One year ago, our dear friend Ashleigh was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer, and she and her family have spent the past year navigating a long and exhausting journey of chemo treatments. Saturday, December 21 is the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year, with 16 hours of darkness….
Pouring Milk
VermeerSo long as that woman from the Rijksmuseum in painted quiet and concentration keeps pouring milk day after day from the pitcher to the bowl the World hasn’t earned the world’s end. Wisława Szymborska trans. Clare Cavanagh & Stanisław Barańczak Most of life, as you’ve probably also learned by now, is…
Prayers and Blessings
The North Face recently released a documentary called The Invisible Wall, featuring ultrarunners Mike Foote (American), Mauricio Carvajal (Mexican), Mario Mendoza Jr. (Mexican-American) as they run along the Mexico-US border. You should check it out (here). Ever since learning about the running traditions of the Tarahumara people of Mexico and…
On a bike with one wheel
This week I gave my first Toastmasters speech in several years, as part of a new club. I spoke about being weird, and how being different attracts attention. I learned this when I learned how to ride the unicycle as a kid. Unicycling isn’t a normal activity (shocker!), and when…
Your Mountain
I’ve been on a steady diet of endurance sports stories and documentaries the past year or so. I’ve been fascinated and challenged by athletes who battle great landscapes and extreme conditions to perform great feats, testing the limits of their own strength and resolve. The latest of these epic stories…
Adventure Awaits
Our desire for adventure and our desire to be safe and comfy are often at odds. Of all the adventure stories that we hold dear, most of them only really start once something fails to go according to plan. Yvon Chouinard probably put it best: It’s not an adventure until…
Loaves and Fishes
I was introduced to the work of David Whyte recently. In reading his poetry, I came across a beautiful little poem called Loaves and Fishes. This is not the age of information. This is not the age of information. Forget the news, and the radio, and the blurred screen. This…
The Oxbow
One year ago, in the midst of training for my first marathon, I heard about some crazy people who’d run 50KM – 8KM longer than a marathon! – in the Spruce Woods on the first weekend of May. At the time, a marathon was an impossibility in my mind, what…
Conversing with the Land
What’s the difference between a trail and a road? Trails, our original routes of travel across the land, follow the contours of the landscape. Along the winding stream, around rocks and trees, weaving up the side of a hill. Roads, on the other hand, cut through a landscape. They carve…
The Old Tamarack
There’s a small green space near our house, in what has been called “the last piece of original bush” in our town. This is one of my favourite places to go for a morning run, or a walk with the family. Care to join me on a little walk? We…
Hi, I'm Brent! I write about creativity, curiosity, design, and wonder.
Check out my newest book Pay Attention.
© 2019 Brent Manke