Where We Came From

Sisters

A cousin

Stories and old photos

Supper out (more stories)

Scrabble (I lost)

Sisters (research)

“In every conceivable manner, 

the family is link to our past, 

bridge to our future.”

~ Alex Haley

Back Alley Wandering

The big dream is to ride 

a wide open highway to success 

yet from my perspective of years 

those big dream highways are 

random connectors to daily life. 

The day to day living of each life. 

Sleep and eat, 

keep body and soul together, 

pay the bills and 

stroll on a Sunday afternoon. 

Back alleys are notoriously filled 

with our detritus for the garbage men 

with their big, grumbling trucks;

the nomads of the streets with 

shopping carts and plastic bags. 

And yet back alleys are filled 

with quiet, sad history of 

old refrigerators and furniture; 

the colourful art work of graffiti artists. 

Paved or packed dirt with grass 

trying to survive 

they draw a line between 

vegetable and flower gardens 

and messy yards for

plastic swimming pools and tree houses. 

“A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; 

it takes sweat, determination and hard work.”

~ Colin Powell

Not Just Papers

 

Sorting thoughts

organizing them into groups with titles, 

selecting papers that stay 

those that go, 

personal history: 

tempting to toss a grade school report card, 

the last pay stub from previous employers, 

fridge magnets that hold special meaning

souvenirs from my travels, 

photos of nieces that are grown, 

birthday cards, 

and the gigantic stack of carefully torn squared off scrap paper, 

family history, 

and of course important folders for

tax information

  mortgage documents 

    insurance papers

Unexpected finds of 

   computer cords, and cords, and cords

   obsolete computer connecters

   red paper clips

So much like going through 

photos in boxes and bags 

holding them up to the light 

remembering the road of life .

“Nothing is a waste that makes a memory.”

~  Ned Rorem, composer

The Turn of Time

Given a day to muddle in, 

white cupboards faced me

closed against the world. 

How much history, 

secrets and plans hid 

behind the white doors?

the slender glass flute

used only on New Years Eve 

filled with bubbly ginger beer;  

the ancient baby plate 

with a large crack that 

belonged to my infant father; 

the gift of a clear glass vase 

waiting patiently for Christmas 

ornaments of last year

Surrounded by spices and butter,

cutlery, coffee mugs, plates and bowls ~ 

remnants of family history that 

disappear in the turn of time. 

“You can’t turn back the clock. But you can wind it up again.”

~ Bonnie Prudden, (1914 - 2011)

Physical Fitness pioneer and rock climber

Bookends

 

Endings are not an end 

 ~ bookended by ~

history and possibility.

“There is no real ending, It’s just 

the place where you stop the story.”

~ Frank Herbert, author of Dune (1965)

Wandering

A wandering way

to far away lands 

leaves me breathless 

watching myself 

walking roads and trails.

In my imaginings, 

they are full of 

story and history, 

friends and neighbours, 

the ghosts of ancestors

to accompany this traveler 

until my eyes are opened 

to the comforts of home.

“You must give everything to make your life as beautiful as

the dreams that dance in your imagination.”

~ Roman Payne, novelist and poet

Book Review ~ The Promise of Canada by Charlotte Gray - 150 Years - People and Ideas that Have Shaped Our Country

Such a fascinating read! This book is packed snugly with the story of Canada. Not just politics, but some of the people that created and continue to develop this sprawling, multicultural country. Historian and biographer Charlotte Gray shows us the work that it’s taken to build Canada, including showing some of the dirty laundry over our 150 year span. She includes the need to bind east to west with the railway and the immigrants that built it. With excellent research and elegant narrative, Charlotte Gray chose nine characters from Canada’s first 150 years to paint this picture ~ 

George-Etienne Cartier, the Francophone Father of Confederation 

who advocated for political multiculturalism; 

Emily Carr on Vancouver Island, the Group of Seven in the east and 

the development of the arts in Canada; 

Economist Harold Innis, a prolific writer of nationalism 

about Canada as a ‘natural’ rather than political entity;

Tommy Douglas, a provincial and then federal politician

and his promotion of health care for all that brought in Medicare; 

Sam Steele and the founding of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police 

with their successes, benefits and deficits;

Elijah Harper, former chief of the Red Sucker Lake First Nation, spoke up in the Manitoba Legislature against the Meech Lake Accord and for Indigenous rights;

Supreme Court Justice Bertha Wilson, the first woman on the Supreme Court, 

who had strong views on the Constitutional Rights and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms;

Margaret Atwood, a Canadian literary treasure 

who has shaped Canadian literature at all levels; 

Preston Manning, the Alberta politician who disagreed 

with the traditional politics of the East throughout his career.

I can only give you a sketch of how Canada came to be, how this country grew and has continued to grow. The recent events since Charlotte Gray’s book was published, shows our strength to survive and thrive no matter the conditions.

“Cbarlotte Gray helps us to better understand who we are 

as an evolving nation ~ a country for all that 

will thrive well beyond the next 150 years.

~ Naheed Nenshi, previous mayor of Calgary, Alberta

Title: The Promise of Canada - 150 Years - People and Ideas That Have Shaped Our Country

Author: Charlotte Gray

Copyright: 2016

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Canada, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Format: Non-Fiction, hardback

Type: History

ISBN: 978-1-4767-8467-0

ISBN: 1-4767-8469-4 (ebook)