🇨🇦 Olympic fashion; 💲6 million ransom; A photo can change a 🌎

Fear, second hand embarrassment, and beauty on this week's link round up

Feb 08, 2026

Thanks for spending some time this weekend with Things I Wrote Down.

Here are three things that stood out this week and a poem that tracks the history of language from Babel to the upper room inJerusale.

Canadas Olympic fashion

What are we thinking about Canada’s Olympic uniforms? And more importantly, what was Lululemon, the designer, thinking?

The outfits created a stir this week as athletes around the world stepped onto sports’ biggest stage. Canada just so happened to step out in poofy shawls (that probably cost as much as the average family’s grocery budget).

Ok, I just checked $598 for a jacket, before tax… so, a few weeks of groceries 😀

Haiti wins the fashion prize. If you want to see how other nations got kitted out by fashion brands, here's a great overview.

What did you think of Canada’s outfits?

$6 million ransom

The story of the abduction of Today Show host Savannah Guthrie’s 84 yr old mother's sounds like a movie, but is a tragedy unfolding in real time.

Nancy Guthrie's children, Camron, Savannah, and Annie, in a video message to their mother's captors. Source: Instagram

I was on the road this week so had a few flights during which I could listen to 3-hour podcasts, something I rarely, if ever, do. So, I downloaded Megyn Kelly's coverage of the story as she interviewed former FBI investigators who've worked some of the biggest crime investigations in recent years, asw well as reporters breaking the news.

There's so much about this story that is dramatic. What happened in the 41 minutes when Ms. Guthrie was alone in her home? Where are the cameras that were smashed upon entry and what did they record? Who was she playing Majohng with at church and who dropped her off after dinner on January 31?

Who would have known that she had a pacemaker and to disconnect it from her iPhone? The breaking news today is that the people who were claiming to have taken her want a $6 million ransom… but is it really them? Or is it scammers who are taking advantage of the situation?

True crime is fascinating and terrifying, especially as it unfolds. A big learning is to pay for the subscription to your doorbell cameras so the footage is saved in the cloud.

Pray for the family! I hope she's alive and is returned to her loved ones.

Photos can change the world

I didn't expect this. To reconnect with the first story I helped bring to Canadians when I joined Compassion.

Compassion International's work in Indonesia - medical intervention — The story behind the photographer behind the photo

Karunia's sweet, strong spirit has shown through every photograph of her that I've seen, a story of courage and beauty. Since I saw that first photo, I've been impacted by her resilience in the small Indonesian village where the medical care and ongoing support she needed was expensive to access but made possible through the local church and generous supporters of Compassion International.

I didn't expect to hear the story behind the story this week as the talented photo journalist Vera Aurima shared how capturing this brave young girl over the years has also changed her.

And I didn't expect I'd have the honour to meet the woman who took the photo and walk in the Colorado cold with other photo journalists from around the world.

Compassion's work helps change the lives of millions of children around the world for the better. But it also changes me.