0°Recent Blog Posts - Urbane Adventurer
communion
It used to be that I could run up a mountain. I made mountains out of prairie hills, running up those 200 perfect wooden steps over and over from the river valley to the plateau and back. Ran until my thighs burned, my calves ached. I ran up and paused at the top, my line… Read More
Published at Urbane Adventurer
It used to be that I could run up a mountain. I made mountains out of prairie hills, running up those 200 perfect wooden steps over and over from the river valley to the plateau and back. Ran until my thighs burned, my calves ached. I ran up and paused at the top, my line… Read More
Published at Urbane Adventurer
spoiler alert
I’ve wanted to draw out this joke since a car with a giant spoiler drove by my house a little while ago.
Published at Urbane Adventurer
I’ve wanted to draw out this joke since a car with a giant spoiler drove by my house a little while ago.
Published at Urbane Adventurer
trust
whatever it is that you planted in all those nights walking in the moonlight trust that this quiet as they hush into the earth is the quiet of revolution that the roots are gathering all their courage and strength and that they hold gratitude for you – z. todd
Published at Urbane Adventurer
whatever it is that you planted in all those nights walking in the moonlight trust that this quiet as they hush into the earth is the quiet of revolution that the roots are gathering all their courage and strength and that they hold gratitude for you – z. todd
Published at Urbane Adventurer
tiny hope
There was a time, long ago, when I listened to this song on repeat while doing dishes, staring out at grasses and hummocks and hills as snow melted in piercing bright northern sun. And it reduced me to whole-body-heaving tears. When you’re just on the edge of a deep, great loss, art or musi...
Published at Urbane Adventurer
There was a time, long ago, when I listened to this song on repeat while doing dishes, staring out at grasses and hummocks and hills as snow melted in piercing bright northern sun. And it reduced me to whole-body-heaving tears. When you’re just on the edge of a deep, great loss, art or musi...
Published at Urbane Adventurer
tidal
I am learning the rhythms of the tide as it inches and sweeps its way through concrete barriers, eases past columns and pours itself through wooden piles. At first, I am at a loss, here, where the coast is sectioned and partitioned and portioned in industrial fencing. If not for the stretch of na...
Published at Urbane Adventurer
I am learning the rhythms of the tide as it inches and sweeps its way through concrete barriers, eases past columns and pours itself through wooden piles. At first, I am at a loss, here, where the coast is sectioned and partitioned and portioned in industrial fencing. If not for the stretch of na...
Published at Urbane Adventurer
awake
CW: sexual assault, PTSD On a dark prairie night in 2003, my rapist leaned over the side of the bed in the long since redeveloped Rosslyn Hotel and he poured me a rum and coke out of sight (or was it Pepsi? or was it another motel? Brains have ways of protecting you from the… Read More
Published at Urbane Adventurer
CW: sexual assault, PTSD On a dark prairie night in 2003, my rapist leaned over the side of the bed in the long since redeveloped Rosslyn Hotel and he poured me a rum and coke out of sight (or was it Pepsi? or was it another motel? Brains have ways of protecting you from the… Read More
Published at Urbane Adventurer
swallow
CW: discusses sexual assault, trauma, recovery —— Damage comes in threes. Or fours, fives, tens. Damage comes with sickly sweet smiles, knocking on your door. “Can I inquire about how you are traveling?”. Slam that door closed. It is a bright, sunny Mother’s day, and...
Published at Urbane Adventurer
CW: discusses sexual assault, trauma, recovery —— Damage comes in threes. Or fours, fives, tens. Damage comes with sickly sweet smiles, knocking on your door. “Can I inquire about how you are traveling?”. Slam that door closed. It is a bright, sunny Mother’s day, and...
Published at Urbane Adventurer
water
As I lay in bed last night, after being awoken by nightmares, I reflected on what it is like to inhabit this body in this moment. I am an empath, or a highly sensitive person, or whatever terminology you choose to apply to people whose main mode of being in the world is to feel. I feel everythin...
Published at Urbane Adventurer
As I lay in bed last night, after being awoken by nightmares, I reflected on what it is like to inhabit this body in this moment. I am an empath, or a highly sensitive person, or whatever terminology you choose to apply to people whose main mode of being in the world is to feel. I feel everythin...
