MEANINGMAKER

storytelling

  • silent witness

    The house we live in is over 90 years old. Sometime in the early 1930s, as a shaken city emerged from the Depression and the earliest electric streetcars were still rolling up and down King Street a block away, she… Continue reading

  • creative writing class

    If we taught the five love languages in school like we teach French or German. If we learned in Kindergarten that the true measure of a life well-lived isn’t in our grand accomplishments, but in the small courageous acts of… Continue reading

  • awake on the train

    I left the train this morning one stop before City Hall, where I would usually get off —something I do on the mornings when I want a short walk to clear my head before work. I’m usually a stander on… Continue reading

  • canadian son

    We were unloading the car after a weekend away on a cold Sunday afternoon in February 2023 when a young man came walking up our driveway. He said he’d noticed our neighbour’s year-round Pride flag and thought this neighbourhood might… Continue reading

  • mother’s day

    Back when I was a kid, I looked at the world like a still life painting. Pretty and static and sort of hopelessly boring.  Nothing much ever happened in our town. But when something did happen — a car accident,… Continue reading

  • planting flowers

    As I rode a packed LRT train to work yesterday, standing in my regular spot near the doors, I watched people get off and on for the three stops it takes to get there. I watched the morning world going… Continue reading

  • in another life

    She stared out at me from her antique frame on the shelf in the eclectic little store that we drive out of our way to far too often. We mostly go there to buy the handmade incense they stock. Today… Continue reading

  • carrying me still

    On the morning of the day I turned 37, my mother was the first person to call me with birthday wishes. That was true every year. She was always the first to call. Always around 7 a.m. But that year’s… Continue reading

  • the wedding speech

    Our daughter got married this weekend and so, naturally, I want to tell a love story. Weddings are most always a love story about the bride and groom. But this is not quite the love story you think it is.… Continue reading

  • may we all

    On June 1, the first day of Pride Month, I posted this story to my company’s employee newsfeed. I know how fortunate I am to be safe and comfortable enough to do that. I wish everyone could feel that way.… Continue reading