A Long Winter’s Night – A Song of Winter

| December 25, 2012

There’s a dark, joyful lustiness to this time of year that, for Mrs. LFM and me, begins as September yields the field to October, and doesn’t really end until the glorious din of another Spring supplants it. Here’s our gift of the day to you all. A Song of Winter By LFM The equinox of […]

Worldly Wisdom Wednesday – Missed Points

| December 19, 2012

I ask why the definition of a good dog is often, “You can do anything to him.” That wouldn’t make any sense if phrased in terms of other relationships: “I have a really good wife. You can do anything to her.” Creepy! ~ Madeline Clark Gabriel The quotation above came from an excellent article titled […]

Worldly Wisdom Wednesday – Lost Knowledge

| December 12, 2012

The words “lost knowledge” conjure imaginings of arcane wisdom once known in antiquity, but that has disappeared from the ken of Man leaving the world a lesser place. Regrettably, this is not the case because, more often than not, knowledge isn’t so much lost as misplaced, and each year more time is spent by researchers […]

Worldly Wisdom Wednesday – The Positive Side of Conflict

| December 5, 2012

The strongest emotion I remember from every one of those trips was the overpowering sense of freedom that came over me the moment I felt my canoe leave the shore at the start. At that instant, nothing back in the so called “civilized” world mattered. Only the real things mattered, and if you’ve ever experienced […]

Worldly Wisdom Wednesday – Convergence

| November 28, 2012

If you want to be a musician, but the only time you play your instrument, or even think about it, is during your half-hour weekly lesson, you’ll never become a musician.   You have to think about it all the time. Eat it, breathe it, dream it. You practice constantly, even when you have no instrument […]

Worldly Wisdom Wednesday – Nature’s Rules?

| November 21, 2012

Early in the present century, while Mrs. LFM was finishing her last year of University, we rented an apartment in Halifax near the Dalhousie campus. In the neighbourhood lived a woman who was regularly encountered walking her Dog, off lead, on sidewalks that lay adjacent to busy city streets. The Dog never strayed from being […]

Worldly Wisdom Wednesday – On Being Whole

| November 14, 2012

Unless you embrace a system of belief that has convinced you otherwise, you will know, or at least suspect, that human existence is made up of three critical components – Mind, Body, and Spirit. Spirit is not the same as soul. I learned this long ago from Dogs, and other fellow creatures that were not […]

Worldly Wisdom Wednesday – Death and the Modern Warrior

| November 7, 2012

Earlier this year, on the subject of The Book of Five Rings – The Definitive Interpretation of Musashi’s Classic Book by Stephen F. Kaufman, I wrote – Musashi was perhaps the greatest swordsman who ever lived, and yet it would be a mistake to approach the Book of Five Rings as a guide to learning […]

Advice You Can Sleep On

| November 7, 2012

In addition to the immortal maxim that you must never knowingly sleep with anyone crazier than you are, there’s this to consider. Bed Time By LFM Neither a fight nor a conscience belong in your bed. Ask forgiveness instead of permissions. Eschew deep discussions too near to lights out, And avoid all nocturnal admissions.

Victims

| November 1, 2012

As part of my professional life, I spent 17 years operating and working in the emergency services dispatch centre in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. I designed it, set it up, wrote the policies and procedures manual, personally selected and trained every person who ever worked there, and by the time I was finally able to get […]