Blog

Living in the world

31 August, 2010

Our friend Mel Middleton came through town last week and gave us good cause to reflect on how we live in this world.

The pleasure of the middle miles

30 August, 2010

The middle miles of a long run might be a little like the middle years of life - a time for the pleasure of being in the moment.

The psychology of performance

24 August, 2010

The motivation to perform is a curious thing.

Last week, as I prepared for a weekend run, it struck me how strongly artificial motivators were driving my attitude and even my metabolism.

As the Saturday run date approached, my heart beat a little faster. I mentally checked and rechecked what gear I would wear in what weather conditions. I monitored my eating more closely and listened more attentively to my stomach. Every few moments for days before, my mind jumped back to some aspect of the run scenario.

Coffee in the Village

5 August, 2010

There are not many pastimes I enjoy more than sitting in a welcoming coffee shop, sipping a java, and observing elements of urban design. People included, of course, because what is urban design without people?

In my latest post on Life As A Human, I managed to combine coffee, urban design, and my newly adopted neighbourhood of Cook St. Village. Hope you enjoy it - and if you're ever in the neighbourhood, you know where you can find me.

Summer updates and reflections

30 June, 2010

It's late June 2010 and finally feeling summery in western Canada. Watching little pods of school children on 'let's kill time till the school term ends' field trips in recent weeks led me back to an article I wrote a few years ago, "The Long, Slow Summers of Youth." It's recently been reposted on Life As A Human. Thanks to Editor Kerry Slavens for the continuing interest in and support for my work.

These are urban times

23 June, 2010

We citizens of the world are increasingly citizens of cities. The places that concern us, that interest us, that engage us on a daily basis are our urban places - our streets and neighbourhoods.

For many people, urban planning is a distant and irrelevant activity until it begins to change - or prevent change - in one's own neighbourhood.

People who do get engaged in helping guide the future of their cities are often dismayed to find out that the "vision" they created in upbeat workshops fails to get implemented after professionals have had their go.

Keeping busy?

7 June, 2010

You are busy. I am busy.

As we know, we wear these statements like badges of accomplishment in our society, in these early years of the 21st century. That's not likely to change significantly for some time.

Through the busyness, we seek clarity and direction. As I transition from defining myself primarily as a consultant to a renewed focus on the "writer" and "student of urban ideas" labels, I have written and found a few pieces that may interest you.

Writers At Home 2: E.B. White's quiet hideaway

24 April, 2010

Revised blog post*

Winding our way down into Maine from the Canadian Maritime provinces, we followed the twists and turns along the coast and its many inlets, sipping coffee and soaking up the mellow mood. We were looking for the home of the late E.B. White but, coffee being what it is, bathrooms became higher priority than roadsigns.

Earth Day and other recent posts

24 April, 2010

Earth Day article

On Earth Day 2010, Life As A Human carried an engaging collection of new writing about our connections to nature and to our planet.  I contributed a piece that you might want to check out.  I am writing a couple articles a month for Life As A Human, and not all of them will be reposted on my own site, so I encourage you to check Life regularly, or subscribe to their updates.

Writers At Home 1: What's to see?

7 April, 2010

"What's to see?"

That's the question Calvin Trillin asked in a New Yorker article a number of years ago, about author's homes as tourist attractions. "The labor that makes a world-famous novelist worth writing about was almost certainly done while he was sitting all by himself in a small room. The raw material was probably invisible to everyone but him."

Trillin goes on to note that "a visitor to Herman Melville's study couldn't expect to find any whales."