Delicious Aromas

The granola toasted ~ filled 

with oats, nuts and seeds ~ 

resting on the counter 

giving up the oven to 

a loaf of oat whole wheat bread. 

The aromas of spices and bread giving home the scent of other homes. This greater and short lived joy pulls all my homes out of thin air with memories from 

farm to apartments to houses

throughout the decades. 

It always surprises me when 

I can truthfully measure 

my life in decades. 

Through travels,   

  education 

     careers,

    families and friends

but aromas are home life 

inside the memories. 

No granola in the past, 

but the spices are the same as 

   the cookies, 

     apple sauce, 

       apple and pumpkin pies

from decades past. 

“Nothing awakens reminiscence like an aroma”

~ Victor Hugo, poet

(1802 ~ 1885)

Do You?

I come from the other side…

..the historical shameful side.

Let grief and anger roll out 

distilling into 

kindness and resolve to be 

a living amend to all the 

lost children and families. 

Do I have a right to say 

these things on this day of 

Truth and Reconciliation? 

Do you?

“I see you. I hear you. And I believe you.”

~ Marie Wilson, 

journalist, social justice activist

Just Chatting

Overtures toward the woman 

in line at the grocery store 

are to commiserate about 

the length of the line up, 

or the weather 

or a shallow bit of cliché 

to pass the time and feel at ease 

even though 

the man behind grumbles 

about the lack of staff 

or about the infernal machines 

at the self check out. 

In all of this, a thought 

drifts through my mind: 

‘I’m glad we chatted and 

that we’ll have food to take home 

to feed our families.’

 

It’s my turn at the till. 

I set my tomatoes, milk and eggs 

on the conveyor belt, 

pay for my groceries, 

say my good byes to people 

I’ll never see again and return home. 

“Two things define you: your patience when you have nothing 

and your attitude when you have everything,”

~ George Bernard Shaw

Today I Knew

 

I hadn’t noticed it until today.

The automatic way 

that my inner gears shift. 

In the moment when

I feel hard done by, 

suddenly I am grateful 

for my health, 

a hot cup of tea, 

the shoes on my feet 

my families, scattered as they are.

Gratitude has always there 

but only today I knew 

that it has become a reflex.

“For the things we have to learn before 

we can do them, we learn by doing them.”

~ Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics

*Inspired by Essential Gratitude by Andrea Potos

The Cathedral Village Art Festival

Artesian Performing Arts
A not-for-profit arts organization

Kiosks offering crafts, clothes, jewellery, woodwork and art work lined both sides of 13th Avenue at the close of this annual Art Festival. I began my stroll at the Artesian Performing Art Centre drawn along by the aromas of all manner of foods offered from food trucks and tents. Music from buskers filled the air on this lovely day to stroll along with crowds of families and friends ~ complete with toddlers in strollers snacking on goodies; well behaved dogs on leashes. Before turning around and heading home, I ducked into a coffee shop for a sit-down and coffee, air-conditioning and a table to lean on. Then home while perusing the kiosks on the other side of the street. A sterling silver ring and a pottery dessert bowl were my only purchases to find their way into my backpack. I was going to stop at the ice cream store just before turning to home, but the lineup was just too long. Ice cream will have to wait to another day.

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”

~ William Shakespeare

Circled

It is like the years 

have not passed 

when we order our meals. 

No longer at the cafeteria 

in starched uniforms 

but at a steak house. 

Grandmothers and Aunts 

we were students then, 

our lives washed with careers, 

communities and families 

have circled back to 

renew laughter and care.

“It is more fun to talk with someone who 

doesn’t use long, difficult words but rather 

short, easy words like “What about lunch?”

~ A.A.Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

On an Afternoon Walk ~ Pretty Faces

Of the many fascinations I see along the streets, these pretty faces peeked out at me surrounded by brilliant green, orange and purple plantings ~ like the pretty faces of babies and children in families and communities large and small. Their progress through life depends on the foundation they are given.

