Tag: The Marginalian

Resist

“One of the most important things to have learned in life is that choosing joy in a world rife with reasons for despair is a counter-cultural act of courage and resistance, choosing it not despite the abounding sorrow we barely survive but because of it, because joy — like music, like love — is one of those entirely unnecessary miracles of consciousness that give meaning to survival with its bright allegiance to the most alive part of us.”

Maria Popova, The Marginalian, July 6, 2025

I would add that noticing beauty – in life’s imperfections and beyond -is, too, such a miracle of consciousness.

And so it was this past week when I en-joyed my now third annual, summer sojourn on Vancouver Island, visiting dear friends. My idea of paradise when we eat every meal outside in their “beyond gorgeous” garden – a labour of love this abundance of blossom, colour, bees, and butterflies. “Heaven on earth” is how I describe it, without a word of hyperbole.

the al fresco life

Prosecco and a picnic on the beach; pickleball with a food truck lunch and ice cream cones; cooking together as I shared some favourite pasta and appetizer recipes while sipping a gorgeous Italian red from Brindisi (note to self: track it down); and the perfect “next in my year’s worth of celebrating” birthday party – with candles on the lovingly-made chocolate torte, a talking circle among friends, meaningful gifts, and an orange balloon! A “time out of time” experience that filled my heart.

And in a matter of eighty minutes I was home, landing on my piece of prairie patchwork, greeted by my man and our dog. Resuming routines – pickleball on a very cold and windy Friday morning, walking in the river valley on a summertime hot and green Saturday morning, and celebrating our 45th wedding anniversary at one of YEG’s (and Canada’s) finest restaurants, leaving us to wonder why it had taken so long to return.

river valley boardwalk

Times grow darker south of the border. There is no denying the continued, utterly bewildering commitment to policies and practices devastating people. I like knowing that this week of choosing and celebrating joy, and love, and beauty, is my act of resistance. Like a stone dropped in the pond…the butterfly wings flapping…that dragonfly that landed on my chest and rested for several minutes… miracles of consciousness that matter.

…Everywhere I look there is tyranny.
Everywhere I look there is goodness.
This contradiction is killing me.
It is the only thing keeping me alive.

Abbey E. Murray, “Ode to the Grimy Breeze of an Underground Subway Platform“

Much love and kindest regards, dear friends. Resist!

PS – I’ve been irregular getting to this page and so have chosen to take a “pause” for a bit, posting as the mood strikes.

Geese Sense

…”the greatest gift you could give a child — or the eternal child in you — is ‘a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments… the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength.'”

– Maria Popova citing Rachel Carson, The Marginalian

Musing on what I’d write for today’s post, my direction shifted after reading Sunday’s issue of The Marginalian. The above quote and story that followed stirred a memory of responses I’d had during recent walks, during these past weeks fraught with global disenchantments. The unmistakeable sound of Canada geese – flying overhead, landing in the nearby pond, or in formation ready to make their annual southern migration, honking to announce their presence. Whatever I had been thinking up until that point quickly gave way to awe as I gazed up in admiration and remembered the once popular story I’d often read to groups I’d facilitated.

The Sense of a Goose described the group and leadership dynamics of a flock of geese flying south, and how their innate wisdom could be applied to us building teams and making communities. Reading aloud that story, how many times I’d almost be moved to tears. Even recalling it during my recent walks, watching those geese overhead, I had the same visceral, poignant response.

Delving into its edges and source, I realized I had been feeling the longing – that often barely acknowledged human condition – for the deeply rooted sense of wonder as an indefatiguable source of strength; for the feeling of inner safety and outer belonging; for trusting in the reliable support of others. In that story, among the people with whom I worked, and watching overhead now, I felt what the geese and their flying physics illustrated:

…”the physics of any healthy community, any healthy relationship — the physics of vulnerability and trust. Because life always exerts different pressures on each person at different times, internal or external, thriving together is not a matter of always pulling equal weight but of accommodating the ebb and flow of one another’s vulnerability, each trusting the other to shield them in times of depletion, then doing the shielding when replenished. One measure of love may be the willingness to be the lead bird shielding someone dear in their time of struggle, lifting up their wings with your stubborn presence.”

– Maria Popova citing Rachel Carson, The Marginalian

As the story goes, may we all learn from and practice the sense of geese. Goodness knows, we and our precious world are in its need.

Much love and kindest regards, dear friends.