je vais où?

A year ago I came home to a package outside of my apartment door. In it was a can of maple syrup, marked in both English and French, indicating its bilingual Canadian roots. “This is liquid gold,” read the card from my friend Amy. On the phone later I was told not to mention the fact that she had sent me a valuable can from the family stash, “don’t tell my husband.”

I felt like I was stashing a tin can of valuable drugs in my pantry. Not daring to waste the stuff, the beautifully decorated can remained un-opened. Loaded with such valeur, I was afraid to use it, and instead it became a nice daily reminder of Amy’s generosity and the fact that eventually, I was going to have to experience this maple syrup madness for myself.

That time came last week, on a mother-daughter adventure to the northern woods of Maine and the farmland of Southeastern Quebec, in which I was assured I would get the ultimate “cabane à sucre” experience. Known as “sugar houses” or “sugar shacks” in English, these are cabins and buildings where sap collected from maple trees is boiled into maple syrup. Nowadays, not only do they produce maple syrup, but they have big dining halls which serve up a traditional menu, much of it made with or incorporating maple syrup.

Read the rest of this entry »

Only in my early 20s did I learn the global importance of International Women’s Day with streets full of women around the world coming together in solidarity. This day is about empowerment and equal rights.

The 2012 theme is “connecting girls, inspiring futures,” which has gotten me thinking about all of the inspiring connections that surround us every day. In my everyday I come into contact with female colleagues and friends, all that are passionate about what they do. They are writers, filmmakers, doctors, lawyers, humanitarians and vagabonds, and every single thing in between.

What does it mean to be a woman? A lot of things.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tea: so hot right now.

The United States isn’t high on the list of global tea drinkers – a whole 0.2 kilograms per person annually, compared to Britain’s 2.3 – and the drink has nothing on its caffeinated counterpart. In 2010 the tea industry in the U.S. accounted for $7.7 billion, whereas coffee stood at $47.5 billion.

But just as you can buy 12 ounce bags of coffee beans for $60, premium cups of tea have been known to go for double digits, and specialty tea culture is on the rise. Just a couple of weeks ago, I found myself nursing aconcoction of Bourbon and Lapsang Souchong; I phoned my father immediately upon exiting the bar. If tea that tastes like a campfire is making its way into strong whiskey drinks, we should take notice.

Full article.

Nature fuels creativity, as is clear spending time at the Banff Centre forBanff Mountain Film and Book Festival. Our brains need time to disconnect, to readjust to a more natural rhythm, one that begins with a sunrise over the peaks and an afternoon of alpenglow. One where the sound of a raging river is ever present. One where clean air is a given. One where you take in the natural world, not because you choose to go out on an afternoon hike, or take a weekend drive to the country.

Full article.

I’d never been to Texas, and it turns out, all those people that kept saying, “You’ve never been to Austin?? You’d love it!” were, in fact, quite right.

There was two stepping and fried food and cowboy boots. Lots of cowboy boots. But the main takeaway from one week in Austin was something different, and it’s all thanks to the new South By Southwest Eco conference. Three days of listening to the best and brightest on green issues and the main takeaway is that it’s all about communication; how we interact with people and engage.

If we don’t want missed opportunities, we must start with communication. Facts and figures don’t work; relationships are everything.

Well, that and cowboy boots are game changers on the dance floor. Seriously.

Sometimes you need to hit the refresh button. And so you plan a city escape.

A personal screening of 23 Feet is certainly something to be thankful for, and somehow I conned the Red Reel ladies into bringing the Airstream out to my parents’s house out in the wild hinterlands of Western Washington. That’s what I call love.

Pop up a screen, turn on the Christmas lights and lay out some blankets on the hill and you’ve got yourself an outdoor theatre.

Read the rest of this entry »

Almost a week later, and I am still in a Mountainfilm haze. It’s hard to pull all the thoughts together and come up with one coherent conclusion. But somewhere along the way, I wrote this:

Mountainfilm 2011: a whirlwind of old and new friends, inspiration, activism, blue skies, then snow, then blue skies again, and films, films and more films. It’s hard to even try to some it up. But this year the one word that sticks after the four day flurry in Telluride is “community.”

Whether it’s being reminded about the scientific reasons that we really are all connected, or thinking about the things that all of humanity can find solace in, throughout the weekend I kept thinking about the constant connections we have to the people around us and to the greater global community.

We don’t solve bigger problems on our own, we work together to find solutions. When there’s cause for celebration, we don’t rejoice alone, we rally those around us. Happiness, it turns out, is contagious. Every action we take, every emotion that we have, every choice we make, it all effects more than ourselves.

Terry Tempest Williams said something that stuck with me: “Change happens, I believe, through relationships.”

Read the rest of this entry »

The quiet of a country road. The smell of a property frequented by sheep and cows. Here in the nearly untouched landscape of rolling hills and tree canopies the sun comes out for a brief moment. We all turn towards it, trying to soak up as much as we can, knowing fully well it will disappear in minutes. Rain jackets are thrown to the ground to celebrate the brief moment of spring.

The white, fluffy clouds roll by, bringing darker, more mysterious ones in their wake. We wait for the storm and cross our fingers that it won’t be a deluge. It’s spring after all.

The thoughts that cross my mind towards the end of the week:

I need to create more.

I need to explore.

I need to write more.

I need to plan adventures.

I need to learn how to say no.

I need to remember when to say yes.

I need to be scared.

I need to just be.

21.5.800. I’m doing it.

What do all those crazy numbers mean? It’s a community project online to commit to, for 21 days, 5 days of yoga a week and 800 words of writing per day.

Here’s the deal (from Bindu Wiles):

THE WRITING: The writing can be ANYTHING. Memoir, blogs, business plans, essays, fiction, free-writing, letters,……..ANYTHING. The point is to get writing again daily and to have the boundaries and challenge of a daily word count to reach.

THE YOGA: There are several options for you to do the yoga portion of 21.5.800 5 times in 7 days. Here are the options: 1. Go to a yoga class in your ‘hood. 2. Do a yoga dvd at home. 3. Take a 20-40 minute savasana at home on the floor.

I think it’s going to be good… very good. You’ve got to commit to non-work related once in awhile, right?