For as long as I can remember, I’ve let anything mean and hurtful said to me stick. I’m like a 5’5’’ strip of flypaper that has been hanging from the ceiling for 41 years. There is barely a space where there isn’t something, long dead, that I’m holding onto. See? Over here by my eye …
I was certain I was an adult when, twenty-three years ago, I decided to tackle life on my own. I threw clothes in my car and abandoned the rest of my things in my childhood bedroom. I didn’t move out. I left. Basically, it’s been downhill from there on the scale of how sure I …
“An adult polar bear can eat 60 kilograms of food at a single sitting,” my 10-year-old son says from his seat at the dining table. The annual beach house waffle breakfast is in its third year and we could have invited a polar bear to join us and still roll away stuffed to the brim. …
The Cloak of Expectations is draped around my shoulders. I imagine it like a roughly sewn patchwork quilt in a mass of colour. Some patches are there due to the societal expectations of my race and gender . My parents’ unfulfilled dreams are woven into the fabric. The majority of the pieces, however, I …
Packed away, beautifully framed, is my Media with Expressive Arts degree. For four years I studied for that piece of paper while raising two children and working full-time. As a result of all that work, I watch films and television series with a critical eye and a reasonable understanding of the theories behind film making. …
She stands with feet wide, knees deeply bent. Her ageless face framed by straight black hair. She is in constant, deliberate motion. The sweep of the arm. The scoop of the hand. Her eyes focus on the middle distance. She takes a slow, deliberate step to the left. Toes up, heel down. The shift of her weight, from …
“Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It’s splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.” Anne Shirley – Anne of Green Gables, LM Montgomery My teenage self was an awkward chameleon. By blending into different social circles, I played with who I might be. I …
Nine years ago today was supposed to be my second chance. The start of my happily ever after. Instead of celebrating another year, I’ve sat with a lump of unacknowledged grief wedged in my chest and a work day that has reinforced feelings of not being enough. My bridesmaid sends me a message. “Are you …
It is thirty minutes into Mother’s Day. I have been in bed for a few hours escaping the sudden arrival of winter. But I’m not waiting for Mother’s Day greetings. I am awake, reading and waiting to hear from the second of my two teenage children. They are both out at parties. The girl child, a …
