Another oldie for a busy day. It was written five years ago but the truth still applies.
Roseanne Roseannadanna got a bum rap. People laughed when the late Gilda Radner’s alter ego said, “It’s always something.” But she was right, and if harried country dwellers weren’t so busy, they’d surely get together and elect the [...]
Archive for November, 2008
IT’S ALWAYS SOMETHING WHEN YOU LIVE IN THE COUNTRY
Posted in LAUGHTER, tagged living with a do-it-yourselfer, the challenges of country living on November 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
FACING A PARENT’S MORTALITY
Posted in REFLECTIONS, RELATIONSHIPS, tagged facing adversity, facing illness in an elderly parent, losing an elderly parent, the bravery of the elderly on November 27, 2008 | 2 Comments »
They say there’s no greater loss than that of a child. I know it’s true, for even though I never cradled my daughter in my arms, I held her within my womb for nine months, and she was as rooted to me as the organs which keep me alive. Losing her felt like a thief had [...]
CHALLENGES AHEAD
Posted in DEAR READERS, REFLECTIONS, tagged facing a crisis on November 26, 2008 | 5 Comments »
When there’s the possibility of a crisis ahead, we heed the caution signs and square our shoulders to brace for what awaits. Possibilities run through our mind, but they are fleeting. We avert our eyes rather than see the dangers in their entirety. To do so will give them life. We’ve named them, and for now, that is enough.
Fools that we are, [...]
THE CZECHOSLOVAKIAN DOCTOR
Posted in PEOPLE, REFLECTIONS, tagged a modest Christmas, foreign doctors unable to work in Canada, poverty at Christmas, recession, unemployed on November 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I am getting old. A sure sign is that in the midst of the current global economic crisis, I find myself dwelling on memories from our last recession. Details that I haven’t thought about in over twenty years now feel like yesterday. Somehow, those reflections act as a comfort, a testament to our strength. If we overcame obstacles [...]
JUST LIKE YESTERDAY
Posted in MEMOIR, POETRY, tagged child loss, grief, neonatal death en utero, stillbirth on November 20, 2008 | 5 Comments »
A little girl, soft and delicate,
visited today.
She twisted her curls
and chased my cats.
Her tiny voice tugged
at my resisting heart
and opened the wound left by Emily;
and now, as if it were yesterday,
I cannot sleep.
Years ago,
on warm September nights like this,
I lay awake,
counting kicks and dreaming
of a dark-haired child,
dimpled and velvet-skinned;
of baby giggles
and tiny arms
wrapped tight around [...]
AN UNEXPECTED KINDNESS
Posted in PEOPLE, REFLECTIONS, tagged pay it forward, the kindness of strangers, unexpected gestures of kindness on November 18, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Last year, my husband began the long processs of converting our sixteen by thirty-two foot inground pool into a pond. He’s an ambitious, highly creative type, and it was one of three or four projects he had on the go at the time. It turned out to be a challenge in ways we never anticipated.
He [...]
THE QUEEN OF DILLY-DADDLE
Posted in FICTION, tagged easily distracted, fear of failure, Procrastination on November 16, 2008 | 6 Comments »
On days when I’ve had no time for new writing, I’ll post the occasional older piece. This is something written for fun a couple of years ago. The speaker is Marion Cormier, a fictional character from a previous story I wrote called “It’s in the Stars.” Marion is a no-nonsense, salt-of-the-earth woman from Prince Edward [...]
WHEN “I’M RUNNING AWAY” BECOMES A REALITY
Posted in OPINION, REFLECTIONS, tagged Add new tag, Brandon Crisp, FAMILIES, FAMILY LIFE, teenage runaways, threats to run away on November 15, 2008 | 3 Comments »
We tend towards being headstrong in my family. In fact, one of my sisters, angry at my mother, once threatened to run away. She was no more than six or seven at the time.
Parenting methods were tough back then and my mother called her bluff. She found a bag and helped my sister pack. My mother walked her [...]
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABY BROTHER!
Posted in LAUGHTER, REFLECTIONS, tagged big Catholic families, getting old, late pregnancies on November 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday was my youngest brother’s birthday. He turned forty-one.
I was sixteen, the eldest of five girls and one boy, when my mother announced she was pregnant again. I was mortified. Sure, we were Catholic, and I knew that made artificial methods of birth control taboo, but really, another child at her age? She was thirty-six years old! [...]
BUMPS IN THE ROAD
Posted in REFLECTIONS, tagged Common Sense Revolution, Mike Harris, Time to Quit the Classroom on November 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Lately, my writing life seems to be floundering. Ideas come to me, but so far into the night that they remain unwritten. During the day, my mind is dizzy with a million different distractions. Thoughts flutter inside my head like butterflies caged in jars. Keep them inside too long and they forget how to fly.
I [...]
