Trauma-Skilled Workshop: Understanding, Healing, and Empowering

September 19, 2024

8fa409_27a912bb4eb74fa3a0000f47912a4762~mv2.jpg — Karen Wallace

DICES is honored to support this upcoming workshop with local art therapist, counselor, author and educator, Karen Wallace.

Fee: $50 – $75 Sliding Scale

Seats: 25

Dates/Times: Friday October 4, 6:00 – 8:30 pm and Saturday October 5 10:00 am – 3:00 pm

Location: Back Hall in the Denman Island Community Hall

The Trauma-Skilled Workshop aims to provide participants with comprehensive knowledge to begin to recognize, respond to, and support individuals affected by trauma. This workshop is designed to empower attendees with the necessary tools to start to create spaces that promote healing, resilience, and growth. The Trauma-Skilled Workshop offers participants a transformative learning experience aimed at deepening their understanding of trauma and cultivating empathy and resilience. By integrating trauma-informed principles into their personal and professional lives, attendees can contribute to creating safer, more supportive communities where healing and empowerment thrive. This is the first workshop to start our journey towards building a Trauma-Skilled organization.

Objectives:

1. To educate participants about the various types and effects of trauma.

2. To explore the principles and framework of trauma-informed care.

3. To equip attendees with practical strategies for creating trauma-sensitive environments.

4. To foster empathy and understanding towards individuals who have experienced trauma.

Workshop Facilitator: Karen Wallace

website: karen-wallace-therapy.com

“I am Karen Wallace, a multifaceted professional deeply entrenched in the realms of art therapy, artistic expression, and education. With a rich background spanning diverse roles, I initially served as an Art Therapist within Victoria BC’s school system, aiding individuals grappling with mental and emotional challenges, as well as those with special needs. In 2004, the trajectory of my journey led me to Saskatchewan, establishing a private practice in Regina. I extend therapeutic support to both adults and children while also sharing my expertise as an educator at the University of Regina and WHEAT Winnipeg Expressive Art Therapy.

My passion for fostering creativity and healing extends beyond traditional settings. Through a

spectrum of art therapy groups, including transformative sessions like The Archetypal Journey,

Learning to Love the Body You Have, Claiming Your Ruby Red Slippers, Soul Garden, and

Honoring the Mother, I empower individuals to explore their inner worlds through Internal

Family Systems and artistic expression. My commitment to spreading the benefits of art therapy transcends borders, as I have taught Focusing and Focused Centered Art Therapy on an international scale. I am also the author of two impactful books: Trauma Informed Teaching through Play Art Narrative and We Don’t Have to Talk About This; Poetic Inquiry from the Art Therapy Studio, which offer profound insights into the therapeutic potential of creative expression. I have taught Trauma Informed Education to many schools and organizations based on my book co authored with my partner, Patrick Lewis. I am a clinical supervisor and consultant for Shibogama First Nations, Bridges for Women and I supervise many counselors and therapists across Canada.”

To register for this workshop, please email Miki at dices.communityprograms@gmail.com or call 250-335-2058

Green Wizardries: Autumn Equinox

September 19, 2024

Green Wiardries, Autumn Equinox by Maxine Rogers

The Autumn Equinox falls on September 22 this year. It is a time of perfect balance so enjoy it in these unbalanced times. I don’t know about you, but I was both pleased and surprised that NATO did not yet decide to start the Third World War by lobbing their missiles into Saint Petersburg and Moscow. I agree that both sides in the Russian-Ukrainian special military action are at fault but I fail to see how a war that would engulf us all would bring about peace at any price worth having.

The Autumn Equinox is all about the harvest. What worked well this year and what failed? The apple harvest is a bit scanty this year. Once our apples are picked, I will concentrate on getting compost, lime and bone meal spread under the fruit trees. This is very important, particularly for the fig trees which will not bear well without a heavy dressing of lime and bone meal in the autumn.

Our other harvests of this year are also to be considered. Have we been meticulous in our spiritual practice? Have we been kind to friends and the animals in our lives? Looking back on the year behind us, what would we most like to change about ourselves, our relationships, our communities?

