How do we measure worth?

July 17, 2024.Reading time 2 minutes.

My therapist recommends that I keep a scrapbook to preserve any accolades and I just laugh. My hubby bought me a leather bound book once for that very reason. I have no idea where it is and am pretty sure it is mostly empty. Not that I haven’t received any positive feedback – just that […]

Celebrate

July 10, 2024.Reading time less than 1 minute.

It’s a month of birthdays here, so celebrations are in order. There is also something about the abundance of green and visiting wildlife that makes me feel celebratory. Hope you are feeling the spirit too.

Magic

July 3, 2024.Reading time less than 1 minute.

My lens seeks the unexpected;magic startling the mundane. Photography teaches me to look again – change the angle of my focus, or reconsider the perspective. Through that one isolating lens, the world is made new. It’s been months since I’ve ventured out with my camera in tow. This post is a reminder to self to […]

Rejuvenation

June 19, 2024.Reading time less than 1 minute.

It’s been a while since I’ve been at the beach, but the memories are enough to stir rejuvenation, if I linger on them long enough. How about you?

Mountain (tanka) Thoughts

June 12, 2024.Reading time 1 minute.

Ever the mountainPresence looming, commandingClimb! Climb! It beckons – My soul, magnetized, respondsPursuing new heights – compelled. When my mother lost her eyesight, I confessed that I would give up at that point, but here I am, into my second year of failing vision and still climbing. Oh, my loss is not as great as […]

Indifference

June 5, 2024.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Worse than hatred, I’ve heard. Indifference. A complete lack of empathy. A turning away. Who hasn’t experienced the helplessness that comes from such a stance? Felt invisible, or worthless? And, in face of overwhelming tragedy in the world, who amongst us has not feigned indifference in order to cope?

Rewrite

May 22, 2024.Reading time 1 minute.

Lives are built around the stories we are told. If we have any sense of creativity, at all, we will rewrite those stories to broaden the scope of possibility. I told a former suitor once that I was not destined to be loved. It was the story I had been told growing up. Smarter than […]

Dream

May 8, 2024.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Dream big. Set goals. And when the need arises, be willing to let go. Dreams are meant to inspire and motivate, to lift us in times of hardship – they should never be the chains that bind us to our losses.

Stop War

February 28, 2024.Reading time 2 minutes.

You can’t tell from the photograph, but one woman’s cousin has been missing for 20 days. He is in the military, and all they know is 22 from his regiment are dead. Another’s brother just turned 16. She wants to bring him to Canada before the war makes a statistic out of him, but their […]

Shoo, Pity

February 21, 2024.Reading time less than 1 minute.

February tests us with her gloom. I am tempted to hole away. Feel sorry for myself. Let others feel sorry for me. It’s not sustainable, however. The month is practically through, and pity is more smothering than the greyest winter’s day. I will wander down to the art room and punch a hole in the […]

Expectations

Expectations artificialliving in an urban junglelonging for nature’s calm – time moves too swiftlybarely registerlet alone participate We are guests in our ownexpectation’s dysfunctionlicensed for depression a smorgasbord for abuseintentions mislaid,disappointment unavoidable The ego pretends to be openbut she’s an actress off cueplaying out a sentence – condemned to basicspraying to escapethis dystopian malfunction. (Image […]

Overcast

Water mimics sky,withholds resplendent blue,dons grey overcoat. (Image my own, created from a photograph)

A Mother’s Grief

(Art my own. The drawing and the poem were in response to a documentary featuring a mother’s loss of her child by suicide. Please listen with care.) Sorrow lines her edgesin blue-hued shadowsgrief’s moss overpowering light Lines etched erasableshe is fragmented, hauntedpain a persistent noose She will rally to find orderlend her voice to causespeak […]