Being cozy at home with dogs.

When family and old friends lock you into a fixed image of who you used to be, it is often a reflection of their own need for predictability and comfort rather than who you actually are today.

People anchor their memories of you to a specific stage in your life. When you evolve, your growth can subconsciously challenge their comfort zones or force them to confront their own stagnation.

Letting go of or scaling back connections based purely on shared history makes room for people who value your present reality.

Typical 30-Minute Lesson Breakdown  • Warm-up (3–5 minutes): Pool entry, shallow-water walking, shoulder submersion, and gentle movement to get comfortable and warm up the muscles. • Main Skill / Focus (15–20 minutes): Dedicated practice on the primary objective for the day (e.g., breath control, floating, or a specific stroke mechanic). • Contrasting or Drill Activity (5–7 minutes): A supportive drill, buoyancy aid (like a woggle/kickboard), or alternate movement to reinforce the main skill. • Review & Safe Exit (2–3 minutes): Practicing standing recoveries (how to stand up safely from the water) and a quick recap with the instructor.  What Content is Covered (Based on Skill Level)   For Absolute Beginners (Water Adaptation & Comfort)  • Water comfort: Standing in shallow water, submerging the face, and blowing bubbles to control exhalation. • Standing recovery: Learning how to pull your knees to your chest and plant your feet so you can stand up at any time (the #1 way to reduce fear). • Buoyancy & Floating: Front and back star floats, mushroom floats, and push-and-glides off the wall. • Basic kicking: Holding the wall or using a kickboard to practice a relaxed, surface-level kick.  For Intermediate / Stroke Refinement  • Freestyle (Crawl stroke): Body roll, head position, and rhythmic side breathing. • Backstroke: Maintaining a horizontal body position, arm recovery, and tracking a straight line on the ceiling. • Endurance & Pace: Putting lengths together with controlled rest intervals.

To read in bed is to draw around us invisible, noiseless curtains. Then at last we are in a room of our own and are ready to burrow back, back to that private life of the imagination we all led as a child and to whose secret satisfactions so many of us have mislaid the key.

― Clifton Fadiman

 

You are perfectly cast in your life. I can't imagine anyone but you in the role. Go play.

― Lin-Manuel Miranda

Anytime you write something, you go through so many phases. You go through the “I'm a Fraud' phase.” You go through the “I'll Never Finish” phase. And every once in a while you think, “What if I actually have created what I set out to create, and it's received as such?”

LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA

Many Canadians are navigating difficult relationships with family, friends, and others in their inner circle. On CHCH, mental health expert and professor Calissa Ngozi shares insight on why protecting your peace sometimes means setting firm boundaries, even when guilt is involved. The conversation explores emotional health, self-respect, and the power of choosing yourself.  Estrangement from Family: When Walking Away Is the Healthiest Choice | Calissa Ngozi on CHCH source

Artificial Intelligence, Catherine, may save the world, annihilate it, or do something in between. I don't know. But song generator platforms are, in my view, indicators of this nascent technology's demonic potential to hollow out human endeavour and sever our connection to the divine. They mock creation itself by rendering humanity unnecessary, taking the fruits of human striving and reducing them to mere products. It is, perhaps, our final, most soul-destroying humiliation.  

Nick Cave

Diwali Celebration Foods

 https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/top-10-recipes-to-celebrate-diwali

To prevent burnout when exercising daily for your mental health, you need to shift your focus from high-intensity output to sustainable movement and active recovery. When physical activity becomes a rigid or punishing obligation, it loses its psychological benefits.