The 22 will be a day of equal day and night, after which, every day we slip deeper into the dark and quiet of winter. Farmers love the winter which is our leisure time. This was traditionally a time to pursue crafts such as basket making, carving, spinning and knitting. These were things you could do indoors by the warmth and light of a fire when it was too dark to work outside.

The dark and quiet of winter is a time I look forward to for the greater opportunities this brings for reflection. This early autumn is a great time to prepare the garden for next year’s growing season. Beds should be weeded, limed and mulched to protect and enrich the precious soil.

A heavy layer of mulch keeps the soil warmer, protecting it and its inhabitants from frost. The layer of mulch provides food to the soil organisms and protects the soil from damage from the driving rain. Really weedy areas will benefit from a clipping, a layer of compost, a layer of cardboard or six sheets deep of newspapers and then some more mulch on top to prevent the paper blowing away. By the time spring comes, the cardboard or paper has disintegrated and the weeds are mostly dead except for the buttercup. The soil will be so loose and crumbly that the buttercups will be easy to pull out.

Mantras are to the human mind what mulch is to the garden. Mantras function as a protective and nourishing layer for the brain. How often have you known a person who indulged in harmful self talk such as saying, “I can’t cope,” only to believe it and not be able to cope? “I can’t cope,” is a mantra but it is negative. Forming a better mantra can change how we perceive events and make us better able to give things a try, believing that we can goes a long way to succeeding no matter what issue is at hand.

Mantras work best when they are simple, declarative statements of a positive nature. One of my mantras is, “I am serene and tranquil.” Now everyone who knows me will tell you this is a bald-faced lie. That is the point! But, by telling myself this mantra, I have become much more serene and tranquil.

I was trying to help a friend pick a mantra and explained the rules that the mantra should be short, and declare what you want to become. It must be phrased as a simple declarative sentence. She kept getting it wrong. One of her proposals was, “I pursue happiness.” That won’t work because it will have you endlessly pursuing something you cannot catch up to. A better mantra might be, “I am happy.”

One thing that makes most people happy is a good feast with friends to celebrate the season. We will be having some friends and family over and we will serve them roasted squash soup, hot kale salad with fried walnuts and balsamic vinegar, a roasted chicken on Yukon Gold potatoes, parsnips, carrots, red onions and garlic, all from our farm. For the dessert, I plan on making an apple cake as the apple harvest is the keynote of the season. We will be serving small glasses of the new apple wine which will still be fermenting and very sweet and bubbly.

The final act of the festival will be to light a fire and do the ritual of fire bathing by jumping over the flames. It is also the custom to write down the things you no longer want in your life and feed the paper into the bonfire while making a short prayer to your guardian angel to help you release what no longer serves you. I wish everyone who reads this a very happy and productive Autumn Equinox.

Beaufort Watershed Stewards

September 19, 2024

Beaufort Watershed Stewards

We recently met with Bruce Gibbons, the founder of the Merville Water Guardians. Many of you know him from his opposition to a bottling plant in Merville. He has taken his campaign to the Comox Valley Regional District, the Union of BC Municipalities, and government officials in numerous provincial ministries. He’s recently taken aim at the Natural Glacial Waters (NGW) bottling plant on Berray Rd, right here in our neighbourhood.

NGW has been bottling water on Berray Rd since the nineties. After enactment of the Water Sustainability Act (WSA) in 2016, they applied for an Existing Use Ground Water license which would allow them to extract five million litres of water per day. Almost all of the water they extract is destined for export to Asian markets, packaged in 500 ml plastic bottles. This takes advantage of a huge loophole in the Water Protection Act (WPA). The WPA prohibits export of water in containers greater than 20 litres but doesn’t address export in smaller containers. If granted, the license would be for thirty years. (Although the WSA does allow for a license period of only a year.)

Mr. Gibbons has asked BWS to join him in opposing NGW’s water license application. Of course, we are opposed to commodifying our water. But BWS is first and foremost a science-based organization. Can we show that pulling this much water out of circulation will affect flows for fish migration? Can we show that reducing the amount of fresh water entering the bay will have an effect on the salinity? And possibly affect the oyster growing operations? Can we show that local domestic wells won’t be affected?

