The time was the early 1960’s in Stratford, Ontario and this was a time when neighbourhoods had stores where you could order groceries delivered to your home on bicycles. Supermarkets (is that even a word anymore?) had yet to put local grocery stores out of business. This was also a time when each neighbourhood also…
Grief is one of those emotions that may ebb over time but never ever disappears sometimes emerging at times when you least think it will arrive. The first week of March which contains both of my parents birthdays are one such time where my thoughts often turn back to memories and reflections. This year is…
Recently I was able to watch the musical &Juliet at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto. The musical reimagines Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The musical dives into how the normative box of social constructs drive how the traditional Romeo and Juliet ends with the lovers dying. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, class, family honour,…
Looking back over my life I have come to realize how often I dismiss something out of hand and in retrospect I realize how I have come to regret it. Travel, especially writing about it, requires an open mind. So, I need to make a confession; I find castles boring and choose to skip…
“We are desperate for knowledge of self, but even more we are aching for the stories that have made us. We dare to touch the histories of this world, knowing that in them we are brought into a collective.” Cole Arthur Riley, This Here Flesh. I began examining my family’s history as part of…
An on and off again mizzle caught up to me as I entered Newcastle. A little too persistent to ignore forcing me to slide on my rain…
This past weekend on one of those glorious sunny November days, my son and I had planned a walk along the Beltline rail trail in mid-town Toronto, to go visit the Evergreen Brickworks, a former brick factory along the Don River, repurposed as a community environmental centre and public space. Upon entry, it quickly…
One winter break, while in university, I was working in a long-term care facility painting the newly installed doors to help pay for my education. At the time long-term care facilities were scary for me. But something happened. I got to know the residents, their names, their habits, and my presence became part of their…
The act of walking is an intimate experience. In a world where everything seems fast, walking is slow. In that slowness, there is time and space that is different from our everyday life; to exercise, a time to think, to remember, to plan, and often, a time to be in the moment feeling…
From Caitlyn MacInnis’s Instagram account: “I play Cur, and I can’t wait for you to meet her/him/them LOL.” Seeing non-binary representation in a play is still something that is not that…