Growing with gratitude for life's challenges
Marital breakdown is a catastrophic event for the whole family – one minute you’re driving down the road, all three kids on board, headed for routine activities, and the next you’ve hit a wall of water with nowhere to go but to bail out. You might swerve off the road to avoid going under, and […]
Read MoreThe tall, lanky man my sister brought home was not unlike my father: both British, with startling blue eyes, a dark mop of hair, and a rakish grin. Before anyone could introduce them, my father reached out his hand, grasped the younger man’s in a death grip, and stared straight into his eyes. “I’ll trust […]
Read More“Pay attention to your inner child,” my therapist advised me when I first got sick. It seems that fear causes emotional regression and any needs suppressed over the years come barreling forward in irrational outbursts. Hard to deny that one from where I’m sitting. I’ve been dreaming about children lately – children in my care – […]
Read MoreI blame it on Somerset Maugham – that summer somewhere around my sixteenth year, when I immersed myself in his writing and found an argument for living impulsively. Can’t say exactly what it was in his words that prompted this conclusion (the storylines lost in my faded memory), but I do remember being fascinated with the […]
Read More“Can we watch something?” My four-year-old granddaughter climbs onto the bed and snuggles in. It’s been a routine we’ve shared as long as I’ve been ill. The question makes her parents cringe; they are trying hard to raise their child without excessive screen time. Cable TV does not exist in their world, so coming to […]
Read More“You’re the only help I have right now, Mom! I just feel like I’m not a priority for you.” “When you spend all your energy on the kids, I feel as if there is never any left over for me. I just get the dregs.” “It would be really nice if you could spend some […]
Read More“Could my life history have contributed to this illness?” I asked my therapist one day. We’ve been seeing each other now for the better of three years and it seems the trail of ‘stuff’ is never-ending. “I think it is fair to say that given your childhood, your marital history, and the years you did […]
Read MoreThis pedestal of responsibility has elevated me, out of reach, out of touch, lumps together children, mate, mother sister… Caregiver extraordinaire, present overcrowded by obligations, am unwell, off topic, fed up, surely… I am other abled, have room for more, non martyr related, hesitant to plan, my purpose for being so intricately tuned to the […]
Read MoreGo play in traffic, kids! was a favourite direction of one of my aunt’s. This particular aunt was snarly, often critical, and never filtered in her commentary on life. Her favourite point of contention was how spoiled we children were, how unappreciative, etc. She also frequently threatened to move to Alaska to get away from […]
Read MoreThere is a woman following me around, stabbing me in the chest every time I go near my husband, so I go off on my own. The pain is too much to bear. “Why are you alone?” someone asks me. “It’s just easier that way.” “Why don’t you stab her back?” “She only wounds me, […]
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One Woman's Quest II 