I wrote the paragraphs below a long time ago. Originally published as one of my early columns, they eventually landed in my second book, Practice by Practice. I sense today’s readers, at least some of them, need these words (lightly edited from the original) even more now. My earliest memories …
My beautiful travel mug, a gift from my boss, lay in pieces in the middle of 8th Avenue. It had managed to stay upright until my car hit the bump at the bottom of the driveway. Hearing a dull thunk, I glanced out the window and saw a strange cluster …
Most mothers have memories of Mother’s Day. But I have only one friend with this one: It happened two decades before COVID-19, when some stores (particularly florists) ran out of Mother’s Day merchandise long before the day itself. Families could take mothers out for dinner (if they were willing either …
Whenever I see a coin tossed on the ground or the floor, I pick it up. Among other things, coins remind me of childhood days. We weren’t as well-situated as the neighbours, but our family had wealth nonetheless. At around ten, I ran a flourishing counterfeiting scheme from our kitchen …
Was it the pandemic’s second or third wave? I can’t recall. But the doorbell rang at supper. I answered it and found a grandchild, standing alone, tears streaming like silver ribbons. Our daughter’s car waited at the end of the driveway. COVID protocol aside, what else is a grandmother to …
On the sixth day after the exterminator came, I walked in the door after work, as usual. And as usual I asked the question I’d asked on every return home from work for at least a month. “See any ants today, Hon?” Starting in late winter, as I mentioned here …
Smack. Score one for me. I tossed the tissue containing the dead ant in the garbage and stood back, my skin crawling. For the eighty-eleventh time since it all began a few weeks earlier, I checked the source. Was that microscopic feet tracing their way down my back? Thankfully, no. …
My family and I have thoroughly enjoyed the Chosen, the world’s first ever multi-season television show about the life of Christ. If you haven’t caught it, look for it on the app or YouTube. You won’t be sorry. But six years before Chosen, locals, including me, crowded into Yorkton’s Anne …
These are excellent times to prove the truth of God-inspired words of scripture. Ancient words promising that even in hard times, following Christ brings serenity, peace and joy. I miss talking about this with my Bible study friends. Most of us were working women, grabbing a warm island of companionship …
Anything can happen on a porch. Connection. Refreshment. Reflection. Rejection, sometimes. Even buying and selling. As a child in the sixties, I had the chore of sweeping our small front porch clear of its weekly accumulation of dirt and spiders. Rarely do I remember anyone but company using that porch …
