2022 Winter Olympics under fire

The 2022 Olympics begin this week under the shadow of COVID and Beijing's flagrant abuses of human rights. Under ruler-for-life Xi Jinping, who took power in 2012, China has made a sharp turn into unapologetic authoritarianism, with no dissent or forbidden ideas permitted. So why are the 2022 Olympics being held here? 

volunteers wave flags during a medal ceremony on February 7 Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty Images

China was originally one of many contenders to host the 2022 Games, but Poland, Ukraine, and Sweden dropped out because of domestic opposition. Norway's bid collapsed over public outrage at the International Olympic Committee's demands for luxury treatment, such as special lanes on all roads for IOC members. 

Winter Olympics 2022 | NBC Sports

rediscovering the fine art of Pan Yuliang

In 1984, mystified researchers began cataloguing the prolific but unfamiliar archives of an artist who had been all but been erased from the nation’s history of art. 

Unsure of what to make of this “misfit” artist in China’s nationalist narrative, it wasn’t until several years later that her forgotten legacy was reintroduced to collectors of the modern world. 

Pan Yuliang self portrait

Pan Yuliang, formerly known as Chen Xiuqing was born on June 14,1895 in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province. Later, she changed her name to Zhang Yuliang. in 1913, she married Pan Zanhua and took his surname, Pan.

mindful breath

We've lost another of our great guiding lights. The incredible Zen Buddhist teacher and activist, Thich Nhat Hanh died yesterday at his home in the temple where he'd been a novice monk in Hue, Vietnam. Thay as he is called by his students finally returned home in 2018 after decades in exile.

walking meditation with Thich Nhat Hahn

push the pause button

Creating creative space is a delicate balance between inspiration, absorption, immersion, gestation, process, and production. We need to remove and step away for freshness and space to come in. Often when it looks like nothing is going on, so much is happening. 

When we don't take the time out to prepare the ground before planting our seeds, chances are we miss out on watching our garden grow.

one more selfie for now

"New Day’s Lyric” | Amanda Gorman

Our hope is kept afloat in troubled times by this firecracker and beacon of light, Amanda Gorman. Our world is in good hands with fresh new growth like her to grace and guide us. 

Change Sings: a children's anthem by Amanda Gorman 

May this be the day

We come together.

Mourning, we come to mend,

Withered, we come to weather,

Torn, we come to tend,

Battered, we come to better.

Tethered by this year of yearning,

We are learning

That though we weren’t ready for this,

We have been readied by it.

We steadily vow that no matter

How we are weighed down,

We must always pave a way forward.

Amanda Gorman by @coleplay

wise magi of the east

Three Kings came riding from far away,

Melchior and Gaspar and Baltasar;

Three Wise Men out of the East were they,

And they travelled by night and they slept by day,

For their guide was a beautiful, wonderful star.

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Three Kings 

Popular depictions of Christmas compress the nativity story - as though the three kings’ show up in Bethlehem on Christmas, although traditional celebrations put their visit 12 days after Christmas.

the magi & their gifts - Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, Italy

Called Epiphany, or Three Kings Day, it is the official commemoration of the arrival of the Magi - one of Christianity’s oldest holidays. Roman Catholics celebrate Epiphany on January 6, and Orthodox Christian faiths celebrate on January 19.

holiday cheer

Separated from each other by distance, distancing, natural disaster, and new alarming variants of the virus that kept us apart last year, people are still finding ways to celebrate and enjoy the holidays.

Christmas Eve 2021

Finally we're spending our first Christmas together in several years, but missing the many other bubbles of our family elsewhere. Holing up at home with honey, turkey, takeout and holiday videos - we want to spread the cheer of our favourites around as much as possible.