Five Years a Writer

Last week on Thursday, June 6, I woke up spontaneously at 3:15am my time and I got up and stayed up when I realized that I could watch the events marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day as they were happening on the coast of Normandy and being streamed live by CBC. This is not the first time I have gotten up early to watch something happening in a European time zone in real time — the funeral of Queen Elizabeth and the coronation of King Charles being the two most recent. I like seeing the event unfold in real time (and then see what is captured by the media as 'news').  I found the coverage of Operation Overlord unexpectedly moving, especially the first-hand stories told by the handful of Canadian veterans attending the events. Old men now, their emotions remain vivid of that day and the weeks and months that followed; their commitment to attend the commemoration, to be present and to remember the experience and their comrades who died moved me deeply. Tears fell into my tea a

Collage by Amanda Le Rougetel I believe in The Valiant Theatre project because I believe in the power of creative energy to feed our souls,  to tell important stories, and to build community.  Read about this community-based creative project  here . I agree with Ethan Hawke :  "Human creativity is nature manifest in us."     "...do you think human creativity matters? Well, hmm, most people don’t spend a lot of time thinking about poetry, right? They have a life to live and they’re not really that concerned with Allen Ginsberg’s poems or anybody’s poems until their father dies. They go to a funeral, you lose a child, somebody breaks your heart. They don’t love you anymore. And all of a sudden you’re desperate for making sense out of this life. And has anybody ever felt this bad before? How did they come out of this cloud? Or the inverse; something great. You meet somebody and your heart explodes. You love them so much you can’t even see straight. You know, you’re dizzy. D