Practical Strategies to Avoid Burnout

Lower the Intensity on Hard Days: You do not need to sweat buckets or push to exhaustion every single day to get the mental health benefits. Swap high-intensity workouts for low-intensity movement like a slow walk, stretching, or restorative yoga. 
Redefine "Daily Exercise" as "Movement": Daily doesn't have to mean a formal gym session or a grueling run. It can mean gardening, a brisk 15-minute walk, or light mobility work. Consistency matters far more than intensity. 
Break It Up Into Chunks: Instead of a single long block of exercise that feels like a chore when you are tired, split your movement into smaller segments (such as a 10-minute walk in the morning and a 10-minute walk later in the day).
Listen to Your Body's Warning Signs: Pushing through severe muscle soreness, persistent fatigue, dread, or emotional exhaustion turns exercise into a stressor rather than a reliever. If your body is screaming for rest, honor it. 
Ditch All-or-Nothing Thinking: Missing a day or scaling back does not ruin your mental health progress. Be flexible and kind to yourself when life gets busy or your energy dips. 
Vary Your Routine: Doing the exact same high-impact workout every day leads to mental and physical fatigue. Mix aerobic exercise with strength work, flexibility, or outdoor recreation to keep things fresh. 
Check Your Motivation: Ensure you are exercising to care for your mind rather than using it as an rigid coping dependency or punishment. 

For more guidance on keeping physical activity restorative, review the Exercise Burnout Guide or explore tips on Over-exercising and Mental Health. 

Stop waiting for others to change is the turning point where you reclaim your personal agency and emotional peace. Expecting un-self-aware or inconsiderate people to suddenly become responsible only traps you in chronic disappointment.  How to Shift Your Focus  • Accept people as they are: Realize that explaining your pain or dropping hints will not force someone to grow up if they are not ready. See the situation for what it actually is rather than what you wish it would be. • Set firm personal boundaries: Boundaries are not about controlling other people's behavior; they are clear choices about what you will and will not tolerate in your space. • Detach your peace from their accountability: You do not need an apology, an acknowledgment, or a change of heart from someone else to start healing or moving forward. • Reinvest in your own life: Redirect the mental energy waiting for others back into your own life. Counselors emphasize that true relief comes when you stop tying your well-being to external change. You cannot make someone become more considerate, more responsible, or more loving simply because you have explained your pain clearly enough. At some point, you have to decide what you will do with the situation as it actually is. Growth begins the moment we stop waiting and start taking responsibility for our own choices, emotions, and direction. We don't have to wait for a parent (or anyone else) to come to acknowledge their behavior. We can give that acknowledgement to ourselves.

Estranged means having lost former closeness, affection, or contact with someone you were once close to, such as a family member, spouse, or friend.

 I have a friend, uh, who's a writer. And he says that his writing is the antidote to the chaos of the world around him. I think, that's a good description. He retreats into that world. That becomes more important to him than the world he sees. I suppose, some people might not think that's such a great thing but he thinks it is. It's all real, it's just what you choose to establish as the core of your being. He makes the core of his life - oh, an act of imagination. Is it escape or is it liberation? I don't know. You tell me, I don't know, I have no idea, I don't know anything about these things. For him, that person, writing - is a, it's a - resolution of his life. It makes his life solid and real. Without, that the world would overwhelm him with its chaos. So is it escape to become sane? Or - or is the insanity of the world - so which is the escape? I don't know. Philip Glass

 They preferred to swallow poison than open their eyes and heart.

 

The Story of the Week

by Joshua Mehigan

Experience was nothing that day. That day was Sunday.   It was impossible to transcend the Western Tradition of Sunday. But he did not demand a better world.   This he left to the moon, the moon’s day, Monday.   Saturday he was maudlin, and may have been in love. Friday he got phone calls, but wasn’t there to answer.   Wherever he was he was not falling in love.   Thursday was bunk. The sack of his heart emptied. Wednesday was symmetry, a thimbleful of nothing.   What seemed most decisive, redemptive, was Tuesday. Suffering really meant something to him then.   Monday, last Monday, he felt sure he’d found the catch in the course of circular motion.   Sunday he did not demand a better world.

__________

From The Optimist, Ohio University Press, 2004, by JOSHUA MEHIGAN.

