Many of you are probably lighting your advent candles or eating that first piece of chocolate from your calendar. This is a special month for Christians around the world. It’s also a Holy month for many other religious and spiritual traditions: Hanukkah (Jews), Bodhi Day (Buddhists, Sikhs, Hindus, Jains), Yule (Pagans & Wiccans), Kwanzaa (African […]
In a public Facebook thread, I dared to say ‘Happy Gurpurab’ to the Sikh community this week. I was then told to ‘wake up,’ ‘lay off the pipe,’ ‘go live in India,’ and ‘put a sock in it Nancy pants,” among other insults. Is the light in us gone? Has the soul in us […]
It takes a lot of volunteers and sponsors to run a community festival – teamwork, tenacity, trust – to build something that will bring out your friends and neighbours to celebrate the harvest time of year. Pumpkin Fest was a wonderful success, and promises to only get better year after year. From the jack’o’lantern and […]
I was thrilled to be asked to join the elite team of mural painters in Lancaster Ontario this past September. Two large murals are now on display entitled “Life on the River,” and “Early Farming Settlers,” which is the culmination of South Glengarry Township’s Portraits of our Past project. Mural production was co-ordinated by longtime […]
My 2024 solo travel adventure brought me to Portugal! I rented a house in the historic section of Albufeira, southern coast in the Algarve region. Beautiful sunshine greeted me almost everyday, along with an americano with extra hot water that I ordered at a beach cafe. These travels are all about routine, usually involving meditation, […]
“Songwriting and visual art share the same creative process, and self-discovery is a big part of it. Sometimes it’s hard, but mostly it’s magical.” Throughout the pandemic, I’ve ebbed and flowed with my creative practice. Sometimes it was easier to binge something on Netflix, play free cell on my phone, or just sleep. The first […]
I got my first guitar for Christmas when I was eleven years old. I immediately fell in love with the strings and tuners, and inevitably snapped the top E string on the first day. So, I learned to play a five string guitar! A couple of years later I upgraded to a – not much […]
Each year, I travel somewhere in the world, alone, for my own creativity retreat. I treat it as an Artist Residency – time away to focus on my songwriting and visual art. Sometimes I throw a dart at the map, and other times a place is suggested, but wherever I land, I make the most […]
From the moment I set foot on Quiet Valley Ranch, I knew I was in for a truly rare and exceptional weekend. At the Kerrville Folk Festival registration building, I was given a special button that said, “Performer”, and among festival goers, the prestige of being a “NEW FOLK ARTIST” was the equivalent of […]
I feel so fortunate to be a creativity coach and I have the most amazing clients. Recently I had an opportunity to produce an EP for one such client, Jan. Our collaboration has been going on for a few years now, and Jan’s songs are so great we knew the next step was to book […]