Category: Blog Entry
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Lesson #17 – Never Underestimate
Words can be wasteful or misunderstood. Actions are often tiring and misdirected. But a well-timed, well-executed gesture can deliver an encyclopedia of words or a Rambo-feature-film of action. A Shrug, a flip-off, a sneer or some action designed to deflate the recipient’s ego. When faced with an angry, defiant character. turning away and presenting your…
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Lesson #18 – A Rock And A Hard Place
Lesson #18 – A Rock And A Hard Place Perch are such pretty fish, clean and lean, transitioning from dark green through yellow to fiery orange bellies and accented with wide black stripes. They hit your bait with a fighter’s punch. Sunfish are plentiful and they can turn their stiff wide bodies against the reel’s drag or…
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Lesson #19 – Discretion And Valour
My alarm is set to 5:30 am with a view to walking out the door as the living room clock chimes 6:30. When we slipped back from that blessed extra hour of summer’s daylight to the short bleak sun of standard time, I almost missed my bus. The driver saw me running and commented as I boarded…
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Lesson #21 – Depression Is A Thief
Like all talented thieves, you don’t see this one coming and you’re not aware it is gone until you start looking for whatever has been taken. Then, it’s generally too late. Depression is like that, sneaky and stealthy. I have witnessed it in the first, second and third persons. To know it in the first person is to taste…
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Lesson #23 – I hate Stuart McLean
I hate Stuart McLean. I hate him in an envious way. I keep discovering that he’s written about people, places, things that I could have covered and now, if I tried, it would feel like plagiarism. He’s a thief. Take Enid Blyton for instance. She wrote a short piece about children’s adventures, the kind where a smart and…
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Lesson #24 – Small Kindnesses
Every morning the bus driver on my route does me a small kindness each time he stops. A while ago he noticed me pause and wince as I took that first step to board his bus. You see, I have short legs and find myself increasingly hampered by arthritis, an unfortunate combination for any transit rider. I’ve lived…
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Lesson #25 – Over The Swords
Over The Swords I watch her from a distance, out of sight so she doesn’t feel the weight of my concern. She has enough to worry about. She needs to be light as thistledown, precise as a machine, graceful as billowing silk and as strong as the swords at her feet. She doesn’t need to…
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Lesson #26 – Paul’s Epiphany
It is entirely possible that the DORK, who often masquerades as Paul Dobson, has limited or no recollection of the stunning epiphany he experienced late on Sunday night. In fact, there appeared to be many epiphanies occurring in a rapid staccato of revelations. He was open-mouthed, wide-eyed, head-shaken, agape, agog, astounded by the sights that assailed him. The…
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Lesson #27 – Good Times Are Fragile
Ever notice how fast the sky turns black when summer storms of particular fury rise up over the horizon? A thick and roiling sheet gets flung overhead and day transitions to fearsome dusk in a blink. Regardless of the irony, it’s unnatural. One fine Saturday morning mother was escorting me to my weekly music lesson. I was about five…
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Lesson #30 – Remembrance
Remembrance Mr. Sinclair was the first male teacher I had in grade school. He was tall, arrow straight, sharp and trim as a new razor blade. His shoulders squared and his hair was a flattop buzz that hinted of military. I don’t know what brought him to the teaching profession in charge of our grade 5 class, but…
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Lesson #33 – Worth Doing
Worth Doing & Worth Doing Well #33 (a) – I may have mentioned that at one time in my life I sang. My mother had ambitions for me and so I took lessons. I practiced. I competed and I performed. At first it was OK. Any 5, 6, 7 year old just wants to please and it seemed to justify the…
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The Devil’s Own Handiwork
Five sticks, a bag and several assorted pieces and slivers of cane: the Devil’s own handiwork. The result is generally hated or loved but rarely ignored. No one I know is indifferent to the Great Highland Bagpipe (GHB). Even those who play it bear the instrument some resentment. I’ve lived with it now for almost forty years, so I’m entitled to…
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Lesson #55 – If You Bend.
(a dialogue with Don) After listening quietly for some time to a presentation about balance being the key to a less stressed-out life and the means of achieving that end, I decided to chime in with something that occurred to me: “If you bend…
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Lesson #56 – Father’s Day
Father’s Day doesn’t occur on some particular Sunday in June. It occurs in little moments scattered throughout the year. Lauren overcomes her nervous fears about performing and goes on to victory without being ill – that’s a Father’s Day. She confides a secret to me or shares a confidence because she trusts me – that’s a…
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Lesson #60 – Mixed Metaphors ( a dialogue with Don)
Dear Pastor DonAs you may have guessed, I really want to explore this. I believe in “leave no itch unscratched”. Two years ago I spent 5 weeks at MSH following a catastrophic fall, so you can write this off to out-patient Chaplaincy, it being income tax season and all. Some years ago, a fellow that I…
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Lesson #61 – Mathew 13
(a dialogue with Don) Dear Pastor Don, The journey to wellness in a nutshell, indeed. A very clever pun. You’re implying that there is hope, redemption, maybe even salvation for the broken trees among us. But a tree too long in a state of…
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Lesson #63 – A Sow’s Ear
(A dialogue with Don) Dear Pastor Don, Thank you for the time and consideration. The metaphor was not to imply religiosity, nor was it meant to be a parable, nor a sermon. I am as far from being a religious person in any orthodox sense…
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Lesson #64 – Dignity
I was 10 (-ish). I was walking with my father, tracing the banks of the Humber River in mid-summer. It was hot and we had been at the chore for a while. We were well south of the Dundas Bridge on the east shore of the river. We had made our way through Lambton Park, down the hill to…
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Lesson #65 – Here There Be Dragons
When we begin the exploration, when we really start the journey of self-awareness and self-reflection, how deep are we prepared to go, how far do we dare to go? “Here there be dragons”. Ancient cartographers admonished from the edges of the known universe to warn the reckless and the unwary of the dangers they were…
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Lesson #66 – No Itch Unscratched
(a dialogue with Don) Dear Pastor Don, As you may have guessed, I really want to explore this. I believe in “leave no itch unscratched”. Two years ago I spent 5 weeks at MSH following a catastrophic fall, so you can write this off to out-patient Chaplaincy,…
Notes In The Margin 