I’ve written three different blog posts today and don’t feel ready to publish any of them – could be because I worked on (someone else’s) taxes all afternoon and I’m just tapped out. Or it could be the rain. But I have wanted to explain my work at McMaster so here goes: It’s kind of […]
Category Archives: writing
It is about the students
Déjà vu all over again – the government and the education sector, butting up against one another and the government whipping anger with a media frenzy (and way too many standing ovations). People working in education will be made out as money grabbing and our elected representatives will not only feed that negativity and misinformation, […]
watching the world go by
Last fall, we went down to one car. This has meant a shift in my lifestyle from car dependence to walking/transit independence. It may seem I have those descriptors backwards, but I do not. I do plan my life much more carefully now, but I feel more stress free taking transit. I feel more reliant […]
this floor: memory lane
The other day I was on a crowded elevator and someone asked me to hit the button for their floor. Another person asked for a different floor. Then the occupants started joking about how I was an elevator operator. The usual discomfort of close quarters with strangers evaporated. Funny thing, I once was an elevator […]
let me hold this memory with gentle hands…
Let me hold this memory with gentle hands, the moment the room erupted with joy and love, the moment they lay you, my first-born, on my chest. The fears of unknown futures and anguish of weeks of bed rest – gone. You were beautiful and noisy and healthy. The relief was complete. You changed my life […]
end of the beginning
Today signals the end of my first writing course through U of T. When I began, I decided I would see how this one went before deciding to sign up for another. I signed up for two courses for the spring. Obviously it went well. It’s not about marks here; you get a pass/fail. It went […]
Undermining resiliency
Every day, it’s something new and, most often, detrimental coming from the Ontario Education Minister. It’s hard to keep up with what’s happening in education in Ontario, but to date, I cannot think of anything that’s been done in the true interests of students. I understand that education is a heavy draw on the financial […]
don’t give yourself away
The final assignment for this course was to write in any genre. I worked with two pieces, one fiction, one non-fiction, wanting to leave my options open. In the end, I went with the non-fiction, for one simple reason: I had something I needed to work through. And the only way to do that has […]
some things the world gave
I am presently spending a lot of time on my final assignment so I give over this week’s posting space to Mary Oliver. Again. Some Things The World Gave 1 Times in the morning early when it rained and the long gray buildings came forward from darkness offering their windows for light.2 Evenings out there […]
this life has taught me…
Recently, in my snail mail subscription package from @hellowriter (part of the wonderful Firefly Creative Writing group), there was a prompt to write about what life has taught me. This is far from a thoroughly exhaustive list, but here goes: This life has taught me that raising my children was the greatest gift to myself. […]
