Columns

In the course I’m taking this semester, IST142: Land, Water, & Stewardship, our textbook is a collection of essays from various authors called Lighting the Eighth Fire. The very first chapter raised an “a-ha!” feeling within me, another puzzle piece offering insight to western society’s disrespect of the land. Writer Susan M. Hill provides a […]

I’ve noticed that how I think of myself changes. I think this is a good thing: if we were always in the same state of mind we would never grow. That said, I can’t help but wonder how the way we think of ourselves promotes and inhibits our personal journey. As a little girl, nothing […]

One thing we hear constantly over the radio, over the news, through any type of media soundbite that crosses our rather constricted paths this past year is talk of mental health. It’s COVID fatigue—people have been walking the same lines now for a year, whether it be the arrows pointing us down which way to […]

It really grinds my gears that people are still looking to land and water protectors with the same condescending, outraged expressions as those plastered across the faces of white supremacists in the ’70s, when “Save the Trees” signs were deemed insignificant, “hippy” slogans, conjured from a hazy cloud in la-la land. Today, more than ever, […]

I am not always an easy person to deal with—either in close relationships or more casually through work, school, and other social networks. I can be argumentative (just ask my instructors), pushy (ask my family), and sometimes I think I know what other people need or want, and brazenly offer my unsolicited advice and all-knowing […]

Have you ever wondered why gender roles come to exist in society? More important question: have you ever questioned it? No? Well, then, let’s talk! So, let’s think about this for a second. What if everything we think or do does not come from rationality but is learned? In fact, we know that most things […]

It’s one thing to be an online student by choice; it’s quite another to have the situation thrust upon us, as we have in this pandemic. We went from being carefree and crowded on campus—happy as anything to shake hands with a stranger or walk arm in arm with a friend to class—to having classes […]

A new semester is upon us. This term I’ve eased my course load knowing full well that in the wintertime, I hibernate. Like so many plants and animals, each year during this season my energy wanes while my desire to recharge and reflect waxes. Flipping the calendar always elicits in me a desire to look […]

What lies beneath our addictions—what drives us to act addictively—is the key to going beyond our current limitations. Addictions are patterns: patterns of thought, patterns of emotional reaction, patterns of behaviour. Overcoming addiction—indeed, changing in any way—involves changing our patterns of thought, emotion, and behaviour. We can start at any of these “layers,” if you […]

So, it’s two weeks into the semester, and we’re just starting to get that feeling of familiarity, of “This is how things work, and I think I understand things.” We probably have a bit of a pattern established of how and when to complete our weekly readings, of how much or how little we can […]