Understanding truth and reconciliation requires us to listen, to witness, and to share. David Suzuki is an adopted son of the Haida First Nations. He is revered by aboriginals across Canada from east to west, north and south. Suzuki Elders were invited to attend the Truth and Reconciliation Dialogue Workshop in Vancouver on August 22… Continue reading Truth and reconciliation reflections
Looking Back and Forth: A Sense of Place
by Erlene Woollard I grew up as a quietly feral child in the deep US South in the midst of a conservative, highly traditional and even rigid decorum. My earliest memories are of much family chaos juxtaposed with the serene visits to my grandparent’s farm in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was… Continue reading Looking Back and Forth: A Sense of Place
When Are We Going to Get There?
by Lillian Ireland “When are we going to get there?” I pleaded for the umpteenth time, as I sat huddled between my two brothers in the back seat of the Volkswagen Beetle. Through the eyes of a six year old, everything looked the same; the long road, blaring headlights, and blowing snow. How I wanted… Continue reading When Are We Going to Get There?
Ever Lived a Moonbow?
by Roger Sweeny For this retelling I invite you to be my shadow as we climb to the open, moonlit bridge of the Light Cruiser HMCS ONTARIO to begin the Middle Watch (midnight to 0400) on this Battle of Atlantic Sunday, 20th May 1951. Also, since the story involves moon, stars and water, I have… Continue reading Ever Lived a Moonbow?
My Little Hakka Village
by Cynthia Ho Lam I was 3-years-old when I left Shanghai, my mother’s hometown in Mainland China, with my extended family, in the great exodus to flee the Communists, and to retreat to the island of Taiwan, in 1949. Having been colonized for 50 years by Japan, Taiwan was now all of a sudden seeing… Continue reading My Little Hakka Village
My Neighbourhood – Then and Now
by Ellen Leslie I grew up in Westridge, a post-World War II development at the eastern margin of Burnaby, below what is now Simon Fraser University. They skinned the ground to make way for family housing. It was, in those days, a neighbourhood of stay-at-home Mums and working Dads. There were lots of kids. Families… Continue reading My Neighbourhood – Then and Now
Teens at Camp
by Karl Perrin When I was 14, I had the spiritual experience of my life. In those years, the late Fifties, the world was waking from the long sleep that came inevitably after the long exhaustion of World War II. The Cold War had settled in, but the rabid anti-communism of Senator Joe McCarthy had… Continue reading Teens at Camp
Small Green Spaces
by Peggy Olive My world included two beautiful trees in our Montreal backyard as I grew up in the 1950s. A stately American elm, shared with our neighbour and several gray squirrels, was so tall that the lowest branches began well above my father’s head. The rough, deep grooves in the bark gripped my tiny… Continue reading Small Green Spaces
A Love Letter to “N”
By Diana Ellis Dear N, Have I told you lately how much I love you? Gosh, we’ve been going together for so long now – I think sometimes I just take you for granted, which is always a dangerous thing to do in a relationship! I’ve been trying to remember the first time we… Continue reading A Love Letter to “N”
The Old Home Place
by Bob Worcester “Let’s visit the old farm,” said my sister as we breezed along the four lane freeway. We had spent a day kayaking the crystal clear Pine River in northern Minnesota and were about an hour’s side trip away from the grandparents’ old farm we visited often as children. Trygve, my nephew, was… Continue reading The Old Home Place