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Living under a winter high

January 21, 2013 By Being, Bowen One Comment

Fog in the Queen Charlotte Channel

Just beautiful weather here the last week.  We have been living under a high pressure system that is forcing some wonderful meterological phenomena.  Notably, the high pressure traps cold air near the sea and creates an inversion, meaning that the moisture can’t escape and form clouds, so it lingers at sea level forming think banks of fog that fill the Strait of Greorgia and Parts of Howe Sound.

Last night the fog bansk were as thick as they can get and all night long we were treated to the soothing symphony of dozens of different fog horns sounding out in the dark.  the Point Atkinson lighthouse, which is miles away at the entrance to English Bay has a classic two tone deep “eeeee-ooooo” and the whistles and horns from moving ships in the night answered the call.

This morning in the bright sunshine on Bowen, the fog did it’s best to fill the Sound, but we somehow escaped the cool, and we are being treated to an incredible display of light and blue sky and grey fog flowing in from the Strait.  There is something to be said about how bright the sun is when it rises out of the fog and reflects off the tops of what previously obscured it.

Yesterday, the kids and I went skiing at Cypress and the view from Mount Strachan shows the way the fog coats the city and eases part way into Howe Sound.  It made for beautiful views, and a gorgeous sunset.

Winter sunrises

January 20, 2013 By Uncategorized


All week we’ve been treated to sunrises like this. Red sky and pink sea. Warm and stormless January continues.

Killarney Lake frozen over

January 19, 2013 By Uncategorized 3 Comments


Finn playing with the ice on a frozen Killarney Lake. We have had cool temperatures and no wind or rain the last week or so and our lakes have frozen over. Folks have been skating on Josephine Lake as well.

Today is a sigh

January 17, 2013 By Being

Mannion Bay

Just in from an hour SUPping around Mannion Bay and Miller’s Landing. It is sunny and warm today – 5 degrees C – and there is not a breath of wind out.  The water is so calm there isn’t even any swell in the Queen Charlotte Channel.  Everything is flat and calm and quiet, like a long sigh.

I started out from Pebbly Beach and rounded the north point.  Headed out towards Miller’s Landing for 20 minutes, and then sat on my board, bobbing on the sea.  Out in the channel, a seal was splashing.  No sign of the huge pod of hundreds of dolphins that had been spotted earlier this week of Cowan Point.  Utter calm.  Utter, utter calm.

It could have been a summer evening on the water except that there were no boats around.  I had the whole of Howe Sound to myself.

Coming up from the beach I ran into Norma Dallas who owns the Bowen island Marina and we talked about what it feels like to be out on the water all alone on days like this.  We agreed that the words to describe it are “humility” and “gratitude.”  That we are alive to experience this is simply a gift.  To have snow capped mountains and a calm ocean to hold me, is an incredible thing.  To feel my smallness in all of that timeless beauty is a fine teaching.

Expertise, learning and practice

January 17, 2013 By Art of Hosting, Facilitation, Learning, Practice 7 Comments

There is no way you can learn the art of facilitation, the art of hosting, by simply coming to a workshop. It happens from time to time that people show up for a three day workshop and expect that at the end they will be competent hosts of groups process in any situation. To get good at arts you have to practice.

Last week in Montreal, I saw 120 people come to an Art of Hosting with an overwhelming desire to practice. The invitation to them was to attend if they were wanting to develop and improve their practice. It made for an incredible experience. When people are invited to come to learn because they are ready to host, they are open wide to what is offered, not only by us as teachers, but more importantly by the group itself. This is an excellent ground from which to develop a practice of hosting, and the relationships that are formed are the critical supports for competency in that practice to unfold.

Somehow, the view of learning in the world has been confused with the kinds of quality control that is attached to manufacturing. We imagine that a learning experience will have specific achievable outcomes and that upon completing a course, we can be certified in the competency in which we have been trained. While this can be true for technical training, such as how to operate equipment, with things like art and strategy and leadership and communications and other practice based arts, the opposite is actually true. When I leave practice based learning events I recognize that I am a baby, just starting out, and with a lifetime of practice ahead of me. I can’t be certified to be competent, because there is no way to guarantee that I will be perfect. When we first begin to practice, we always make mistakes. Over a lifetime we develop our own styles and we get better at it.

Hosting is practice. The willingness to embrace it this way is the biggest indicator to me as to whether someone will eventually develop a competency in this art. Expertise is developed, not given or bought.