Everyday Rituals & Celebrations It is so wonderful to experience the fecundity of the flower and vegetable gardens. My only regret is having to weed out the sweet green plants that are passionately expressing themselves between the lettuce and arugula, and among the flowering perennials. Here are these plants, full of hope and expectation, and […]

This year I did not consciously decide to do my traditional spring cleanse. Instead, it seems that my body began the process on its own, while I was busy thinking about other things. You know that moment when you realize you must have invisible handlers who get you to the right place at the right […]

User Friendly Summer First Aid Remedies A few years ago I was sitting next to a mother and her young boy on a bus trip to New York City. Shortly after departure the boy started to cry, holding his tummy and clinging to mom. His mother was apologetic, explaining that the boy suffers from motion […]

One day several years ago, I was admiring the fresh fruit at our local farmers' market.  There were these odd looking cherries that caught my eye.  They weren’t the large dark sweet cherries I’d grown used to; they were small, and sort of translucent pale red.  And they weren’t firm, they were squishy. The farmer […]

During my years of homeopathic practice I have heard many patients complain about experiencing numbness in some form, although in most cases numbness was not the primary reason for their visit to my office. Rather, it was revealed during my inquiries about their sleep, exertion, joint health, or some other bodily function. While most people […]

“The first thing I felt was tingling and itching on the left side of my scalp. I then discovered a blister when I looked in the mirror. Luckily I was able to cover this thing with my hair. I tried not to scratch it and put some lotion to soothe the itch. I went to […]

Already the sun is rising late. After 7:30 where I live, and it is going fast. Thankfully the dawn arrives well before the sun pokes through the trees on the horizon. At least an hour before the sun rises, there is a paling of the eastern sky. A thin band of the faintest light gives […]

I first travelled through the Wolf Lake area more than 30 years ago. We travelled by canoe, paddling and portaging through clear lakes and cool forests. We travelled upstream along the Chiniguchi River, carrying our canoe and gear along a steep and narrow portage that has been in use for the past 6,000 years. The […]

Spring flowers are in full bloom, much to my surprise. It seemed that the forest floor was brown as ever, until I noticed the violets blooming beneath my feet. Pretty little clusters of purple flowers emerged from last year’s fallen leaves. The best part of spring has arrived! Wild violets come in shades of white, […]

After the shortest winter ever, I find myself looking out at a landscape without snow. I’m torn between the sadness of losing the ice from the lake too soon, the fear that there will be a freak snowstorm in May, the hope for a gentle transition into summer, and the desire for fresh greens from […]

This is the warmest winter ever. I’ve become so used to temperatures hovering around the freezing point that it seems really cold on those few days when the temperature is 'normal'. Snowfall was moderate around the lake until the early days of March. Unlike southern Ontario, up north we still have plenty of snow to […]

February is a most wonderful month. Because of the LIGHT! Gone are the dark days of November and December. It is colder, yes. Minus 31ºC at my house sometimes, but brighter than those grey days of late autumn. At long last, the SUN returns! At six in the morning there are already hints of daybreak […]

What extraordinary times we live in, ‘time’ being the operative word here. This summer the energies have been intense, fluctuating between highly charged and periods of inertia. In the highly charged periods I am so full of love for humanity, and the blue of the sky, I will burst; then I am filled with tears […]

An Experiential Methodology By being born into our family, we not only inherit genes and physical traits, but also belief systems, behaviour patterns, thoughts and conscious and unconscious dynamics that affect us in our daily lives. Family Constellations are fascinating experiential therapeutic interventions that bring these dynamics to light, and provide a deep insight into […]

Kyle’s parents were disturbed by their son’s behaviour at school. The 11-year-old was often in trouble for pulling other students’ hair, then laughing about it. It started happening sporadically when Kyle was nine, but escalated in frequency and severity over time. Around the time of the onset of this behaviour, Kyle was diagnosed with ADHD […]

Here we are, barely a week into spring, snow still lies heavily in the forest, why in the world would I be writing about blackflies? It is because of bananas. Blackflies love bananas. Blackflies especially like to sip the blood of people who eat bananas. And it takes six weeks for all residue of bananas […]