The Adventures of Lynne

I really love traveling on trains. I took the train from Granby to Denver and saw more beautiful mountainous landscape. I stayed at a lovely airbnb described as "cute" and "cozy" which it certainly was! This was the first morning after I had already mussed it up. Sadly, that morning, I learned that my friend Bob Shantz had died. I'm so far from home and unable to attend his funeral or grieve with his friends. Bob was a singer and choral conductor. He was kind and had a wonderful sense of humour. I thought about how I can honour him from afar. This is one of my favourite hymns, and I think it might have been one of his, because it expresses deep love through singing. Maybe it will be sung at his funeral, but if not, I will have sung it from here with love for him. My life flows on in endless song; Above earth's lamentations, I hear the real, tho' far-off hymn That hails a new creation; Through all the tumult and th...

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Visiting the Japanese garden was a great warmup to my 8 day training session as a Forest Therapy Guide with the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy. It was an incredible week with incredible people. Forest Therapy is also called Shinrin Yoku, translated as "forest bathing" which could also be translated as forest 'connection'. The Japanese began in the 80's to study the positive effects of being in nature (lower cortisol levels, lowered blood pressure, increased immunity etc.) The nature and forest therapy that I am studying goes beyond the medical benefits and stress reduction to include the emotional and psychological aspects of being in nature. Most of you know that I want to get kids outside. But all of us need to. I was grateful to my mom many times that week, because she taught her three kids to love lakes and trees and rocks and flowers and wildlife. When I get home, I'll take anybody that wants to for a walk! Go ahead to the websi...

Here I am saying goodbye to Canada for now, having watched the orcas and seals on my last Canadian day. I love trains. I went by Amtrak from Vancouver to Portland Oregon.  I spent the day there at the Portland Japanese Garden. It was so beautiful.I saw many garden spaces "forming nature in its idealized state". The tour guide said that the most expertise and time spent was on the garden that looked the most natural. "No one will understand a Japanese garden until you've walked through one, and you hear the crunch underfoot, and you smell it, and you experience it over time. Now there's no photograph or any movie that can give you that experience." J. Carter Brown But I will try: It had the desired quality of making me feel peaceful and reflective. Japanese design incorporates architecture, form and line, texture and colour--a great feast for the senses. I was in a heavenly peaceful state, even though school had started! ...

I've been thinking about  "HOME" I've left my home in Waterloo. I've left the physical Unit 44, the city, the province. I'm about to leave my country for the year. I have found my home here in Tsawwassen, which is Cathy's house. I was at home at my Mom's camp in Sudbury, Stephanie's house in Toronto, Kate's house in Yellowknife. And for many days, I've been at home inside my tent, wherever it happened to be set up. When you are away from home, people want to know where you are from. I say I'm from Waterloo. That's where I've lived most of my adult life and where I raised my children. But actually, I feel like I'm from Sudbury. That's where I started "being from". "Home is where one starts from." --T. S. Eliot Now that I'm about to leave Canada, I'm leaving home again. I am also making my home, whether in my tent or in some other shelter, in other places in the world. Home is s...