Growing with gratitude for life's challenges
“I am glad that Bill Cosby got jail time,” I state, seated across from my husband at lunch. “I hope justice doesn’t stop there.” My husband shifts uncomfortably in his chair. He thought that Cosby should have house arrest. He doesn’t say it now – he’s too sensitive for that – but he has said […]
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One more train. Then she’d be away. Far enough to lose all communication. Far enough that he could not find her. “Can I help you Ma’am?” a porter reached for her luggage. Passengers crowded in behind. “Just a moment, thanks.” Pulling her suitcase aside, she fidgeted with her purse, pretending to be searching for a […]
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“I’m not as smart as you. I’d probably be okay if I was smarter.” “That’s not true, June. You are very smart.” “Do you really think so?” My sister and I are doing dishes after supper. June suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. “You got 96% in your nursing program,” I remind her. “Intelligence is not your […]
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“Whatever it is we need to learn from each other, I say let’s do it now, so we don’t have to come back and repeat it,” I told my father once during a period in which I was exploring the concept of reincarnation. I imagine he lowered his chin and looked over his spectacles at […]
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(As a final prompt for the writing class I am enrolled in, we are asked to think about signposts along the way. This is my entry.) The Tour Guide I take a seat at the back of the open wagon, and wait with a handful of others for the tour to begin. The country air […]
Read More“Why do you always wear black; you look so much better in colours.” Then when you wear colour: “You look like your mother in that outfit. I prefer you in black.” “You’re not going to eat that, are you? A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips.” “You know if you loved me […]
Read MoreJ.D. Vance grew up in white working-class America, with roots in Kentucky. His memoir is an examination of what happens when substance abuse, rampant unemployment, and lack of parental stability strips children of the perspective to strive for better in their lives. Although Vance did rise above his tumultuous beginnings and graduated from Yale Law, […]
Read MoreThe longest my family ever lived in one place was when I was aged four to eleven. We lived in a house, built by my father, with a fortress of cedars on either side of the backyard to “keep out nosy neighbours”. Behind was a farmer’s field and beyond a wooded area. My father had […]
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The tall, lanky man my sister brought home was not unlike my father: both British, with startling blue eyes, a dark mop of hair, and a rakish grin. Before anyone could introduce them, my father reached out his hand, grasped the younger man’s in a death grip, and stared straight into his eyes. “I’ll trust […]
Read More“My dreams have turned violent lately, lots of blood. What could that mean?” “What does blood represent to you?” “Well passion, life giving, but these dreams have a woman being decapitated, a baby being cut with scissors, and it always occurs in connection to my childhood home.” “Not life giving, then.” “I usually convert the […]
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One Woman's Quest II 