CFFC: Columns and Vertical Lines

June 13, 2018.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Arizona State University aiming skyward: Totem pole in Sydney, BC: San Antonio – look out below! (Photos in response to Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Columns and Vertical Lines.)

Art: Still Learning

April 19, 2018.Reading time 2 minutes.

Clouds mesmerize me. Don’t get me wrong, I love a clear, blue sky, but clouds are the stuff of poetry, lending themselves naturally to personification, often drawing my lens to their ever-changing moods. I searched for You-Tube videos on how to paint clouds. After watching three different artists work rapidly and with great confidence I […]

Brush Strokes (Fiction)

February 15, 2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

The brush felt awkward in Kate’s hand and she could feel her frustration mounting. The last time she had painted had been the twin’s room more than a year ago and that was because the boys had outgrown the pastels of the nursery. Now, here she sat, legs crossed on the floor with four other […]

Art (Life) Lessons

February 11, 2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

The how-to’s of watercolour, I am discovering, are applicable to other areas of our lives. Inspired by classes I took in Texas, I have continued to try my hand at this art form. This is what I have learned so far: Begin with a plan. We used carbon paper to trace the image’s outline, although […]

RV-Able: Awakening

December 18, 2017.Reading time 4 minutes.

We came away with the expectation of adventure. We freed ourselves of material anchors and set sail into the unknown with openness, excitement, and a modicum of healthy trepidation. I knew we would encounter new landscapes, experience different foods and cultures, but I did not anticipate how travel would effect my experience of self. It […]

Creativity or Insanity?

August 18, 2016.Reading time 3 minutes.

My oldest brother is a talented musician, who has been composing and recording works in his own studio for years. “I just can’t write lyrics worth a damn,” he once told me during a visit. “I write poetry,” I offered, “but have no musical aptitude.” “We should put your words and my music together!” So […]

Imagine

If we could lift understandingto indigenous teachingsexpand our loveto earth, sky, and seaMake personal gain tabooand Ancients a weigh point If we could witness the mountainsslow floating across the skyand touch the dolphin’s soulanxiously swimmingwhere tuna are netted Would we cower at our insignificanceor move forward, learning to acceptthat all of life is deeply woveninto […]

Dear Child

I know a little girl,whose hair in ringletsfalls, unkempt from lackof brushing; who standswhen she should be sitting;who laughs with defiance whenchallenged, her dark eyes gleamingwith mischief; who holds her chin uphigh and stamps her feet, arms foldedin protest when she does not get her way. I see that little girl,have watched her play,with a […]

Re-de-fine-d

Ask me how I’m doingand I’ll say “fine”, notbecause I’m actually fine,but because “fine” is the onlysocially acceptable response. If I said that I have been lyinghere, for three hours now,willing my body to move,that would elicit unsolicitedadvice and tarnish my “fine”. I’d berate myself for breakingmy promise not to moan,knowing that complainingprovokes a compulsive […]