Boxed and Categorized

“Let’s just talk about what is relevant here.” I nod as the doctor peruses my list of diagnoses and symptoms. It’s lengthy, I admit, but how am I to know what relates and what doesn’t? Isn’t it all a part of the whole? I’ve waited almost two years for this appointment, although he tells me […]

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Community

I love my solitude. The silence of my alone time allows me to plunge into creativity. Some days I feel as if I might submerge and never reappear… I suspect I suffer from social anxiety, and when I am able to recognize it for what it is and step over the fear, I often discover […]

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Passion Asserting (haiku)

It has never been enough for me to just survive. Is this a fault or an asset? Hard to say. All I know is that life has certainly challenged my conviction…and still, passion asserts itself. (Art my own)

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Let Responsibility Lie Where It Belongs

I was raised to be a fixer. Right up there with people pleaser, it’s a hard practice to shake. Recently, I’ve been struggling with my husband’s new habit of staying up late. I worry about whether or not he’s getting enough sleep, and concerned that he’ll hurt his neck if he falls asleep sitting up. […]

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Packing

We’ve decided, after five years of being homebodies, to try travelling again. He’s making reservations, while I make to-do lists and try to decide what to pack. Excited by the possibility, he draws up ambitious itineraries, and I’m feeling reality close in. What won’t fit into any suitcase, I gently remind him, is the promise […]

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Limbo

Waiting on the results of a biopsy, news comes of a relative’s death. A loved one struggles to make sense of the world crashing in around him. War continues and though I extend my hands to help, I am growing weary. Life is like this, I think. Just as we think we’ve found firm footing, […]

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How do we measure worth?

My therapist recommends that I keep a scrapbook to preserve any accolades and I just laugh. My hubby bought me a leather bound book once for that very reason. I have no idea where it is and am pretty sure it is mostly empty. Not that I haven’t received any positive feedback – just that […]

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Life Story

Can’t focus on what I’ll be remembered for tomorrow: too busy living my best self today. “The problem with you,” a friend once told me, “is that you lack commitment.” She was talking about a meditation group that I had organized and facilitated for eighteen months, until my third child was born. With three children […]

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Mountain (tanka) Thoughts

Ever the mountainPresence looming, commandingClimb! Climb! It beckons – My soul, magnetized, respondsPursuing new heights – compelled. When my mother lost her eyesight, I confessed that I would give up at that point, but here I am, into my second year of failing vision and still climbing. Oh, my loss is not as great as […]

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Focus on the Good

I was a ‘bad’ student. I caused trouble for teachers, skipped many classes, and still passed high school with honours. I was an enigma, our Vice Principal said. He didn’t know what to do with me, and ended up inviting me to leave. He was always respectful. That young woman joined me, many years later, […]

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