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 […]

Robin, Robin What Do You See

May 30, 2022.Reading time 1 minute.

I haven’t been to the river for a while, time no longer a commodity. Ric and laugh at quickly our routines were toppled, and how sedate our life was by comparison. Life before 7 in our household, that is. “So that’s what the dining table is for,” he chuckles, since we never used it as […]

After the fear…

May 25, 2022.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Ukrainian/Canadian Celebration

May 23, 2022.Reading time less than 1 minute.

It was cool, but the smiles were warm. Four families from our area, hosts and guests. A celebration of kindness.

Plus Five

May 20, 2022.Reading time 2 minutes.

Arrogant of me to ask you to stop and read while I have been so absent, yet I have much to share. How did this broken woman, debilitated by disease, find herself deeply entrenched in the humanitarian side of war? I ask myself this question daily. It is a lesson for all us, I believe. […]

Approach softly

May 18, 2022.Reading time less than 1 minute.

In times of painbe the whispering breeze that soothesnot the harrowing wind. (My image)

Weekend Sky

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

Okay, it’s not this weekend; it’s an April sky. Weekend Sky

Pause for Art

May 13, 2022.Reading time 1 minute.

For the first time in weeks, I took a break to create. The volunteering threatens to be all-consuming, but I am determined to find balance. Weeks ago, when I started this venture, I was hoping to connect one displaced Ukrainian family with a host family in my area. Quickly, the requests poured in and soon […]

Wings

(Written during my bedbound years with ME/CFS)

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis

May is Myalgic Encephalomyelitis awareness month. Also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, this disease is characterized by exhaustion after exertion. The exertion can be physical -taking a shower; emotional – worrying or obsessing; or mental- filling out forms. The best source of information about ME/cfs, as we call it, is the Bateman Horne Center. They […]

Sorry

Sorry –so much inadequacybundled into one wordas if five letterscan conveydepths of regret,shock, dismay seems I am the sparkto your lighter fluid –unintentional, I swear still reelingfrom the aftermathof the explosion attempting todeconstruct theformula –precautionary I am sorry –that you are enraged,that you are so obviously disappointedthat you are consumed with resentment –except, it is […]