The view from my porch this morning, looking east to the line of storms that obscure the sunrise.
It’s a very still and quiet morning here on Nexwlelexwm/Bowen Island. A line of thunderstorms passed over the island a couple of hours ago, and as they have slowly made their way east, there are lingering rumbles coming from up the inlet. Lightening is striking the mountain tops of the Brittania Mountains. The ground at my house is a little wet, so at least some rain is falling in this little system, and I hope that means that there are fewer fires likely to start as a result.
In the quiet of an August Friday morning, very few commuters are rushing for the ferry. The Queen of Capilano slid into Snug Cove a few minutes ago. There is no wind at all, nor any kind of swell in the bay, so the sounds of the morning are five or six nuthatches in the forest around me, some chickdees in the Saskatoon bushes along our garden edge, crows far off on the ridge top maybe bothering an owl or an eagle, and the plaintive rumbles of thunder rolling down Howe Sound.
The air is very damp, and the sky to the east is pink as the sun has risen behind the wall of cumulonimbus clouds that are languidly crossing the region. Away to the south it’s hard to know where the blue of the sky begins and where the grey sheen of wildfire smoke ends. The atmosphere is a blended mix of watervapoour and woodsmoke.
Me, I’m pouring my morning coffee, home from a trip to Seattle to work with the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance and their community- and University-based partners. We delivered an Art of Hosting there, which forms an important part of the way the Evans school promotes community and democratic engagement.
My mind is tired from the week. Holding the evolving needs of the room against a core set of learning objectives while alos pushing ourselves to do new things is exhilarating in the moment, but produces a rush of release when it’s over. Travelling home yesterday was fraught with the usual busyness of a drive through Vancouver and the chaos of a ferry schedule bent out of reality but the summertime. Sleep was sweet, and long.
The next three weeks will be about seeing out the summer with rest, reading and retreat. I have a lot of writing to do, processing this year’s worth of learning. I have learned a lot this year about my practice and have taken my facilition/hosting work into deeper territory. This has been the year in which the combination of anthro-complexity, the Art of Hosting, Participatpry Narrative Inquiry, pedagogy, and coaching have all all finally blended into a rich set of practices for the work I do. It’s as if a distiller took a sophisticated blend of whiskies and let them age together for 15 years. This year has been the first bottling of that new expression. It probably represents the single biggest learning that I have Dione in my practice since 2012.
Over the year of strategic work and teaching I have pushed myself in practice more than I have done for a very long time. I have kept detailed notes along the way, in an effort to observe my work, and make sense of what different choices and actin=ons have meant. The next few weeks will afford me the chance to reflect on mornings like this, combing through the field notes and writing out what I have learned. It will all be shared here, in snippets and in long form essays, unpolished, but with an eye to dropping them in public for public reaction and response and polishing and challenging.
I’m on a mini quest this year to see if I can hear or see 365 different species of birds. Between trips to France, Costa Rica and Eastern North America I have logged 305 so far. I’m going to have to do some serious birding during the fall migrations to meet the target. But it’s not about the numbers. I love being in the world with birdsong everywhere. I’ve become a good bird-listener in recent years, being that my musical brain and my diminishing eyesight quality have shifted my senses. I’m good enough now with my ears that I can often identify an unknown birds by its genus before I get its species. Apps like Merlin help to make confirmations, or point my attention to quieter or high pushed bird calls I might be missing.
Here’s something about how this activity is so good for you:
interconnected learning associated with birding may lead to structural and functional changes through neuroplasticity—the brain’s capacity to rewire and adapt with experience. Wing says that there are multiple routes through which birding can sharpen perception and calm the mind. Identifying subtle patterns—movement, shape, and sound—requires adaptive thinking and integrating our senses.
“Birding combines multiple factors we know support cognitive and mental health—like nature exposure, social interaction, and novelty—into one activity,” Wing says.
And though it demands high-level thinking, birding is also a form of mental rest.
“Birding helps interrupt cycles of stress and rumination by directing attention outward,” Wing says, referencing a 2022 study by German scientists published in the journal Scientific Reports that documented how listening to birdsong reduces anxiety in people. Birding, he says, offers “a moving, engaging focus in the natural world.”
During the Men’s World Cup I managed to watch 50 matches whole or in part. I found it a fantastic tournament and changed my mind about the 48 team format after seeing how many of the smaller nations showed up with such tactical sophistication. There were many highlights in this tournament for me, including Canada’s amazing advance to the round of 16 including our dismantling of Qatar, the late winner against South Africa and a first half against 6th rated Morocco that left me proud as I could be.
I’ve highlighted some of my favourite matches in bold. Many of these were upsets like Cabo Verde or DR Congo holding European giants to draws, or significant matches like Haaland’s Norway against England or the stand off between one of my favourite players of all time, Luka Modric versus Cristiano Ronaldo in Toronto.
