Grandparents Are Blessings

July 11, 2019.Reading time 1 minute.

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 […]

Nailed It Dad!

January 11, 2019.Reading time 2 minutes.

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 […]

Photo a Week: Whimsical

October 13, 2018.Reading time 1 minute.

Wasn’t quite sure if this crowing rooster was whimsical or forlorn, now that the flowers that had previously blocked it have been cut down. Whimsical is lying in the grass with a pink helmet on trying to roll your tongue: This past weekend we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with a family gathering. A full-length mirror provided […]

Photo a Week: Ready…

September 23, 2018.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Set…Go! Ready, set, go: I miss summer already! Thank you to Nancy Merrill for this week’s photo challenge: Ready, set, action.

A Week of Celebrations

July 29, 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

The celebrations started last Sunday – dinner at a Greek restaurant with the family. It was a double celebration, Sloane having turned six just days before. Then we headed North to a friend’s cottage and had a meal rich with the summer’s harvest: corn on the cob, potatoes cooked with garlic on the barbecue, and […]

V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #4: Relationships

June 25, 2018.Reading time 2 minutes.

“The people we are in relationships with are always a mirror, reflecting our own beliefs, and simultaneously we are mirrors, reflecting their beliefs.” – Shakti Gawain A friend of mine used to say (and I paraphrase). “May you experience as many relationships […]

#FOWC: Gumption

June 16, 2018.Reading time less than 1 minute.

A six-year-old, intent on exerting independence, exerts gumption (Fandago’s word of the day prompt is gumption)

RDP #7 -Colouring You Purple

June 7, 2018.Reading time less than 1 minute.

I am colouring you purple, for the sacredness of your being, for the majesty of your soul. I am colouring you purple, for the joy that you spread – for the laughter that we share. I am colouring you purple for that is the hue that best expresses the infinite capacity of my love for […]

Fishin’: A Photo Story

June 2, 2018.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Some stories are better told with pictures: Making memories with Grumpa.

Baby Turns Two

May 31, 2018.Reading time 1 minute.

Two years ago my husband was just released from the hospital following triple bypass surgery, my daughter’s mother-in-law fell down their stairs resulting in a concussion, and our third granddaughter was born. It was a chaotic time. Now, I am happy to report, all are well, and the little one is more than thriving. We […]

An Escape Plan

An incorrigible hagengages my loneliness –like an assassin sniffing outany scent of vulnerability I am lowering standardsthis history of imprisonmentenabling inappropriate openings I cry for new perspectiveponder after boundariesintending to defend Like an unwanted bullseyeI am pursued on repeatmalice considering mea problem to be solved Who is this old womanwhose thoughts are daggerswho calls upon […]

Making of a Woman

I know that abyss –swallowed up as I waspunch-drunk on darkness Bled as I emerged,each reach a scrape –there was release too Revived now, I honourthat passage, recognizethe making of a woman. (Making of a Woman first appeared here, December 2021. Image: self portrait in ink)