The Coach Learns a Lesson (excerpt)

May 31, 2023.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Adolescence

May 24, 2023.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Poem and image my own

Alone: Kids got this

March 3, 2023.Reading time less than 1 minute.

I spend a lot of time alone; it’s the nature of living with chronic illness. I am seldom bored. Perhaps, it as they say, that we come full circle – the essence of childhood rejoining me as I age. Alone time is when the imagination is free to wander, unrestrained. This post inspired by Lens-Artist […]

Art and Grandchildren

February 26, 2023.Reading time 1 minute.

Family Day weekend – a holiday here in Canada – I invited three of our granddaughters to stay over. My son had visited weeks before and set up an art studio for me, complete with his leftover paints and canvases, so I asked if the little ones would help me organize it. 10 year-old Sloane […]

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 […]

Play

October 26, 2022.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Photo Play

April 1, 2022.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Introduced my granddaughter to one of the photo apps I’ve been using and gave her my phone. Within minutes she created the featured image, speeding through the app as if she’d been doing it forever. Not be outdone, I borrowed the photos she’d taken of herself and created this: Not quite an April Fool’s joke, […]

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 […]

Learning What Matters

February 21, 2022.Reading time 2 minutes.

Parents brought children to the occupation in Ottawa. They set up camp on a main thoroughfare, in front of apartment buildings and retail shops, and obstructed the lives of others. They honked their big rig horns, left their diesel engines running day and night, and set up barbeques, and food tents, and bouncy castles, and […]

Things I Learned From Christmas

December 29, 2021.Reading time 1 minute.

Attire does not an occasion make (referring to the 5-year-old in pjs). Age doesn’t matter when in the presence of loved ones. Engagement is everything. Stories and memories never grow old. Love prefers to congregate in small spaces. Dogs share their affection equally. (Thanks to my husband for capturing these moments.)

Lessons From a Newborn

Rest. Nap as often as you need;life can be exhausting – store up. Cry. Let your feelings be known –your voice is your saving grace. Joy is a whole body experience;immerse yourself in total delight. Hold on to those who love you;your survival depends on them. See the world through new ideas;you never know what […]

Ocean-gazing

Blue expandingcrisp whiteof tiny sails –horizon The lull is gentlelucidity swellingserenity present How safe it isto imagine limitlessnesswhen I am groundedbreast to railinganchored ashore. (Image my own)

Tugging

Is it selfishthis chosen solitude?How I treasure silence,stillness baiting my muse And is it my calmthat attracts chaos?The sorrow of otherslanding on my doorstep What if I rejected pleas,locked out the troubles?How long can I sustainpeace until need answers? (Tuesdays, I borrow from Twitter @Vjknutson. Image my own)