Published at Urbane Adventurer
benediction
stones piled haphazardly atop of one another, melding into rolling green hills. A cold wind cuts across these landscapes folding into one another. This place so compact it could fit into my home continent dozens of times over. inception. This is no conception, this place. Conception implies conse...
Published at Urbane Adventurer
stones piled haphazardly atop of one another, melding into rolling green hills. A cold wind cuts across these landscapes folding into one another. This place so compact it could fit into my home continent dozens of times over. inception. This is no conception, this place. Conception implies conse...
Published at Urbane Adventurer
Indigenizing Canadian academia and the insidious problem of white possessiveness
There’s a reason I’ve shifted from supporting Indigenization of Canadian Universities to decolonization. The former has been mobilized by universities themselves as a response to the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Executive Summary, which included 94 Calls To Action,...
Published at Urbane Adventurer
There’s a reason I’ve shifted from supporting Indigenization of Canadian Universities to decolonization. The former has been mobilized by universities themselves as a response to the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Executive Summary, which included 94 Calls To Action,...
Published at Urbane Adventurer
summon
My body is an archive. Mysterious forces are eating away at my optic nerves, but we know there is no mystery to this. My body is a perfect, faithful reflection and refraction of everything it encounters. My body is the soft flesh that falls off of bones like boiled oxtails. I chop up the onions&#...
Published at Urbane Adventurer
My body is an archive. Mysterious forces are eating away at my optic nerves, but we know there is no mystery to this. My body is a perfect, faithful reflection and refraction of everything it encounters. My body is the soft flesh that falls off of bones like boiled oxtails. I chop up the onions&#...
Published at Urbane Adventurer
Extractive Media and Indigenous grief
1. CBC called me yesterday at 710 AM (I’d just woken up) & asked me to comment on Cormier verdict. I agreed, tho kind of off-put by the time. We spoke for 14 mins. I was then asked if I’d be available to speak to host of morning show. I said yes,but again, off-put by… Read More
Published at Urbane Adventurer
1. CBC called me yesterday at 710 AM (I’d just woken up) & asked me to comment on Cormier verdict. I agreed, tho kind of off-put by the time. We spoke for 14 mins. I was then asked if I’d be available to speak to host of morning show. I said yes,but again, off-put by… Read More
Published at Urbane Adventurer
movement
I’ve left pieces of myself all over the northern hemisphere. Cells shed, tears flowing. Little pieces of my heart tucked under highland rocks and nestled in with the lichen on trembling birch and aspen. Small incantations, like pebbles, dropped in clear cold waters up mountainsides and off ...
Published at Urbane Adventurer
I’ve left pieces of myself all over the northern hemisphere. Cells shed, tears flowing. Little pieces of my heart tucked under highland rocks and nestled in with the lichen on trembling birch and aspen. Small incantations, like pebbles, dropped in clear cold waters up mountainsides and off ...
Published at Urbane Adventurer
A note to tenured faculty*
*and by tenured here, I mean the majority of the canadian professoriate, who, according to this 2012 article by Peter S. Li (shared with me by Dr. Malinda S. Smith), are overwhelmingly white. As Dr. Li demonstrates in his article, according to 2006 Canadian census data, 85% of the Canadian profes...
Published at Urbane Adventurer
*and by tenured here, I mean the majority of the canadian professoriate, who, according to this 2012 article by Peter S. Li (shared with me by Dr. Malinda S. Smith), are overwhelmingly white. As Dr. Li demonstrates in his article, according to 2006 Canadian census data, 85% of the Canadian profes...
Published at Urbane Adventurer
trust
I like living in tender proximity to others. I like the comfort of stews and sauces cooking in the apartments below. I like the warmth of a well-kept vestibule, coming in and knowing this little home is safe. I like room to breathe. I am not ambitious in affairs of the heart. I am grateful…...
Published at Urbane Adventurer
I like living in tender proximity to others. I like the comfort of stews and sauces cooking in the apartments below. I like the warmth of a well-kept vestibule, coming in and knowing this little home is safe. I like room to breathe. I am not ambitious in affairs of the heart. I am grateful…...
Published at Urbane Adventurer
