December 10, 2025
Gleanings
- each song filling the blue space as I swam my slow kilometer and I kept waiting for one song that I haven’t heard in years and it wasn’t on the list so when I came back home, I found it.
- Joining the silent book club helped me reconnect with the genres that brought me joy before the days of university and seminary. I’ve enjoyed a biography of one of my favourite actors, reread a novel that piqued my attention as an elementary school kid, and now I’m reading the classic Jane Austen novel Pride and Prejudice in anticipation of trying my first murder mystery novel The Murder of Mr. Wickham!
- What if you cherished yourself, I asked my reflection in the bathroom mirror at school, one day last month. It knocked me out.
- I hear this often from these old ladies, a resigned sigh, “but …” they say shortly after sharing their grief, “what can you do?” Perhaps in resignation, perhaps a genuine question, perhaps mostly, the deepest of surrenders, a daily, moment to moment knowing that we can’t escape. No matter how hard we try or how advanced we get or how much we choose to distract ourselves, there’s nothing we can do … it, all of it, all of Life, must be lived.
- Winter always brings a special serenity to woodlands. For me, tramping along forest trails during winter, snow on the ground muffling my footfall, is a deeply spiritual, personal experience. I’m slowly learning to embrace that quietude, and engage in some cold weather forest bathing (Shinrin-yoku). I always look for a sheltered area in the sun, but where the breeze is hindered, a cosy spot with a stump to sit on, all the better to relax and observe nature.
- This is a really entertaining read. There are some dark themes, and some sadness and exhaustion that permeates the pages, but it kept me reading. The look at 90s music, the cost of fame, misogyny in the music world, the world of street art, and the drive toward musical life especially in Jane — it’s all intriguing and slots together really smoothly. With this tough, hard world, I would have loved to see Jane more powerful and less forgiving overall. But it’s a perfect rock n roll story if you’re in the mood for something both nostalgic and edgy. There is a lot to think about, including the ending, and it made for a satisfying read.
- I’m giving you a free pass on everything I also need a free pass on. For example. When we’re friends IRL but you never comment on or acknowledge anything I do online. I give you a free pass because I know the algo is horseshit. I know you want to be invisible sometimes. I know that you’ve seen my stuff to death. I’m giving you a free pass on staying home when it’s cold out and dark. I’m giving you a free pass on saying awkward things and things you don’t mean to say that just pop out of your mouth. I’m giving you a free pass on the French exit, the Irish exit, the Canadian exit. I’m giving you a free pass on forgetting to bring a hostess gift. I’m giving you a free pass on not wanting to do anything that costs money because who has that lying around? I’m giving you a free pass on getting back to me within a week or two and then burying my email and even accidentally deleting it because that can bloody happen.
