“Apprenticed to Venus”: a Review

Subtitled My Secret Life with Anaïs Nin, Apprenticed to Venus is the part memoir, part novel of Tristine Rainier, who mentored under the famous diarist. Although  I have been inspired by Nin’s words, I have known very little about her, so I was eager to read this book.  Rainier, on an errand from her artist aunt, encounters […]

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Shadows Linger

Shadows shift, alter, but never fade.  They are contrast for light, a companion to our fears, the joy of a good mystery. This week, it had been my intention to photograph shadows, to have fun with what emerged, but life does not always follow our intended map.  Instead, another woman came forward to make allegations […]

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Finishing Foundations

I turned to God when my foundation was shaking, only to find that God was shaking my foundation. – unknown I’ve carried this quotation with me since my early thirties, a time when the bottom fell out of my life and I fell into a deep abyss of depression and mental breakdown (or breakthrough, as […]

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Continue to Question

Inquiry is a trait teachers hope to instil in students – the ability to not just take for granted that which they have been taught, but the curiosity to question evidence, and to research beyond what is given. Questions form the basis of a reflective life. This week’s challenge was to think about the questions […]

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The Questions That Follow Us

“Sometimes I just wish I could roll back the years and start over.” “Hard to imagine it.  Life would have been very different.” Our what if’s are wistful, laced with regrets.  Not that we had any power over what happened – we were only children when decisions that would affect us forever after were made. […]

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Enough Personification!

This blog post almost eluded my attention – the trickster. We’ve had company this week, and are still in the midst of settling, so I lost track of the days, and here it is Sunday already.  To be honest, I am happy to done with this challenge and move on to the next.  Focusing on […]

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Final Point of View (VJWC)

As a writer, I ponder point of view often, wondering which narrative voice is most effective.  For this post’s purpose, first person narrative is called for, however; I tend to favour that option in much of my writing, and yet, I tire of it, as I’m sure readers must. Much of my poetry stems from […]

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A Week of Accomplishment (VJWC)

To know I have accomplished something each day, is as important to me as the first cup of tea in the morning.  It is the satisfaction of knowing I have contributed, that I have made a stamp (no matter how minute) on the passage of time. Prior to illness, I didn’t think much about accomplishment; […]

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V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #7: Accomplishment

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”                                                             – Ralph Waldo Emerson Prior to […]

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July Blues

Summer bursts with activities and plans, and I am already wondering at the folly of trying to move in the midst of it all.  I put out a group text yesterday to solicit help from our kids, and the response was as expected: We are away that weekend. Can we help with the pre-move prep? […]

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