I miss my daughters. I may have mentioned that once or several hundred times over the past fifteen months or so. The pandemic certainly has stripped away the clutter and allowed us to see the pieces of our life that matter the most. My daughter shared such a story this […]
Wendi Stewart – Wendi with an ‘eye’
Wendi lives in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley, but the farm on Rainy River in Crozier will always be her home. MEADOWLARK, her debut novel released September 15, is published by NeWest Press of Edmonton. She is the mother of four daughters who did the unforgivable: they grew up. http://wendistewart.writersresidence.com
I like words. I had a notebook with my list of favourite words while I was growing up, words like giggle and balloon and bubbles, watermelon and frolic and zephyr. In that book were lists of words I struggled to spell correctly, words like prerogative and onomatopoeia. I still struggle […]
I am a curling fan. Always have been. The only thing I watch on television is curling and the rest of the year the television sits idle, and I occasionally wipe the dust off it. I used to watch tennis, and if I am being honest, I do sneak a […]
Spring, glorious Spring! I’m channelling Oliver Twist when he sang “Food, glorious food,” in the musical Oliver, my arms outstretched as I spin around. Are you familiar with the musical? Don’t worry, if my neighbours could hear me, they too would tell me to pipe down. We all need Spring. […]
Someone once told me that seeing the River Thames from the Promenade in London elevated his position in life, as if for that moment he was able to stand in the shoes of the giants of history. I didn’t agree, not then, not now. I grew up on the Rainy […]
My four daughters and I have a way of communicating during this blasted pandemic, to help ease the separation and loneliness. We use the Marco Polo App to send video messages to each other, videos we can listen to when we have time, and watch over and over to feel […]
We don’t talk about mental illness. Science struggles to understand the brain and its deep secrets, and so do we. It seems easier to look away from mental illness, too uncomfortable to see its by-products, too uneasy to offer comfort, too judgmental to say I see your pain. Instead, we […]
I’ve said it before, more than once, I confess. But I feel compelled to say it again, so that I might feel part of the conversation/action that is called change. We are always changing and evolving and sometimes the change is so small that it can go undetected, and a […]
It may be Spring on the calendar and I can confirm the by-product of the blizzard of last week in my neighbourhood has all but vanished. I know winter is lurking in the shadows, ready to pounce if I am complacent, but today, this very day, while it is +18 […]
I realized the other day that hope seemed in short supply in my cupboard of reserves. I was checking my inventory and recording the levels of patience, tolerance, kindness, empathy, and I noticed that hope was all but depleted. That’s never a good thing, but … it got me thinking. […]
I’ve been digging through my boxes of memories these past few weeks, of things I saved that at one time seemed incredibly important and valuable to me. I have an autograph book that friends wrote in at the end of each school year. I have track and field ribbons from […]
I had visions, when I was eight years old, of becoming a super-hero, once I had conquered the ability to tell time. First things first. It is essential that superheroes be able to tell time. I struggled with time telling, I confess. My mother was disappointed, but she shouldn’t have […]
