Breaking Open

October 15, 2025.Reading time 3 minutes.

I’ve started a second TikTok account just for the exploration of dreams. (@DreamCrone). It had 600 followers and lively discussion up until 2 weeks ago. Then I decided to lead my followers through an exercise examining the power of symbolism. I used my dream as an example. The exercise requires telling the dream aloud, using […]

Childhood myths

August 27, 2025.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Decoding our childhood involves taking a second look at those things we considered norms: like my mom’s insistence that we didn’t need umbrellas. I carried that philosophy into adulthood, along with the habit of depriving myself of many common items. It took my husband’s insistence that I didn’t need to go without that helped me […]

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 […]

War Stories

June 3, 2022.Reading time 1 minute.

The stories dwell inside me now, a gift I suppose, for a writer. The young woman, having escaped Russian occupation, who wails for her mother and eleven-year-old sister, left behind. The mother of three, who confesses that the darkness of war has all but consumed her. “My brother’s home was bombed this morning,” she writes. […]

There’s a Story Here

December 1, 2021.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Summer: the time when young legs learn teamwork, and young wings learn to fly. For Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: One image, one story.)

Oh, For a Good Story

May 3, 2020.Reading time 2 minutes.

Fishermen are notoriously good storytellers. Who can resist the suspense of the catch, and the disappointment of the one who got away? As a teacher, my favourite class was the one where we put the desks in a circle and told stories. After all, oral traditions are where stories begin. My grandchildren naturally prod for […]

Eavesdropping

May 25, 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

We are full of the excitement of making plans, and after signing more papers, decide to go out for lunch. Both of our minds are going in different directions, so when the hostess seats us, I barely notice the couple sitting next to us, except that they are young – she a striking chestnut-haired beauty, […]

Coincidence?

June 27, 2017.Reading time 4 minutes.

One of my favourite podcasts is The Moth where people share real life stories based on a theme. An episode I listened to recently focused on coincidence. According to Oxford Dictionary (online edition) the definition of coincidence is: a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection. This particular podcast includes stories replayed […]