Black and white and red all over 🪶

Gadwalls taking off, swan, ice breaking up. Spring on a bay of Lake Ontario 🪶

Trumpeter Swan spring fever 🪶

Ring-necked ducks (although the rings seem more around their bills) 🪶

The red-winged blackbirds have been back for two weeks - more signs of spring 🪶

Hooded merganser looking pleased with himself 🪶

Hello to new followers! I’ll take the opportunity to re-announce that COPING is coming out in June. “Accessible, compassionate, and grounded in science” Fix Problems, Find Meaning, Feel Better. @uoftpress.bsky.social

Spring 🪶

Cardinal looking jaunty today 🪶

White-throated sparrow is all puffed out 🪶

Hooded mergansers noticing spring in the air 🪶

Beautiful afternoon on Lake Ontario. Winter very much still here but it won’t be long until these long tail ducks head back north. 🪶

Learning the details of each others’ lives is the key to solidarity - more compassion, less stigma, less judgement - less we vs them.

Learning the details of each others’ lives is the key to solidarity - more compassion, less stigma, less judgement - less we vs them.

Merganser enjoys milder weather on Lake Ontario 🪶

Large see bird, White-winged Scoter, makes guest appearance on Lake Ontario 🪶

Close up 🪶

Edie’s strength—the self-proclaimed worry wart who opposed her mad father when no one else would, worked without education, & managed her family through beer storms and the Depression—somehow matched malignant forces that were in motion long before she was born. open.substack.com/pub/maunder/...

Urban eagle. A juvenile bald eagle in the city🪶

Cooper’s Hawk today in Toronto. -17 but nice and sunny. 🪶

Validation is not agreement, and it helps open.substack.com/pub/bobmaund...

Hooded merganser thinks it is a goldeneye. This pair has been inseparable lately. 🪶

Elijah didn’t drive alone. Charger was always in the shotgun seat beside him, and usually they were on their way to a park... Elijah would drive around, looking for good places for a dog to run and for a good place for him to jump. Yalom's Spare Prescription open.substack.com/pub/bobmaund...

Carmen's fourth specialist was useless to her. There was nothing that he could say that would carry weight; he gave that authority away with his brisk indifference to her experience... #pain #healthcare open.substack.com/pub/bobmaund...

See ya. #birds

The hooded merganser is an awesome winter #bird

Early morning digging out train platforms after #Toronto snow day

The goals of psychiatric care - more freedom, less cruelty, less suffering - are brought into relief by the story of a woman who chose medically assisted death. open.substack.com/pub/bobmaund...

Zoo #birds

This is stunning. Listen to this in Philadelphia. Thousands singing “Hey-Oh, we won’t be silent while our friends are gunned down.” Really listen to it.

City hawk 🪶

Hooded Merganser and Goldeneye toodling around icy water 🪶

Light was beautiful this afternoon on Frenchman’s Bay, Lake Ontario 🪶

My night with Harry foreshadowed a career in medicine. This is what we do… using whatever blunt tools are available to buy time, waiting for a better solution, knowing that the stakes are high, the solution is often elusive, and that just being there may be the best medicine we have to offer.

On being genuinely human in health care open.substack.com/pub/bobmaund...

This was exciting (to me). On a day with no birds to see except gulls and chickadees - my very first sighting of a Northern Shrike. 🪶

Irvin Yalom asserts humans are "'the uncontested authors' of their lives... individuals create everything... including their own suffering. I have no idea how a thoughtful, observant, person who spent a life in the business of caring for others could believe that." open.substack.com/pub/bobmaund...

Rough surf for the long-tails on windy cold Lake Ontario 🪶

Adverse Childood Experience (ACEs) and high ACE counts trending down from 2016 to 2023 in one large US study. I hope this is real. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Harrier and gulls on new ice 🪶

Happy 100th birthday to Dick Van Dyke!

A gaggle? flock? cache? of goldeneyes 🪶

Northern Harrier on bright cold afternoon at shore of Lake Ontario 🪶

#illness #meaning #philosophy #psychology substack.com/@bobmaunder/...

Such a grey sunless day, but elegant long-tailed ducks still look great 🪶

From the first of a series on life, death, and meaning from the corridors of a hospital. substack.com/@bobmaunder/...

“We humans are witnesses to each other’s suffering and celebration. Helping when we can… through our solace and support, or through our mere persistence in being present is how we defy life’s absurdity. This is how we fill our lives with meaning.” open.substack.com/pub/bobmaund...

The first substack in a new series: Finding Meaning in Illness and Healing open.substack.com/pub/bobmaund...

We saw our first long tails of this winter, down from the Arctic. Pictures didn’t turn out at all so here are two from same place on Lake Ontario last December. 🪶