Pilgrim Days
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Pilgrim Days

When you read this, I will be within 100 km of the end of a pilgrimage for the second time. Together with my husband and three children, I’ll be spending this Easter walking the Camino de Santiago. For my children, it will be a first. My husband and I were pilgrims in 2005 before our…

Family Links
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Family Links

My mother came to visit recently and brought a gift that surprised me. It was a gold chain, one of the pieces of jewellery she has worn most often. She gave it to me as I was helping her unpack, and at first, I wasn’t sure if she meant it. The chain sits secure in…

Blackbirds in February
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Blackbirds in February

There are three small trees in my garden and none of them is large enough for a bird’s nest, but whenever there is a flutter, I find I freeze and hope because February brings blackbird weather and blackbird song. Growing up in Ontario, the first redwing blackbirds were an early sign of spring. I remember…

Picture Perfect
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Picture Perfect

Last summer, we went beach hunting with the grandparents on the west coast of Vancouver Island. We were looking for a specific spot where we’d taken a photo when our eldest was almost four. For years the photograph has hung on our wall, a reminder of one beautiful corner of the world we love and…

Love works differently
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Love works differently

The day was sharp with cold but the sky was clear, and my grandmother wanted a walk. I’d come all this way, after all, she reminded me. No point in wasting the day inside. She lived alone in the last of her little houses, and, as a university student, I could get there on the…

Mail-order tree
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Mail-order tree

This morning, my doorbell rang, and a man handed me an apple tree. I’d ordered it from the local nursery and been surprised to learn that they could deliver it by mail. Now it is sitting in my kitchen, all wrapped in brown paper with red cotton stitching at the top like a bag of…

Portraits of the Queen
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Portraits of the Queen

When I was a child, a framed portrait of the Queen hung on one wall in our church basement. At the other end of the hall was a large, colourful mural of Iona, an island in Scotland. It was painted by a member of the congregation, and I remember being warned as a child to…

How I spent my summer vacation
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How I spent my summer vacation

We were lucky to spend much of August on Vancouver Island with my parents-in-law, celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. The celebration should have been last summer, but we’d had to postpone travel due to the risks of covid and changing regulations. This year, plans were easier to make, and my in-laws’ anniversary coincided with our…

Paying Attention
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Paying Attention

It is sunburn weather today. A bare-feet, more-popsicles, sit-beside-the-fan kind of day. On summer days like this, we move more slowly and drink more water, paying attention to the demands of the body. Take care, self-care and air conditioning. When Angela Reitsma Bick mentioned that the theme for this August issue was The Body, the…

Days of Grace
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Days of Grace

We’re living with exam stress in our house these days. It’s that time of year. And it does nothing – or little – to tell my kids I remember what it was like. All the studying, the cramped hands, late nights, deep breaths and knowing/never-quite-knowing it will be alright. Of course, I remember all that….

Doodling on Passports
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Doodling on Passports

For this duet-themed column, I invited my daughter Isla to sit down with me. We’re both dual Canadian-British citizens. We talked about an image from Isla’s art portfolio, about exploring identity through art and the complexities of choosing how we express our senses of belonging. Isla: My high school art project focuses on my identity…

The gardener she thought He was
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The gardener she thought He was

Let’s go back to the Easter morning empty tomb and then turn the clock forward 20 years. There we encounter an aging gardener with memories to share. Sukkot is a harvest festival, when Jewish people build huts – sukkah – which remind them of the wilderness years in Jewish history as well as the transience…