Third Time Lucky

May 30, 2019.Reading time 3 minutes.

I first married at nineteen, two years after I left home, and many years before I’d developed into the woman I would later be. We separated before our second wedding anniversary. Certain I was fatally flawed, I jumped at the next opportunity that came along – a relationship that would produce my three children and […]

Relationship Wrap Up

July 1, 2018.Reading time 1 minute.

Relationship, I realized after posting my weekly challenge, is too broad of a subject. We need a lifetime to examine and appreciate our interconnections, and then, likely, we’d need to begin again – such is the nature of relationship. It slips and slides, rewards and betrays, teaches and takes away. That said, I appreciate those […]

Life With Father

June 29, 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

“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 […]

The Gift of Friendship

June 25, 2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

I am the one who put forth the relationship challenge this week, and I have to confess, I am struggling with how to articulate my feelings. Fast approaching my sixtieth birthday, I find I am sentimental, or maybe, it’s that after years of isolation due to illness, I now treasure relationship more than ever. […]

V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #4: Relationships

June 25, 2018.Reading time 2 minutes.

“The people we are in relationships with are always a mirror, reflecting our own beliefs, and simultaneously we are mirrors, reflecting their beliefs.” – Shakti Gawain A friend of mine used to say (and I paraphrase). “May you experience as many relationships […]

The Petty Details

June 12, 2018.Reading time 1 minute.

“If it would help, I could get you a bacon press.” I am poised over the hot frying pan, waiting to flip a quesadilla. Waving the spatula at him, I give him my best stink eye. “What?” “I thought you said you wanted to keep up the minimalist lifestyle?” “I do, and having a […]

The Gift of Friendship

April 16, 2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

Pippy has driven down from Campbell River with her girlfriend, Sandy and her dog, Sam. We decide to leave the men to bond while we women go out for lunch and some catch up time. I take them to Gabriel’s Gourmet Cafe, where Ric and I ate on our first day here. It is busy […]

Writing Class #4

March 27, 2018.Reading time 7 minutes.

(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 […]

Lines of Control

January 21, 2018.Reading time 2 minutes.

“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 […]

Mom Said Marry Well

March 29, 2017.Reading time 4 minutes.

I keep dreaming about young men: confidant, seductive, virile young men. In my dreams, they cozy up to me, offer promises of love, and always, I remember who I am – a dried up old woman condemned to disability – and wake up…reluctantly. Thing is, men have always been a mystery to me, like a […]

Is Progress This?

Is this progress,this decision to uproot,cast possessions aside,free ourselves of ties? Can his dependency,my dependency, endurethe transition, releasedfrom former justifications? We are companionsembarking on adventure,companions retiring pastlies, redefining possibility Or, is this more of the same,artfully camouflaged –a continuance of flightfrom tyrannical origins? The paths behind are jagged,wrought with rocks and crevicesand scarred riddles, and […]

Strategy

One more trainand she’d be awayfar enoughto lose him Scavenged in her bagsearching for a ticketand courage…could use a dose of courage Thought of her motherhow torn up she’d be;of her sister, confinedto long-term care Call for boarding and a decision –neck smarting fromlast confrontation He wielded his handslike weapons. his wordslike knives – her […]

Denouement

I fear the denouement –the moment of reckoningwhen the winding pathunravels; when intentions,transient at best, revealthemselves as common liesand soul crumples before lightrecognizing this is not the end. (Tuesdays, I borrow from Twitter @ Vjknutson. Image my own.)