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 […]

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Kindness is always appropriate

I offer our Ukrainian guest the last pot of chocolate dessert that had been dropped off that morning by a fellow Ukrainian. “There are fresh raspberries, too!” I add, gifted from another. She pauses, and then shakes her head. “Maybe tomorrow. I had sweet today.” And then she bursts out crying. I reach for my […]

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Recipe For Love

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

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Something to Love

I met a woman once, so debilitated by disease that my impulse was to recoil. Then I remembered the words of one of my teachers: “There is something to love about everyone”, and I checked myself, and realized that this woman must have an incredibly strong will to live. I told her so, and noted […]

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That Face!

(For Nancy Merrill’s A Photo a Week Challenge: That Face!)

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Paradoxical

Fear and intimidation formed the basis of his power. To this day I tremble, afraid I’ve misstepped – parked the car wrong, forgot to close the door properly, or spoken out of turn. My father was a hand grenade with the pin perpetually pulled. He was also motivational, citing the works of Carnegie, Peale, Gibran, […]

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Big Little Blessings

A 6:15 a.m. phone call changed my life: “Hello Grandma…it’s a girl!” There is no describing the thrill. I packed a hasty bag and drove the hundred kilometres in record time, scooping up that little bundle immediately on arrival. Her little tongue moved in and out rapidly as her gazed fixed on mine. I could […]

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