Last Laugh

July 1, 2022.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Fourteen-year-old Alina thinks I’d look better with her hair colour. It was good for a laugh. (For Bushboy’s Last on the Card)

City Structures

June 29, 2022.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Views from the road of Stratford, Ontario and London, Ontario for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: City Structures

Are hopes and dreams stored together?

June 27, 2022.Reading time 1 minute.

Funny thing about this house we purchased on a whim two years ago was that the basement haunted me even before we moved in. The entrance is a wide-open descent from the main foyer – in reverse of the upward rising staircases of dream homes. I would wake at night, in a sweat, fearing that […]

Orchestration

June 26, 2022.Reading time less than 1 minute.

The sky – the sheer vastness of the countryside highlighted by endless blue – lifts me, orchestrates a symphony within. (A long overdue contribution to Weekend Sky)

A Home of Their Own

June 22, 2022.Reading time 3 minutes.

Five weeks ago, a family of five arrived on our doorstep, distraught and teary-eyed after having fled the war in Ukraine. The dad started working the next day, and the rest of us sorted out beds, groceries and necessary paperwork. Within a week, the kids started school and Mom applied for jobs. It didn’t take […]

Green Interlude

June 20, 2022.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Alina’s Dream

June 17, 2022.Reading time 5 minutes.

“Will you please write my story, V.J.?” fourteen-year-old Alina asked me recently. She and her family have now been living with Ric and I a month. Alina is a striking young woman, calm and poised, and over the past month, I have come to appreciate the strength of her determination. We talked about interests the […]

Stopping to smell the flowers

June 15, 2022.Reading time less than 1 minute.

I rushed to the grocery store for a few things before the kids got home, skipping aisles to avoid wasted time. Loaded the bags in the car and hopped in the driver’s seat before I noticed them: flower pots everywhere. If I don’t have time to photograph the flowers, I decided. then something is wrong […]

Numbers

June 13, 2022.Reading time less than 1 minute.

525: the number of displaced Ukrainians on my list needing hosts. 525 out of the 300,000 who have applied for refuge in Canada. I am one of a team of a dozen. 7 days ago I hit a wall. The pain just doesn’t want to subside. So now my team is -1. The numbers haunt […]

Hello Mink

June 10, 2022.Reading time less than 1 minute.

A surprise encounter at riverside.

Melding

I have venturedinto your atmosphereslipped my skinyour skinand discovereda universethoughtsemotionsbeliefsblendinginto a physical danceof light and shadownuances of colourdelineating life At our corewe are lightleaning into mysterycellular interpretationsof a symphonywe cannot hear Compassion extendedmind alteredwe meld. (Melding first appeared here June, 2020. Image my own)

Priorities

Supper dishes abandoned,we cruise the backroads,destination: river’s edge A muskrat creates ripplesdistorting mirror imagesdisappears into murky unknown A canoe glides by, occupant a silhouettein the golden sun’s descent We linger in the warmthof the fading glow, celebratingsummer’s gracious moments. (Image my own)

Grains

There are shores that remainever-etched upon my heart –emotional tides that tugand carry me, currentsof past revelations – I remember drowningin the swells of lonelinessalways the outsider, the grainsof this sentimentalitystill shredding my adult soul. (Tuesdays, I borrow from Twitter @Vjknutson. Image my own)