Growing with gratitude for life's challenges
The meeting was both exciting and a letdown. Exciting because it was my first attempt at a social event in over three years, having been bed bound all that time. A letdown as soon as the participants talked about early morning walks as the best way to spot birds. Mornings were still tough for me, […]
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“Tell me a favourite memory from your travels,” my golden-haired nurse asked me as she scoured my bruised arms for an accessible vein. I’d blown another IV and options were limited. Rachel Sunshine I called her, this wisp of a young woman who, at first hospital-glazed glance, glowed a with a yellow aura. So I […]
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Make sure you have lists for us when we come, my daughter messages me. Checklists with a gong to hit every time we complete a task, my son-in-law adds. We have no shortages of lists, in fact, every day or so, we are rewriting our lists: things to do, things to buy… Nowhere in those […]
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An apology, dear readers, if this week’s challenge came across as glib. By “stuff“, I was referring to the incidental: a broken foot, a set of stitches, a temporary setback. In no way did I intend to imply that trauma or loss is “stuff”. Some things, with a bit of grit, can be overcome. I […]
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“Just hang in till after the move,” I kept pleading with my body. Unrealistic in hindsight. Six o’clock, the morning before the move, I wake Ric with a request to drive me to the hospital. Turns out you can’t just pack chronic illness in a box and unpack it when convenient. While they pumped fluids […]
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“How long do you boil the corn?” “I don’t know.” “What do you mean, you don’t know?” “It’s done when it smells right.” This is why I can never replicate a recipe. I literally follow my nose. What is your relationship to smell? (Don’t tell me you didn’t know this was coming, lol.) Look forward […]
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The boxes are piling up here. At the new house, the painters have been working diligently. Two rooms are completed and currently all the kitchen doors are off and strewn across scaffolding. The remaining walls are speckled with repair patches. Both houses are a sight. I try to close my eyes for sleep but the […]
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Needing a break from moving house, I took my camera and drove along the river road looking for birds. Always hoping for that one shot to brag about later. The river seldom disappoints. A family of wild turkeys crossing the road welcomed me. Ripples in the calm water revealed a female merganser – a thrill […]
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Relax. I’m not into beef or grass. Keep chewing. **Our weekly focus was taste. I’m ashamed to say we’ve been eating terribly all week – convenience over taste. One of the downsides of packing for moving. Fortunately, the rest of you have been as creative and inspiring as always. Thanks to all who participated: Trippin’, […]
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Cornish pasties, the ones my father used to make when I was a child, were the one thing I craved while carrying my first child. Something in the taste of ground beef, sliced potato, and onion, wrapped in a flaky crust and seasoned just right, called to me. Except my father had long since misplaced […]
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One Woman's Quest II 