In 2003 I let myself be talked into directing the second year’s production of The Vagina Monologues in a rural town in central British Columbia. I didn’t really think such an edgy play would work there, even though it had the year before. I was wrong. A framed poster hangs on the wall of...
What my community, my world, would look like if there was no violence against women or children. ©2003 Donna Milner There is no ‘us’ or ‘them’ There is only We We are one We are whole We are the people of the world And we the Children of the world Play in our yards,...
“My mind remains a bad neighborhood that I try not to go into alone.” Anne Lamott, Salon Magazine, March 1997
Peanut didn’t stick around to grow into a child. Heartache came along with the fleeting joy. We all experience grief and longing in our own way. Peanut’s brief, hopeful appearance gave Miriam and Michelle, and those of us who love them fiercely, a couple weeks of agonizing anticipation. These two special young women dreamed....
“The stories people tell have a way of taking care of them. If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive. That is why we put these stories in each other’s memory. This...
After I wrote about Black Boy, Glenda Palmer sent me this story about the cat who became caregiver when her parents were ailing. Guest post by Glenda Palmer Miss Carlie, our beautiful Birman cat, was a rescue kitty from the Kelowna SPCA in 1996 when she was about five years old. I brought her...
“We fear our highest possibilities. We are generally afraid to become that which we can glimpse in our most perfect moments, under conditions of great courage. We enjoy and even thrill to godlike possibilities we see in ourselves in such peak moments. And yet we simultaneously shiver with weakness, awe, and fear before these...
I’ve done it, and you probably have too. Had my feelings hurt, felt like a failure, been sure I didn’t measure up. When I let go of the dark ball of lead in my belly, I remember the wisdom of Brian Andreas’s little story, “No hurt survives for long without our help.” And if...
“The most exhausting thing in life, I have discovered, is being insincere. That is why so much of social life is exhausting; one is wearing a mask. I have shed my mask.” Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea Dee Dee Rainbow shed her mask. Rainbow-striped eyelashes, flowing rainbow clothes, rainbow makeup, rainbow jewelry,...
Robin’s daughter, Michelle, called from Melbourne Friday, her voice quivering with excitement. “We got four!” she cried. We knew exactly what she meant, even before her longer explanation. She and her partner, Miriam, have been trying for months to conceive. They were hoping to avoid the more-invasive in vitro fertilization process and the drugs...
I’ve been slow to post Black Boy’s story. He deserves his place here. He gave me courage when I needed it most. Despair had become a frequent visitor during a period of time when I felt as if I’d awakened in someone else’s story. The details aren’t important here, and I’ve come to view...
At the Unitarian Fellowship of Kelowna service last Sunday, Kelly Hamilton not only read this poem to us. She printed it in the bulletin, for all of us to take home in our hands as well as in our hearts. I love the images – the heat of memories cracking through the lava dome...
Facebook
Twitter