When our daughter was in her sixth month of life, my husband and I decided to do something that four out of five accountants and retirement consultants would not recommend. We found ourselves between jobs and with just a little bit of money in our bank account. We decided to take three months off work… Read more »
A few weeks ago, I got together with a group of friends to go and see a play. I hadn’t seen a couple of my companions for two or three years. One of them surprised me by pulling up outside our agreed-upon meeting place riding on a bright red motorcycle. When I told her that… Read more »
About once every couple of weeks, after dropping my daughter off at school, my husband and I head to our favourite coffee shop. It’s one of those increasingly rare and wonderful places. It is an independent, locally owned, friendly establishment that provides a comfortable, welcoming environment to while away an hour of so before plunging… Read more »
My cat, Festivus, who is teaching me the importance of taking good, long naps, taking time to pamper oneself, and maintaining an aloof detachment from the minor upsets of life. My grade eleven chemistry teacher, who, even though he was teaching a subject that I had no aptitude for, impressed upon me the excitement of… Read more »
Fall has always been my favourite season. It brings back so many childhood and adolescent memories of southern Alberta, such as scarecrows in the fields, huge harvest moons hanging in the sky, and sewing and safety-pinning Halloween costumes with my sisters in our bedrooms. And today in Vancouver was one of those classic fall days,… Read more »
When I think about the many charming and valuable things that have begun to disappear, or have disappeared altogether, during the course of my relatively short life to this point, it gives me pause. Long-playing record albums, the art of writing letters by hand, hand sewn clothing, music made by actual, living musicians, beef Wellington,… Read more »
Recently, my family and I were reminded of one of things that is sadly going by the wayside in our market-driven, mass-production obsessed society. This past weekend (October 14th and 15th), we attended the UBC Apple Festival, held at the botanical gardens at the University of British Columbia. There, we were able to taste and… Read more »
Central to the spiritual world view of many First Nations is the figure of the Trickster. As the Canadian playwright Tomson Highway explains, in his introduction to his play Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, the Trickster is a “pivotal and important figure,” as important to First Nations as “Christ is in Christian mythology” (1377)…. Read more »
As part of attaining a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of British Columbia, my husband is enrolled in a course to learn how to teach secondary students to develop their written composition skills. Reasonably enough, the instructor’s basic premise is that teachers of composition must genuinely enjoy writing themselves, if they are to… Read more »
“This city is just so unfriendly.” “It’s so difficult to meet anyone here.” “The people are such snobs.” As a Vancouverite of about fifteen years standing, these are phrases that I’ve heard many times coming from the mouths of people who have recently moved here from other parts of Canada. In fact, they are words… Read more »