Growing with gratitude for life's challenges
I offer our Ukrainian guest the last pot of chocolate dessert that had been dropped off that morning by a fellow Ukrainian. “There are fresh raspberries, too!” I add, gifted from another. She pauses, and then shakes her head. “Maybe tomorrow. I had sweet today.” And then she bursts out crying. I reach for my […]
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Ah Christmas…the barrage of lists, the constant bustle, my aching legs…. When we have a moment to rest, we celebrate that two Ukrainian families have now successfully flown our nest. We are exhausted but warmed by the knowledge that our family has grown. We’ll be twenty at Christmas – our two families of five, plus […]
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I met a woman once, so debilitated by disease that my impulse was to recoil. Then I remembered the words of one of my teachers: “There is something to love about everyone”, and I checked myself, and realized that this woman must have an incredibly strong will to live. I told her so, and noted […]
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“Hi Mrs Knutson,Hope you are well!I saw that you and your husbandare hosting a family of refugeesfrom Ukraine….“ The writer of this message attended a school where I once taught. He was not a student of mine, but I did coach the boys’ soccer team, with this young man’s help and direction (he was our […]
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Reading through old journals, so much focuses on lack of money. I express guilt for not providing enough as a single mother, anger for being abandoned by my children’s father, and shame for having to rely on others. The feelings still linger. And then I hear my father’s voice: “The good Lord always provides.” And […]
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“Tell me a favourite memory from your travels,” my golden-haired nurse asked me as she scoured my bruised arms for an accessible vein. I’d blown another IV and options were limited. Rachel Sunshine I called her, this wisp of a young woman who, at first hospital-glazed glance, glowed a with a yellow aura. So I […]
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A walk in nature reduces life-sized problemsto ant-like awe – an open secret often ignored. I travel back roads, am humbled bythe power of farm machines, the vastness of the sky. Gratitude larger than this limiting skin. (For Cee’s On the Hunt for Joy challenge: make yourself small; Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: roads; […]
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Love abounds with four-footeds around Those eyes that watchour every move,speak volumes (For Nancy Merrill’s A Photo a Week Challenge: eyes.)
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I cast my shadow over white banksassert my presence, proud, defiant Will find beauty in deserted golf coursesand colour in a monochrome season I am haunted by a Winter state of mindresolved to stretch myself despite creeping chill. (Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge is winter scenes. This Winter I am challenging myself to endure a season […]
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The best openings are the one’s we carve for ourselves. We spent New Year’s Eve reminiscing about eighteen years of togetherness. Stayed up past midnight, and talked about our future. Hope coloured our words. Sculpting has been on my mind – not literally, but in the sense of chipping away at the outer facade to […]
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