The call of home: Moving to New Brunswick (Part III)
Hard to believe, but it’s been five years since my friend and I pulled into the driveway after dark, with a disintegrated rear tire and most of my wife’s and my worldly possessions in tow.
Memoir: essays on identity, home, and other salient aspects of life in the journey toward and within retirement
The Call of Home: Moving to New Brunswick (Part II)
We finally had one foot in New Brunswick, where we really wanted to be. We just didn’t know exactly when we would move here or what our life here would look like.
The Call of Home: Moving to New Brunswick (Part I)
My East-Coast-born and raised wife, Michele, lived in Alberta for 37 years and she never once wavered from calling the Maritimes “home”.
Who do you think you are?
How we see ourselves - self-identification - is at the heart of everything we do. Can we operate outside our own self-image?
Pachelbel and the liberal arts
Notwithstanding pre-existing personal bias and a considerable amount of immaturity, I was able to hear Pachelbel’s Canon and listen to the CBC news right afterward with an entirely different mindset.
On dying & grief (postscript)
It did not take long after I had written the first four parts of this essay for me to find out what grief in losing a close friend would look like.
On dying & grief (Part 4)
I think it’s important to note that I actually cry very easily at certain things: anytime animals or children are hurt, suffering, or missed; Remembrance Day; certain movies; and anything that makes me think of how much I love my wife and daughter.
On dying & grief (Part 3)
My parents’ deaths were 15 years apart and each occurred within the context of such a dysfunctional family dynamic, that it’s difficult (and unnecessary, for the purposes of this piece) to describe it all.
On dying & grief (Part 2)
I got a call on a cold November evening in 1979 while I was engrossed in the first few months of my University of Alberta studies, living in my cozy little off-campus Edmonton basement suite; bear in mind that those were the days before call display and when calling long-distance wasn’t an expense to be taken lightly. It was my high school basketball coach.