Just For Fun

April 29, 2020.Reading time less than 1 minute.

For Nancy Merrill’s A Photo a Week: Just for fun.

V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #94: wild card

April 27, 2020.Reading time less than 1 minute.

I welcome your response to the Dalai Lama’s words. No specific word for this challenge, so you are open to be creative. Create a post on your own blog and link back here. Poetry, prose, photography, music – any form of creativity welcome. Looking forward to your responses!

Laughter Lingers in Memory

April 26, 2020.Reading time 3 minutes.

The days fold one into another, and the daily phone calls with Mom tend towards reminiscence – not much happening in the present. We talk about my aunt, her sister-in-law, a colourful figure who lived her life alone – lesbian in a time when homosexuality was considered criminal, and later, a mental illness. Dee, as […]

Eye Candy

April 24, 2020.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Birds are eye candy to me. For Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Sense of Seeing

Ingredients for Peace

April 22, 2020.Reading time less than 1 minute.

A willow in Springtime Light at the end of the day Stillness in the moment Ingredients for peace. (For Nancy Merrill’s A Photo a Week Challenge: peaceful place.)

V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #93: remember

April 20, 2020.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Contributions to the weekly newsletter I create for our community often contain nostalgic memes. Remembering past times, especially joys, is a good way to ease tension. This week, I invite you to remember and share. Create a post on your own blog, and link back here or leave a url in the comments. Photos, prose, […]

Body Count

April 19, 2020.Reading time 2 minutes.

Behind the restlessness behind the shortened fusebehind this continual gut achelies a wall of grief. First four cousinsthen anothera grandmothera favourite uncle the ongoing knowledgethat at any point my sisterwould slip away, disappear in that great abyss But first, another cousina childhood frienda suicide an accident As promised, I held her handas sister succumbed to […]

V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #92: behind

April 13, 2020.Reading time 1 minute.

“Behind every criticism is a wish.”– Esther Perel The quotation comes from Esther Perel’s podcast “Where Should We Begin?” which currently features couples in lockdown. Something about the words resonates with me, although I’m not immediately able to explain why. I have witnessed how anger masks disappointment, frustration, or even grief, but criticism. I hadn’t […]

This Is More Than Personal

April 12, 2020.Reading time 3 minutes.

A movie might be just the panacea we need to escape this current state of malaise. Our middle daughter and son-in-law dropped by with kids and we had a porch to curb-side visit – hard not to hug, but so good to hear those little voices in person. Now that they have left, I feel […]

Not So Simple

April 8, 2020.Reading time 1 minute.

So many questions cluttering my mind –numbers and guidelines: Stay Inside! I crave the single mindedness of a plantwhose nature tends towards sunlight and contemplate the stillness of mosswondering if it too feels the inquietude And gaze on with envy as a solo flight passesyearning to taste the freedom of escape. Life has become so […]

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 […]