BWS, and others, have done a lot of work towards answering these questions but we’ve only scratched the surface. The aquifer boundaries in the Rosewall Creek area are largely derived from surficial geology. That is, geologists have looked at surface features and made educated assumptions about what lies below. As mentioned in previous articles, we have collaborated with the University of Victoria – Environmental Earth and Ocean Sciences using geophysical Vertical Electric Soundings (VES) to better define subsurface structures and aquifer distribution in our area. Put simply, this technique can help confirm the geologists’ educated assumptions, or uncover surprises that need more exploration. We have done several VES in the Rosewall Creek area.

We have also worked with the Province and the BC Conservation Foundation to measure stream flows in nearby creeks. For a time, before the gauging station was washed out, we helped with flow measurement on Rosewall Creek itself. Our colleagues at Fanny Bay Salmonid Enhancement Society also helped gather data on Rosewall Creek prior to our involvement.

So, can we show that this license represents a threat to a local aquifer? At this time, we cannot. But neither can we show that it ISN’T a threat. In the end, we decided it is our LACK of scientific data that is most important. We are sending a letter to Josie Osborne, our MLA, stating our opposition to this license. Not because of what we know, but because of what we don’t know.

To read the letter we are sending to Josie Osborne, or to download a letter template you can use to write your own letter, go to our website, www.beaufortwater.org.

Mike Mesford

Director.tech@beaufortwater.org

250.702.5900

Letter to the Editor – Joy Lacey

September 19, 2024

Who the f*ck is Caitlin Johnstone and why is person always in your paper with their preaching? I was of the understanding that The Grapevine’s intent is to cover local issues and local people. Is this person local?

Locally, on the topic of “the revolution”, myself and others are here on Denman doing it; growing food, building natural homes, supporting local suppliers and tightening up the community for survival. Not ranting and arguing about gov/corp control does not mean we are sheep who love the status quo. We see it; we expected it; we’re here stepping up for our families and our community while staying as happy and calm as possible. It’s not like gov/corp control is a new thing. Life has been this way for at least 2000 years.

The sheep are the people who are being led into the bitter divisions that gov/corp is setting up right now.

Joy Lacey

Denman Island BC

Editor’s Note: TIG has never stated an intent to exclude non local stories, nor non local writers.

Shucking Oysters: Be Cool, Stay Chill

September 19, 2024

Shucking Oysters: Be Cool, Stay Chill

By Alex Allen

We just bought a new refrigerator last week. The old one, sadly, was getting incontinent. We were lucky; it was manufactured in the early eighties and has been in our kitchen for well over 10 years. Classic, two-door model with light blue plastic panels; the only fridge on Hornby without a fridge magnet. The end of an era.

Hanging on the back of our new (now unwrapped) cobalt silver fridge, is this official Government of Canada Energuide tag, letting us know that we have an energy-efficient appliance. And in little tiny print: “Removal of this label before first retail purchase is an offence (SC 1992, c. 36)” as per the Energy Efficiency Act. No tampering with the label. Ever.

Under the Act, an inspector may seize and detain “any energy-using product or other thing” and “no person shall remove, alter or interfere with a thing seized and detained…but an inspector shall, at the request of the owner of the thing or the person who was in possession of it at the time of the seizure, allow that owner or person or any person authorized by that owner or person to examine the thing.” Say what? If you have the wrong thing, you can be fined up to $200,000. This thing is more than a thing, that’s why I put the Energuide tag underneath the mattress.

Stocking the new fridge was a breeze. What a difference. The look, the feel. In the old fridge, the dark produce drawers were the bane of our existence. Constantly bags and bags of compost treasures. Unidentified edible objects. Was this the zucchini that the neighbours gave us a month ago? Or the cucumber from what’s-his-name? Lettuce is the worst. And carrots. Now, we have see-through drawers with humidity controls. I didn’t know that leafy-green vegetables, like lettuce, broccoli and peppers, need a high humidity setting. And fruits and vegetables, like apples, pears, and avocados, should be stored at a low humidity setting. Well, we’ll see how that all plays out.

