I met Silka in the yoga community years ago. The whole scene was a weird fit for me: here were all these "spiritual", "open" people, but there was a stringency to that too, and not all of myself could cram into that box.

My daughter and I almost saw Lizzo last week. It was going to be our first real concert together, not counting the time I took a tiny Shaina to the Jazz Festival (she hated how loud it was and we bailed).

I arrived for the matinee showing of KIN at Agora Danse to a humming crowd of families, impeccably well-dressed people, and a small group of what I can only presume are young dancers milling near the bathrooms (I see you sweatpants-and-barefeet – as one dancer to another, I can smell the marks of post-rehearsal on you.)

Blue Metropolis has loomed large for me, if also just outside my comfort zone. The words "literary festival" roll around in my head, different intonations and speeds, savouring the musicality and the concept. It's a gathering of the heavy hitters, and people I have yet to learn about.

The Mile End has bagels, thrift stores and hipsters, Vieux Montreal has outstanding architecture, history and every tourist over the age of 42. Not many people who visit Montreal would think to head to NDG, which is exactly one of the reasons that Walter Lyng calls it his home.

A list of poetic actions:

1. Double knotting your shoes, joining the fellowship of people who double knot their shoes like you do, and for a moment becoming one in the doing.

When I first heard the Einstein quote "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle", I thought of course. Doesn't everyone think about how improbable it is that we exist? And that we can realize we exist? Or that cats always grow whiskers in the right spots...Or how the shape of flower petals is repeated perfectly every time?

I grew up in a small Catholic town in rural Quebec. Being non-binary and neurodivergent, I tried to make myself invisible against the background of farmers and amongst my peers. But, no matter how hard I tried, I stuck out like a sore thumb.

I was a fan of comedy before I became a comic, and that perspective primed me for a nostalgia I hadn’t anticipated. If you’re into comedy, you have probably listened to many podcasts with seasoned comics waxing poetic about the scenes in LA or NYC.

Social media is a breeding ground for fads. Think about how prominent the "white or blue dress" meme was in actual, factual, real, live conversations -- ever so briefly. Or how everything was cake (my Insta algo still catches me off guard with this one). I have neither the interest, nor the bandwidth to keep up with Tik Tok fads, the turnover of which appears to be hourly, or less.