1993 to 1994

“Keeping a journal will help you heal yourself,” extol the holistic magazines and therapists. Being a practical-minded soul, I thought it would be a waste of time, like going backwards and thought I was too busy to try. But I also know I asked for change and the best way to change is to heal the old forgotten hurts. First you must remember them and feel the emotions connected to them, and then with an adult mind, you can release the pain. So I accept my fate and once every two months, I sit down and waste my time writing this column for a whole day because I am told by my readers that they love my personal insights and Mom’s old family photographs. Each time I publish “Musing,” a little bit more of me is healed, so I encourage any of you nearing mid-life to take a little time […Read More]

My great grandad Vincent Kost was an excellent marksman, and he shot all the game Grandma needed to feed her customers at her Hotel and Trading Post in Aklavik, NWT. In the north, soil conditions and a short growing season make fruits and vegetables very expensive, so shooting animals for food is a way of life. The elders realized that if this valuable resource was not looked after, the community would die. So ritual and ceremonies were developed to honor the death of each animal and the reverence bestowed by the hunter balanced out the need to survive. One day when my Mother’s book is published, you can read about the incredible story of the Great Reindeer Trek and the indomitable men who risked their lives so that live food could be made available to the people of the North. After the death of Mary Kost, Grandad moved back to […Read More]

Many seniors tell me how much Mom’s photographs remind them of their earlier days of living on the farm. It seems the world is changing so quickly that the reminders of the past are appreciated. Some days, I feel like I am in a time warp. Sometimes I hear comments from people my age and I can’t relate to them. I wonder if my upbringing had anything to do with it? It seems that surviving physically is not enough any more and we must learn to work with the emotional body as well. So here is another glimpse into living history as I share another insight into why I am the way I am. The front cover of this month’s ISSUES is a photo of me and my two older brothers David and Phillip plucking feathers from some ducks and geese to make ourselves a sleeping bag from an old […Read More]

This month’s photo on the front cover is the one-room school house I went to as a child, when we moved to Beaver Valley the summer before I started grade two. The insert shows myself, three brothers, the girls that lived on the other side of town and Mrs. Waterman, our teacher for several years. This is a rare photograph for my Mom, as it does not show an activity. The photo does reveal the bare essentials of country living … two outdoor biffies and an oil tank for heat. The part of the building that has no windows facing the street was sleeping quarters for the teacher, and that room had a wood heater. The community of Rosswood, as I knew it from 1959 to 1964, consisted of not many people. There was a hillbilly family, with four boys which had settled there years before and resented us new […Read More]

Change is eternal and internal and change is reflected externally for all to see. The world as we know it is changing so fast, reflecting our personal changes. At the Fall Festival in Sorrento, I listened to presenter Mooren Reed, an astrologer from Kamloops, describe the energies of the planets and the purging effect that is happening worldwide. She remarked that this clearing process has been escalating for the past twelve years and will continue for four more years. according to her, astrologers figure that the amount of purging will triple. Past mistakes will be made public so they can be released from our energy fields. This is good, because suppressing our thoughts and feelings or hiding our mistakes can be very detrimental to our health, although most of us are taught to do just that at a very young age. The front cover is the ol’ telegraphers cabin that […Read More]

I’m delighted that the communication era has arrived and everyone has easy access to books, videos and TV programming which are constantly updating the information available. It is indeed a time of great change and I believe this process will keep speeding up as we near the end of the 20th century. Self-empowerment and self-responsibility are key words that I hear more and more as I mingle with people. Twenty years ago, when I started searching for answers to my health problems, there were only two naturopathic doctors in Canada, one in Vancouver and one in Toronto. I remember Dr. Mersery bemoaning the fact that not many young people were studying the natural sciences. In 1975, I got my hands on one of Dr. Vogel’s books, The Nature Doctor, and followed his advice carefully, especially whenever my family got sick. I had the local health food store bring in his […Read More]

When I choose the picture of the cedar log being peeled for last month’s front cover, I knew this photo would follow because it seemed like a logical sequence of events. I wondered what would be happening in my life to influence my next ‘Musings’ column. I want to thank my Mom for her photographer’s determination to capture the moment in action when I was a kid: knowing that I didn’t have to create a new front cover each month made starting this magazine much easier. I am delighted that so many of you enjoy ISSUES and I love all the comments and compliments you pass onto me. My Mom deserves all the credit for the cover page. Her photo this month shows Grandad on the roof, stacking the shakes as David and Phillip hand them to him. The log barn is almost complete with just a bit of the […Read More]

I am sitting by the river bank as I prepare this rough draft. I find that I am struggling to write this column: the deadline is near and I have so many things to do. My vision of a ‘Holistic Health Care Centre’ is no longer just a dream, the renovations have started and I want to be there every moment, making sure everything is thought of to make it as comfy and efficent as possible. Even choosing the front cover picture seemed a challenge this month but finally decided to continue with the theme for the past several ISSUES and show the other side of the barn. The Spring Festival of Awareness is over. Every year it gets better and more organized, which means more paperwork for everyone including me. My crew makes it possible for me to keep co-ordinating it and allows me to observe the bureaucratic process […Read More]

It is going to take some getting used to…. having an office downtown and a receptionist. I enjoyed the convenience of publishing from my apartment but it is time to let ISSUES expand and become a monthly publication. It will be good to have people working for me, including three advertising representatives that will do distribution and keep me informed of the changes in the towns where ISSUES is distributed. If you know of a place in your town that would like to carry ISSUES, give the office a call or phone Bev Franic in Kamloops or Theodore Bromley in Salmon Arm, Vernon, Revelstoke and Nakusp areas. Sue Montgomery will be helping me to do Kelowna, Penticton and the Kootenays…. and my Mom does the route between Prince George and Terrace. Their phone numbers are listed on the right side of page 5. I am very pleased that there are […Read More]