Chamber

caged-Bird_corrie_chiswell
Caged Bird. Artist: Corrie Chiswell

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose

or if your wish be to close me,i and
my life will shut very beautifully,suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:whose texture
compels me with the colour of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands

~ e.e. cummings

Charmed

jax_erskine copyA hike to Mount Erskine in Mount Erskine Provincial Park on Salt Spring Island, Gulf Islands, B.C. July 23, 2016. Photo credit: Stephen Hui. Copyright (c) 2016 Stephen Hui. stephenhui.net/. (FYI: Avoid ascending Erskine from the exposed side as we did pictured below. Not family or dog friendly. It’s a scramble to the top with little room for error and nothing really substantial to hold on to except dirt and dry grass. If conditions are wet, I would definitely avoid! Views are epic though!)jax_erskine_2 copyjax3_erskine copy

Tango

“My mother didn’t enjoy a fight but she was really good at them.”

Beautiful and brief narrative of Dr. Alice Stewart and her investigation into the effects of radiation on health. Heffernan uses Dr. Stewart’s struggle and success to emphasize the need to seek difference to better understand ourselves and our work. As she suggests, by daring to deeply disagree with others, you boost organizational creativity and insight. Care about the work you do and have the moral courage to question authority and insert your voice and ideas into the dialogue. What you think matters.