What is Nurture: A Retreat?

NURTURING

March 27th, 2017

While like-minded explorers have a rich and fertile playground to discover what Nurture is all about on this website (it's built to encourage meandering and digging and I'd like to think that a reader who gives herself the time to move from page to page may even find a secret garden or two that speaks to her soul), it was recently pointed out to me that some readers want “just the facts, ma'am.”

So, here they are. I'm (of course, naturally, hilariously) dying to elaborate, but look to the tabs at your left, or click the menu button above if you're on mobile and there's all manner of details for those of you who enjoy a good meander.

How Science helped me unstick issues that were glued for years

NURTURING

March 6th, 2017

I remember being obsessed with both dinosaurs (Stegosaurus all the way, folks) and outer space (I may have begged to be Roberta Bondar for Halloween) as a youngster and then was told science and math were needed to truly explore those passions. I moved on to theatre and music at the lightning speed of me-when-there-is-a-croissant-in-the-room (so, so fast). I stopped taking science after my mandatory grade 10 science class and played first clarinet in band class instead.

I'm that girl. 

The Slow Drizzle – lessons from honey

NURTURING

February 26th, 2017

Never one to pass up a movie meant for kids that includes sly adult references, I quite enjoyed sitting down to Zootopia with a bowl of popcorn (lots of butter & a sprinkle of alder smoked salt – yum) recently. There is a memorable scene with sloths as DMV workers who take approximately 8563 minutes between actions. It's hilarious. They're sloths. It's also excruciating.

Surprised by my physical reaction to this scene (I squirmed; I flinched; I wanted to throw pillows), I took some time to consider why.  And then it struck me – my own life lately has felt like someone hired those very sloths to work in the Department of Answers to Questions my Soul has been Asking Lately (DAQMSHBAL), while simultaneously bringing up a feeling of urgency in the lessons that have been coming up in quick succession. These lessons have been around letting go of things I thought I wanted and clearing of the old – patterns, properties, people, pilled sweaters. It's left a lot of empty space and the first instinct is to fill it. But if not with the old, the comfortable, the habitual go-tos, then what?!