I sit to write blog posts, not chapters. The words crumple into a tight ball in my mind and I stretch my fingers across the keyboard to unfurl them. A knot of uncertainty knits itself together in my heart and I reach for the known over the scary. This writing for a blog is familiar. […]
Big Dreams and Scary Words
“I think you’re called to this,” he said, with the ease of remarking on the weather. We were driving to have dinner when he told me. I don’t know how we manage to have these conversations, so pivotal and unexpected, while driving. Perhaps there is something about the forced companionship or the way the world […]
Hooked
You know what I love more than anything? Being called out. I love standing in a room of people and having someone say something pointed that is directed at me. (That there? Sarcasm.) Thanks, Jeff Goins. You may as well just start all your posts with, ‘Dear Thelma, let’s go already.’ I’m talking about writing […]
Keeping it Real
It’s a bit of a moving target, this thing we call writing. We may understand the craft of stringing words together in ways unique and colourful, and our skill in doing so may increase with effort and exercise but from time to time the process gets a little messy. Messy, you understand, being an understatement. […]
Four AM
My iPhone is squawking. It’s 4am and I lurch out of bed to smack that piece of technology before The Len wakes up. I pad downstairs, feed the cats and brew myself a cup of fair trade Colombian coffee. You know, because I’m trendy and socially responsible. (No, I’m not. It’s a Keurig. I toss […]
The Weeds that Bind
I stare down at the plantless dirt at my feet and scowl. I straighten the baseball cap protecting my scalp from the hot sun. The Len likes it when I wear his caps, says it makes me look tough. Today I hope that’s true. I spend the next few hours digging deep into the soil. […]
Five Years
‘Where do you want to be in five years?’ he asked. He was leaning back in his chair. We had been at this for almost an hour… him with his questions and me with my answers. I liked him. I had figured that out in the first ten minutes. I liked him and I wanted […]
The Gap
Once upon a time I blogged frequently about infertility. I painted as honest a picture as I could without spilling every last breath of my heart into a blog post. It’s a rough road, this infertility thing. It’s a hard, sad, scary, frustrating, grief-filled place. And then, for probably the space of a year, I […]
Held: Focus
Did you know that if you stand under a night sky and hold a dime in your hand at arm’s length, you obscure the light and beauty of millions of stars? Millions. The closer you move that dime to your eye, the more stars disappear from sight. At the start of the 2009 Hannah’s Prayer […]
Waffles, anyone?
Some introductory notes: 1. I got a new cookbook. The Dietitians of Canada finally gave in to my incessant pestering and came up with another cookbook for me. Just in case you forgot, they also put together this one. 2. My plating skills are not MasterChef worthy. Gordon Ramsey would eliminate me very quickly due […]