Really? Is that all you've got to show? What have

There’s a quiet ache I feel some mornings before my feet touch the floor.  Still, I feel the imperative to get out of bed, fumble with the few pills I’m supposed to take each day and try to move forward.  Photo by Andrew Neel on Pexels.com Photo by Mizuno K on Pexels.com I turn on the aging coffee maker, and while waiting for the supposedly robust brew I found on sale last week to drip…

A sonnet for my fabulous wife and partner on the occasion of her seventieth birthday. Today you wake beneath a brighter sky,A soul reborn with every breath you take.No past regret can dim your rising high,No shadow lingers where your morning breaks.Your spirit sings of reivention's flame,Of pages turned, and chapters newly writ.You are not defined by yesterday's name,But by the spark that dares…

What’s in your Go-Bag? I’m not talking about that small travel bag that you take on an overnight visit or the one that you cram into the overhead bin on an airplane. And I really don’t mean the bag you keep in the back of the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet at work in case you don’t make it home after having drinks with friends the night before. I’m talking about your emergency evacuation…

turbulence in a writer’s workspace A journey to fulfillment? Uh, no. Guess what? Distracted again! Caught in a loop! A Journey to Fulfillment stymied. Do you remember my commitment to setting priorities for all those goals and self-imposed deadlines that I intended to put in place or had been putting in place when last I posted? Caught in a loop!  Distracted again! Speed bumps on a journey to…

TIAs and Aphasia are not to be confused with Tiaras and Asparagus. TIAs and Aphasia are serious indications of something going wrong in your brain. Let me ask a couple of questions to put this in context. Have you ever found yourself short of words?  At a loss for words?  Have you ever had trouble thinking of the right word, or any word that will get your thought across?  And when you couldn’t…

The creator part of me has hit a wall in retirement. It may be more of a speedbump than a wall. I just need to figure out how to move forward. Got any solutions for hitting the creative wall in retirement? I’ve got a lot of ideas, I just can’t get them done. There’s a lot of reasons for it. Its not inertia. I’m overwhelmed and it shows up as procrastination. Photo by cottonbro studio on…

Tyranny of the New Year’s Resolution

Tyranny of the New year’s Resolution It’s the time of the year when we fall into the biggest trap we create for ourselves. At the of the changing of the calendar year we are expected to make New Year’s Resolutions. Oh, the tyranny of the New Year’s Resolution!! The expectations that drive the creation of New Year’s Resolutions started 4000 years ago in ancient Babylon.  At their New Year,…

Winter view from a drone

The winter in Alberta can look pretty bleak when taking the winter view from a drone. Don’t those skies look lovely? A clear blue sky usually means COLD ! But it is pretty, eh?

We want to trust and believe in our travel providers when we leave home. We embark on journeys for many reasons, not the the least of which is to expand our world view and to learn something. No one expects traveling to go so wrong because of our travel providers. The one thing I’ve learned from this trip is not to trust WestJet schedules at face value when booking.  I no longer trust WestJet to…

A Change is gonna come

Life in the time of Covid-19, a change is gonna come; The world is changing.  Hell, the world has already been marked by quite a few significant shanges!  I started to write this post back in September of 2021. That’s about eight months ago. Things definitely started to change! We had been slapped around by a pandemic, endured a pseudo fascist American President, witnessed violent recognition…

Traveling again–a change in venue!

as the Covid restrictions seem to ease in certain places in the world we’ve decided to be brave and begin travelling again. Travelling again means preparing for a change in venue, something we haven’t done in three years. We’ve had all the vaccinations, all FOUR shots, plus the flu vaccination. We’re very careful about masking. We are confident that we can travel again. Thumbs up to traveling…

Earth Day trip into the mountains

The Evil Empire didn’t leave

I grew up in an era where our parents openly worried worried about what the Evil Empire, would do to our hard won freedoms. The Evil Empire manifested itself first as The Third Reich an then as the USSR. Our parents lived with the effects of World War II, both during and after. Imagine their anxiety during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Now we worry that the invasion of the Ukraine puts us and…

Your hand in my pocket

unsplash Why do I find someone’s hand in my pocket ? It seems like everyone wants a bit of something; a handout, a contribution, a donation, sponsorship or validation that can only come through monetization, and they’re looking in my pocket. As I browse the web, surfing for information and guidance I find that nothing is free anymore. Everyone wants a contribution either in the form of…

Countdown to the holidays

DCIM101MEDIADJI_0573.JPG DCIM101MEDIADJI_0577.JPG In the countdown to the holidays there are a number of different markers. To begin with there is the profusion of lights. The winters here are very dark, with the shortest day of the year being in the forefront of the season. Once that marker is past and winter is officially declared the days get lighter as we head into spring, and the time of…