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Down With the Shine
And all that comes here, it comes here to pass. – Avett Brothers, Down with the Shine I love shiny new things. Technology is amazing, and there’s nothing like buying the latest gadget, taking it home, admiring its shininess, playing with all its bells whistles. It’s magic. But a growing part of me is also…
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Step Outside
Quit these four walls These glowing screens This climate-controlled castle Shaped and wired to please Step outside Into never-ending fields and skies And fireflies Feel the evening breeze Which speaks in tales and riddles The passing of the seasons In the deep streams of time Feel small Dig your toes into the soil Which sustains…
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Whimsy
Whimsy. It’s one of my favourite words lately. Not the wedding decoration trend or all that, I mean whimsy the way Bob Goff uses it in Donald Miller’s book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. It’s that magic that happens when we dare to do something courageous, or when we notice a spark of…
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A Slow Silent Walk
Came across this 100-year-old poem, “In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations’” by Thomas Hardy, in Wendell Berry’s “The Unsettling of America”, and it struck a chord with me. The imagery in this poem runs a against the grain of modern culture – with its virtues of upward mobility, freedom from the burden of work,…
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In Praise of “Dumb” Devices
I recently got a running watch to help track my pace when I’m running. Whenever I look at it’s single-colour, pixelated display, I’m reminded of why I love “dumb” devices. Every appliance and accessory is under pressure to become “smart”. Your camera can connect to Facebook, your thermostat is connected to your phone, which is…
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Clover
Common, abundant, passed by But they have a most amazing scent. You ask how I know this? My daughter stopped to pick just one (for us to share) From a field full of common and abundant wonders For those who’d like to smell.
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The Writing Can Heal You
We’ve all, at one time in our life, experienced the “day after” crash. The day after the book launched. The week after the marathon. The night after the big concert. Seth Godin describes this period after we reach a big milestone “a kind of death.” All the adrenaline of the big event has now drained…
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The New Car Scent
In 2007 I married my way into Volvo ownership. Our 1987 Volvo 240 might have been falling apart on the outside, but it had a strong heart, and bravely carried us over mountain passes, through winter storms, and proved to not shy away from -30 temperatures (even without a block heater). Our Volvo wasn’t new,…
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Does the typeface really matter?
I was reading a book recently, For the Time Being by Annie Dillard. When I got to the last page I discovered a note – right-aligned – from the book designer. It read: A Note on the type The text of this book was set in a typeface called Baker Signet, designed by Arthur Baker…
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The ball’s in your court
Good tennis players can bat the ball back and forth endlessly. As long as neither player makes an error or takes a chance, the ball will stay in play, but the game won’t make any progress. Watch all agonizing 1:40 of this longest rally in Grand Slam history. 71 shots of back and forth, back…
