Heaven
When my dog Jack died, I believed in heaven. After his burial, my mother-in-law gave me a card with a little story in it. It’s about a man and his dog…
The Tao of Horses
“If you knew a horse, you could depend on him and if he was going to do something bad, you could depend on him to do that too. I always…
Coming Home
Coming home after an absence, you see it differently. When you leave one home to visit another, you get it both ways. Going back to Ontario after a year in…
Hampton Court House
The 140-year-old Court House in Hampton, New Brunswick has heard its last case. Court cases for Kings County will now be heard in Saint John. The town knows a new…
That Good Night
I have always loved Dylan Thomas’ exhortation to his dying father: Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Yes, I thought,…
House Deconstruction
Three weeks in our new house and slowly it’s coming together. A new house is like a Rubik’s Cube: frustratingly impossible to figure out the parts but hit the right…
Interlibrary Loan
I wanted a book a while back. The St. Thomas public library didn’t have it and neither did the local bookstore. Did I want to drive to London to look…
Merry Solstice
Whatever the name of the event you’re celebrating, Happy It. The one thing that all the festivities happening at the time of the winter solstice have in common is that…
“Look at Bingy”: Alzheimer’s and Distraction
Frustration is part of Alzheimer’s and other age-related memory loss and dementia – frustration for the person themself and the people caring for or interacting with them. So distraction becomes…
Snow Day
Our backyard late last night. All the snow had gone, even the mud had started to dry up. Then bang, last night, a snowstorm. A mixture of rain, freezing rain…