Well, we've done it! We've seen ourselves through another winter. Sure, it's not fully behind us yet, but the darkest and the coldest of it is. Sometimes, as someone who lives in Alberta, this feels like having endured a bit of an ordeal - ordeal as in an experience that's transformational in its difficulty. Although winter can often be arresting in its beauty, we do regularly contemplate relocating to a milder climate, feel like we could (and sometimes do!) go to bed by 8:00

Christmas is fast approaching and I think we can all agree that the experience goes beyond one of pure peace, love, and joy. There's bound to be some pressure in the mix, some disillusionment, and perhaps a little let-down brought on by the cultural hype. And it coincides, of course, with the sun drawing its lowest arc and making its briefest appearance of the year - Winter Solstice (in the northern hemisphere), the climax of darkness. But there's something almost sublime in

INDIGENOUS: "produced, growing, living, or occurring naturally in a particular region or environment" "Someone who learns to use all their senses to carefully observe nature and people before making judgements, use intuition and subtle sensing instead of reductionist thought to make choices and guide relationships, articulate and adhere to goals and priorities, and pragmatically mimic the elegant and effective patterns found in natural ecosystems and in organisms, this person