Strive

July 19, 2023.Reading time 1 minute.

Conceived in the midst of unbearable psychological drama, I was the reason for my mother’s marriage to my father – a relationship that would cause us all great pain over the years. Many losses would follow – deaths of grandparents and a favourite uncle, two fires resulting in the loss of five children.I grew up […]

Cornered

June 23, 2023.Reading time 2 minutes.

It was the pitch of the two dogs barking in the backyard that alerted me to trouble. That and Pippi, the female, growling. The two had cornered a young groundhog between the deck steps and a tiered planter. After I sternly sent them back inside, I went out to check on the animal’s wellbeing. “He’s […]

Adolescence

May 24, 2023.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Poem and image my own

Excerpt from Cobwebs: A Short Story

May 3, 2023.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Perhaps Gothic Horror or Psychological Thriller? Read the whole piece.

Notes to a younger self

September 28, 2022.Reading time less than 1 minute.

You matter:that which gives us life(call it as you will)does not judge –know that you are precious,accepted, and loveable. Image mine

Receive

September 21, 2022.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Receive goodness:life is about balance –giving and receiving.You will feel tempted to give, give, give,but will never feel the joyuntil you learn how to receive as well. Art mine

Imperfection

August 3, 2022.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Discard the concept of perfection:choose to embrace vulnerabilityand imperfectionas fertile ground. (Image mine)

Pondering…

May 11, 2022.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Acknowledgment, they say, is a valid human need,yet, humility is a virtue…how do we balance the two? (Art my own)

Where is Home?

February 28, 2022.Reading time 2 minutes.

I ask my three-year-old self to show me her home, and she points to the floor beneath the formica-topped table in the kitchen. There, caged within the chrome legs of table and chairs, she is out of the path of adult legs, whose movements are as unpredictable as their moods. I ask my four-year-old self […]

Learning What Matters

February 21, 2022.Reading time 2 minutes.

Parents brought children to the occupation in Ottawa. They set up camp on a main thoroughfare, in front of apartment buildings and retail shops, and obstructed the lives of others. They honked their big rig horns, left their diesel engines running day and night, and set up barbeques, and food tents, and bouncy castles, and […]

Crisis

How did undocumented –a civil infraction –reduce people to ‘bodies’? And how did empathy –observation and support –merit death by gunshot? When we stretch for explanations –to fit the violent rhetoric –are we too not complicit in crime? Red, blue, it’s all intolerable –the global stage is watching –a nation in rapid decline. “He’ll burn […]

Winter’s Ruse

Poet’s Quandry

IfI wereto writeevery dayfor onehundred days,would my soulbe purged ofthis malaise;is it a thingto be dredged,dragged up –twistedand tiedlike tatteredbed sheetsknottedtogether;is therea remedyfor thisscourge;or is thisan inherentrestlessness,a fiery bluespark of eternalangst ignitingpassion – a callto write? (Originally posted February, 2017. Image my own)