Category: Uncategorized

This week, as I wrap up almost six months of being redeployed to a crazy-busy role on the frontlines of the pandemic, I feel the creative spirit coming back for me. This is my favourite story of how it can sometimes feel – from Liz Gilbert. It’s kind of cool. “I had this encounter recently… Continue reading run like hell

I mailed a copy of a hard-cover storybook I wrote last summer to my aunt in BC last week. It tells the story of her grandpa — my great grandpa — who came to Canada in 1887 as part of the British Home Child emigration movement. It’s a significant part of Canadian history that you… Continue reading standing in the light

“It’s so hard to just give in. I have fought with everything I have though and I just don’t think I can do it anymore,” she said, looking up at my dad from the couch. “The hardest thing is that I don’t want to go without you, but I know I’m going to have to.… Continue reading thoughts from back in march

“What’s wrong. What are you doing?” she said, looking at me confused. “Why are you waking me up?” “Because, it’s time to go to bed. You can’t stay on the couch all night,” I said. “Sorry, I know you’re tired.” “I was having the most amazing dream. I wish you wouldn’t have woke me up,”… Continue reading almost home

I used to see a butterfly in my mind’s eye every time I heard the word ‘transformation,’ but life has taught me otherwise. Transformation isn’t a butterfly. It’s the thing before you get to be a pretty bug flying away. It’s huddling in the dark cocoon and then pushing your way out. It’s the messy… Continue reading packing up the first year

My parents sold the Tavistock house that I grew up in with my brothers and sister in the spring of 1988, just before I was done high school. That Rudy Avenue house, with the stone wall my dad built and where our first dog is still buried, was the first house they’d ever owned and… Continue reading home sweet home

My laptop was laying on the coffee table tonight so I picked it up and started snooping through old files thinking I would get rid of some stuff I don’t need — which, if you know me, really means I didn’t get rid of anything and nor did I have any real intention of doing… Continue reading love letters

Sometimes, the truth needs so little rehearsal. It just plops itself down in front of you like a fat, old man in an undershirt, smoking his cigars and admiring his bowling trophies.  Yesterday, on my way to work, I was scrolling through the satellite radio stations and came across a classic country station. I was… Continue reading tom t. hall speaks the truth

My dad called tonight. I was doing what every respectable woman dreams of doing on a Friday night after a full work week — cleaning up the kitchen. I was actually standing at the sink staring at the fresh dish cloth I’d just pulled out of the drawer. My mom made it. She would sometimes… Continue reading on dish cloths and dying