Carmel Futures

Julian Lebensold, 77, of Montreal, passed away on September 3, 2025. A devoted husband, father, and grandfather, Julian will be remembered for his generosity, humour, intellect, love of design, and enduring perseverance in the face of life’s challenges.

My dad was over six feet tall, wore enough Tilley gear to survive a safari, and may have been one of the first 50 people in Montreal to own a cell phone — which he used loudly, in public, before it was cool.

He loved his family, hatching a good plan, finding a better bargain, and enjoying the perfect smoked meat sandwich.
He always had the courage to learn something new, to get his hands dirty, to start again.
He was an integral part of stitching together the fabric of community life around him in Montreal.
He showed us how masculinity could be strong and structured, while also soft and open-hearted.
He taught us perseverance by living it and never giving up — not on a math problem, not on walking again after a spinal cord injury, not on improving your character.
He raised pebbles and saw pearls.
He carried tasks through to their end.

We’re heartbroken to have lost him on this side, but thrilled for the journey his soul continues to travel.
I’ve been in awe at the strength, generosity and love pouring in, especially from my dear friends who’ve already passed through this particular landscape of grief that threatens to swallow you when you lose a parent.

So much love for my dear mom, and .alexia and and so many incredible friends who’ve been carrying us through. (.friedmann pictured here) 💕

Loved experiencing and getting good-lost in the Terceradix by this weekend! How rarely are we fully immersed in an organic womb-like shape? 👌🏼💫

What I loved about working on this digital art commission for a friend was all the shades of colour in both the sunrise and the snow. And since she’d shared a few images of these special winter dawn walks in her hometown, it felt like I was with her as I was drawing.
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Swipe to see her gorgeous photos and then to see the final printed piece!
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Snaps of this gorgeous week here at , complete with tons of sunshine, writing and staring into the middle distance time, quiet beaches, bike rides, an eclectic stack of books, some sauna-lake-sauna time, coffee stops , kitchen chats with new pals , .camacho.lomeli and and delivering more groceries when things looked a bit dire. 😂 A full heart. now…to bring a little of this calm and beauty home again! 💕💫

Blessed to spend a week and hang with a splendid group of artists. Our collage night in the communal kitchen inspired these playful little pieces. 💫
Always the birds with me. 🐦

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of and .friedmann so my heart just about exploded a month ago when I received this stunning piece around my birthday. 🥰
I see it at the foot of the bed every morning and evening and it reminds me that life is cyclical, that I am part of a much greater whole and that there is always sparkly stuff hiding where I least expect it. 💫👌🏼
I just love that yellow!
It’s been a privilege watching grow and see the gorgeous and detailed work she produces.

This Thursday evening, we're gathering online for summer solstice to reflect on our work, connect with one another and re-ignite our spark! There are still a few spots available, maybe one of them is for you? :)

Solstice Spark: Connect & Create On Thursday evening, June 20th, let's connect online together about our creative work! Whether creative work is your main quest or a side quest these days, let's make some time to come together and honour that work in the warmth of the energy of summer solstice here in the Northern Hemisphere. Grab....

Link in bio! 💫 Two things continue to be true for me, and they’re in dynamic and delicious tension with each other: One is that when we choose to, we can always weave in a little side-quest that sustains us, and the other is that there are seasons and cycles to life and the nature and scope of that side-quest needs to be highly variable and responsive. That sounds so tidy when I put it down like that. But the reality is this ever-shifting gong-show with all these pesky feelings attached to it, evaluations and judgments about wherever we are on the pendulum between “there are seasons and this just ain’t it!” and “I can ALWAYS have a side quest and it’s up to me to weave it in!” 
 
There’s (almost) nothing sweeter to me than facilitating creative processes for others. But the reality is that I can’t meaningfully do that when my own creative well has run dry. So these two side quests feed off each other. And then my writing, which is really for and about young people, is always informed by being with children. Another excellent side-quest. Maybe part of what makes these side quests hard isn’t their side-questiness at all, but the expectations we inadvertently put on them to have the forward momentum we come to expect of the main quest, or the way we might wonder if they’ll ever replace the main quest.
 
Not that life is a video game of course. But come on, don’t you also sort of see yourselves as the main character in the video game of life, trying to get coins quick, pick the right set of wheels and steer in a 2024 version of Mario Kart that, have you noticed is SUPER different by the way than it was 30 years ago, but that’s not a tangent or anything, is it?

We adapt. 
If you’re feeling like connecting about your creative work, join us on June 20th for a creative workshop online. 💕

About last week…
The early mornings and the way all I have to do is open the door of my studio from my bedroom and let the sunlight pouring in shock my system awake.
The sound of the waves nearby, bike rides in between writing sessions, my body going from total stillness to rhythmic movement. 
Running outside in my Birkenstocks holding a can of San Pellegrino to the beach so I can gawk at the sunset with the other sporadically placed humans on the beach. 
I lay out provisions for the work I intend to do: books that inspire, the smattering of art supplies, laid out on a large inviting wooden table covered in kraft paper that seems to say “go on, make a mess, I dare you.” 
Some yummy nuts for that mid afternoon crash when I assume I’m existentially splitting into many disparate parts, but I’m actually just hungry. 
 
You haven’t heard from me in awhile because I’ve been busy being greedy with my time.
I could explain it by saying “I got a 9-5 job and it’s been fascinating and demanding and it weirdly took up all this time.” 

But that’s only part of the truth and we all know it, because that’s the whole THING I’ve been working on, among other things, in conversation with many of you, over some years now. This question about the manifold demands life makes on us and where and how to fit in the side quests that call on us.

Join me for a summer solstice creative workshop on June 20th. Check the link in bio for more details and to register!

I’m forever fascinated by all the shapes birds make with their bodies in flight. It’s not easy to capture them with my pencil but I keep trying! 😂
Made this piece in Toronto Island last week

Like two birds in a nest…once I made the first circle collage with some found music sheets, I needed to make a friend. 😂
Savoring the last day here and the precious time and space to write, think, make and rest.