And then. Drum roll, please. After about an hour or so plugged in, my partner asks me whether I can hear a high-pitched sound from the new fridge. Please, dear, gawd, no. She then informs me that she will go insane if she has to listen to the buzz 24-7. I’m not so sensitive. Sure, I can hear the buzz, but I also suffer from daily intermittent humming in my ears, which sounds like the high/low up and down hum of a distant fog horn. (I have issues with noise from chainsaws, weed whackers, and helicopters.)

Maybe the fridge needs to settle, I wonder out loud. Was it our driveway? Is that what new refrigerators sound like? How would we know? We were stuck in the eighties. Ever diligent, I went on the computer and typed in “high-pitched noise from new Insignia fridge.” I ominously read a string of complaints. I said to my partner, you think the high-pitched noise is irritating, check this out.

Lisa wrote: “We also have a problematic sound with our fridge. Like the other commentator it sounds exactly like animals moaning or groaning. We ‘joke’ that our fridge is possessed. It is a very unpleasant sound, not faint, and not one we could live with. We just bought this fridge new.”

Kim replied: “Ha ha! At least I can now laugh at my new refrigerator. Mine sounds like a newborn calf calling for its mamma. I actually went outside earlier today expecting to see a cow in front of my house that had escaped from a nearby field. I was surprised to discover the source of the sound was my refrigerator. I just got it today, and I hope the sound is temporary.”

Another shared: “Mine also makes wounded animal in the night noises. At first it made me laugh because it sounds like an upset Star Wars character, but because it does contain a level of discomfort to its call, it turns out to be one of those noises, like a crying baby or a whimpering pup, that you biologically cannot ignore. So since I will never get used to this noise, I will go through the hassle of taking back this fridge.”

Please dear, gawd, no. Now, bloody what? Let’s give it a day. In bed that night, I tossed and turned, waiting for the plaintive cries of a cow stuck in our kitchen. It’s been over 24 hours now and the fridge has, thankfully, not morphed into making any primal sounds…yet. Many years ago in university, I had a fridge that used to squeal every couple of hours, but in a pleasurable way, which was both amusing and distracting.

During my research, I did discover that refrigerators have quite the vocal range. A brand new fridge can make over 17 different sounds in four dialects, even when all is normal, from a hum and a buzz to a squeal and a gurgle. So, I’m not going to fret over the baby owl that has taken residence in our fridge…everything is chill.

NATO- Not a Tenable Option (Part 3)

September 19, 2024

NATO- Not a Tenable Option (Part 3) Sally Campbell

NATO billed itself as a defender of democracy from the start, with its 12 initial members (including Canada) all democracies, despite 1/3 of them still holding onto their colonies in Africa. Members were very concerned about the communist & socialist movements that helped defeat the Nazis, and a dive into the practices of NATO in Europe in the 50’s reveals the same kind of spying, subterfuge and demonization of socialists & communists as went on during the McCarthy era in the US.

NATO itself is not democratic. Its decisions are all made behind closed doors, with no recorded votes. It is outside the structure of the UN, there are no public referenda and no avenues for input into NATO decisions. NATO is in breach of its own Charter, the UN Charter, the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The US now has nuclear weapons in 5 EU countries (NATO: What you Need to Know @ 102).

