It was gift from my father “It’s yours” it’s weight — all his life in toil — beaten and chipped like the burden he carried on his shoulders now bent with bursitis. “Take this” his shouts when he swung framing 2x4s into tight places “Take this hammer” to build your life — it was not…
A Legacy in Place
We together sit upon the earth in the shadows of a sundial that connects Me to the soil that fed me from the mud patties I fed me with a place that grounded me of a ground that holds family Us under the sun defines place out of it seasons my own by it my…
Generations
Staring into faces I stand in the dark Of my parents’ room At the black and white Photos silently Paper tombstones line Thick dust silhouettes Names only spoken In stories of others Stories once taken Immigration there Just married right here Anniversaries Graduations once Off to war once more Suits ties shiny shoes Dresses Sunday…
A Room of My Own ~ My Canadian Voice
Any discussion of a writer’s voice will surely evoke allusions to Virginia Woolf’s emancipating book, A Room of One’s Own. Writing with her own strong voice, she breaks barriers and all but seizes a voice that she proclaims her own … and in the process she creates an anthem for women writers the world over….
All Things Home ~ All Things Ottawa
We are so much defined by place that we define the place we live by naming it … home. And if “home” is only where you’re born, then I guess I offer this observation as person who has been homeless more years than at home. The irony is that in having lived so many places,…
Inspired by Tradition but Proudly Ourself: A Canadian Resolution
I love problems … love finding solutions to impossible predicaments. Challenges beget curiosity and creativity and they fill me with resolve…. Each New Year doesn’t in-and-of-itself present a problems to me: it provides a 365¼ day tableau on which to create life. And, other than when I’m actually writing, there is nothing I love doing…
Harvesting an Identity
Long has the harvest been an important part of my life and long has it been associated with fall, bountiful cornucopias of food, and Thanksgiving. Growing up in the Okanagan Valley, the fall harvest meant picking the last of the fruit and stripping our garden of its remaining plenty before tilling the vegetation back into…
Preserving: Our Canadian Tradition
I grew up among trees. Indeed, trees define a huge part of our national identity – and our food – in this country. Speak to any foreigner about their image of Canada and it will almost universally be of “wilderness” and the wide expanse of mountains, water, open spaces, and trees. Growing up, everywhere I…
The Shore Lunch … My First Authentic Canadian Food Experience
A few weeks ago, I jumped into the Canadian Food Experience Project in medias res when I wrote about my Canadian Food Hero. Now, circling back to the beginning, I’m being challenged to write about an authentic Canadian food experience. I was a bit stumped by this challenge and I understand in retrospect why this is…