Growing with gratitude for life's challenges
“I get hit on everyday at work,” a young mother recently disclosed. “Anyone of those men would be happy to look after me. My husband just doesn’t appreciate me enough!” I don’t know what has motivated this woman to make such a comment, but I fear she is on the brink of destroying many lives. “There […]
Read More
I understand the need for political change – here in Canada it represented a landslide win for a young, politically inspired, English teacher with “great hair” as all the election attack ads reminded us in hopes of discrediting him. I get that Hilary has a less than spectacular track record tainted by rumours of corruption. At […]
Read More“Who is the audience?” As an English teacher I often asked this question, to which many students would reply: “Everyone.” Everyone, of course, is not the correct answer, but I understand how difficult it is to define such as elusive entity as ‘audience’. “Imagine,” I would invite them, “that you just failed an important test and […]
Read MoreMust have been the dimness of the lights, or maybe the thick haze of cigarette smoke that masked the truth of my age, because the doorman didn’t flinch as my sister led me into the crowded bar. Rows of long plywood tables lined either side of the room, each one overflowing with bodies, more men […]
Read MoreGo play in traffic, kids! was a favourite direction of one of my aunt’s. This particular aunt was snarly, often critical, and never filtered in her commentary on life. Her favourite point of contention was how spoiled we children were, how unappreciative, etc. She also frequently threatened to move to Alaska to get away from […]
Read MoreI am contemplating the importance of punctuation when writing poetry. Please be advised that I am not an expert – either of the period or the poetic form – just a woman, who having stumbled upon the possibility of penning a word or two, has found herself questioning (which definitely needs a question mark, doesn’t […]
Read MoreFrom the time I was preteen, I was obsessed with drawing the same cartoon over and over; the first illustration showed the shapely backside of a long-haired temptress, and the next frame revealed the fact that the things are not as they appear – a woman with a monstrously ugly face. It was a self-portrait, […]
Read MoreI was sixteen and starry-eyed when the handsome, eighteen-year-old G asked me out. For two years I had secretly swooned over him but I never dreamed that he would notice me. I felt like the luckiest girl alive! When he told me that he was going to be the next drummer for The Who, I […]
Read MoreA week after my husband completed thirty-five rounds of radiation for Stage III Prostate cancer, and a year to the date that I learned surgery to remove cancerous tissues from my breast was successful, Ric fell down a flight of steps rupturing his quad tendon. Ten weeks after surgery, he would fall again, causing further […]
Read MoreAnother celebrity has been acquitted of sexual assault charges because the female complainants did not hold up in court as credible witnesses. I was neither a witness to the alleged occurrences, nor present for the court proceedings, and therefore, cannot comment on whether or not justice was indeed served. On a personal level, however; I […]
Read More
One Woman's Quest II 