There is so much to say about NATO that I was really having trouble deciding where to focus for this week’s article. Then Canadian Foreign Policy Institute sent a link to this Petition, which says it a lot better than I can.

e-4979

Petition to the House of Commons

Whereas:

Canada was a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949 and has participated in every NATO intervention;
NATO has failed to uphold Article 1 of its charter “to settle any international dispute in which they may be involved by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security are not endangered”;
NATO launched illegal interventions against Yugoslavia in 1999, Afghanistan in 2001, and Libya in 2011 that have caused mass civilian deaths and destruction of infrastructure with no accountability;
According to the NATO Defence Expenditures report, Canada’s military spending has increased from $20 billion in 2014 to $39 billion in 2023, which has diverted funding away from social programs and climate action;
Throughout the year, NATO engages in exercises and operations, which involve thousands of soldiers and vehicles that adversely impact the climate and environment;
NATO relies on a dangerous deterrence doctrine, which risks the use of nuclear weapons;
Canada has refused to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons because of NATO;
Canada is leading NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence, a battlegroup, in Latvia and escalating conflict with Russia; and
NATO is a U.S.-dominated military alliance that impedes Canada’s sovereignty over our defence policy and civilian control of our military.

We, the undersigned, residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to, call upon the House of Commons to:

Withdraw from NATO;
Remove Canadian troops from Latvia;
Reduce military spending; and
Conduct public consultations on a new foreign policy based on peace and international cooperation.

Here is the link to the Petition: sign

Please take a few minutes to reflect and consider signing this Petition! While it will not result in Canada’s leaving NATO, much as some of us may wish, it is a very valuable way to get discussion going. Given our small population, Canada has outsized capacity to influence. Our silence signals complicity and gives permission for the dangerous global military escalation occurring today. If you don’t think we’re in a dangerous place, consider that the Heads of the CIA and the UK’s MI6 recently warned that the international world order is under threat not seen since the Cold War. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2gz4re394o

We need to ask: to what degree is NATO contributing to this threat rather than alleviating it? If we are going to remain in NATO, what direction do we want it to take? Why has our military budget nearly doubled in the last decade and how much of this is US/NATO pressure?

What kind of service to the world could NATO, composed of the world’s wealthiest nations (and alas, the nations most responsible for our climate crisis), actually offer and provide? NATO nations at the very least, could sign onto the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Let us think big and act boldly for peace, equality and justice. For a serious response to our climate crisis. Folks, the corporate weapons dealers, media sub-contractors and politicians are not gonna do it for us. They count on our passivity in fact. Let us bring into being the world we want. Let us model real democracy and actually have “government by the people, for the people and of the people.” That’s how I was taught democracy works; how about you?

Treason is Fertile: Empathy with Emily

September 19, 2024

“Empathy is a spontaneous experience that forcefully shatters all notions of being fully separate. Having empathy with other than human animals (and plants, forests, rocks, oceans, rivers, canyons, clouds, sunsets, marshes, etc. etc. etc.) means allowing ourselves to reconnect with those other-than-human-like parts of ourselves.” The words in parentheses are mine to expand on this quote from Martin Lee Mueller.

I read Caitlin Johnstone’s latest article in the Grapevine, which inspired me to add a few thoughts before you read the following poem I wrote. The idea that positive changes in behavior are preceded by an expansion of consciousness raises the question of how to authentically raise human consciousness. I suspect that many brainwashed humans need to decenter the conditioned socially sanctioned anthropocentric/civilized mind and replace it with an animistic/panpsychism worldview. Panpsychism arises out of direct experience and empathy for all life forms; in Thomas Berry’s words, all beings, even rocks and mountains and microbes are “a communion of subjects.” Animism, according to Stephan Harding, “places more emphasis on working out how to behave in relation to these subjects by rooting ourselves more explicitly in the perception of indigenous peoples.” Our indigeneity, like our empathy, (well sorry but I dislike viruses and pathogens), is innate like a seed inside a fruit; waiting to be planted and nurtured. When we decide, each and every day, to let the mind play with the inherent creativity of the natural world, we are then released from greed, hatred and delusion. This kind of empathy goes against the mainstream and allows us to love ourselves, each other and the natural world.

_______________________________________________________________________

Treason is Fertile: Empathy with Emily

A single gigantic Sequoia tree still stands

At the corner of Burnside and Finlayson Streets

Where once lay, a rebel ragged girl, in the cool shade of

mossy ferns, by an ancient creek.

A trunk wide as the Goldstream River, and as tall as a tall cumulus cloud.

