Musings

I love going into stores owned and managed by women. I feel a kindred spirit, though I have never worked retail. There are two in our town that are my particular favorites. One is a lovely bakery that also serves as a tea shop (The Polka Dot Pound Cake.). It is a simple store,...

I like to pray. More often than not, my prayer is a conversation with God, asking, thanking and sometimes just acknowledging. I also like saying prayers with words that I have known since childhood. More like a mantra, a chant without thinking. These past few weeks with so much uncertainty around us, I have...

These past ‘shelter-in’ weeks have focused on so many things I can no longer do—hug our grandchildren, attend the theatre, get my nails done, go to my yoga class. I shake my head at what I am missing with waves of longing for what was once my life. These ramblings are then besieged with...

My husband and I checked a spot off our ‘bucket list’ this summer, a trip to the Canadian Rockies. It was a different type of vacation for us, five cities in 12 days not including a layover midway between Vancouver and Banff. The beauty of this region is not only hard to describe, it...

I have good mates across the pond.  I have worked, danced, laughed and cried with them. Yet, on more than one occasion, we had to translate our words. Did I mention that these friends live in England, and we are supposed to share a common language?  At times, it just doesn’t seem that way....

I had intended to write this essay about the starts of September: the first day of school, the smell of newly sharpened pencils, the slightest hint of color on the leaves. Yet, when I recall September days, it is the 11th day of that month that is indelible in my mind. It was a...

I have always valued my girlfriends, some of whom I have known for longer than I will admit to on paper. Many of them have seen me at my worse and, hopefully, at my best. It is in my newest venture, writing, publishing and publicizing my first book where the support and encouragement of...

There are moments in life when you have no do-overs. You need to be there—whatever the cost, emotionally, physically and sometimes even financially. There are no guidelines, each person makes their own list that only their heart knows must be followed. My mom was the first of the mothers to die—it was cancer and...

I love going to our local library. This has been true since I was a kid and devoured every Nancy Drew book on the shelf. I would be transported into her world where she had ‘chums’ and a ‘roadster’—I had friends and no car. Those were the days when no one would question what...

My birthday calendar has just turned over and I have added another number to the question of “how old are you?”  In my recent introduction to the world of cataract surgery, the nurse completing what I think was the third form of the day, began her task by asking me to tell her my...