Cold water immersion is a masterclass in #meditation. In one minute, it teaches you to quiet the mind’s cry for comfort, a skill that carries into every hard thing in life. meditationcommunity.substack.com/p/cold-water...

Cold dipping is a masterclass in metacognition. In one minute it teaches you to quiet the mind’s cry for comfort, a skill that transfers to every hard thing in life. Or you could spend a lifetime meditating. 🧊

🌿 The Assembly of First Nations voted unanimously to reject the new pipeline deal and affirmed the opposition of coastal B.C. Nations. The resolution urges Canada, Alberta, and B.C. to recognize the climate emergency. ~ CBC #cdnpoli

Read an except from Me and My Shadow Buy the graphic novel at Snail Books for $1.99 snailbooks.gumroad.com A review or social post is always appreciated

🧡 I won't be fooled by the Liberals again. It happened with Trudeau and proportional representation, and now Carney and climate. After considerable reflection I joined the #NDP. 🧡

Sittings on Google Meet and its Permanent Link See you at our first sitting on January 4 2026 meditationcommunity.substack.com/p/sittings-o...

Our English literature class was a small circle of Grade 13 students. On the last day he handed each of us prints of a few verses. One of them set my path: johnmiedema.art/thank-you-mr...

Steven Guilbeault, minister of environment and climate change for four years, resigns from Carney’s cabinet over the pipeline deal with Alberta. ~CBC #cdnpoli

A wave, the Buddhists say. Not a soul, just movement. Parfit calls it a bundle: thoughts, memories, sensations, intentions — held together by continuity rather than ownership. A binding meant to come undone at death. But how does that binding last a lifetime? johnmiedema.art/could-some-f...

Google is exploring computing in space because it avoids two big problems on Earth: energy and cooling. johnmiedema.art/google-is-ex...

AI is impressive, sure, but data centres are burning through energy at a ridiculous rate. So I asked it for a solution, thinking maybe it would suggest quantum computing or some other brilliant breakthrough. johnmiedema.art/ai-may-save-...

There is AI slop and there is AI art, two very different things. To put it simply, even chefs use a microwave.

I would say the ship has hit the iceberg but it has melted #cop30 #climate

COP30 climate deal fails to mention fossil fuels. The ship has hit the iceberg. #cop30 #climate

It seems Canada elected a Conservative government after all #cdnpoli

Shadow, as I’ve been calling it, is meta and recursive You can guess, I’ve already decided to publish this work johnmiedema.substack.com/p/shadow-as-...

It’s been many a year since I launched Snail Books, and countless manuscripts have crossed my desk. Most arrive quietly, as manuscripts do. But this morning, something different caught my eye. johnmiedema.substack.com/p/whether-sn...

Buddhist teachings root suffering in the cravings of the mind, while Rousseau locates it in the inequalities of society. meditationcommunity.substack.com/p/quieting-t...

How does spying on vaccine production threaten production? Maybe the spies will produce more?! #cdnpoli #vaccines #rent #housing www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Remember #remember #remembranceday #nov11

Meditation trains the nervous system for equanimity. There are many interesting definitions for meditation. The above is my current definition. Practical and positive. #meditation

Many of the budget cuts are to white collar federal government jobs and luxury services and military spending seems somewhat appropriate given the threats from Russia and the US. I am disappointed in the lack of climate investment. Your thoughts? #cdnpoli #budget

Meditation Community Will Begin on Sunday January 4, 2026 Sittings will be at 10 am EST for at a total of 6 weeks #meditation open.substack.com/pub/meditati...