I met You 53 years ago

Walking along a bleak Victoria sidewalk,

Lost in a cloud of despair and filthy air, then

Awakened by a spiralling, trembling Gaian Giant.

“Treason” she whispered through the roar of relentless cars,

booming airplanes overhead, screeching sirens, flashing used car lot signs,

stinking fast food joints/beauty parlors, and banging construction machinery.

You, with no forest friends, no creeks, no crickets or frogs,

stay alive, even thrive

withstanding the glaring lights, metal clang and hard hot pavement.

Emily Carr was out riding her bike one day

and stopped at the ocean’s edge and spied a treasure

A strange-looking seed from faraway, she guessed.

She put it into her apron pocket and

wandered up the hillside full of tall grass and wildflowers.

At the top, she ate her lunch and

all afternoon sketched the Garry Oak meadows

Pulling out her pencils, the seed escaped

following a wrinkle in time.

Treason, it is, to be a lonely forest/sky painter.

poet, writer, child and husband-free

145 years ago, laughing in the face

of Victorian repressive, straight-laced respectable society

Emily of the Sequoia Tribe,

the Orca Tribe, the Wildflower Tribe,

Listening to the wind off the cliffs

instead of dining at the Elitist Empress Hotel.

May hurting humans tread the path of empathy

Loving the atoms’ inside vibrating starfields

Loosening fear with the compass of compassion

Dis-solving into trees’ steadfast roots and rhizomes pathways.

May forest seeds spread

Over the highways, carried on winds into damp ravines where

New dreams might sprout and shout:

“Treason is the reason life is so fertile.”

Don’t Talk About Politics At The Dinner Table

September 19, 2024

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE

SEP 15, 2024

Everything was going fine until Grandma brought out the roast Palestinian child for dinner.

“Who’s hungry?” she chirped, a small honey-glazed human corpse on a platter in her arms.

“I am!” said Grandpa.

“Oh boy!” said Tommy.

“OH MY GOD WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK??” Susan shrieked.

“Jesus, Sue, my ears,” said Ellen.

“What’s wrong, honey?” Grandma asked, frozen in shock.

“That’s a dead kid! Why the fuck is there a dead kid on that plate??” Susan yelled.

“Hey, you can’t talk to your mother like that,” Grandpa warned.

“Yeah, Sue, watch your mouth,” said Stanley, covering his daughter’s ears.

“It’s — oh my God! It’s a dead kid! Why is everyone acting like this is fine?? What the fuck is happening??”

“Oh, Susan, sweetie, are you a vegetarian? I’m sorry, I didn’t know!” said Grandma.

“Did — did you kill this kid??” Susan asked, struggling to catch her breath.

“Oh Christ, no!” said Grandpa. “Is that what this is about? No, it’s some Arab kid that got killed in that Israeli war. They started selling them by the pound at Costco last month.”

“YOU MEAN THE GENOCIDE IN GAZA??” Susan bellowed, falling to her knees and sobbing.

“Oh, here we go,” Tommy sighed.

“Can we please not get all political at the dinner table?” said Stanley.

“Yeah, no politics!” said Grandpa. “We’re all here together as a family, let’s just try to have a nice time.”

“Politics??” Susan screamed. “I’m staring at a dead Palestinian kid right in front of me and it freaks me out! How the fuck is that political??”

“I mean, calling it a ‘genocide’, Sue?” said Ellen.

“Look, we can sit here arguing about the war and who started it and whether Israel has a right to defend itself and whether Jews have a right to exist in their homeland, or we can all just take a deep breath, and relax, and enjoy this delicious meal Grandma spent hours in the kitchen preparing,” said Grandpa, reaching for the carving knife.

“I swear to God if any of you so much as touches that kid I will never speak to you for the rest of my life,” said Susan.

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” said Tommy.

“Tom!” said Stanley, putting down the knife to again cover his daughter’s ears.

“God, Sue why do you always gotta be such a hysterical drama queen?” said Ellen. “We’re just trying to have a nice meal together and you gotta come in playing Woke Police on everyone.”

“It’s a victim of genocide! You want to eat a human child who was killed in a genocide!” screamed Susan.

