Back in my day (I sound like an official old-timer, don’t I?) when a young woman got engaged to be married, one of the first things she did was pick out china, crystal, and flatware patterns and register them, usually at a jewelry store, so wedding guests could give th...

“Our souls

are eternally connected and we’re just walking each other home.”

I recently read “The Most Important Thing” by Adyashanti and his discussion about “grace" resonated with me.  Grace, he says,

“comes when we receive an insight, something bea...

As adults, we have so much to learn from children and animals - if we step away from the frantic pace of our lives long enough to notice them.  

I took a few minutes today to sit under a big, old, shady tree.  It was a gorgeous day and that spot looked appealing.  About...

Do you remember being told to “stop crying or I’ll give you something to cry about”?  If you’re a baby-boomer I know you probably heard that - a lot. As a child, I couldn’t wrap my head around that rationale.  If I was crying, it was generally for a reason - usually be...

(around 1969. L-R: our dad, me, my sister, my brother, Grandma & Grandpa Bailey) 

If you’re a baby boomer like me, you probably have several photo albums (or storage totes) filled with memories from your past.  Photos from famil...

I’ve written before about the year we left B.C. for a summer holiday to Saskatchewan and never returned.  It affected me greatly - a fifteen-year-old, ripped away from everything she knew - and it was one of those defining moments of my life.  I now realize that it was...

How did you get your name?  Do you like it? I think most people dislike their name at some point in their lives.  I know I did and there are still some days when I look in the mirror and it isn’t really a Mary-Lou I see looking back at me.  It’s a bit unsettling....

I’ve always envied others when they tell me about the traditions they remember and preserve for their families.  Everything from wearing ugly sweaters every Christmas and putting out cookies and milk for Santa to carving pumpkins for Halloween or getting a new outfit f...

When I tell my grandkids about the “good old days” I don’t think they believe a lot of the things I tell them.  It’s not that they assume I’m making things up but more that they have no point of reference for what I’m telling them.  Childhood in the 60’s and 70's was m...

There are things that will forever trigger memories for all of us.  It can be a song, a photo, a smell, a certain food or a place.  One of those triggers for me is the little country church that sits perched on a hillside in Bjorkdale, Saskatchewan.  Some of my happies...