Late last month I spent the weekend camping and playing outside with a bunch of Cub Scouts and Scouters. It was hot, there was a fresh crop of mosquitoes, and the ground was as hard as usual — but I collected a whole knapsack full of good things to help combat Grumblings. I hope these trigger […]
On a June Sunday this summer, I got home from Scout camp with Husband and Thing Two, and for the next day or so I felt cranky and out of sorts. Really unpleasant-to-be-around cranky. I thought maybe it had to do with the state of my house, which had reached critical mess, as it often […]
Last week, Thing Two told me about an evening of awesomeness she had with the Scouts, and she gave me permission to share the story. I hope it brings you as many good feelings as it did me. She and a couple of other Scouters went with the 1st Greenwood Scouts (aged 11 to 14) on the bus […]
I believe that letting kindness guide my actions, rather than focusing on whether or not things are fair, will lead to fewer visits from Grumblings. I’ve often thought that I place too much emphasis on fairness when it comes to small things. I’m not talking about society, justice and the law. I’m talking specifically about […]
Thing One has a sturdy, expensive bike. It’s made by a company in British Columbia, on the other side of the country from Ottawa. It’s customized. It survives his riding every year on the first bare roads of March through to November’s cold and ice. This bike has history: he rode it while volunteering as a first aider […]
Is volunteering its own reward? It’s National Volunteer Week here in Canada, a time to celebrate volunteers, who give almost 2 billion hours a year in Canada, an amount of time that’s equal to about 1 million full-time jobs. Volunteering is about giving time, effort and energy. Some 12.7 million people in Canada volunteer, and […]
I’m a firm believer that Scouting is good for individuals and for society. Why do I support an organization started by an upper class white male over a century ago, an organization that has had its share of trouble? Because in spite of anything you’ve heard in the news in the past, I’ve experienced the […]