“The innocence of a child is like a delicate flower, 

easily crushed by the harsh realities of life.”

~  Ian McEwan, The Innocent

Book Review: NO TIME LIKE THE FUTURE - An Optimist Considers Mortality by Michael J. Fox

Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease at age 29. Keeping it secret from everyone but his wife in those early days, he was frightened. His struggle with alcohol, already in progress, didn’t help the situation and he sobered up four years after his Parkinson’s diagnosis. This back story provided the foundation for the rest of his lively life.

Mike, as he calls himself, doesn’t dwell on the details of those days. Rather, he writes plainly and humorously about his declining health and his annoyance with it. His stubborn optimism, a life long belief, faded as Parkinson’s has him more strongly in its grip. His amazing family always support him ~  wife Tracy, son Sam, daughters Schuyler, Aquinnah and Esmé all make him laugh, care for him, let him get away with what he can ~ even when he severely broke his arm in a fall because he insisted on being alone. For just one night. This after he had finally healed from back surgery and removal of a tumour. He punished himself about that. His life long friends who golf with him despite his decreasing coordination keep him participating in life. They all attend concerts, go on holidays (one was a safari) and generally enjoy a solid family life. He doesn’t neglect to write about the Parkinson’s Foundation that he founded but doesn’t go on about it. Even though I think he’d like to. In his acting and writing careers, he writes with pride and gratitude about all the people he works with. Spike Lee asking him to do what are called ‘arc shots’ that can be filled in - especially when he had to put it off because of the broken arm.

Mood changes from Parkinson’s and the increasing physical limitations steadily narrows his options. He had always been known as someone who made lemonade out lemons, but at one point he didn’t want any more lemonade. Despite being only 58, he feels like an old man too early. A huge challenge to his optimism. It frightens him to know that 'getting better' is not an option, while he is still a young man.  His epilogue shares how their family dealt with the pandemic. All the kids coming home, their family sheltered in place at their beach home.

I related to much of what he shared in this memoir and am grateful that I picked up NO TIME LIKE THE FUTURE as my next read. It stays on my shelf, as a good read and as a resource when I am feeling my own aging in the midst of my own chronic condition. 

“With gratitude, optimism becomes sustainable.”

~ Stephen Pollan, 

Michael’s father-in-law

 Title: No Time Like the Future ~ An Optimist Considers Mortality

Author: Michael J. Fox

Copyright: 2020

Publisher: Flatiron

Type: Hardcover

Format: Memoir

ISBN - 978-1-250-26561-6 (hardcover)

ISBN - 978-1-250-26562-3 (ebook)

Out of the City - A Birthday Party Treat

Qu'Appelle Valley
(Photo from Sept 21, 2016)

I don’t get out of the city very often. When I do, driving past harvested wheat fields, hay fields with giant rolled bales of hay and through autumn coloured hills open my heart to the land. However, the real treat was our destination.

With a good friend, we were attending a birthday party for a two year old boy. Family, friends, ice cream birthday cake, laughter, balloons and mounds of gifts filled the small living room. It was a noisy, lovely afternoon. Only solitude was in short supply.

“A society should be judged by how it treats its children.”

~ Owen Jones

Refreshed

Integrity will tell us

when to take a gentle day,

to refresh mind and spirit

after the joy and fullness of family.

“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

For Maxine

Can each of us be present 

in the rising or setting of the sun, 

or the beginning or ending a life?

Only through our memories,

family stories shared

in laughter and tears.

Such an evening was set on

the prairie where wheat fields grew, 

broad blue sky spanned the horizon.

as family, we were each present

to close one circle and

open it to the next generation.

“Family is found…whether it be blood or circumstance or choice, 

what binds us does not matter. All that matters is that we are bound.”

~ Taylor Jenkins Reid, Malibu Rising

E Maxine Manning nee Newell
December 19, 1928 - March 10, 2022