When I started menstruation my mom celebrated with me, she laughed and hugged me and said I was a woman now. She was just starting menopause. With her menopause came a huge life change. She felt like she could be a woman again, and not just a mother. Our nuclear family blew up like it … Continue reading Just Like Mama
Mama – Last Word
I made one more trip to see mom before she died. I went straight down to see her and was dismayed to see how lifeless she was. She had not been sitting up for a few days, and she had stopped eating. I knew that, and I knew what was happening, and I knew why … Continue reading Mama – Last Word
Mama
My mom’s dying is so gradual that I feel like I am watching a tree return to the earth. She hardly moves now, and Parkinson’s is stealing her voice and her expressions, just as she feared. But if I sit beside her and look into her eyes I know what she is thinking. Her eyes … Continue reading Mama
Stark January
Are you feeling a bit tense and irritable? Did you just unfriend someone who annoyed you? Are you reconsidering your job, your marriage, your hair style? Are you questioning every life choice you have ever made? Do not act on your impulses at this time of the year. Leave your hair as it is. Changing … Continue reading Stark January
There is always time to dream, write and paint
My sister and I home schooled our kids, hardcore. We did not hesitate to leave behind the current public school curriculum and grade testing. We taught our kids to read, think, play and explore without anyone telling us how to do it. Although our Mom never home schooled I think that our confidence in taking over the education … Continue reading There is always time to dream, write and paint
Mama is Preparing to Leave this World
Every time I return from Toronto I know that these trips will be over soon. After my dad and his wife died I never went back to Victoria. The home, the chairs sitting in the sun, the desk with the photos, the box of tea, the couch where I crashed, were gone. Those very things … Continue reading Mama is Preparing to Leave this World
Retirement Plans for an Angry Old Hipster
I have too many things and I spend quite a bit of time talking to banks, lawyers and insurance people. A bunch of people count on me to get things done and be there to hold up the world. I treasure sleep over almost any other pleasure, I eat sensibly all the time, I might … Continue reading Retirement Plans for an Angry Old Hipster
Tiny Moments of Reflection
In many tiny moments I think about life and death. If I am carefully pouring sugar water into a small glass bottle for hummingbirds, I think about my Dad and how he would have done this, when he was alive. How my Dad would have enjoyed my bird feeders, and laughed with me about the … Continue reading Tiny Moments of Reflection
East Coast Challenges: Buying Furniture
'Gathering' is a necessary strategy out here in the east, a survival technique for the barren grounds of the Maritimes, where the couches no longer roam free.
Mom and the Old Bitch Above
There was a time in my youth when I wished my Mom was dead. As soon as I wished it I realized that it was a terrible solution. I knew that my Mom drove me crazy in various ways but it was certainly not fair to request her death in order to set me free … Continue reading Mom and the Old Bitch Above
Notes from a Sinking Isthmus 