Glossy Memories

Sorting through old photographs, not the kind that get digitized and scrolled through but the glossy ones. I suppose they’d be called hard copies now. But that’s too rigid a name for the memories that they hold. When I hold the photo in my hand, feel the cracks in shiny 

old paper, see my grandparents 

standing outside their neat home or see my Grade 6, and I’m only guessing, class with 

our grins, silliness or scowls, 

I am suddenly back in my hometown. 

Back with those school kids, chalkboards 

and school recitals. School kids that went 

skating in winter and played Kick the Can 

or Green Ghost in summer, the rules kicked 

aside with time. Then I’m back walking the 

dusty alley to main street, past the locker plant 

and another block to my grandparents tidy 

home with sweet peas and white alyssum 

and so many flowers in the front. At the back 

a well kept, and fruitful vegetable garden. 

Memories that may be different from my 

siblings, but I’m hoping they are as sweet. 

Rather than digitize these memories, I decided 

to leave them as they were in place and time.

“Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.”

~ Dorothea Lange, documentary photographer and photojournalist

(1895 - 1965)

Mayonnaise Decisions

Steps to any particular goal 

are often hidden unless 

there is some form of 

manual that is numbered, 

bulleted and with an index. 

There may even be chapter headings 

outlining all the steps you need to 

complete your task. But if you look 

in a library or book store, or one 

of those little sidewalk lending 

libraries you may find many 

how-to books about your topic, 

each one a different author and a 

different set of steps. So there’s 

the conundrum. Now what to do. 

Pick and choose who is right? 

Throw them all out and run away 

in frustration? Or just get started 

and pick and choose what fits

for you? Decisions can be such 

a headache sometimes. So it may 

be best just to take a nap or eat 

your lunch. As you’re dreaming or 

chewing your tomato sandwich, the 

answer will arrive with the mayonnaise 

letting you get on with your journey.

“Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

How to Write

Entering a note on the page, 

turning another corner, 

updating the plan ~ 

each has a beginning, 

the work is in the middle 

and then there is the end 

that needs a new beginning. 

No magic wand is waved, 

no fairy godmother shows up. 

It is magic from a pen held 

at an angle to the page, 

accepting the flow of words 

from the height of a mind that

knows beginnings, middles and ends.

“Your intuition knows what to write, so get out of the way.”

~ Ray Bradbury

Recall

Recall of  moments from the tender ages of toddler or adolescence are mere scraps 

that can no longer be proven even by others that may have been present. They would 

have been taller or shorter; not interested in what you thought was interesting and it 

probably was of great interest. You, as a toddler, wouldn’t have been 

annoyed but the delicate ego of 

your adolescent self would have been 

bruised. You have precise recollection 

of that as well. Sometimes excellent 

recall is not all it’s cracked up to be, 

but at least your ego has recovered.

“Memory is never pure. And recollection is 

always coloured by the life lived since.”

~ Josephine Hart, film writer

(1942 ~ 2011)

Seasonal Wait

November 01, 2021
Wascana Lake, Regina

Growing ever into the world, 

I do ponder about the rain that 

was snow, drip dripping onto 

the pavement. And it was snow, 

lovely light flakes of snow but 

still only a taste, a tease of 

winter that is the season for 

warm soups and hearty stews to 

replace the crisp cold salads and 

clinking ice cubes of summer. 

So I move my patio gnome and 

silken sunflower into shelter as 

if they would shiver in the crisp 

cold of snows to come. I unearth my warm sweaters so growing into winter comes without much thought.

“Trust the wait. Embrace the uncertainty. Enjoy the beauty of becoming. 

When nothing is certain, anything is possible.

~ Mandy Hale

Errant Travellers

Opening an imagined window to the future, I see many roads and sunlight. 

No road signs giving directions to errant travellers. Leaves one to 

believe the directions are not in the mind. Where are they? Will a little bird tell us? 

Should we listen to the whispers of our hearts?

“If you don’t know where you want to go,

 then it doesn’t matter which path you take.”

~ Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Grace

Roots of memory run deep, 

intertwined with others

but 

    the oven releases the scent of fresh bread; 

    

    the pianoforte of melody 

opens my heart; 

    silken newborn skin 

releases my smile   

    magnificent azure skies and 'air'brushed clouds

swell my soul

    delicious, warm pancakes, bacon and eggs ~ 

always on Sunday

and

I am back in my childhood of the past

while my age graces me in the present

and I move forward to live a good life.

“Life is all memory, except for the one present moment 

that goes by you so quickly you hardly catch it going.”

~ Tennessee Williams