The Generosity of Autumn

On Sunday afternoons in the summertime it was customary to hear a tinny ditty from the rooftop speakers of a diesel-run ice-cream truck. Once the driver parked his noisy vehicle on our street, he slid open the finger-smudged window to the sidewalk. At the same time parents scrambled for change and a cluster of children […]
What’s in a Name?

On Friday September 13, a golden retriever pup came to us when she was eight weeks old. Arriving at the name that we hoped would fit her perfectly was no easy task. Names are important and I wanted to get it right. For some of us our names hold a story or two. One place […]
Life Lessons

from my Canine Companions I grew up with dogs. My father did too. Everyone in our extended family holds a kinship to canines. There’s no surprise my father is a dog whisperer. The dogs in my family were Tippy, Nipper, Hobo, Bear, Kylie and Jennifer. And I learned from each of them. Tippy was a […]
Fall Fairs, Dog Grooming,

& the Nature of Grief Friday September 6, is the seven-year anniversary of my sister Jacquelin’s death. If you’ve read my memoir, Dance Into the Light, or heard me speak about it, you’ll know that I attempted to rescue my sister from her darkness. On Labour Day, Monday September 2, I went to the Burk’s […]
A Letter to My Visitors

Dear Website Visitor: I was recently interviewed by Cindy Watson on Art of Feminine Negotiation Podcast. I had a great time talking about my job as an author and my passion for negotiating. We also talked about my memoir, Dance into the Light. Whether you’re a seasoned or novice negotiator, Art of Feminine Negotiation Podcast […]
Innu Don’t Rest Until They Sleep

A Car Conversation When Audrey parked in front of my house, at 7:40 a.m., she introduced the women sitting in her station wagon. Kari, who looked to be my age, sat in the passenger seat. Elizabeth and Nympha, the two Innu women from Labrador, were in the back and when they moved closer, there was […]
Letter to Alice

2000 In my last blog I wrote about a special and timely letter from Alice. I thought about writing to her, and, in the spirit of miracles, I got around to it. October 16, 2000 Dear Ali, As I write you I am settling into a Chicago hotel restaurant. I am trying to imagine your […]
Revisiting, Re-experiencing, Reliving, Retelling

1984 Meeting ex-student Mark was a temporal jog, and his words, “that was some picnic” stayed with me for several days after bumping into him in the mall. While writing a description of our brief encounter in a field note, I allowed myself to drift back to 1984. Issues of identity surfaced as a result […]
Merging Categories and Distinctions:

on an Education Landscape My teacher journey started in 1979 in community based education in the Ontario community college system. My experience, which began in a non-formal classroom situation both informs and directs my inquiry into how teacher identities shape and are shaped by the community college landscape in a changing world. The term non-formal […]
Recalling Being a Teacher

There’s so much that I recall about teaching and here are two fundamental realizations: (1) Teaching is a complex activity, and the mystery of what really happens in a classroom, why and how it happens, can be perplexing; and, (2) teaching is a uniquely personal and intuitive activity. I felt challenged when I started to […]