and to care on a particular patch of land, at a particular time, with a particular cast of characters. You’ll get to know them all, I promise.
Whether it’s ordinary days, reflections on responsibility or longer pieces of writing that take shape over time, Living is where you’ll find your way into our current. Some posts stand alone, while others belong to larger, serialized projects that will grow slowly and are revisited as the seasons turn or Living reorients my perspective. This is not a polished archive (head over to Keeping for that), or a how-to manual (that’s in Tending). It’s an invitation to walk alongside, to notice what’s being noticed, and to see how understanding emerges through Living, not theory.
Welcome to my frontier.
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Notes from Living
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A Stool With More Legs
Arlene Dickinson recently made a compelling case for Canada to become the agrifood superpower it ought to be. I read it with interest. . . And then the wheels started turning. “Hang on a second,” I said to myself. . . I’ve linked to the post below so you can read it for yourself. If…
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You Can’t Get Here From There?
The photos are beautifully lit. Maybe there’s a hand trailing over the grass or in the soil. The captions talk about things like “connection,” “ancestry,” “belonging,” “healing” or “rooted.” More and more often lately I am seeing posts that talk about Place. Without going into a lot of details or pointing out anyone in particular,…
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A World Without Wendell
Late last night the news started to spread that Wendell Berry had died. Although perhaps not a household name outside particular circles, Mr. Berry was a giant in my world. A poet, a thinker/philosopher and a tireless advocate for the rural, the out-of-the-way and the wild. Now that he’s gone at the ripe old age…
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Knowing Where To Knock
I wrote this for my August newsletter. It seemed to start a lot of conversations and so, once I surfaced from end-of-summer madness and before I disappear into September crazy, I thought I’d put the article up for you here. Let’s dig into craftwashing! I had never heard the term “craftwashing” before. Up until last…
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Mental Health and Missing Conversations
We have gotten so much better at talking about mental health in agriculture. However, when I look at the stories in my own family, I know some important people are missing. It’s time they got a seat at this table. I talk a lot here on The Commons about reading land. About reading my animals…
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All Hat, No Cattle
Bill 22 is now law. While I’m still supportive of the update to Alberta’s Animal Welfare and Protection legislation, a critical piece of the puzzle is mi$$ing. Back in April, when Alberta first introduced its long-overdue overhaul of the Animal Protection Act, I wrote about what the proposed changes might mean for farmers and animals.…
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Never Mind the Bollocks
Somebody once told me, “On every parade, a little rain must fall.” I’m afraid I’m about to bring the rain. I was recently being interviewed by one of the regenerative farming groups here in Alberta and they asked me what I thought the biggest threat to regenerative farming was. I answered promptly — I’ve given…
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Letter to YOUR MLA
You can send a message to your elected representative. Copy/Paste this letter into an email and send it to the MLA your community elected – to represent you and your concerns. Let them know our sisters, mothers, aunts, cousins, friends and family matter to us. And we are watching. If you’re not sure who your…
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The Ethics of Experience
Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves, and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the…
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Why Doesn’t She Just Leave? Domestic Violence, Livestock, and Rural Women in Western Canada
“You don’t know me.” That’s how the message usually starts. “I found you on Facebook and I was wondering if you could help. . . Can you please give my sheep a good home?” The first time I got one of these messages, I was intrigued — there was something about it that felt a…
