Growing with gratitude for life's challenges
The year my father turned 75, I decided to gift him with a letter of gratitude. We’d had a difficult go, and while I sometimes hated him, I always loved him, and I wasn’t sure I’d expressed the latter enough. I acknowledged his personal struggles, and apologized for any heartache I’d caused him, choosing to […]
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Port Aransas has a birding centre that was damaged during hurricane Harvey. The new facility opened this week and it’s incredible! A flock of sandpipers fly in just as we arrive. I search across the marsh to see where they’ve landed, now camouflaged among the reeds, mud, and shallow waters. I follow the sidewalk to […]
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Warmer weather encourages us to get out. We take the short ferry ride across to Port Aransas on Mustang Island. Paradise Pond is our destination. Many others have had the same idea and gather around the opening to the boardwalk. I look for what has caught their attention and spot a bird rapidly flitting about […]
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The candy shop across the bay, has weathered many storms. Fresh-made caramel and toffee, homemade chocolates and vintage sweets, appeal to kids of all ages – especially this one. Two years ago this island town was hit by a hurricane, and there are signs of devastation everywhere, but the butler on the porch of the […]
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“Have you been to Tule Marsh yet?” our new neighbours ask the moment we tell them we like birds. “The Whistling Ducks are there.” I’ve been wanting to see the Whistling Ducks! The Tule Marsh spans both sides of Highway 35 in Rockport, although apart from some small signs, it is hard to spot, which […]
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” I’m worried about my generation, Mom. There are so few male role models to set an example, how are we supposed to know how to live our lives?” My son was fifteen when he shared this concern with me. Having watched his own father turn his back during our divorce, and witnessing the same […]
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Father abhorred laziness. “The idle mind is the Devil’s playground!” he’d say. Or: “What are you trying to do; win the horizontal championship?” Well, I’m the horizontal champion now, thanks to illness. Wonder what he’d say about that? Still, I’m not lazy. To my face he was hardcore, unless he was soppy drunk, then the […]
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Situated at the crossing point of two rivers, our little town was once indigenous hunting ground, until European settlers arrived in the 1840’s taking advantage of the rich deposits of limestone. Much of the original architecture remains, giving the village an old world charm. The television series, Murdoch Mysteries, has used our train station and […]
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Rain has been threatening all morning, but I’m anxious to get outside, so the compromise is to drive to the end of the street and see if anything is happening. An osprey is on the ground in the middle of the parking lot. Rolling down the window, I snap some photos. The bird doesn’t budge, […]
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(* or any male of influence growing up.) I can’t count the number of times my father’s words hover over me, even though he’s been gone since 2005. He was the king of platitudes – constantly quoting (and making us recite) the works of Dale Carnegie, or Norman Vincent Peale. “Mind over matter,” he’d say […]
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One Woman's Quest II 