Before it’s Gone
If you have the good fortune of having brief but beautiful experiences in restaurants, be grateful. Be kind to those who serve you; if you want great, local restaurants, support them. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears go into restaurants, and without community support, these spaces can quickly vanish before you know it. I always feel a bit gutted when I see a closed sign over the windows of a restaurant that I enjoyed.
My Call with the Prime Minister
Being kind, gracious, and respectful are potent elements of a healthy culture. We still have a Canadian culture where a Liberal Prime Minister can call up an Albertan and have a kind and friendly conversation about life.
Last Flight to Florida
The imagination we need to cultivate right now is one where we can see ourselves supporting our farmers, producers, artists, academics, builders, teachers, and other countries in the world. We do this out of hope and love, not out of anger or the intent to destroy something else.
Why California Burns
When tragedy strikes, it’s like looking at a table full of broken puzzle pieces. We feel compelled to put these pieces together in order to explain an overwhelming crisis. We want to know why it’s happening and who to hold accountable. More often than not, we deceive ourselves into thinking we’ve connected the pieces perfectly.
My Security Detail
There is a history of Cancer in my genetics. I'm not paranoid, and I'm not afraid, but I do believe in being prepared. Heightened possibilities exist that this disease, which has inflicted so much pain in our world, may make an attempt on my life at some point.
Inconvenient Change
Sometimes, it's easier to have someone remain a villain. False clarity makes conflict convenient. For good reason, we think of redemption as a great lofty concept, but it's easy to forget that it comes with a set of inconveniences. Basically, a redeemed villain requires me to rewire how I think and respond to that person. This isn't comfortable at all because it means I need to change.
Prayer for the Unremarkable
I work hard every day and try not to get in other people's way or stir up trouble. I don't even ask for much attention, but it'd be nice to have a bit. This world I live in has very little room for the unremarkable.
Is This Your Country?
"Is this your country?" a stranger asked me in amazement in broken English as I sat in a small food stall in Tokyo earlier this spring. I was scrolling through photos on my phone while waiting for chicken skewers to cook over a smokey charcoal grill. I was looking at some pictures of Edmonton's river valley, fields on the Alberta highways, and some scenes from the Maligne Canyon in Jasper.
Edmonton’s True Colors
This playoff run has not only unearthed the qualities of our community, but it has also revealed our true colors, which run deeper than blue and orange. Edmonton is a city of resilience and determination, a place where we work hard and love nothing more than having fun with friends and family. It's a city that we are proud to call home, a place where we can raise a family and build a life.
Travel Like Matt
If your personal, professional, and spiritual journey is helping you become a more humble person, you’re traveling well. If you find yourself building your own brand by endlessly critiquing and “yelping” against your own culture, you might be impeding your own progress. The best way to critique is to build something new and beautiful while maintaining a foundation of love.
Eclipse and the End
“It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not.” -J.R.R Tolkien “The Fellowship of the Ring”
Bob Dylan’s Voice
Diversity and collaboration look great on paper, but neither happens naturally or comfortably. I have no magic wand to make the awkwardness of diversity and collaboration go away. I've had to learn to be brave enough to be myself.
Sake Runneth Over
Restaurants live and die by keeping a close eye on cost controls. A spilled tablespoon of Sake with every customer adds up quickly and ultimately requires the business to buy additional bottles with no opportunity to recover those costs. Restaurant owners want their guests to be happy, but not...too happy.
Journey to Jupiter
I'm bothered that people are struggling to pay their grocery bills and have every reason to worry about whether they can keep a roof over their heads. Many of these people are the ones keeping the lights on in our communities across our country. I sense the fragility of peace in our present moment.
Risk Contagion
One day, I'd like to take a big risk on a dream. Throw myself into it and give it a go. Seize an opportunity to forge a project together that fuzes my passion with my career. My dream is inspiring and hopeful and would make the world a better place. But my dream is a tough one to pull off. It's big enough that I know it could quickly fail.
Back to the 80s
Hollywood has a target audience to capture at the box office. The target, for now, seems to be kids from the 1980s. The bait for this particular audience is nostalgia.
Jesus Freak
This is the struggle of the ages for anyone religious. Do you allow your faith to evolve when presented with new information? I would say yes.
Tasting Notes
A good cup of coffee doesn't just appear on its own. There's a process behind it, and it requires an entire community to bring it to your table.
The Pentecostal Diet
This kind of faith pushes Christians beyond the boundaries of comfort and into a world where they could one day sit at a restaurant and enjoy Filipino Sisig or an Argentine Choripan. Not just to enjoy the food but to love the people who serve it. A faith where Christians would learn to speak new languages not just to become comfortable in the world but to better understand and appreciate it.
The Kids are Watching
I'm asking myself questions about how my wife and I teach our two boys about the current provincial election. What do they need to understand? How should they respond to flag-waving and partisan rhetoric? What's helpful regarding civic, regional, and national pride?