Baseline Wrap-Up

September 30, 2018.Reading time 1 minute.

Before illness, I loved to play tennis. Although never the fastest player on the court, I appreciated the fact that tennis is also a game of strategy. My strategy was often to aim for the baseline, a shot that almost always caught my opponent off guard. Of course, missed shots were most often out-of-bounds. This […]

When Turning Off the News Is Not Enough

September 29, 2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

“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 […]

Policy vs Need

April 26, 2017.Reading time 5 minutes.

“I can’t process your application with the information I’ve been given,” the woman on the phone is officious, likely hates her job, I theorize. “Your doctor has only sent me four medical reports; there is not enough here to support an inability to work.” I might have guffawed at this. “I can barely manage day-to-day […]

We Are Called

January 29, 2017.Reading time 2 minutes.

My husband is googling “The Declaration of Independence”. I am just trying to breathe: a tempest of emotions, thoughts, and fears attacking rationality. I try to think back to another time when I felt such terror…to reassure myself that this will all pass…but I think about my son who recently converted to Muslim for the […]

I Can Only Hope

November 9, 2016.Reading time 1 minute.

I understand the need for political change – here in Canada it represented a landslide win for a young, politically inspired, English teacher with “great hair” as all the election attack ads reminded us in hopes of discrediting him. I get that Hilary has a less than spectacular track record tainted by rumours of corruption. At […]

“The Sellout” by Paul Beatty, A Humble Review

May 15, 2016.Reading time 1 minute.

Humbled is only way I can describe my experience of Paul Beatty’s novel, “The Sellout”. Beatty’s comic approach to issues ranging from being raised by a single parent, racial matters, love, and the judicial system is cleverly acerbic. Each line of the novel is packed with cutting commentary, and I found myself laughing out loud […]

Orange

I am orangefiery asa sunsetbright asan Autumnleaf –brilliant in the waninghours. (Art my own)

Tragedy (tanka)

Melancoly drags –one young lovelorn foot stuck inregret’s muddy path –ignores what is near, mistakeswhat if for what is. Tragic. (Tuesdays, I borrow from Twitter. Image my own)

Cheer For Spring

Cheer growth –beneath a heavy cloud coverCanada goose passesoverhead, while Iwander Wander –behind a veil of rainy greylens poised to capture life –swallows swoop andrise up Rise up –over rushing waters, branch high,blackbirds huddle, demand my attention –focus Focus –reveals newness: buds breaking through,colours promising thatchilly winds disperse,cheer growth Cheer growth –behind a veil of […]