Why is Andrew Scheer doing all the talking for the Conservatives? Has Poilievre resigned? #cdnpoli

Never mind crossing the floor Let's ditch 17th century political parties 🫅 Vote for people not parties Let them group dynamically on the issues 🤝 #cdnpoli

"It is difficult for anyone born and raised in human infrastructure to truly internalize the fact that your view of the world is backward." ~ from “A Psalm for the Wild-Built: A Monk and Robot Book” by Becky Chambers #booksky

"Rules — they aren’t going to break themselves" ~ ML

A young man raised in a Dutch Reformed community discovers his first meditation book in a prairie library and begins a lifelong quiet practice. This essay traces how a once-forbidden idea—viewed as foreign, mystical, or just plain weird—became an ordinary, evidence-based path to clarity and calm.

“Dex took note of Mosscap’s phrasing. ‘So, it is correct, then? You wouldn’t prefer *they* or—’ ‘Oh, no, no, no. Those sorts of words are for people. Robots are not people. We’re machines, and machines are objects. Objects are *its*.’ — from A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Neurotechnology is the use of light, sound, vibration or ultrasound, electricity or magnetism (as in EEG, tDCS, or TMS), and plant compounds (including psychedelics), sometimes combined with feedback or digital control systems, to measure or modulate activity in the brain, nervous system, and body.

There was a time when I did not exist. Now I exist. There will be a time when I do not exist. It only makes sense that I will exist again — as a person, an animal, a tree, a rock, perhaps. Somewhere nearby, or on another planet, in the future, the past, or even beside me now.

Every organism lives in its own bubble of perception — its umwelt. A bee lives in sunlight and scent. A tick in heat and butyric acid. A bat hears with sonar, in echoes. A human reads meaning in words, in design. What is the umwelt of machines — in service?

Umwelt is One of Those Words that Quietly Changes Everything My first project is to launch a free, weekly, online Meditation Community #umwelt #meditation

For Ted Smith, and for his Children, now Adults Divine is a short work with a larger story before its publication — and a tender real-life epilogue johnmiedema.substack.com/p/for-ted-sm...

Say, what is the name of our universe?

In these challenging political and economic times, it’s good to know that Snail Books is proudly and entirely Canadian. #booksky #bookbloggers #smallpress #publishers #ebooks #canada #freebies

After years of fighting the Keystone pipeline along with progressive Americans, Carney is going to resurrect it to win a concession from Trump?! Where is our climate leader? #cdnpoli

#freegaza #cdnpoli

After decades in information technology and research, John Miedema is returning to his first love—writing. Living in Alcove, Quebec, he has launched Snail Books, a small press devoted to thoughtful, independent works created at a human pace. johnmiedema.substack.com/p/about-john...

Compared to the Internet TV was literary. Go watch TV, it's good for your brain.

Smart glasses hint at a return to presence. Instead of bending our heads toward a slab of glass, we lift our eyes to the world and let information drift lightly across it.

A stone waits longer than we do. When we call it dead, it only smiles at our impatience. Trees, rivers, clouds — all of them carry time differently. To see them as mute is our failure of hearing. To them, we are the brief ones, flickering, noisy, soon gone. The world is alive everywhere ... #animism

Fans of Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods, Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, or C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters will feel right at home here. The Divine Mind by John Miedema is a theological fantasy with a satirical edge: reverent, witty, and full of flawed gods, earnest monks, and cosmic riddles. #booksky

Very happy to announce that my first book has been published on Snail Books. My fans can get the ebook of The Divine Mind for free -- click here, enter zero (0) for the price, and get the email to download it. More news to come. #booksky #books #ebooks

Kimmel returns! Guess his ratings weren't so bad after all, eh T?

Faux centrism. A surface neutrality that accepts the party line. It feels kind of normal and safer than the darkness that comes with calling a spade a spade.

🖕 Pete Hoekstra 🍁 #cdnpoli

Wordies, help me out, what's the term for right-wing cancel culture? #kimmel #colbert #kirk

Climate Collapse, Fascism, and a Chance to Evolve with AI The race between destruction and renewal, and the power still left in our hands johnmiedema.substack.com/p/climate-co...

"I’ll tell you everything I’ve learned, And ‘love’, is all he said" ~ Yusuf / Cat Stevens, The Boy With A Moon And Star On His Head