If patience is a virtue, how would you describe someone who continues to come back to a blog where the author has not posted in 4 months? Here’s a reward: This is the first place I’m announcing an exciting news bit: My little NGO has signed Ed Begley Jr. as a US spokesperson! He just seems like the right kind of celeb for One Change, and I only discovered in the last couple of days that in addition to being a pioneer of environmental action, he’s also a board member of the Thoreau Society. (Anyone who was using CFL bulbs in the 70s qualifies as an environmental pioneer). If Ed…

OK. By now, nobody’s reading this. No, I’m not calling you a nobody. Thanks for dropping by! Life’s been so busy lately. Too busy. But I’m happiest when I’m writing, so I’m determined to try to tap out some thoughts and observations here. The big news is that One Change is now a charitable foundation in Canada and the US, endorsed by the UN. And we have some new celebrity help to get the word out. Stay tuned. These are all great things, but I long for the walking path to the top of the old clearcut, to be caught by surprise taking a deep lungful of mossy forest air.…

How many light bulbs does it take to change people? One Change Catalyst Awarads 2009

No, they’re not in jail. It’s the loft at Walden. The boys love it when I shut off all the lights and get the candles of the chandelier going. It’s amazing how bright it seems with 6 candles burning in a small cabin miles from any street lights or city light pollution. Every summer at the cabin I have to spend at least one evening on my back on the dew-soaked lawn, staring out at the stars. Even emerging from a candle-lit cabin, it takes about ten minutes for the eyes to adjust to the dark. I’m not there so much for the finer detail, but the macro feeling. Sure,…

I love this photo. The energy and hope in the flag. The joy on Jasper’s face. Me not quite believing that this is my son, at my place. That was before it was “ours.” It’s June 2001. The leaves are just coming out, but the grass has had a few weeks to get ahead of us. Jasper was making his first day trip to Walden. He was only just over a year old, but really ten months because back then we were still talking about “corrected age” to account for his 3 months prematurity. We were in PEI for a family holiday, but also because it was becoming evident that…

I ran 14k yesterday. It’s the first time I’ve gone that far in one day, and it felt great. I started and ended at the Agriculture Museum of the Experimental Farm in Ottawa, running along the Rideau Canal and over Hartwell locks to Hogs Back and on to Mooney’s Bay. The Agriculture Museum was packed with kids, including my own, who were there with Suzy and one of Suzy’s best friends Michelle and her two girls for egg hunts, bunnies and newborn chicks. It was madness there, but people were smiling despite a sharp spring breeze. The sun was shining. And there seemed to be an air of giddy discovery…

I type with three fingers of my right hand, and two of my left, plus one thumb for the space bar. I’m fast but not efficient. And if someone’s watching I just can’t type. Only recently did I realize that the space bar had nothing to do with outer space, but the space between words. Computers are so amazing. Space age. Eight years ago this month I had a burger with my dad at the DQ on Bank Street in Ottawa South. I was there again tonight having strawberry sundaes with Suzy and my boys. The decor is exactly the same, but dad died just five months after we were…

Let’s see. Where to start. A secret: I don’t think about what I write here before I start to type. A confession: I hate my hair. Tomorrow my experiment with “growing it out” comes to a swift end. A promise: I will add the screen room on the front of the cottage this year. It’s a crime that grey hair has a different consistency to it. I’m quickly losing my flowing nutty brown to kinky wacko grey. Here’s a freebie for you inventor-types: Come up with an electric razor attachment that cuts only hair that’s wiry and grey and you’ll be rich. Somebody ought to do it and it can’t…

I’m disappointed tonight, but I shouldn’t be. Today I found out that I was not picked for an international fellowship that I’d been nominated for last December. I won’t be going to Yale University after all. It was a long shot anyway. But I had stellar letters of reference. A Premier, CEOs, gurus, etc. I have to admit that I had my hopes up there and was told I was a strong candidate. But there was one spot for someone from North America in a group of 18 representing the planet, so the competition was tough. Next year. The thing is, the program was only four months and anyone who…

In case you’re ripe for another random strawberry sighting (see below), you may be interested to know that Kellogg’s is running a new contest: Spot the Strawberry. The prize for the contest, which was run on YTV and closed March 23, was a bicycle helmet. I was just in London, after a few days in Oxford. Yes. Well then. Indeed. One thing the British take seriously is a good hot drink. Perhaps the Prime Minister can get the ball rolling this week in talks with other G20 leaders by insisting that they drink from the same tea pot. After all, a few years ago it was reported that if the…

I flew into San Antonio this evening as the sun was setting. It’s my first time in Texas. The sun was hot on the airplane window and the city was shrouded in haze. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever been happy to see summer-ish smog. Sure enough, it was as warm outside as in, and the air was thick with humidity and Spanish. I hopped in a cab and within a few minutes we crested a gentle rise from the flatlands of the airport and the skyline came into view: Lots of big buildings and a tower ringed with light bulbs. Yellow, incandescent light bulbs. My work is…

I get nervous climbing up a ladder to clean the eaves trough on the first floor of my 1.5 storey house. So, faced with the opportunity to change the bulbs on the Calgary Tower, how could I refuse the chance to get over this base fear? It really wasn’t so bad. The worst part was climbing the ladder and getting across the threshold of a little window that led to the catwalk along the rim of the tower. Oh, and the wind. And the ice on the catwalk. OK, it was very uncomfortable. But 210 bulbs are changed and there’s no way people in Calgary can miss noticing the Tower…

Forty-one is fine. My mother called this morning from a beach in Portugal with birthday wishes. She caught me in the middle of a scramble — getting the kids ready for school after sleeping in too late because I got home last night at 11:30PM from a whirlwind trip to Pennsylvania and back (12 hours of travel for a 45 minute meeting — and I’m an “energy conservation” consultant … ). Life’s a beach for the grandparents, but I still wouldn’t trade places with them. I have to say that at 41 years old I’m happier and healthier than I have ever been. I’ve had enough tragedy in my life…

Joanne writes from Vancouver: “on my run this morning, I saw a strawberry with a bite out of it sitting on the sidewalk…at the corner of 10th and Ontario, no less…I almost fell flat on my face in surprise….” Living is easy with eyes closed Misunderstanding all you see It’s getting hard to be someone, but it all works out It doesn’t matter much to me Let me take you down, cause I’m going to Strawberry Fields …

News flash: There’s something afoot. You won’t read about this in the papers, or even in the alternative media, but it appears that someone in Ottawa is walking around eating fruit salad carelessly. The woman sitting next to me on the flight from Ottawa to Calgary yesterday told me she too saw a strawberry on the sidewalk, but it was in a different part of town. (See yesterday’s post, below). I can’t remember the last time I felt so honestly shocked. Someone is trying to change the world one berry at a time. Her name was Catherine, a wisp of a woman of about 50 with short cropped hair and…