Five Years a Writer

Tulips: the promise that spring really will come; one day... The other day, I was described by a friend as “a woman of a certain age with nothing to prove who wants to get sh*t done”. I like this description, because it’s true: Last month, I reached official senior citizenship — no denying the ‘of a certain age’ stage. And it’s accurate: There is so much I want to be doing and time is roaring down the road ahead of me, it can be hard to keep up never mind stay on top of things. For both these reasons, I say YES! to a variety of things these days, but each commitment must meet four criteria: CONNECTION : I want to spend my time with people who share my values and are engaged in meaningful work of some kind in some way to make our corner of the world a better place for all COMMUNITY : I treasure my solitude, but I revel in collective work that moves a vision forward CREATIVITY : Imagination combined with energy and delight in using our own selves to make something happen is a pretty goo...

LIKE A TRAIN: From the start, I created collages that helped me process and illustrate my response to the unfolding crisis that COVID-19 brought into our lives.  It felt like a train roaring towards us. We didn't know where it had come from or where it would take us. But, it seemed, we were already on board and moving with it. Where would it end? Has it ended? Are we there yet? I am not sure, but I do know that art and creative pursuits have helped me get to where I find myself today, five years later. My Daily Log recorded my evolving understanding of what was happening in those early days — Wednesday, March 11, 2020 : Three cases of COVID-19 reported in Manitoba #coronavirus Friday, March 13, 2020 : My employer (a college) announces that, due to COVID-19, students will be off campus the following week, while staff will prepare for online teaching and administration of duties. Saturday, March 14, 2020 : I tried to shop at a major supermarket but it was so crazy crowded that I lef...

How do you know when to throw in the towel, to let go, to shut the door and leave? Alternatively, how do you know when it’s the moment to stay, to stick it out and do the work, to see what happens with a bit more grit and commitment? For me, this is one of the core questions in life — in all things: our work, our relationships, our pursuit of anything, really. I’ve been thinking about this ever since, on Friday evening, the news broke that here in Manitoba, the human remains found in the landfill just outside Winnipeg had been identified as those of Morgan Harris, one of four First Nations women preyed upon and murdered by a serial killer in 2022. To search or not to search the landfill was a pivotal issue in Manitoba's 2023 provincial election: The Conservative Party said no, it couldn’t be done; the New Democratic Party said yes, it could be done and would be done. The NDP won the election. The search is not an easy undertaking, but it has always been the right thing, the necess...

The Full Catastrophe: All I Ever Wanted, Everything I Feared by Casey Mulligan Walsh Publisher: Motina Books Release date: February 18, 2025 Review by Amanda Le Rougetel Persistence is a survival strategy that many of us learn the hard way. Things happen in our life and to survive them means simply carrying on. No choice: Just. Keep. Going. Casey Mulligan Walsh learned this lesson at an early age and kept learning it as her life unfolded. She was orphaned at twelve; her only sibling died when she was twenty; her first-born child was killed in young adulthood; and her first marriage dissolved in an acrimonious divorce. To call Walsh a survivor is a bit of an understatement. Her memoir tells the tale—yes, of these huge personal losses, but more significantly, maybe, of her persistence in surviving them as a wholly loving woman and, over time and with great patience and faith in herself, growing into her own thriving person. In unflinching prose, Walsh lays down on the page the events of ...

I arrived home from class on Friday in time for a late lunch. The class had been the final one in a 4-week session of a new course that was great fun to co-facilitate with my teaching partner, Deborah Schnitzer. The 12 women (it is almost always women; where are the men?)  — these women  around the table were eager to play with words and be in community with other writers looking for some creative fun. We were all sad for it to end.  One never knows at the start of something new how it will unfold or how it will wrap up, but, if we are lucky, each person dives in to participate honourably in the collective endeavour, whatever it may be. When it comes together, it is great.  When it falls apart, it can be bad.  In my kitchen, as I prepared and ate my late lunch after class on Friday (February 28), what  I witnessed on my screen was colossally bad . I had seen a news update flash across my phone as I packed up from class, so it was those barest of details th...

02.24.2022 / 02.24.2023 02.24.2023 / 02.24.2024 02.24.2024 / 02.25.2025 Today = 1,097 days since Putin invaded Ukraine I have written about the invasion of Ukraine three times : just after it began, then on the first anniversary, then again on the second anniversary, and now again on the third anniversary. I wish this were not so. I wish there were no anniversaries of this horror. And, yet, here we are. On March 14, 2022 , I began with fortitude and naivety — and with “Lists for leaving”: For a long time, I have not watched the evening news. But these days, I am watching it every evening. The images compel me. I am not living them, so the least I can do is witness them ... On February 21, 2023, I moved to persistence and disbelief , wanting to “edit the world”: To take my blue pencil, strike out February 24, 2022, put a line through Moscow and Putin, emphasize Ukraine in BOLD ALL CAPS, give it its own page, its own boundaries, insert ‘free from’ in front of invasion, replace tanks and...