Over the past year my curiosity has led me down two distinct but converging paths. One is running. The other is the wilderness. The two paths converge at this curious sub-culture within the sport of running: trail running. In my curiosity, I’ve fed on a steady diet of books and…
The Longest Night Run
Friday, December 21 is the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year in the northern hemisphere. In southern Manitoba that means 16 hours of darkness, from sunset to sunrise on the 22nd. Our dear friend Ashleigh was recently diagnosed with Stage IV cancer, bringing a season of darkness to…
Silence has found me
When snow begins to coat the ground, as it’s been doing this week in our neighbourhood, every noise is muffled, creating a new world of silence that is breath-taking in its unexpected minimalism. Every sound that you do hear feels intentional. Somehow the birds’ songs have become clearer and more…
This is Nature
Kristine McDivitt Tompkins (along with her late husband, Doug Tompkins) worked to establish conservation areas stretching millions of acres across Patagonia on the southern tip of South America. I was inspired by an interview in the documentary 180° South, where McDivitt Tompkins (possibly quoting Gary Snyder?) stated, “You can’t protect…
RunHaiku Volume 3
Remember the small secret creases of the earth. – Wendell Berry, Sabbaths 1990 III This summer and fall have been seasons of discovery in my own backyard. Short detours off the beaten path revealed forests teeming with life, trails tucked into the margins between highway and river, and creatures pushing…
Seek Friction
A couple great takeaways in this interview with David McCullough from The Paris Review. The first, LOOK AT YOUR FISH (as shared by Austin Kleon, check out his summary here) is a great reminder that the answer is often right in front of you. The question is whether you’re able…
Brevity
In autumn the whole world speeds up and slows down at the same time. Leaves change from green to yellow to fallen in the blink of an eye. The sun’s path across the sky shortens by the day. As the changes accelerate, we’re reminded to savour the season even more,…
Run Together
Today’s an exciting day. Let me introduce to you RunHaiku Volume X: Run Together. From the outside, running is often viewed as a solo activity. But once you start running, you find a community of runners that help make the miles more enjoyable, and encourage and inspire you to keep…
RunHaiku Volume 2
When I started my daily RunHaiku rhythm last fall, then continued it through the cold and dark early mornings of winter, I thought, if I could tune my senses to wonder and attention in the bleakness of winter, how amazing would spring be? Well, spring arrived. As temperatures rose, I…
Really Winning
In one week I’ll be participating in my first marathon, and I’m planning on winning the race. That’s right, winning the whole thing. Make no mistake (barring some kind of freak Rookie-of-the-Year-style “injury”) there’s no chance of me crossing the finish line first. Not going to happen. Finishing will be…
Hi, I'm Brent! I write about creativity, curiosity, design, and wonder.
Check out my newest book Pay Attention.
© 2018 Brent Manke