Growing with gratitude for life's challenges
Explosive, sometimes irrational, anger is a steady companion of addiction. Anyone who has lived with or been an addict will recognize the pattern played out in the pages of Mishka Shubaly’s memoir : I Swear I’ll Make It Up To You. Shubaly holds nothing back in the telling of his story, subtitled: A Life On […]
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 MoreWearing a bright yellow taffeta dress, a sash of satin ribbons at the waist and flowing with swirling layers, my granddaughter arrives for the movie. We’ve been trying to get in to see Beauty and the Beast for weeks now and finally secured tickets. “Well look at you!” I exclaim, arms open to receive her […]
Read MoreI keep dreaming about young men: confidant, seductive, virile young men. In my dreams, they cozy up to me, offer promises of love, and always, I remember who I am – a dried up old woman condemned to disability – and wake up…reluctantly. Thing is, men have always been a mystery to me, like a […]
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My husband is googling “The Declaration of Independence”. I am just trying to breathe: a tempest of emotions, thoughts, and fears attacking rationality. I try to think back to another time when I felt such terror…to reassure myself that this will all pass…but I think about my son who recently converted to Muslim for the […]
Read MoreA forty-one foot Alfa See Ya sits in the driveway awaiting take off. Ric has had to get medical clearance after two heart attacks and triple bypass surgery in the spring. He has also had to get special licensing to drive our new soon to be home. We have purchased a mobility scooter for yours […]
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 More“These Christmases never cease to amaze me and make me feel so special!!” messaged our daughter-in-law after this year’s family get together. With five adult children, their partners, grandchildren, and exes to work around, finding time to get together is always a challenge. Plus, just how many turkey dinners can one eat in a week’s […]
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Dear Dad, We all gathered together last night at D’s and were reminiscing about your death. It’s been ten years, and funny how we all remember it differently. I say ‘all’ but really there was just D and I, her two sons, and my middle daughter and family. Our family has dwindled away to nothing. […]
Read MoreSleeping in was a sin in my father’s eyes. Even as a teenager, no matter how late we’d been out the night before, if we weren’t up with the sun, Dad would treat us to an icy face wash. The early bird catches the worm! Laziness was not tolerated either. If we were ever caught […]
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One Woman's Quest II 