There were some really unhinged matches too like England-Mexico which might have been the most entertaining of the whole tournament. Or Argentina-Egypt which had emotional swings and controversy all over it. Norway defeating Brazil was one for the history books, and Norway became everyone’s darlings at this tournament.
Watching France collapse in the face of Spain in the semi-final was astonishing. I thought France never got into a higher gear during the previous rounds and was waiting to see what would happen if they unleashed themselves against Spain. Alas, Spain revealed themselves in that game as an indomitable force, unbeatable against the free flowing French attack. All tournament long they had been relentless in defence, recovering turnovers with a swarm of players and yet still somehow retaining their shape. In possession they were diabolical, holding the ball for long stretches and building towards the goals they needed. They were commanding.
The final was nothing to write home about in terms of matches, but it did reveal Spain’s dominance. Argentina had no answer, and while England beat themselves with fear, Spain played through the Argentinian dark arts, neutralized their offensive threats and patiently held on to win the championship.
Group stage
| Date | Match | Result |
|---|---|---|
| June 12 | Canada v Bosnia and Herzegovina | 1–1 |
| June 12 | USA v Paraguay | 4–1 |
| June 13 | Qatar v Switzerland | 1–1 |
| June 13 | Haiti v Scotland | 0–1 |
| June 13 | Australia v Türkiye | 2–0 |
| June 15 | Sweden v Tunisia | 5–1 |
| June 15 | Spain v Cape Verde | 0–0 |
| June 15 | Belgium v Egypt | 1–1 |
| June 16 | France v Senegal | 3–1 |
| June 16 | Iraq v Norway | 1–4 |
| June 16 | Argentina v Algeria | 3–0 |
| June 16 | Austria v Jordan | 3–1 |
| June 17 | Portugal v DR Congo | 1–1 |
| June 17 | Ghana v Panama | 1–0 |
| June 18 | Switzerland v Bosnia and Herzegovina | 4–1 |
| June 18 | Canada v Qatar | 6–0 |
| June 19 | USA v Australia | 2–0 |
| June 19 | Germany v Côte d’Ivoire | 2–1 |
| June 19 | Ecuador v Curaçao | 0–0 |
| June 20 | Netherlands v Sweden | 5–1 |
| June 21 | Tunisia v Japan | 0–4 |
| June 21 | Belgium v Iran | 0–0 |
| June 21 | New Zealand v Egypt | 1–3 |
| June 22 | France v Iraq | 3–0 |
| June 22 | Norway v Senegal | 3–2 |
| June 24 | Colombia v DR Congo | 1–0 |
| June 25 | Türkiye v USA | 3–2 |
| June 26 | Egypt v Iran | 1–1 |
| June 26 | New Zealand v Belgium | 1–5 |
Round of 32
| Date | Match | Result |
|---|---|---|
| June 28 | South Africa v Canada | 0–1 |
| June 29 | Brazil v Japan | 2–1 |
| June 29 | Netherlands v Morocco | 1–1; Morocco won 3–2 on penalties |
| July 1 | USA v Bosnia and Herzegovina | 2–0 |
| July 2 | Spain v Austria | 3–0 |
| July 2 | Portugal v Croatia | 2–1 |
| July 3 | Australia v Egypt | 1–1; Egypt won 4–2 on penalties |
| July 3 | Argentina v Cape Verde | 3–2 |
Round of 16
| Date | Match | Result |
|---|---|---|
| July 4 | Canada v Morocco | 0–3 |
| July 5 | Brazil v Norway | 1–2 |
| July 5 | Mexico v England | 2–3 |
| July 6 | Portugal v Spain | 0–1 |
| July 6 | USA v Belgium | 1–4 |
| July 7 | Argentina v Egypt | 3–2 |
| July 7 | Switzerland v Colombia | 0–0; Switzerland won 4–3 on penalties |
Quarter-finals
| Date | Match | Result |
|---|---|---|
| July 9 | France v Morocco | 2–0 |
| July 10 | Spain v Belgium | 2–1 |
| July 11 | Norway v England | 1–2 |
| July 11 | Argentina v Switzerland | 3–1 |
Semi-finals
| Date | Match | Result |
|---|---|---|
| July 14 | France v Spain | 0–2 |
| July 15 | England v Argentina | 1–2 |
Final
| Date | Match | Result |
|---|---|---|
| July 19 | Spain v Argentina | 1–0 after extra time |
Ferran Torres scored the final’s only goal in the 106th minute as Spain won its second men’s World Cup.
The last line from a prose poem by Grace Yee called “Living Among Trees” From the latest issue of Heat:
…I know that when lightning strikes a giant sequoia and burns out its heart, you can step inside the trunk, look up at the sky and hold it.
I had a lovely call with Cynthia Kurtz on Friday, discussing all manner of things including an upcoming retreat with a client where we will explore complexity and use Participatory Narrative Inquiry and a NarraFirma capture to explore an important issue for the organization. Like me, and a few others, she has gone back to her blog and has relaunched it, so if you had her in your feedreader, you'll need to update her RSS feed.