Doors

September 10, 2025.Reading time 1 minute.

Even at 67, I am discovering new insights about myself. One of them is that I protect myself with walls – as impenetrable as concrete, yet invisible. I like to tell myself they don’t exist. And yet when I think about my relationships, I feel the ache of distance. I alternate between warm and standoffish […]

Chasing bridges

January 22, 2025.Reading time less than 1 minute.

I am feeling torn apart. Afraid to breathe lest I should crumble. Definitely on edge. I know life is like this – the past circles around and confronts us when we least expect it. Things come in threes, they say – whoever ‘they’ are. First, a child missing, which triggered memories of my own abduction […]

Rewrite

May 22, 2024.Reading time 1 minute.

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 […]

Ancestral

April 24, 2024.Reading time 1 minute.

“You never express your feelings, Mom. Everything gets swept under the rug.” This from my middle daughter, who raged at me recently for never being available to help, She has an expectation that Grandparents should be always on call. “And why did you choose to live so far away!” It’s 45 minutes by car, and […]

Paradoxical

October 3, 2019.Reading time 2 minutes.

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, […]

Reflections on a Travelling Life

May 22, 2018.Reading time 1 minute.

It is easy to engage in surroundings when vacationing: all travellers belong, having escaped (even if momentarily) their scripted lives. We project friendliness onto strangers – mothers meeting outside our day-to-day – have new things to discuss. Dare to confess concerns, or approach the personal, and the shunning is immediate. Only peripheral conversations are expected […]

Love “Swimming Lessons”!

August 12, 2017.Reading time 1 minute.

What an incredible story! Claire Fuller creates characters who are flawed and yet sympathetic. Meet Gil, an aging writer and incorrigible Lothario, who sudden obsession with books leads his daughters to be concerned about his state of mind. Meet Ingrid, his wife who has been missing for eleven years, presumed dead, and whose voice haunts […]

Looking For Marital Advice From Reality TV

September 4, 2016.Reading time 5 minutes.

I’m obsessed with the television reality show: Married At First Sight. The show promotes itself as a social experiment: over 30,000 singles apply to have experts find them a suitable spouse, out of which, six are chosen. It’s a bit like coming across a car accident, and not being able to tear your eyes away; […]

Of Trauma Born

Goodbyes tarnishfaith, like ashesscattered My heart grows dismissal,craves a balm of connectionseeks quiet harbour Remind me what it feels like to be safebreath nurturing life,love a rhythmic flow In meditationI reach for peaceimagine salvation But this wayward chaosunrestrainedcements me in doubt Tainted intentionsI lift up to the Universea tempest without hope My soul incubates malicea […]

Hawk (haiku)

Relevance of Story

Stories have power. Parents, teachers, public speakers, and therapists understand that the secret to engaging an audience or connecting with others is through illustration: storytelling. I see it in the eyes of the my grandchildren, who love to hear tales of family history. I’ve seen in the eyes of students, when recognition and understanding light […]