Before I moved to Hornby full time, I remember speaking with the friend who first introduced us to Hornby back in the mid-70s. She said that on Hornby there is a conscious effort to bring together three disparate groups of people: the year-round residents, the owners of second homes who regularly spend time on the island, and the visitors who come for one or two weeks at a time. Her vision was exciting to me and made me anxious to finally get here to stay.

Remember this: “Think Globally, act locally?”

In the Jewish tradition, there is a teaching that goes like this: A person should always see themselves as equally balanced between good and bad deeds.

This is the second in a three part series I wrote for our Hornby Island monthly (The First Edition).

“I hear people expressing the hope that soon the pandemic will be fully controlled and then life can go back to “normal.” Yet, what was normal as we defined it was not sustainable.”

One of the more memorable moments I’ve experienced on Hornby came at the end of a contentious HIRRA meeting more than a decade ago…

It turned out that my next, and likely last deployment is to help my local community, my Hornby family, to renew itself and come together to do what we can to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change here, in our own neighbourhood,

On 4 June 2020, I participated in an evening of tribute to and remembrance of Reb Zalman. Given the five minute limit, I only shared a condensed version of what I had written. Here, then, is what I would have shared had there been more time.

I brought my work with me to Canada…the now digital ALEPH ReSources Catalogue, the Integral Halachah Institute (successor to the ALEPH Bet Midrash), and the Reb Zalman Legacy project.…I’m satisfied that this is a good moment to pass the responsibility for these programs to others.

Am I optimistic? No. Does that mean I’m pessimistic? Also, no. What is closer to the truth is that my event horizon is not long enough for me to be either pessimistic or optimistic. But does that mean that I have no hope? Also, no.