Glenn Kubish

Happy end of the week, friends. Here are three things that made me happy or grateful this week. I am trying to build noticing those things into a habit. Noticing them and then saying them out loud in the Three Things podcast , too. Here's this week's list. 1. little trees 🌱🌱 Our sons, now in their late 20s, don’t remember Arbor Day and they don’t remember or really care that their parents neglected to plant the spruce seedlings they came home from Grade 1 with. But their mom remembers.  Because in her heart is the kind of significant soil where those memories stay alive.  Auntie Shelagh remembers: “When our boys got their Grade 1 trees, I was excited about the concept. But we did not need a tree in our yard. And, so, I said, why don’t we find out if there’s a new community that could use a tree. But between hockey and music and school—Michael was in pre-school when Alex was in Grade 1, we just never got it done. And I really regretted that.” On the weekend we tried to make ...

  Each week, from the little things that happen in my life, and the smaller set of those things I notice, I try to find three things that made me happy or grateful. And then say those things out loud in a podcast . Here's this week's list. 1. Crossing paths 🧬 T he little boy was on a little bike, the dad was behind helping with balance and advice, and the mom was over on the side recording the historic moment on her phone. I always expect street and front yard life on that piece of 88th Avenue around the corner from where we live. Bikes are left on lawns, kids in trees talk to each other on walkie talkies. But here was the scene of scenes—a little person learning how to ride a two wheeler. I didn’t want to break the little dude’s concentration as he worked out for himself the marvellous metamorphosis of walker to bicyclist. I gave him a thumbs up and a quick ring of the bell as we passed each other, and I kept pedalling toward the path down from Laurier Drive to the Quesnell ...

Happy end of the week. It's been a tough week. I try to keep my heart open to little things that make me happy or grateful while that same heart is under cardiovascular bombardment from the outrageous things above. And then say the little things out loud. Here's this week's Three Things podcast . Peggy carrying Saunders on way to vast underground network for goodness. 1. Recommended reading Here's what the great American short story writer George Saunders writes about books and readers in his latest book, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life: Over the last ten years, I've had a chance to give readings and talks all over the world and meet thousands of dedicated readers. Their passion for literature (evident in their questions from the floor, our talks at the signing table, the conversations I've had with book clubs) has convinced me that   there's a vast underground network for goodness at wor...

Each week, I try to stop and notice three things that I noticed that made me happy or grateful.  There are two parts of that effort—the noticing and the thanksgiving. The conscious noticing stems from the hunch that too much of what I notice is what others want me to notice, and that it is the algorithms they brandish that get me noticing what they want noticed. The preference for making note of what makes me happy or grateful, even if those are small and quiet notes, is a reaction to my sense that it's too loud and too angry out there. Together, it's the work of self-preservation, I suppose.  That is how the Three Things from Edmonton podcast, now in episode 20, happened. It's not a particularly polished podcast production-wise, but, I do the best I can with the stuff that presents itself to me. Like, this week: potatoes, a woman walking on a retaining wall who reminded me of a squirrel on a wire that reminded me that Leonard Cohen is never far away and what the freedom of...