I have received a lovely message from a woman in Ireland who has been reading here. Thank you!

I also want to suggest to some of you that you might find my poetry blog of interest. I keep it separate: it's www.heatherpoet.blogspot.com and is less about news and more about literary observations. Today I posted a poem, with permission, from a woman serving at the Baha'i World Center: the environment inspired her muse, and my goodness, what a muse it was!

My most recent reading deserves a plug, especially for any of you in education. I am reading a book I picked up at the airport on the way back to the Okanagan (which is supposed to be beginning its spring but it's still a little chilly. No snow though, unlike the Gatineau...) Anyway, the book is The Brain That Changes Itself by Dr. Norman Doidge. It's very, very good. He discusses the history of a variety of experiments in plasticity, and their implications for healing and for helping people in education with various learning challenges. I have decided to apply the ideas to my knees: pain, apparently, is a memory as much as it is a reality. I know that I have been 'favouring' my knees since I sprained them a decade ago, and it seems to me that if I could retrain my brain, I could use the knees more effectively. I need to require my brain to be able to move the knees properly, and without fear. I have been trying the downstairs motion, the one I fear the most, and the pain is less than I might have thought, but for sure the fear is a worse enemy than the knees themselves. I think. I'll keep you posted.

Serendipity often brings the right book at the right time, no?

More anon.