Medium Short: A Short Sweet Journey

In which being away is part of life’s work

Skating at Toronto’s City Hall this week was a reminder of life’s rich pageant — the nice gliding feeling that is sometimes elusive, changes of direction, different abilities, and the occastional sudden fall. (Photo by me).

Welcome to the latest Medium Short, a weekly accountability practice highlighting what I am reading, writing, and doing along the unmarked trail towards #IndustrialHealing. By the way, all of my articles are freely available through this link.

I don’t subscribe to the “work-life” balance fiction that corporate culture has offered us by way of coping crumbs. If I catch myself saying things like, “I’m so over-whelmed…” then my next thought is, “So what can I change?” The hamster wheel narrative of endless busy-ness is not for me.

To that end, this past week I put on my email bounce-back (subject line: “away”) and stepped away for a few days to spend time with family and friends in my home town of Toronto. There were a few prompts for this — the main point was to hang with important people in my life with whom a hug exchange felt timely.

One such important person said — in kindness, albeit misguided — “I’m sorry to hear you’re feeling burnt out!”

To which I said, “No, no, no! This is me not burning out.” I don’t need to burn out to step away, spend time with friends, see my parents, or skate with my brother. We have plenty of reminders about life being short. Why would I wait till I burn out to do these things?

Mind you, last time I checked I still exist on a planet where my landlady expects me to pay her in a recognizable currency. So I’ll keep keeping myself honest here, since it’s Friday.

Reading: Solutions calling

I finished The Solutions Are Already Here, by Peter Gelderloos on the train from Montreal to Toronto. I will be saying more about this book but please don’t wait for me — it is a profound and worthy read. Here’s one passage which highlights why I feel like I found a kindred spirit:

Powerful institutions frequently talk of accountability, but it is clear that destroying the planet and its inhabitants is still a richly rewarded activity. To name just one recent example, the CEO of multi-national Rio Tinto was forced to resign in a show of contrition after his company was caught destroying 46,000-year-old aboriginal sacred sites belonging to the Puutu Kunti Kurrama…