A Milestone Moment

July 28, 2023.Reading time 3 minutes.

“You need to rest, because tomorrow is your birthday.” There is talk of baking a cake and maybe preparing food for visitors. My birthday fell on a weekday, so I told our new guests I will likely not have visitors – everyone will be working. They shrugged: “Maybe…” Ric and I have accepted a new […]

Strive

July 19, 2023.Reading time 1 minute.

Conceived in the midst of unbearable psychological drama, I was the reason for my mother’s marriage to my father – a relationship that would cause us all great pain over the years. Many losses would follow – deaths of grandparents and a favourite uncle, two fires resulting in the loss of five children.I grew up […]

Dead Never Tell

July 12, 2023.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Not a Chance, Lady

July 10, 2023.Reading time 1 minute.

I decided to ignore the tugging signs and drive the car the short distance to the river. The day was overcast, so I reasoned that the light would not bother my eyes. Some things are not meant to be. Lifting my camera to shoot the heron lingering in the shallows, I realized that my right […]

Cornered

June 23, 2023.Reading time 2 minutes.

It was the pitch of the two dogs barking in the backyard that alerted me to trouble. That and Pippi, the female, growling. The two had cornered a young groundhog between the deck steps and a tiered planter. After I sternly sent them back inside, I went out to check on the animal’s wellbeing. “He’s […]

Three Gifts

June 14, 2023.Reading time less than 1 minute.

(Excerpt from Acceptance and Illness, June 2017)

Re-emergence

June 11, 2023.Reading time 3 minutes.

Hard to pinpoint when it all started. Was it the night before, when I pushed myself to finish that knitting project even though my eyes were so blurry that I had to feel my way through? Was it the day before, when I noticed that my breathing was compromised? I do know that I awoke […]

Keep Going

February 13, 2023.Reading time 2 minutes.

Lesia, our Ukrainian guest, wanted to take up knitting again after a career too busy for hobbies. So, Ric bought both of us needles and wool for Christmas and my neighbour offered to hold a knitting circle where we could learn and practice English. Lesia was miles ahead of me from the start, her patience […]

AI and Ghosts

January 27, 2023.Reading time 1 minute.

“What’s with the spooky images?” I’ve been experimenting with AI generated images. You tell the computer what you want it to create and it spits out a number of alternatives. Ric is looking over my shoulder. I shrug, not really knowing how to reply. At my age, with my mother contemplating death, many ghosts of […]

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 […]

Ukraine

Planted seeds for prosperity –images of children frolickingthe delight of yellow horizonstradition setting our fields ablaze Till greed came knocking –brother turning on brother Rhetoric and lies shrapnelshattering our dreams Only the deer frolic nowunwitting participants inthis unprovoked slaughterland mines defiling landscapes But seeds are not lost,nor are the legacy of generationswhose soil has known […]

Winter, Please

(Image my own)

Sing Along

Dove’s mournful cryspotlights Nature’s calling –Let us find a harmonic notesing along for conservation,for preservation, for a strongtomorrow – find our voicesand join the chorus. (Image my own)