Family Legacy
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Don’t Worry, There’s Plenty of Love in Crete
(Sequel to Can We Go Back to Where We Fell in Love and Fall Again?) Before I travelled to Greece for the first time, I met a Greek-Canadian named Gideon who said something like, “Once you’ve been to Greece, it will haunt you.” He was right. Greece has been calling me back ever since I set foot on the island of Crete in 1978. Finally, this April, I returned to Crete with The Consultant, in anticipation of all we remembered from back then – spontaneous Greek dancing, shop owners beckoning from their doorways, older gents sitting outside a kafenío with their Greek coffee and kombolói beads, rhythmically dispelling their worries.…
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Mother to a Son
Growing up, I didn’t know boys. My family was made up of girls – my Mom and three sisters. The lone male of the household, Dad, moved out when I was 14. As a young girl, I thought boys were immature and rude. They laughed at things that weren’t funny, like farts and boogers. Boys wrecked stuff. I hated when mothers brought their sons over to our house to play. They pulled off my dolls’ legs and poked pins in their plastic belly buttons. They were violent, running amok, using their fingers as guns, “pow-pow, pow-pow-pow.” They’d keel over dead for a few moments only to jump back to life…
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Spring Fever
In Calgary, we can pretty much guarantee we’ll have winter – cold, snowy or otherwise challenging. But spring? Now that’s another story. Buddy’s birthday is mid-April. Some of his birthday parties were spent stuck indoors due to snowstorms and at others, the kids played basketball out in our backyard, wearing shorts. Due to it’s unpredictability, many Calgarians feel the season bypasses us entirely. Each year as the seasons cycle around to spring, I feel antsy. I am dissatisfied with winter’s comfortable cocoon. Life is suddenly “ruttish.” An intense spring fever overshadows everything. I have a consistent pattern at this time of year. I crave change and the hunger is always…
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Do My Kids Need a Better Life Than Mine?
One evening a while back, I was sitting around with friends after a Calgary Stampeder football game when one of them said, “All we want for our kids is that they have a better life than us, right?” Actually, when I think about my life, I have to wonder whether it is possible for my kids to have a better one. Mine’s been pretty darn good. I’ve always had a roof over my head and never gone hungry. Most importantly, I’ve always felt loved. My sisters and I were fortunate to be born in this time and place. Canadian women experience more equality than most women in the world.…
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A Valentine for Mom
Mom, it’s only been through taking the writing you left for us, transcribing it and setting photos to it, that I’ve fully grasped the magnitude of your legacy. Your family has learned so many lessons of love from you. I always knew your love was there. When I was young I guess I took it for granted, like kids tend to do. But being a Mom myself, I see it clearly now. We get the best and the worst of our children and no matter how we handle the behaviour, we always forgive. You were the best at it, Mom – loving and forgiving my sisters and me, over and…
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My Gift to You This Christmas
My friend and fellow blogger, Janine over at Internal Ink, inspires me. In today’s post, Giving – The Holiday Spirit, she reminds us that not every gift fits nicely under the tree. She encourages us to think about “what you can give from yourself “ this Christmas season. I thought about her post for quite a while this morning and decided I’d like to offer my readers the gift of Optimism by sharing the poem, Desiderata by Max Ehrmann, 1927. Les Crane first introduced me to Desiderata in the 70’s. His narration of this work set to music, is on my IPod. I listen to it often as a gentle and comforting reminder…
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Dad Skis With Me
It’s that time again. The ski hills in Banff are opening for the season. We’ll be digging out our equipment, dusting it off and heading to the mountains in no time. At 55, most of my friends have retired and sold off their equipment long ago. But, I’m not ready to let go. Skiing is what gets me through the winter. I’ve grown up with it. When we lived in Trail, B.C. in the 60’s, it was our big thing. We weren’t a sports family, but Dad’s bachelor buddy, Ed, had taken it up. As a young father, I’m sure Dad realized if he was going to ski with Ed,…
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Burned Evidence
Who, in their right mind, burns their diaries? I did. I sat out in the back yard and set a match to every page of two diaries and watched as ticket stubs, photos of my best friends and memories of day-to-day life went up in flames. In a few moments, all written evidence of a young girl’s life were lost and gone forever. I can’t imagine what I was thinking. Intellectually, I understand that I was not in my right mind. Scientists discovered teen brain grey matter changes well into the early 20’s. Now, we know enough to forgive teens for any irrational or risky behaviour. I know enough to…
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Writing Family Matters
How many times have you been sitting around the dinner table when a senior family member tells a tale of some past experience and you’re so drawn in, you forget you ate dessert? Before you know it time has flown by, grandpa is ready to go home and you are left craving more. We are pulled into the past as though we are gathered at the storyteller’s feet, listening to a favourite childhood fairy tale, “Once upon a time….” and we are enrapt. We want to know the stories of those who came before us. When I was a child, my Great Aunt Mabel was like that. She knew the…
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What I Knew One Day in July 1990
The moment I saw my baby’s face, I believed in love at first sight. My eldest niece and one of my nephews are about to become parents for the first time. Thinking about how their lives are about to change, makes me revisit that time in my own life. Becoming a new mom was my most challenging transition. Here’s what was going on for me back then. In July 1990, I was the happily married young mother of a one-year old son. While pregnant I had a romanticized vision of myself balancing home and career – just like the superwomen who had carved the path before me. However, once my…
