Growing with gratitude for life's challenges
Sunflowers and chocolates kick off my birthday week. Delivered by daughter and her family made it all the more special. I share my birthday month with now seven-year-old Sloane and our youngest, so July is filled with blessings. We are adjusting to the role reversals here – I now drive Ric to appointments, and do […]
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Great Grandma (my mom) lives on at 92. Her grandchildren and great-grandchildren adore her. I never knew my grandfathers – both having died the year before my birth. I remember my grandmothers, and was particularly close with one until she died when I was eleven. I still have her last letter to me. My other […]
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Settling in a small town, especially a senior’s community, is not something I would have ever envisioned, and yet; here we are. Funny how life works like that, and thank goodness it does. I appreciate this place that we have landed more and more each day. It has not been without difficulty, this move away […]
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Marrying for the third time entailed blending families – not always an easy task. I had three; he had two – bookends to mine. Falling in love is one thing, but the chances that all parties will be enthused about the idea is another. Ric’s oldest, a son, was already an adult when we met, […]
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I started the tradition – a challenge really – to create a painting for each of my family members’ birthdays. The challenge continues, as the birthdays keep coming. What to paint for my daughter-in-law, who has already claimed many of my art pieces? I wanted something personal and meaningful, so I decided to tackle an […]
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” I’m worried about my generation, Mom. There are so few male role models to set an example, how are we supposed to know how to live our lives?” My son was fifteen when he shared this concern with me. Having watched his own father turn his back during our divorce, and witnessing the same […]
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(* or any male of influence growing up.) I can’t count the number of times my father’s words hover over me, even though he’s been gone since 2005. He was the king of platitudes – constantly quoting (and making us recite) the works of Dale Carnegie, or Norman Vincent Peale. “Mind over matter,” he’d say […]
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Red and white – coloursof a sister’s soul – I mournvibrancy’s passing. (Cee’s Flower of the Day.)
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Did you try some of the soup, Mom? I glanced around at the many pans, ingredients, and baking paraphernalia lining the kitchen counters; not to mention my son-in-law and granddaughter who where firmly planted at the stove. No, I messaged back. It’s a little busy here. An unexpected trip back to Ontario landed me smack […]
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“Mom, I want you to know that I don’t harbour any ill will toward our past. If I seek to know what happened, it is only to understand myself so that I might heal.” Mom nods, considers my words. “There is so much I could have done differently.” “No. You did what you could with […]
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