Alternative Culture Celebrating Nature, Culture, and Spirit

Finding HomeThe taste of wild Pacific salmon mellow in my mouth, I reflect on the blessings of home that greeted me on my return to British Columbia five days ago...The cornucopia of food selection in the supermarkets and various small shops, worldwide in scope and of privileged quality. The ...

The biggest spider I ever saw, a sentient companion over my morning sun meditation bench... after two weeks, I look up one morning to find it gone, web destroyed. That must have been one large hungry bird.As we go further into 2012, already the days and weeks and months are spinning by, accelerat...

It's a tale as old as the computer age: hard disk failure, no backup. In this case, the "crash" was literal, and traumatic. Osnat, navigating the narrow space between window, desk, chair and bed after closing the curtains, tripped on the tangled computer cords at her feet, and sent my sleek black pl...

Sunday, November 27, 2011 TiruvannamalaiArriving at Manna Cafe to play on Saturday night, with one sandal held together by string. It fell apart in the road on the way there, and at dinner at the Olive Tree I asked for something to hold it together; Megan from Invermere came up with a piece of stri...

India is India. India doesn’t care what you think of her. India doesn’t care if you come or go, how many ages in past or future. India remains. India is home, and you know this even if it makes your stomach squirm on first arriving. And your stomach will squirm, even if you are careful what you p...

Bali is beautiful, and to say so risks swamping the beauty with tourists from everywhere, drawn already in the hullabaloo from Eat, Pray, Love, filling the rice fields with houses, filling the streets with motorbikes, filling the restaurants with computers and sunglasses, filling the pockets of the ...

Not from the beginning; from now. This story has been told before, but is soon forgot in all the stories that come after. This one, for instance, began with a shadow hunter on a candlelit ceiling. Then, a ceiling fan. Finally, a computer. And yet, there is always more after the finally is finally...

Two months in Maui this time around, and once again life feels more or less normal here, after the initial month or so of settling in, reorienting to a new residence and neighborhood, reconnecting with previous friends and new acquaintances.The logistics of the move this year fell into place effortl...