“I have never met a hopeful kid that joined a gang.” Fr. Gregory Boyle Father Gregory Boyle traces the beginning of Homeboy Industries to an ex-con’s walking into his office in the Dolores Mission in Los Angeles. In his TED…
Aba Atlas was the prodigal son. As a lot of young, disaffected and searching people do, he disappeared from his family’s life. He was gone two and a half years. When he showed up on his mother’s Ottawa doorstep, luggage…
A major depressive disorder — usually just called “depression” — is different than the “blues”. Someone experiencing depression is grappling with feelings of severe despair over an extended period of time. Almost every aspect of their life can be affected,…
I have leaned back on a grassy knoll in Kelowna’s Waterfront Park and listened to the Kelowna City Concert Band and watched the swaying hips of belly dancers in Kerry Park. I’ve tapped my toes to the wild rhythms of…
Signs like this are popping up around France: “Nourriture à partager. Servez-vous librement, c’est gratuit!” My French is rusty, but I recognize this generous sentiment: “Food to share. Help yourself. It’s free!” The idea behind Les incroyables comestibles had its…
Under Vancouver, British Columbia’s grey skies, along the gritty lanes of some of her hard-bitten neighbourhoods, I have passed by many people whose lives are far harder than my own. Now I wonder how many of them were artists. Marylee…
A lot of people come to Kelowna, British Columbia, to retire. Robert MacDonald had other ideas. The experienced, award-winning publisher and marketer launched the Okanagan Institute, billed as “a group of creative professionals that have gathered around the goal of…
A small robot rolls along the street, in a straight line and at a constant speed, heading for a destination printed on a flag. Not only are people intrigued, they stop and gently reorient the little machine. No one kicks,…
On February 14, 2013 they danced for love. They danced for peace. They danced for gender equity. They danced to end violence against women and girls. Organized by V-Day, One Billion Rising inspired tens of thousands of women and men…
Baby Mei was curious, reaching out and touching the children she met in the class where she taught empathy. She was a serious baby, “a philosopher king”, says Mary Gordon, a baby who only smiled three times in the year…