“You say it’s a genocide victim, I say it’s dinner,” said Tommy. “But nobody can be right except you, right Sue? Only Saint Susan gets to decide which opinions are valid.”

“I think we just need to have respect for one another’s different political opinions, Susan” said Grandma. “We’re not all going to agree on everything, and we need to be able to set that aside and get along together. This is a complicated issue. Who’s to say who’s right?”

“But this isn’t political!” wailed Susan. “How can you guys not see that?? There’s a DEAD KID on the dinner table! A dead kid!”

“I think they’re right, Aunt Susan,” said Morgan, taking off her headphones. “I didn’t want to say anything but a lot of the stuff you’ve been saying online about the war is really problematic and antisemitic, and actually kind of borderline fascist-adjacent. The kinds of things you’ve been saying about President Biden and Vice President Harris are going to land Trump back in the White House.”

“Alright, alright, what did we just say about politics at the dinner table?” said Grandpa. “This is what it leads to. A bunch of hurtful words and hurt feelings.”

“Fuck. Your. Feelings,” said Susan.

“Okay, well, dinner’s ruined,” said Stanley. “Morgan, Louise, come on, we’re getting McDonald’s. Thanks a lot, Sue.”

“Yeah, Sue,” said Tommy. “Selfish bitch.”

Everyone left, leaving Grandpa and Grandma alone with Susan — who was still crying on the floor.

“Susan,” said Grandpa. “Someday you’re going to have to learn that other people have feelings just like you, and that we all deserve to be treated as human beings, just like you do.”

“Really, sweetie, you’ve just got to learn to have a little compassion,” said Grandma, picking up the platter with the Palestinian child on it and carrying it into the kitchen.

“I guess we can use all these leftovers for sandwiches later,” she mumbled, shaking her head sadly.

_______________________________________________________________________

My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Go here to find video versions of my articles. If you’d prefer to listen to audio of these articles, you can subscribe to them on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud or YouTube. Go hereto buy paperback editions of my writings from month to month. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.

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cannibals

September 19, 2024

Spectra Health News

September 12, 2024

More Physiotherapy available on

Hornby and Denman Island starting mid September

Hello Denman and Hornby islanders,

In this article I am going to introduce myself for some and re-introduce myself for others. My name is Christopher Mainella and I have returned to live on Denman Island and to provide Physiotherapy services to the islands. I am very excited to be back!From 2019-2021, I was providing Physiotherapy services on Denman and Hornby island, as well as in Parksville. Then from 2022-2024 I moved to Switzerland with my wife Maya and was working as a Physiotherapist in the Gruyère region (where the delicious cheese comes from, lucky me!).

I will be collaborating with Carmen and Spectra health to provide quality and consistent Physiotherapy services. Every Tuesday on Denman and every Thursday on Hornby. I have been practising Physiotherapy since 2007 and have taken the opportunity to work alongside a variety of healthcare practitioners and healers. In those years I have learnt to weave my own tapestry of healing techniques and approaches. Through my curiosity to try to better understand the complexity of the human body, injury prevention, injuries, the nervous system, the pain cycle, stress, the inflammatory cycle and much more, I am regularly registered in a large diversity of continuing education courses. My belief is that the more tools I have in my toolbox, the more prepared I am to support and educate those going through the healing process.

My approach is holistic, education focused, and hands on. We will take the time to discuss, question, research your ailment and I will try my best to get to the root of the issue and guide you on your wellness path. I strongly believe in the team approach and I will refer you to the appropriate healthcare practitioner if needed.

Possible reasons to book an appointment with me: injury prevention, pain and limitations in one of your joints and/or body areas, post surgical rehabilitation, post fracture rehabilitation, chronic pain, inflammatory conditions, arthritic conditions, degenerative conditions, sport or activity injuries, neurological conditions, vestibular conditions, lymphoedema and lymphatic drainage, burn injuries, postural education, habit changes education, fall prevention and more.

If you have any questions and/or would like to book an appointment please do not hesitate to contact us at

(250) 335-2260 or www.spectrahealth.net