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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Life Story

June 8, 2022.Reading time less than 1 minute.

I can’t focus on what I’ll be remembered for; I am too busy living my best self today.

First Birthday in Canada

June 6, 2022.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Cake for breakfast. A trip to the trampoline park. An afternoon bbq and swim. “Best birthday ever!” proclaimed the star of the day.

War Stories

June 3, 2022.Reading time 1 minute.

The stories dwell inside me now, a gift I suppose, for a writer. The young woman, having escaped Russian occupation, who wails for her mother and eleven-year-old sister, left behind. The mother of three, who confesses that the darkness of war has all but consumed her. “My brother’s home was bombed this morning,” she writes. […]

Something to Love

June 1, 2022.Reading time 1 minute.

I met a woman once, so debilitated by disease that my impulse was to recoil. Then I remembered the words of one of my teachers: “There is something to love about everyone”, and I checked myself, and realized that this woman must have an incredibly strong will to live. I told her so, and noted […]

Hit Pause

I thumb through social media, make lists, scan through photos, put the kettle on, check emails… …evade the moment… What am I afraid will happen if I just pause and be? Maybe I should I try it and see… (Image my own)

Now That I Matter

The times I waited –restless and ragingdeliberately put on holddismissed, degraded, ignored. Why did I put up with that?Was I so afraid I’d lose it all?So uncertain about a future? How the children came to meneed in their eyes, little armsbegging to be embraced,and I too blinded to reach outfixated on the anger, powerless,immersed myself […]