Waiting for someone to "grow up" usually means putting your own life, emotional well-being, or relationship milestones on hold while hoping an emotionally immature partner, family member, or friend will eventually mature.  The Reality of Waiting  • You cannot force maturity: Personal growth is an internal choice. If someone lacks the self-awareness, accountability, or desire to change, waiting months or years rarely yields a different result. • The cost to you: Time spent waiting is time you cannot get back. While you wait for someone else to step up, you often absorb chronic stress, broken promises, and unequal emotional labor. • Aging vs. growing up: Time causes people to age, but maturity requires active self-reflection, taking responsibility for mistakes, and doing the hard work to change behavior—something not everyone chooses to do.  A Healthier Approach  • Focus on current reality: Judge people by who they are right now, not by their potential or who you hope they could become. • Set firm boundaries: Decide what behaviors you will and will not accept rather than waiting for the other person to realize they need to act differently. • Choose yourself: Life is short, and your energy is better invested in relationships with people who are already emotionally available and mutually accountable.

Traumatic events can overwhelm your body and mind, leaving a lasting mark on your mood, relationship, and sense of self long after the trauma has ended. When trauma impairs your ability to develop full emotional maturity, this is known as arrested psychological development. Trauma can “freeze” your emotional response at the age you experienced it. When you feel or act emotionally younger than your actual age, this is known as age regression. Age regression means that, later in life, child-like behavior patterns can appear again when we feel unsafe or when we encounter triggers related to previous trauma — even if we’re unaware that we’ve been triggered.  “When an individual is traumatized, especially early on in life, the memory of the trauma is stored both in the brain and the body,” explains Carla Marie Manly, PhD, a clinical psychologist, trauma specialist, and author based in Sonoma, California. “As a result, if healing does not occur, the traumatic incident can impede healthy development.  “In essence, depending on the severity of the trauma, [your] entire way of being may be formed around the traumatic incident,” Manly adds.  This is because, on a neurobiological level, the trauma is not properly processed. It can rewire your brain in such a way that ultimately influences your thought patterns and behavioral responses as you get older, she says.  According to 2015 research, age regression can happen in children and adults. A small-scale 2007 study notes that regression may be more common in younger adults than older adults.  Though many therapists and counselors believe that trauma can cause age regression and leave people stuck at a certain age, few research studies are looking into its validity and usefulness in trauma therapy. source

Thursday is my Friday and Friday is my Saturday and Saturday is my Sunday and Sunday is my Monday. I like it. 

For regular swimmers, the rhythm of a session becomes an anchor for mood and mental clarity.

Skipping a swim day feels tough because routine, muscle memory, and the mental reset of the water become a powerful habit.  Why It’s So Hard to Miss a Swim  • The "Feel for the Water": Swimmers often feel a little off or restless if they go more than 48 hours without getting into the pool or open water. • Low-Impact Recovery: Swimming relieves joint pressure, loosens tight muscles (like stiff ankles from running or biking), and acts as a built-in stress reliever. • Mental Momentum: For regular swimmers, the rhythm of a session becomes an anchor for mood and mental clarity. Regular swimmers feel restless when they miss a couple of days in the water.

Bounty 

by Robyn Sarah

Make much of something small.
The pouring-out of tea,
a drying flower’s shadow on the wall
from last week’s sad bouquet.
A fact: it isn’t summer any more.

Say that December sun
is pitiless, but crystalline
and strikes like a bell.
Say it plays colours like a glockenspiel.
It shows the dust as well,

the elemental sediment
your broom has missed,
and lights each grain of sugar spilled
upon the tabletop, beside
pistachio shells, peel of a clementine.

Slippers and morning papers on the floor,
and wafts of iron heat from rumbling rads,
can this be all? No, look — here comes the cat,
with one ear inside out.
Make much of something small.

Click here for more information about Canadian writer Robyn Sarah. This poem is from A Day’s Grace, published in 2003 by The Porcupine’s Quill.