The Art & Practice Blog
Back in Colombia
The first thing I notice about Bogotá, when descending the rickety stairs of the airplane, is the smell: a strange mixture of damp clay, lush green vegetation and diesel smoke. The altitude provides a lightheaded feeling of well-being and forceful palpitations of...
Painting Self-Portraits
My art is mainly inspired by nature or by places I've traveled to or read about. It doesn't tend to emphasize detail and, when humans are included in the composition, they are usually faceless, depicted as chunky, cubist blocks of colour. People are rarely the main...
7 Reasons Why Summer Studying Doesn’t Have to Suck
It occurred to me during a lazy, yet productive, day at the Toronto Reference Library, among stacks of deliciously old-smelling books - this ain't so bad. Although I've taken to whining about it in previous posts, summer studying doesn't really have to be that...
Quiet Power
I have a confession to make. Sometimes when I see someone I know in a public place, usually at the end of a long day, I am often guilty of lowering my head and pretending I don't notice them, regardless of how good a hair day I've been having. It sounds horrible...
How to Improve Your Colon Health in 4 Easy Steps
I remember being weighed down by a horrifying feeling of inferiority during an Asian Medicine lecture one day. You see, I have always been proud of a strong and reliable digestive system until I learned that the Chinese believe that one should experience an...
Put Away Your Troubles…
Like many of my peers I feel like I spend every day eating lunch at the Mandarin buffet - I always seem to have too much on my plate. Working this summer, planning classes, trying to fit in 4+ daily hours of studying for board exams (NPLEX), devouring books, writing...
The Inspiring Blog Award!
I am pleased and excited to announce that I have been nominated for my second blog award! Just when I happened to be feeling a little disconnected and uninspired when it came to my blog writing, a new reader, by the name of Ruth, sent me some sweet nectar of...
Creating Aha! Moments in the Clinic
As a summer English as a Second Langauge (ESL) teacher I often attend teacher training workshops. In a recent training session I attended, a grammar workshop, it was impressed upon us the importance of creating a learning environment in which we allow students to...
Pop Open a Gluten-Free Cold One
Nothing quite says summer like the smell of a barbecue, a cool lakeside breeze, the stiff comfort of a wooden Muskoka chair, the company of a good book and, of course, a nice, cool bottle of bubbly beer. Sadly, gluten-free means call for gluten-free measures and this...
Serenity
Serenity, in New Age culture, usually depicts the complacent grin of someone who has risen "above it all". Clad in white robes, with a wooden chain of prayer beads strung around the neck, this serene being does 10-day meditation retreats, feels at home in lotus pose...
Toronto: Filled with PRIDE!
On Canada Day, Sunday, July 1, both temperatures and spirits were high as millions of Torontonians joined together to celebrate the biggest celebration of LGBT rights in North America: the Toronto Pride Parade! On the corner of Yonge and Gerrard of downtown Toronto, I...
6 Uses for Castor Oil
At a teacher training I recently attended, we were given the task of deciding what we would take with us if we were to go to a deserted island. While other people chose things like hatchets, food, water (and a boat), I automatically thought: castor oil! Sometimes I...
Another Failed Attempt at Studying for NPLEX 1
Yonge and Bloor, downtown Toronto, Canada at approximately 2:00 pm. Thursday, June 21. I finish teaching ESL for the day and enter the Toronto Reference Library, a $5 Starbucks strawberry banana whey protein smoothie in hand, sunglasses resting on the top of my head...
Spring Simplicity
A few days ago I was faced with the challenge of moving out of the third floor of Nonna's house. This meant that I was going to have to complete the impossible task of squeezing the entire contents of an apartment-sized room into my modest-sized childhood bedroom....
RENT: Viva la vie boheme!
I am a huge fan of the theatre. With one outlier in mind, there has never been a live performance that I didn't completely enjoy (the exception happened to be a 3-hour monologue about Simon Bolívar). Every other experience, no matter what the production budget is,...
I Got the NPLEX Blues…
I am decidedly an empiricist. No, this doesn't mean that as a child I used to hover over ant hills with a magnifying glass, observing uncanny details about ant anatomy or looking at leaves under a microscope. Well, maybe like all children I did this, but that kind...
Woofstock 2012
For those of you loyal readers who have been hoping things on this blog would lighten up a bit, be careful what you wish for. Introducing the lightest topic on the planet: Woofstock 2012, the largest festival for dogs in North America. The event, held at St. Lawrence...
Dear Dalton
Dear Dalton McGuinty, premier of Ontario Can you spare me $50,000? I swear to you that my reasons for asking for it are pure; I just want to heal people. You see, I am studying to be a naturopathic doctor. I want to cure disease and make the world a better place,...
Just For Today…
After publishing my last post I felt a giant weight release itself from somewhere behind my sternum like a great knot loosening. In truth, I actually felt the weight release twice with respect to that particular issue; the first time was when I wrote the article, the...
My Zen Master
I used to play in the laneway behind Clinton and Bloor, in Toronto's west end. The laneway marked the arteries of my childhood world, directing me to the shops on Bloor, Honest Ed's and Christie Pits park. Walking south through the lane I'd hold my nose, close my...