On Tuesday, six children and two adults were killed by a gunman in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, Canada.

On Friday, Prime Minister Mark Carney and the leaders of all political parties got on a plane and flew to B.C. together.  Some of them spoke at the vigil for the human beings killed or injured.

And people on Facebook had things to say:

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Thank you, Mr. Carney.  Much respect.

Photo op – no sincerity or substance.

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He’s absolutely the best. ❤️

Hollow words from this man!!!

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He is the kind of leader every country needs! 🇨🇦

Now the brain dead Canadians will think how wonderful he is and vote for him.  Piece of shit.

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Carney set his own example of grace by inviting the leaders of the other national political parties to come with him to Tumbler Ridge. 

This grandstanding is disgusting.

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We need to remember Carney’s words and try to help those who are hurting instead of demeaning or rejecting them.

Words of the devil!!!  Wake up Canadians!!!!  The wolf dressed in sheep’s clothes!!!!  The only place that this thief belongs it’s in hell … !!!!

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Such a kind, capable and humane leader 🇨🇦

Don’t make this guy look like he cares for Canada.  Because he doesn’t.

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Best PM we’ve had in a lifetime!

Did he bring his pervert son with him?

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And a voice of reason to conclude …

Apparently some of you are unable to leave politics out of it right now as Tumbler Ridge, and the rest of Canada, is in mourning over this tragedy.  Take a page out of the books of our nation’s political leaders and set it aside to come together as Canadians to support one another.

On Tuesday a shooter killed five children and one staff member at a school in Canada.  The community of Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia has been torn apart.

Two students are in hospital.  Paige Hoekstra had surgery for a chest wound and probably will be going home soon.

And then there’s Maya.

Maya Gebala tried to lock the library door to protect the kids inside.  The gunman burst in and shot her in the head.  Maya is clinging to life in the B.C. Children’s Hospital in Vancouver.

Millions of people across Canada and the world are praying for Maya.

Here are some comments on Facebook:

What a massively brave and empathetic heart she has, God bless this young hero.

Keep fighting, Maya. 

I am praying for her to heal so she can continue her life and see how much she is loved.

Who is not brought to tears seeing this?

You are what this world needs, someone loving, caring, thoughtful and with a beautiful heart … The world could sure use more Maya’s.

Whenever I see posts about this young lady I’m worried it’s going to say she passed away.

Stay with us, Maya.

God, please let her live.

***

Look at the power of love in this world

May we all receive it

My body is separate from yours.  Sometimes we touch but mostly we’re occupying different spaces in the world.

So … you could say that we’re each an object, something solid.  Maybe something like this …

That looks a little extreme – all those straight lines and right angles.  But you get the idea.

In 1971, a fellow named Werner Erhard started a program of personal “transformation” called est (Erhard Seminars Training).  The training consisted of two weekends of very intense sessions, at least fifteen hours a day.

Transformation:  An extreme, radical change in form or appearance

Werner had many wise things to say.  Here’s one:

You are the space in which your life occurs

Not a cube.  Not a thing.  Instead, something like this:

No precise location

No boundary

No problem

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And … immense room to dance

I wonder

I like writing.  I like hoping that my words reach some people.  I like fantasizing that some of my thoughts will outlive me in the reader.

And then there’s the elbow bone …

I love a particular bone.  Here’s a photo:

It’s not the pointy one.  It’s the prominent one between this person’s thumb and first finger.

I watch people wearing short sleeves.  Every one of them has this bone, proudly displayed.  I bet it’s attached to an entire skeleton!

Why does this bone thrill me, you ask.  I have no idea … and no interest in probing a spasm of analysis about it.  The whole subject of bones underneath skin leaves me thoughtless.

However, I appear to be writing about it.

Why? … Who cares?

When? … Every day when elbows are displayed

Who? … Eight billion human beings

Sixteen billion elbow bones

Us

Crème Brûlée

Arms Around

Eyes Together

Lemon Pie

Kids Sliding

Patchwork Quilt

Making Music

Chai Lattés

Grandson and Grandfather

Resting

Let’s have a time machine … with lots of buttons to press.  How about 1821?  Or, if you like, 2092. 

One no better than another.  Just different flavours of ice cream.  Delicious.

Some say “Here and Now” is better.  Maybe not.  Or that an evolutionary future beckons.  I bet that’s true, but perhaps it won’t be better, just different.

The moments of time all have their beauty … and blemishes.  I choose to honour them all, even though it appears that I am stationary in 2026 right now.

What happened in 1821?  Who was roaming around?  What discussions could I have with the locals?

2092 is a mystery.  No history books to consult.  If my current mind tries to put a frame around the future, the wood is from a recent tree.  In the years to come, such a living being may look like this:

And then there’s my life …

Bruce at 5 – scared as Hurricane Hazel hits Toronto

Bruce at the moment of 21 – standing in the Eglinton subway station as I became an adult at 10:00 am

Bruce at 39 – marrying Jody in Coaldale United Church in Alberta

Bruce at 74 – waiting in the Brussels Airport with my six pieces of luggage, having just changed countries

Bruce at 77 – tapping away on my phone right now

Bruce at 88 – beyond the bounds of 2026

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They’re all good … those years

The patchwork quilt has much to say

I’ve had many teachers.  The most valuable have taught me about living a good life, a kind life.

