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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

After the fear…

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

Changing the Lens

March 7, 2022.Reading time 1 minute.

Reading through old journals, so much focuses on lack of money. I express guilt for not providing enough as a single mother, anger for being abandoned by my children’s father, and shame for having to rely on others. The feelings still linger. And then I hear my father’s voice: “The good Lord always provides.” And […]

Where is Home?

February 28, 2022.Reading time 2 minutes.

I ask my three-year-old self to show me her home, and she points to the floor beneath the formica-topped table in the kitchen. There, caged within the chrome legs of table and chairs, she is out of the path of adult legs, whose movements are as unpredictable as their moods. I ask my four-year-old self […]

Thoughts on Gates and Fences

March 20, 2020.Reading time 2 minutes.

My childhood home was surrounded by fence, bordered by tall cedars – we had a secret to keep. I learned not to trust neighbours. I learned the price of shame. At the back of the yard was a gate that opened onto a field and beyond that a wooded area. There I found serenity, connection, […]

Sculpting

January 2, 2020.Reading time 1 minute.

The best openings are the one’s we carve for ourselves. We spent New Year’s Eve reminiscing about eighteen years of togetherness. Stayed up past midnight, and talked about our future. Hope coloured our words. Sculpting has been on my mind – not literally, but in the sense of chipping away at the outer facade to […]

Now That I Matter

The times I waited –restless and ragingdeliberately put on holddismissed, degraded, ignored. Why did I put up with that?Was I so afraid I’d lose it all?So uncertain about a future? How the children came to meneed in their eyes, little armsbegging to be embraced,and I too blinded to reach outfixated on the anger, powerless,immersed myself […]

Flowers and Rain (haiku)

Sun Certainty

Clouds bundleshift and foldcotton strata Trees huddleconfidence incommunity Emotions stackone on anotherco-mingling hues Beneath layersan eternal glowsun certainty. (First published April 2021. Image my own)