Because moulds are for playdough, not people.
As I write this I’m perched on a balcony looking out over the roofs and treetops towards a shining blue lake – Lake Jindabyne in Australia. I decided to return to Australia for “Hot Christmas” after initially visiting in October as part of an extended post-40th-birthday trip, and the weather has not disappointed — it’s […]
Read More Christmas Down UnderToday I went to the Christmas market with my brother and sis-in-law. It’s the third year we’ve done it so I think that makes it a tradition? The holiday traditions I grew up with don’t exist so much now. For one thing, my grandparents would always host big Christmas meals for the extended family, and […]
Read More New TraditionsWhat does your Christmas tree say about you? Trees that look fashionable with designer bulbs and complementary colour schemes are all well and good, but my favourite trees are the ones decorated with things that have stories to tell. Over the years, I’ve collected enough storied things to decorate a normal-sized tree. It used to […]
Read More Trees and Their StoriesTonight is winter solstice: the longest night of the year. It certainly feels like it. In fact, it feels like we’ve been living in the longest night for awhile now. Waiting, in the darkness, for the light to come. Today, in my part of the world, we were told, yet again, of more restrictions. Just […]
Read More The Longest NightA Christmas Ode to everyone who has been a Samwise Gamgee to me this year.
Read More The Final Stretch: Christmas Ode to Samwise GamgeeDear friends / family / fellow adventurers, I want to write you, personally, to thank you for the impact you’ve had on my life this year. I’m already crying before even getting into this letter, because although it may seem impersonal to write an open letter instead of scribbling a quick greeting in an individual […]
Read More An Open Christmas Letter To The Bestest People In The Entire WorldI caught myself, for just a second, wishing for “happier times.” Happier times, when I wasn’t broken. Happier times, when he was by my side. Happier times, when… when… Stop. It’s true, I have never felt more pain, more brokenness, more utter sadness, than in this aftermath of the story I wish I never had […]
Read More Happier Times“Tis the reason…” quipped the cover of a shopping guide for a retail establishment that should have known better. As if the insanity of Boxing Day shopping wasn’t enough in Canada, I’ve returned after 4 years living in Japan to discover the tendrils of America’s notorious Black Friday sales creeping north of the border as well. It is clear that […]
Read More Rethinking the “Reason”I remember clearly the first time I didn’t make it “home” for Christmas. It was Christmas Eve, and it was snowing. Christmas snow is rare in Vancouver. I was happy, but my family was worried. My uncle, a pilot, was set to take my cousins and I in his 6-seater twin engine plane, to the […]
Read More No Place Like Home Base On Christmas
Breaking Moulds 