August 6, 2025: magic and the rain returns

Sweet rain has fallen over the past day. An atmospheric river has developed over the coast and is dumping healthy amounts of rain on our parched gardens and nearby wildfires. The low is clinging to the mountains, and everything is a beautiful side of grey and dark green. For a pluviophile like me this is manna from heaven. I’m high on petrichor and delighted by the change in palette. Summer is lovely here on the coast and I love the sunshine and calm days, but rain makes me feel alive.

It’s always refreshing to read jazz metaphors for facilitation and leadership from actual jazz musicians. My friend Amy Mervak is both and today she posted a little book of her writings and reflections on learning jazz and developing as a musician and how that relates to leadership. Give it a read.

Have you met Carisa Hendrix yet? She is a Calgary-based magician, who also performs as Lucy Darling. For some reason her shorts creeped into my You Tube recommendations, especially clips of her character Lucy Darling who is the vehicle for her social commentary in what she calls the “slowest moving artistic genre to address the zeitgeist.” Lucy Darling’s crowd work is lovely. It always starts with “What is your name?” followed by “And whhhhhhhhat do you do?” and it goes from there. She is smart and focused and absolutely dedicated to her craft and so thoughtful about what she is doing and why. Check her out.

Another slinky Internet character is Keystone the cat. Keystone lives in Deep Bay, a neighbourhood on Bowen Island near the Cove and he is the most extroverted and beloved cat on the Island. Keystone stories are legion. He loves people intensely, and he cheers up everyone that he meets, so much so that a friend nicknames him “The Seratonin Cat”. He has his own Facebook page. He even has place of pride on the mural of Bowen Island that greets visitors to our island.