Category: Living
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Before you post that…
I love how Facebook can be a place to share and learn different perspectives. I hate, hate, hate, how Facebook turns too often into skirmishes of opinion. In case you don’t know, I live in Alberta. Rural Alberta. In case you don’t know, Facebook has turned into a battleground (at least on my feed) over…
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Renaissance girl?
I envy my husband sometimes. He’s an artist with tunnel vision, the classic absentminded professor. He jumps head first into things and doesn’t look back, working with feverish abandon on the project of the moment until the next idea strikes, oblivious to the debris field in his wake. The trained eye can look over his…
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The dark days
Every once in a while, a word floats to the surface of my memory, a phrase dredged up from the days when I lived and breathed theatre. Waking up in the winter grey this morning, the word in my head was “dark”: a term for a day when no rehearsal, no performance is scheduled. The…
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Why you didn’t get a Christmas treat from me
I live in a tight-knit community. The type of town in which you know your neighbours, newcomers can’t fly under the radar, and you go to church with your rivals as well as your friends. Around Christmastime, there inevitably comes the ringing of the doorbell as friends and neighbours drop off cookies, crafts, candy. Some…
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Poppy day
It’s almost Remembrance Day, and I’m slightly annoyed. Excuse me while I grab my soapbox. The Halloween sugar rush hadn’t even gotten up to full steam before I started seeing Christmas show up in the decor and on the shelves around town. What’s up with that? Remembrance Day has become the forgotten holiday, the little…
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Writing confessions of an occasional knitter
It’s taken me all summer to get around to a new post. I’d like to tell you it’s because I’ve been wonderfully productive in the garden, but it’s not. I’d also love to explain how I’ve been so completely immersed in writing my book that I couldn’t bother with anything as mundane as a blog.…
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Muffin tins, rationalization, and procrastination
Washing dishes is often a philosophical experience for me. This morning, for instance, I was cleaning up from a big batch of baking yesterday–muffins for the school track and field concession. I had opted not to use paper liners. I know them to be a time saver, but it seemed like a waste and just…
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Flashback courtesy of CBC and DNTO
Today at 1:30 (or whenever via modern technology) you can listen to my national radio debut (skip to about 1:09:00 if you just want me), telling a tale from my storied past. I went digging for a picture to share with you of the particular era in question, and couldn’t find much. Lots of grade 9,…
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In the beginning…
I’ve been writing since I was a child. Being drawn to story, learning, and truth has led me through many mediums: music, theatre, photography, journalism, but always I seem to wind up back with my pen scratching paper or my fingers on the keyboard. Over the last four years, I got pretty comfortable in my…