• Family Legacy

    The Letter Grandma J. Might Have Written to Me

    I wish I’d known my dad’s mom from an adult perspective. Grandma J. passed away when I was 19 – too young to know what I didn’t know. Now, I realize that I have many questions about her life that will always go unanswered. I wonder what it would have been like to walk in her shoes. If I’d asked Grandma what her life was like at the time my dad was born and his father passed away, what would she have told me? I imagine she might have responded to me in a letter that would have gone something like this – Dear Kathi, You’ve asked me to share…

  • Family Legacy

    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.…

  • Family Legacy

    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…

  • Family Legacy

    Simply Do the Right Thing

    Cowardice asks the question, “Is it safe?” Expediency asks the question, “Is it politic?” And Vanity comes along and asks the question, “Is it popular?” But Conscience asks the question “Is it right?” And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right. – Martin Luther King, Jr. “Just, do the right thing.” Lately, I hear myself saying this more and more often: really, how hard can it be? In truth, it can be very hard and that’s the problem. Sometimes the right thing seems so hard that we…

  • Empty Nest,  Family Legacy

    Lessons From the Chick That Flew Coop

    I am thrilled to have my daughter, Princess, guest posting on my blog today. She has written from Koh Samui, Thailand. This letter is a keeper.   Dear Mom, Dad (AKA The Consultant) and Buddy, Thank you. Without all of your travel stories, shared experiences and encouragement I would have never been inspired to take this journey. As of April 1, 2014 I have been gone for seven months and I’m terribly homesick – the homesickness kicked in on about month three – but that is beside the point. You convinced me at a young age, that traveling, in some capacity, should be on every young person’s priority list. Hearing…