Permission to write, paint, and imagine are the gifts I gave myself when chronic illness hit - a fair exchange: being for doing. Relevance is an attitude. Humour essential.
This current state of restlessness seems to be adding to the body’s distress. I try to calm myself with art, but the emerging images, abstract and chaotic, only seem to magnify the mood. I never know when a piece is finished, so taking a photo allows me to step away and view my art objectively. […]
A few years back, I took a fictional writing course. The featured image is an excerpt from my final piece. Clicking on the link should take you to the original for the whole story. Thanks for reading!
You can’t tell from the photograph, but one woman’s cousin has been missing for 20 days. He is in the military, and all they know is 22 from his regiment are dead. Another’s brother just turned 16. She wants to bring him to Canada before the war makes a statistic out of him, but their […]
February tests us with her gloom. I am tempted to hole away. Feel sorry for myself. Let others feel sorry for me. It’s not sustainable, however. The month is practically through, and pity is more smothering than the greyest winter’s day. I will wander down to the art room and punch a hole in the […]
Without resources to deal with the trauma of my youth, I buried it. It would surface again, when as a young mother, I sought for a deeper understanding of life. I searched for the light and found only darkness – the truth of my own victimhood. I did not see how my obsession with healing – the […]
Took some time to re-evaluate where my energy goes, as my health has been deteriorating lately. The one thing Myalgic Encephalomyelitis teaches is that energy for anything (be it mental, emotional, or physical exertion) is limited. Trying on a stripped back existence in order to reset. That has meant limited screen time. “The idle mind is the devil’s […]
I wasn’t taught about boundaries as a child, in fact, I was encouraged not to have any. No one said so, specifically, but in the drive to please, I came to this interpretation. Walls, however, grew organically. I remember many a time, curled up on my childhood bed, raging and in tears, repeating over and over: ”I need nothing; […]
Cast my shadow over white banks/ assert presence: proud, defiant Will find beauty in deserted places / and colour in the monochrome Haunted by a winter state of mind / resolved to stretch despite chill. For Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: illustrate a favourite quote or poem. Of course, I chose a poem of my own: Seasonal Defiance, originally published […]
What lies ahead,when pain has clouded the past,and fear is choking the present? Is it possible to glimpse the futurewithout projection, without prejudice;or do we need we need to clear the heartbefore we can be guided by hope?