How do we measure worth?

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 […]

Read More

Mountain (tanka) Thoughts

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 […]

Read More

Indifference

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?

Read More

Rewrite

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 […]

Read More

Dream

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.

Read More

Stop War

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 […]

Read More

Walls and Boundaries

I wasn’t taught about boundaries as a child, in fact, I was encouraged not to have any. No one said so, specifically, but in the drive to please, I came to this interpretation. Walls, however, grew organically. I remember many a time, curled up on my childhood bed, raging and in tears, repeating over and over: ”I need nothing; […]

Read More

No Answers

I go the river searching for answers, but she replieswith an eerie reflection that only leaves me chilled. Sometimes, in life, there are no answers.

Read More

Shadows and Reflection

In the midst of a Covid fever, I had flashbacks to moments I’d long forgotten. Weakened and vulnerable, I cursed their appearance. What did it mean? Why was this happening now? As much as we think we’ve overcome, our past, I realized, there is always more. Especially for those of with PTSD. I haven’t worked […]

Read More