Entries by Catherine Dowling

Yoga, Elephants, and Life in Another Era

We were promised yoga, elephants, and village life in the mountains of central Thailand. And on Day One, we left the tourist trail behind in Mae Sot. Our four-wheel-drives meandered through rolling hillsides bright with sunshine, thick with ripening corn. When the paved road ran out, we bounced along on rutted dirt through hairpin twists […]

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Two Halves of a Whole: McCarthy Alaska

McCarthy, Alaska is one of the last outposts of the American frontier. More a village than a town, it sits in the middle of bear country surrounded by ice floes, and glaciers, and rivers so swift and cold they take your breath away. Beyond McCarthy the mountains are so impenetrable you need a frontier spirit […]

New Year’s Night – Year Two of the Pandemic

Read the published essay in Our Pandemic, a publication of The Writer’s Workout. All proceeds from the sale of the magazine go to Direct Relief which provides emergency medical services around the world.

Sun Haze

I remember the sound as a thud, an enormous, blunt thud, louder and more resonant than anything I ever heard before. My head jerked sideways, then returned to center buffeted by a wave of air. I knew something bad had happened, something irreversible; nothing good makes a sound that big. Read more at HerStry, the […]

Greyhound to New York

A Christmas journey through the night by Greyhound bus – a community of strangers, a chance encounter…”Connections in my life were slow, cautious dances that took time and work, but he smiled straight at me as if there were no barriers to overcome, as if we had always known each other. I felt like someone […]

Whips and Stilettos: One Woman’s Path to Body Confidence

It’s hard to imagine Nicole sheathed in latex. At just under 200 pounds, make-up free, with a big, friendly smile, she looks like the perfect suburban neighbour, the kind you’d trust with the keys to your house because you can rely on her to feed your cat when you’re away. Because her appearance is a […]

The Power of Awareness: A Journey Through Breathing

Every year or two I get a cold which turns into a cough which turns into bronchitis.  Until it hurts to breathe, I don’t pay much attention to my breathing on a day to day basis.  Same is true for most people …  Unless it affects our quality of life, we take breathing for granted.  […]

The Power of Awareness: Witnessing Without Judging

We live in a world where we make judgments every day.  We decide when to cross a street and when not to, when to speak to a stranger and when to pass by…  This good/bad judgment can keep us safe.  But what would it be like if, outside of these essential discernments, we were able […]