Wendi Stewart – Wendi with an ‘eye’

I find myself, this morning as I sit at my desk, thinking about those people who helped shape my character when I was growing up. Not the idols whose pictures I taped to my bedroom walls. Not the athletes who inspired me to run faster and jump higher. Not the […]

I was reading about a play performed in Toronto at the moment of my writing this, a play written by Ahmad Meree, a Syrian refugee who found his way to Canada in 2016. The play is performed in Ahmad’s native language of Arabic with English subtitles screened along the top […]

I love oatmeal. It speaks to childhood and grandparents and all manner of remembering. I had oatmeal this very morning for breakfast. It’s a happy start to my day. This wasn’t so much a bowl of oatmeal; the method of cooking differed slightly. Instead of boiling it on the stove, […]

I was reading, the other day, about Mary Wollstonecraft, a British novelist. She was considered radical in her time, leading the way in what we would later call feminism, but her views at that time had no title other than madness. “I do not wish [women] to have power over […]

I was thinking the other day about the definition of belonging, of what it means to be part of something outside of ourselves, to feel a connectedness with others, be it friend or family. This time of year, where ice and snow and cold sometimes create barriers, a sense of […]

I walk to the mailbox every day. Well, every day Monday to Friday. More often than not, the mailbox is empty and when it isn’t, useless flyers or bills occupy the space. Still I walk with an eager lightness to my step and as I place the key in its […]

I was reading over the holidays about a Christmas tradition in Iceland and though we have packed away our decorations and memories for another year, I couldn’t help be fascinated and envious of Iceland’s idea. It is called Jolabokaflod, which means, to you and I, “Christmas book flood” or the […]

My children’s Christmas art work is up, the creations from their early childhood. Christmas lights are up. Nat and Bing are singing their versions of seasonal favourites to me. The snow comes and goes. The pileated woodpeckers are providing their background percussion as I walk. A deer bounds over the […]

Someone said to me the other day that she wasn’t creative and wished she was. I thought about that for a minute and then a few days later I heard Lynda Barry, an American cartoonist and educator, speak on CBC Radio about our creativity. We all have creativity within us, […]

We were hit by the first winter storm last week. It was a doozy or felt like it, but it was a mere sample of what is yet to come. I know Fort Frances is all too familiar with winter storms and I remember them well from my childhood, though […]

It was my friend Jim’s birthday yesterday. On the morning of his birthday I like to sit with my coffee and compile my mental list of favourite Jim Avis memories and it invariably results in laughter. That is the gift that friendship gives us, memories and stories we can relive […]

I like to have breakfast out. I indulge myself every few weeks with this special kind of treat and though I am quite capable of frying up eggs and bacon at home, it is more about the outing than the food, of being with friends and sharing stories and laughter […]