hanspetermeyer.com

I am so proud of my Mom, Elizabeth Meyer ❤️
Her memoir, Coming Home, has just been published.
If you're interested in women's history, being a "Marginal Mennonite," growing up as the child of pioneers in Black Creek on Vancouver Island... I think you'll like it 🙂
Available online from Friesen Press (now that's a good Mennonite name!)...

Coming Home at the FriesenPress Bookstore We all have a story to tell, be it long or short, truly blessed or full of challenges. Coming Home tells just such a story, starting from the author’s humble beginnings as a shy, reclusive girl in a Mennonite community on Vancouver Island in the 1930s....

Apprenticeship to Love, chapter 280 now published.
"Can I learn from a woman? Part I"

Every chapter has a question and a practice. Today's question: Do you know how you resist learning, how you resist receiving? Do you know how to turn this resistance into the flow that is required?

For many of us who are masculine-identified men, the resistance to feminine knowledge or wisdom is profound. For many of us its very subtle —to us. Not so subtle for the women in our lives (as I was reminded by the woman I love, recently). What happens when we sit with that resistance, and, eventually, allow a little more learning to happen?

In his 11 precepts men's coach and teacher John Wineland invites us to practice "the cultivation of wonder and awe." Nowhere is this more important than in those places where we take things for granted. And nowhere, in my experience and observation, do we take things more for granted than with the women and the feminine in our lives.

I like this article about Kevin Bieksa touting men's health in today's Province. We're not great —as men— at looking after our own health, or each others'. Guys like this, guys who play hockey, delight in the rough and tumble, are demonstrating what a different kind of masculinity can be. One that cares. One that isn't just about the rough and tumble.

Bieksa has a history here. It's worth reading. It's also worth checking out the Canadian Men's Health Foundation that he supports. Good resources at canadianmenshealthfoundation.ca

Please share. Because our health has a huge impact on our marriages, our kids, our friends, our communities —and, of course, ourselves. And, as I said, we're not so good at looking out for ourselves or each other.

Ps. I'd like to thank the Comox Valley Collective Magazine for making a place for articles about men's health in my community.

Healthy men, healthy families: Kevin Bieksa and Troy Stecher stand up for mental health | Flipboard theprovince.com - The grin that flashed across Troy Stecher's face Tuesday afternoon in the hallway of Richmond's Minoru Arena when Kevin Bieksa, a star of Stecher's …

I am watching —and enjoying— professional hockey again after 40+ years. It's so much faster and "cleaner" than I remember. But still, the assumption is that you have to be "mean" to win.

Last night I read about how youth participation in organized hockey is falling off, significantly, in Canada. The article focused on the (very real) cost in money and time of having a kid in hockey. But no mention made of the cost on physical and emotional (and spiritual) health of these kids. I talk hockey (and other things) regularly with a man whose son was and remains active in sports. "But I kept him away from hockey. I didn't want him to get hurt." That hurt happens at several levels, I would argue.

It's a great game, this hockey thing. Fast. Highly skilled. Exciting. I see so much positive change from when I last watched. But the assumption that we only win by being our worst selves persists.

Interestingly, I heard a coach (who has, somewhat ironically, built a team known for its borderline "legal" physical play) talk about one of his big stars. This player, the coach says, does not need to be mean to win. "He's very competitive," but not "mean." This player grew up in a non-Canadian hockey system. Are we creating opportunities for boys to be competitive without being mean?

For me this is about how we define success and even "masculinity" as men, and boys. I see so much progress, not just in hockey. But I despair at the persistence of the old mythology. It's alive and well, not just in the rink, but in our families and our neighbourhoods.