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 […]

Family Dinners

April 16, 2025.Reading time 1 minute.

In response to my middle daughter cutting off contact, and once I got past the hurt and humiliation, I decided that it is closeness, not distance, I want to harbour in my family. Hence the family dinners. Once a month, same Sunday, I invite our kids to a home cooked meal. My husband suggested that […]

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 […]

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 […]

Tantrums

January 10, 2024.Reading time 1 minute.

The discussion was light, or so I thought. Until I mentioned that one thing that ignites his rage. Doesn’t matter what it is, does it? We all have it – that tender spot of unresolved emotion. There was no more talking to him, so I moved on; finishing a task I had previously started. But now my anger flared. He […]

Recipe For Love

November 15, 2023.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Relationships are complicated. Each generation, it seems, struggles to find the answers. My tanka is a one observation. What would you add?

Grief

July 26, 2023.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Friends are Blessings

November 7, 2019.Reading time 1 minute.

Over brunch, my new acquaintance and I discover we have a lot in common – both former teachers, interested in art and poetry, with a love birds. She is just getting back into life after a long stint of caring for a sick husband, who died a year ago. I am finding my footing in […]

Extended Blessings

June 13, 2019.Reading time 1 minute.

Children grow up, establish new lives, and if we’re really lucky they bring home new members to add to the family. I have been doubly blessed with the addition of a son and a daughter-in-law. I can’t say enough about them, and I’m sure they’d kill me for posting their photographs, but it’s my blog […]

The River

There’s a river runs between us,you and I.Our thoughts, like tears, are liquidcarried effortlessly by the current. But you and I,we stand on the banks, oblivious;ignoring the connection,proudly touting our individualism. Still the river flows,and all you’ve suffered,and all I’ve suffered,or dreamed, or imagined, or hoped,flows with it. Step into the water with me,feel our […]

Flock

Blossoming

It may be foolish of me, at my age and in my current condition, but I hang on to the hope that the pain of this effort is leading somewhere: renewal, new purpose, or at the very least, a blossoming.