On the Street Where We Lived

I could almost hear my kids coming home from school, the front door bursting open, our dog greeting the boys, ready for a walk. The elm trees are 50 years older and looking quite grand. Our house at the end of the street, belongs to some other family now, is getting a new roof today. This street where we lived seems like a grand old lady who has seen a lot of life come and go. Some new houses, some looking more than their age, some have been spruced up and look quite comfortable. On this street where we lived, the memories come with me as I walk, growing distant as I step out from the street where we lived.

“Everything in the street today seems soft focus.”

~ Irvine Welsh, novelist

Home to Home in the Rain

I could have taken a taxi 

I could have canceled 

my appointment  

My blue umbrella was more important, with the green rain jacket I bought on the ferry;

a walk in the rain felt just right. 

Not completely unlike 

a Victoria rain with rain drops 

a bit fuller, my umbrella that sheltered me on walks along Dallas Road 

shelters me on the prairies

Such rainy days gently remind me of the home and life that I built in Victoria.

“Where we love is home ~ home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.”

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

The Weekend

They say 

that when you’re retired 

there are no days off because 

every day is a Saturday. 

I humbly disagree with that statement. 

Maybe it’s my desire to be obtuse, 

but I take Saturday’s and Sunday’s off. 

As a nurse, there was no such thing. 

Now, I ‘make it so’~

as Captain Jean Luc Picard said to his crew.

Topsy turvy is the order of each day 

and I fly into the open space of the weekend.

That doesn’t mean I don’t get the laundry done.

“I have to be alone very often. I’d be quite happy if I spent 

from Saturday night until Monday morning 

alone in my apartment. That’s how I refuel.”

~ Audrey Hepburn: Many-Sided Charmer, 

LIFE Magazine, December 7, 1953