Reflections on Gathering

October 14, 2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

The forecast for last night was a frost warning. “The rooftops were white this morning, did you see?” a neighbour asked me at our communal brunch. I hadn’t noticed, but I am feeling it in my body. Things are seizing up. We’ve had a week of get-togethers, starting with Thanksgiving. Tuesday, we drove into town […]

“Apprenticed to Venus”: a Review

October 4, 2018.Reading time 2 minutes.

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 […]

Baseline Wrap-Up

September 30, 2018.Reading time 1 minute.

Before illness, I loved to play tennis. Although never the fastest player on the court, I appreciated the fact that tennis is also a game of strategy. My strategy was often to aim for the baseline, a shot that almost always caught my opponent off guard. Of course, missed shots were most often out-of-bounds. This […]

When Turning Off the News Is Not Enough

September 29, 2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

“I am glad that Bill Cosby got jail time,” I state, seated across from my husband at lunch. “I hope justice doesn’t stop there.” My husband shifts uncomfortably in his chair. He thought that Cosby should have house arrest. He doesn’t say it now – he’s too sensitive for that – but he has said […]

Shadows Linger

September 23, 2018.Reading time 2 minutes.

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 […]

Finishing Foundations

September 9, 2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

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 […]

Continue to Question

September 2, 2018.Reading time 2 minutes.

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 […]

The Questions That Follow Us

August 29, 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

“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. […]

Enough Personification!

August 26, 2018.Reading time 2 minutes.

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 […]

Final Point of View (VJWC)

August 19, 2018.Reading time 2 minutes.

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 […]

Imagine

If we could lift understandingto indigenous teachingsexpand our loveto earth, sky, and seaMake personal gain tabooand Ancients a weigh point If we could witness the mountainsslow floating across the skyand touch the dolphin’s soulanxiously swimmingwhere tuna are netted Would we cower at our insignificanceor move forward, learning to acceptthat all of life is deeply woveninto […]

Dear Child

I know a little girl,whose hair in ringletsfalls, unkempt from lackof brushing; who standswhen she should be sitting;who laughs with defiance whenchallenged, her dark eyes gleamingwith mischief; who holds her chin uphigh and stamps her feet, arms foldedin protest when she does not get her way. I see that little girl,have watched her play,with a […]

Re-de-fine-d

Ask me how I’m doingand I’ll say “fine”, notbecause I’m actually fine,but because “fine” is the onlysocially acceptable response. If I said that I have been lyinghere, for three hours now,willing my body to move,that would elicit unsolicitedadvice and tarnish my “fine”. I’d berate myself for breakingmy promise not to moan,knowing that complainingprovokes a compulsive […]