In June 2010 Tom Wayman was in Kelowna, doing a reading from his newly published novel, Woodstock Rising. At the end someone asked him what he thought was the legacy of the Woodstock era. His answer was, “hope”. He said young people now know so much more than we did, but they have no...
Mark Horvath used to be invisible, back when he was homeless. He knows what it’s like when people pass by without acknowledging his humanity. Now he has a home, work, and the drive to rip away the cloak of invisibility that makes our neighbours disappear to us when they fall on hard times. He...
We had a cat, my mother, brother and I. She was one of many animals who paraded through my childhood. This one was special, a pure-bred Siamese. I have no memory of how we acquired such a beauty. We would never have had money to buy her. But there she was, chocolate nose, paws...
Watching someone reaching for the brass ring always intrigues me. We can ride along comfortably and manage a reasonably satisfying life, but if we dare stretch in the direction of our riskier passions we have to leave the easy path. Writers, musicians, artists and actors know this. So do athletes and scientists. And so...
In less than seven weeks I’m turning 65. Aging has never held much terror for me, probably because my mother was comfortable with her own. I have a hunch she would have kept her gray hair, as I have, had she not been persuaded by certain family members to youthify her follicles. My mother’s...
On July 5th in a Melbourne hospital, a miracle slipped into the world. I know that’s true because one of her moms called me moments later to tell me I was officially “Tutu”. That’s a Hawaiian word for grandmother and will be my nickname as this most beloved of children grows. I never experienced...
The amateur photographer in me saw Rich Lam’s photograph of the kissing couple in the middle of Vancouver’s June 15, 2011, riot and thought, “Wow, lucky guy. What an incredible catch.” I was considering the photographer lucky, not the boyfriend. Canadian Alexandra Thomas and Australian Scott Jones have become media darlings as a result...
When I was growing up, I was proud to be American. I ate national pride with my breakfast cereal. I still love the country of my birth, but now I’m embarrassed by a lot of what I hear and see. Too much of what’s happening these days eats away at the values I embrace....
For over twenty years my mother did the bookkeeping for a seed company in Twin Falls, Idaho. The salary was low. Hours were long. She worked five and a half days a week and never got more than a couple weeks of vacation. I don’t know if she loved the job. I do know...
I feel tender toward the uncertain young woman I was when my life seemed to be spinning out of control. I want to tell her things will turn out all right. She’ll survive the crashes. Sometimes she’ll soar. There will never be a day when something good doesn’t happen. She’ll find happiness, not as...
Robin’s daughter, Michelle, once gently reminded me to be patient with people who had not yet wrapped their minds – or hearts – around acceptance for people whose sexuality was different from what they considered “normal”. She was right. She is a wise young woman, and that’s good. Because soon she will be the...
“We all deserve to have fun, live large, and be ridiculed by less imaginative people existing under the erroneous assumption they get extra credit for being prudent and safe.” Patti Digh, Life Is a Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally I’ve spent a lot of time in my life...
Facebook
Twitter