Doors

September 10, 2025.Reading time 1 minute.

Even at 67, I am discovering new insights about myself. One of them is that I protect myself with walls – as impenetrable as concrete, yet invisible. I like to tell myself they don’t exist. And yet when I think about my relationships, I feel the ache of distance. I alternate between warm and standoffish […]

Response to a Recurring Dream

July 9, 2025.Reading time 1 minute.

I’m back at the restaurant where I worked throughout university and beyond. There is no organization in staffing, and the customers are smoking at the table by the entrance, and I’m allergic. I try to find someone in charge, but find only cooks smoking in the kitchen. Coming back to work here is obviously a […]

Self-Isolating

July 2, 2025.Reading time 2 minutes.

“It’s like COVID all over again,” my daughter remarks. She’s right, of course, except I’m the only one isolating. After two rounds of bugs and an infection, I have chosen to stay away from others in an attempt to give my immune system a break. Besides, I have a procedure in ten days for which […]

Postcard to Optimism from the Land of Obsessions

April 9, 2025.Reading time 1 minute.

Clouds, like the hands of some higher being, hold up the sun, obscuring her radiance. I’ve travelled this road before – a dirt path, unfettered by progress – where tombstones mark time and trees bear witness. A mist covers the land, and I have not yet deciphered the omen in it. Still, I will push […]

One Is Not The Sum of the Whole

April 2, 2025.Reading time 1 minute.

The lesson I learned, post divorce, is that letting one person dictate my well-being was ludicrous. Of course, it took me a while to get to that understanding, as I had poured all my hopes and dreams into that one man for seventeen years. I am reminded of this lesson today, with the current threats […]

Permission

February 5, 2025.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Wading through the muck of internalized blame, I stumble across a fault line, where the light breaks through. Old patterns are breaking up. My worth is not tied to how others feel, I realize. I am not the Queen of Everything. For the umpteenth time, I tell myself: I am enough. Permission granted to follow […]

Chasing bridges

January 22, 2025.Reading time less than 1 minute.

I am feeling torn apart. Afraid to breathe lest I should crumble. Definitely on edge. I know life is like this – the past circles around and confronts us when we least expect it. Things come in threes, they say – whoever ‘they’ are. First, a child missing, which triggered memories of my own abduction […]

Getting Hold of Fear

October 30, 2024.Reading time 1 minute.

Now that it’s dark early, putting the dogs out for their last ‘duty’ of the day, means taking extra precautions. We are always on the lookout for skunks, raccoons, possums, foxes, or even coyotes, as our backyard, unfenced, opens up to woods and farmland. The other night, I opened the door, made my usual noises […]

Let Responsibility Lie Where It Belongs

August 28, 2024.Reading time 1 minute.

I was raised to be a fixer. Right up there with people pleaser, it’s a hard practice to shake. Recently, I’ve been struggling with my husband’s new habit of staying up late. I worry about whether or not he’s getting enough sleep, and concerned that he’ll hurt his neck if he falls asleep sitting up. […]

July 31, 2024.Reading time 1 minute.

In my family of origin, the emphasis was on drama – who is doing what, and how they should change it. It was akin to a herd of cats all chasing each others tails. I understand now that this the dance of co-dependency. It’s a hard pattern to break free from. Bottomline is that I […]

Where Are The Dogs?

Contemplating risk –a reunion with a former selflooking for an exit When did I become a snakerestrained?When did I become persona non grata? I slither between storiesconvince myself I can flydistraction a ruse I have big cat energyoverstepping boundariessocially adverse A faulty jeweldreaming of abundance but there’s a dragon to disarm My mother’s burden on my […]

Turning (tanka)

Mother

When I had a mothermy hair would cascadein curls of auburn perfectiona red velvet bow to accentuate the wave And I’d wear my bestnewly sewn frockwith lace at the neckand fishnet stockingsand patent Mary Janes And the girls giggling with delightwould skip hand-in-handto the school promand the boys shyly perchedagainst the back wall would wonderhow […]