September was amazing, October was wonderful. I don’t know what happened in November but it hasn’t been my month. Is it the weather? That I’ve been spending less time outside? Not enough vitamin D? Just general hormones wreaking havoc. Who knows. All I know is that my November has been less than stellar. After a…
Hard truth, I am socially awkward. I’m the most socially awkward of anyone, ever. I don’t know how to communicate with people. I gaff constantly. And usually, by the time I realize that I’ve gaffed, the moment is over and I can’t fix it. So then I’ll spend the next decade of my life cringing…
(Random Thoughts are little notes rather than full-blown blog posts) Sometimes I wake up at 5 AM and conquer the world, sometimes I only have the energy to sit, listen to the birds, watch my dog, look at flowers. My other dog is asleep at my son‘s feet right now, and I think she may…
I grew up in a small town, in a house with a large yard. My dad had 2 huge gardens that he worked diligently on, growing lettuce and cucumbers and tomatoes. We had a shed full of bunnies for a while, and the property was backed against a marsh reserve with a stream going through…
Despite every day job I have ever worked, I always needed to make time for art to have a place in my life. There have been times where my day job consumed so much of my energy and zapped my creativity that I no longer had the time or energy to let Art in, and…
Last night, my husband and I went to a concert. It was weird. Not the concert, that was good. But me, being out of the house past 8pm. That was weird. In my 20s I went to concerts all the time. The year I moved to Montreal I was 25. I knew no one, so…
Lately, my life has felt like a hamster wheel. I keep running and running and running, but all I am met with is the need for more running. A full-time job that’s been keeping me busy, kids and their never-ending lists of needs, dogs and their never-ending want of attention, a husband who has been…
One thing I hear a lot from my kids is, I can’t help it, it’s who I am. When they have a behaviour or a reaction that I (after the fact) work to discuss with them, the response is often, It’s beyond my control, this is who I am. I also hear this verbiage from…
In our culture we’re often told to hustle, we’re often told to work harder and longer, and we’re often told to strive for perfection. We’re sometimes told that it’s ok to make mistakes, but rarely are we told that we’re allowed to do things again. As I write this I keep thinking back to the…
It’s Up to Us to Play Big I remember being in my final year of high school and applying to university programs. I had zero ideas on what I wanted to do with my life professionally (arguably still the case), all I knew was that I loved to make stuff. I chose to focus on…
When I write something from a head space it always feels forced, like I’m trying to push the words out. If I’m writing just to meet a self-imposed deadline or to receive a particular effect, if I’m writing to elicit a particular response, when I’m trying hard to churn the words out, I can feel…
Growing up for me has been a gradual process. Now, at the age of 45, I think I may have grown just enough to have some things figured out. For example, I’ve figured out that there is no Monday to Friday job in the world that will ever match the beat of my heart. No…
Even as someone who spends a lot of time talking about self-care and making time for self, I find it easy to push my own priorities to the wayside in favour of taking care of the household. There is always something else, someone else, in need of attention. And even though I make special “me”…
This might sound crazy but I only recently discovered, as a forty-something woman, that it’s better to recognize, pay attention to, and acknowledge the feelings within you, rather than hide from them or try to outrun them. I probably already knew this in theory, but I certainly didn’t know this in practice. It’s funny to…
Back in November, my husband let me know that our daughter would be performing in a Christmas recital. “Cool,” I replied. I assumed that the recital would be online, as all recitals had been since the start of COVID. A week went by, and as we were discussing the recital, I learned that it would…
About 18 years ago I wrote a children’s story. I decided that I wanted to do the illustrations myself, but it was one of those things that just intimidated me. How to do it? Could I do it? Would they turn out? Etc etc. I had the images in my mind, I just wasn’t confident…