Rodney Smith was one of the meditation teachers at a 2011 retreat at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, USA.  I smile when I remember him.  His words, however, have floated away.

It reminds me of my favourite quote …

I won’t remember what you said

I won’t remember what you did

But I’ll always remember how I felt when I was with you

I thought of Rodney this morning, and Googled him.  He retired from active teaching in 2023.  I hoping he’s enjoying life.

I found an article he wrote a long time ago.  Much of it speaks to me.  Perhaps a few quotes will reach you too.

Now I have some words to join with my feelings.

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The main problem with many forms of spiritual growth is that we keep using the very perceptions that foster our delusion as the means to awaken, thereby tightening the grip of the conventional paradigm, even as we attempt to transcend it.  We take the conventional paradigm of separation as a fact and apply its rules as the strategy for our release.  An example of this is the way many of us percieve the spiritual problem as a personal deficiency.

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All this reminds me of the Chinese Finger Trap.  The only strategy we have learned in such a predicament is to pull our fingers apart, but that unfortunately tightens the grip the trap has on us.

So … “You can’t get there from here” if the here is me constantly examining my belly button and comparing it to other belly buttons.

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If ethical behavior has been a central theme throughout our spiritual journey, we will continue to reference our conduct during the uprooting of the sense-of-self … When not harming ourselves and others becomes the conditioned way we live, then this theme will also be played out as our conditioning is being surmounted.  As our conditioning decreases and wakefulness increases our innate response not to harm begins to take over.

I have acted kindly for as long as I can remember, even when my ego was often flaring.  Now that my life is loosening, the kindness is coming along for the ride.

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The starting point on the path is asking ourselves what we really want out of life, and then, whatever that response is, doing it full-heartedly.  Even if our answer is a worldly pursuit, full-heartedness will show us its value and limitation.  After repeatedly seeing the limitation of our wanting, our energy begins to consolidate around a deeper objective and yearning.

Rodney!  You’re a smart guy.

I used to throw myself into a golf simulation video game called Links.  I loved the beauty of the courses.  My interest in the game is long gone … but my yearning for beauty continues.

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Rodney and me … I smile

I just read a piece on Facebook about Barack Obama, after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that killed twenty young kids and six staff members.

He cried … again and again.

He talked to every family on the phone.

He went to twenty-six funerals.

He sang “Amazing Grace”.

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And here are some responses to the post:

I’ll never forget seeing him tear up during that address – it still gets me choked up even now so many years later.

We miss your wisdom and  diplomacy, President Obama.  God bless you and your family.

This is what a true leader looks like.

It was February 9, 2007, a blustery winter day in Chicago, when Obama gave his speech announcing he was going to run in the presidential primary.  My son was sitting in Centennial Hospital in Nashville, holding his one-day-old baby boy while watching the speech on TV.  Then he said what we did not know would turn out to be an eerily prophetic statement.  He asked how he would ever be able to explain to his son in the future that we would not have that caliber of a president after Obama winning and serving two terms.  And that’s exactly what happened.

He and Michelle are real.

I fear we’ll never have a leader like this again.

A father first.

***

What you see is what you get

I sang last night at Salvatore’s.  A week or two ago, I wrote about the song – “When I Dream”.  It’s one I’ve wanted to sing for many years.  The words come from the mouth of a woman who has all the material pleasures of life … but is alone.  Last night the mouth was mine.

My memorizing of the last few weeks met with a wall.  There was one line that my mind couldn’t absorb (the second one here) …

I can be the singer or the clown in every room

I can even call someone to take me to the moon

There I was yesterday afternoon, saying those lines over and over, usually being stopped at the word “call”.  It wouldn’t flow from my brain.

I imagined the evening.  The message is so sad, so human … and I didn’t want the moment to be spoiled for the audience by me standing there searching for a word.

What to do?

Change the word, Bruce!

And so I did.

I can even ask someone to take me to the moon

My mind nodded.  Yes.  Further practice revealed the new combo to be natural.  I walked onto the stage with a smile.  The folks in chairs would hear a woman’s anguish and yearning.

And they did.

But when I dream, I dream of you
Maybe someday you will come true

They shouldn’t be important … measures of “how much”.  It’s the moment-to-moment experiencing of people, of life, that should rule the day.

But my ego intrudes.

Four days ago I wrote about the number of views I got on Jetpack in January.  So strange – it kept bouncing back and forth between 1303 and 1304.  Today that number is 1304, one more than November’s 1303 (!)

I thought that writing about this might cause the obsession to float away but apparently I’m still hooked.

On a typical day, Jetpack tells me that I had 20 or 30 views.  I woke up this morning to find that yesterday’s total was 997!

My Jetpack day starts at 6:00 am Belgium time (midnight in eastern North America).  Right now it’s 10:45 am, so nearly five hours after today’s counting started.  How many views today?  506!

What is happening here?  Jetpack also tells me the country of origin for my views.  About 95% of yesterday and today’s views came from one country.  Any guess?

Canada?  No.  Belgium?  No.

See below the photo …

The United States of America

What does it mean?

No idea

(And now 526)