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In search of Inspiration but I’ll settle for a smile

Posted on September 15, 2020

We’ve experienced another odd autumn-in-Ontario weather week and I’m foregoing being wordy in favour of visuals. Truth be told, my inspiration to work on Book 2 of the Kenora & Jake series has declined along with the thermometer. I’ve got lots of ideas but I’m just not motivated to sit at the keyboard. On the positive side, I’ve joined a Writing Accountability Group. We meet every two weeks via Zoom. It’s energizing to listen to these talented novelists, non-fiction authors and screenplay writers speak about their work process, staying motivated and sometimes jut being kind to yourself and not worrying too much about being productive. Write on!

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Categories: Modern life

August 10, 1920

Posted on August 10, 2020

Today would have been my dear father’s 100th birthday. Born in Cuba, raised in Jamaica. Died in Canada. Dad’s passing, like his life, was not easy. We know little about his early years, except that his father bled to death after being run over by a sugar cane-hauling train when dad was a young boy. His mother lay in her sickbed for several days with my young father by her side, waiting for her to awaken. In fact, she was dead. He wrote about his memories of that event in a long poem called Fragments of Time. I cry every time I read this part, thinking of my sensitive, curious, creative dad orphaned and virtually alone, left to the grudging charity of distant relatives. And…

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Categories: Family

Tagged: dad, memories

2020 – Reflecting on My New Year’s Intentions

Posted on August 7, 2020

Here we are, more than halfway through a year with a number I would never have imagined when I was a teenager – 2020. And what a year it ha been so far – a winter that never seemed to end, a global pandemic and months of lockdowns, rumours of murder hornets, plagues of locusts, sex crimes and videotapes, the horrific death of George Floyd and violent law enforcement tactics, Black Lives Matter, smack-your-head political shenanigans, economies in tatters, the rise of Karens and Kens everywhere being called out for bad behaviour. Back in the Sixties, we didn’t spend time thinking that far ahead. But now that I’m a decade older than sixty, every year, every month, every day has a special meaning. I…

This was R-E-A-L

Posted on July 2, 2020

With Covid-19 and self-isolation, I’ve spent a bit of time clearing out old papers. Financial documents from 20 years ago, old letters and newspaper clippings. File folders from the 80s and 90s when I was teaching emergency communicators at Mohawk College in Hamilton and Internal Auditing at police colleges in Aylmer and Ottawa. For the most part, a benign, nostalgic trip down memory lane. Coming across a seemingly innocuous little red textbook stopped me in my tracks, though. The John and Mary Readers Introductory Book was published around 1935, but obviously the text was still in use in the mid-50s, when I attended elementary school. The stamp on page 5 reads: “Property of School Section No.4, LOUTH”. Louth township is in the Niagara Region.…

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Categories: Argument

How to Find the Words?

Posted on June 8, 2020

The last two weeks have been, what? Shocking certainly. Challenging? Frustrating? Hopeless? Hopeful? Too much is going on and it’s hard to process. After three months of social isolation and being sidelined from what was our normal daily routines, the horrific death of George Floyd, captured on video, blasted the status quo from its moorings. We’ve seen militarized responses, peaceful demonstrations turned violent, men and women around the globe ‘taking a knee’, political posturing, unchecked rhetoric and lies. The news cycle has barely slowed. But we’ve also witnessed acts of charity and a coalescence of outrage that may eventually lead to meaningful, lasting change. There’s nothing I can say that has not already been said. As a third generation black Canadian, my life experiences…

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Categories: Argument

Tagged: #blacklivesmatter, #nojusticenopeace