It started as an ordinary, late-November day — no sun, no snow, no wind, no rain, no leaves, no flowers. There was nothing that brought joy, nothing that brought excitement, nothing that brought fear. It was one of those days when you couldn’t imagine anything but dull and grey. It was noon and I was…
When Susan was eight or nine years old, all she wanted was a doll house. She’d only seen doll houses in Collinsons Department Store, and certainly never played with one but all the girls in her class had a doll house and talked constantly about them. Their doll houses sounded so much grander than the…
You know when you can’t sleep – you toss and turn, count sheep, think positive thoughts, try meditating, go get a glass of warm milk. Nothing works. At 1 a.m. you look out the window to see if anyone else has their lights on, 2 a.m. you check your email and FB messenger, 3 a.m.…
It’s early fall in Toronto. The trees are turning to flame, the days are getting cooler and shorter. The nights are getting longer. It’s just after 7 p.m. The lowest hydro rates have kicked in and for the second time this week I’ve thrown a load of laundry into the washer. Suddenly, I’m thrust back…
A style sheet helps keep your writing consistent, whether that’s an article, a newsletter, web content, a brochure, or an annual report. While a style guide like the Chicago Manual of Style or the Canadian Press Stylebook will lay down the basic rules it won’t help you with things specific to your company or industry…
If there is one word in the English language that I’ve become sick and tired of over the last four months of the COVID pandemic, it is unprecedented. Sometimes it’s used several times in the same sentence (written and spoken). By now, we all know that the year 2020 has been a very different year…
When I was five-years-old, my family took the train from Ashhurst to Gisborne (New Zealand) to visit my grandparents. At the start of our journey the train wound its way through two or three long tunnels as we travelled from one end of the spectacular Manawatu Gorge to the other. As we entered each tunnel,…
My daughter is a frontline worker. She’s not a doctor or a nurse or a personal support worker. She works frontend (which means she helps the cashiers) at Costco. Five days a week, seven hours a day she’s there with her face mask and her gloves helping to get the job done so the rest…
When my 7-year-old grandson asked me, “Who would I be if you hadn’t ‘dopted Mummy?” I murmured “Mmm,” and said, “That’s a good question.” “Well Jana,” he insisted, “Who would I be? Would I still be me? Would the lady who ‘dopted Mummy be my grandma? I wouldn’t want that. Would I have cousins in…
Carrowmore cemetery: a passage tomb within a stone circle Prehistory, history and mythology; glorious mountains and gentle rolling hills; literature and art, Ireland’s northwest has it all. I went there searching for lost relatives and found a place that would have grabbed my heart, whether or not it had little Irish blood flowing through it.…