Growing with gratitude for life's challenges
“I’ve started to write short stories again – something I haven’t done since I was a kid.” “How’s that going?” “It’s disturbing, actually; the endings are the same even after all these years.” “Like what?” “Me in a straitjacket, completely mad.” “Oh, I see!” As do I – there are never happy endings, just a […]
Read More“You’re abandoning me for the summer? Is that what you’re telling me?” I reel at my mother’s response when I tell her we have parked the motor home at the lake for the summer season. This is the place she always goes to: how it affects her and I feel the talons of guilt closing […]
Read MoreThe longest my family ever lived in one place was when I was aged four to eleven. We lived in a house, built by my father, with a fortress of cedars on either side of the backyard to “keep out nosy neighbours”. Behind was a farmer’s field and beyond a wooded area. My father had […]
Read MoreMust have been the dimness of the lights, or maybe the thick haze of cigarette smoke that masked the truth of my age, because the doorman didn’t flinch as my sister led me into the crowded bar. Rows of long plywood tables lined either side of the room, each one overflowing with bodies, more men […]
Read MoreI spotted him as soon as I exited the back door of the school. He stood on the field, just off the paved area where students were now scattering after the final bell. He wore a bulky, beige parka, fists shoved into jean pockets, a few locks of dirty blonde hair falling over cold grey eyes; […]
Read MoreThis pedestal of responsibility has elevated me, out of reach, out of touch, lumps together children, mate, mother sister… Caregiver extraordinaire, present overcrowded by obligations, am unwell, off topic, fed up, surely… I am other abled, have room for more, non martyr related, hesitant to plan, my purpose for being so intricately tuned to the […]
Read MoreThere is a woman following me around, stabbing me in the chest every time I go near my husband, so I go off on my own. The pain is too much to bear. “Why are you alone?” someone asks me. “It’s just easier that way.” “Why don’t you stab her back?” “She only wounds me, […]
Read MoreMy aunt gave up her daughter for a chance at love. Can’t remember which marriage it was – there were seven in all – but he didn’t want children, so she just asked around if someone would take M, then sixteen. A few relatives tried, but my cousin, the depths of whose rejection is unfathomable, strayed […]
Read More“Your homework for this week is to write about the things your mother taught you,” my psychologist advised at the end of our session. Memories have been resurfacing and along with them rage. I am incensed that I was never protected from some of the things that happened to me. “Well, she taught me that […]
Read MoreHe’d always come early, my sister’s beau, hover over me with what I mistook for childlike interest, invite me to go for a ride in his shiny new sports car – a two-seater with overdrive. I was barely fifteen. Looked like Bert Reynolds: dark hair, dark eyes, a stylish moustache. He was Russian and broad-shouldered, […]
Read More
One Woman's Quest II 