It’s Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada, and it’s raining outside. It doesn’t matter though, because I am having such a lovely day preparing for our Thanksgiving dinner gathering tomorrow.

I started out by ironing a beautiful tablecloth for our table, and as I did, I got into a little spontaneous conversation with my Nana. I said, “Thank you so much, Nana, for teaching me so many things about how to make a home. For instance, thanks for demonstrating by your example, that it’s a good idea to set your table the day before, if possible. And thanks for teaching me about the joys and the beauty of taking time to clean the silverware, and put a lovely bouquet of flowers on the table too. And by the way, thanks for saving a sum from every paycheque beginning when I was a baby, to buy me a piece of sterling silverware for each birthday and Christmas. I know I didn’t appreciate it then, but I do now. And every time I polish the silverware, I think of you, smile, and say thank you Nana!”

When we arrived at Nana’s house every Sunday for dinner, she was never flustered. That’s because she had set the dining room table the day before, and made dessert- usually a pie- the day before too. We almost always had a roast beef dinner, so she could make that on autopilot. When our family arrived, she was able to join us all as we gathered around the TV and watched whatever sport was on, a drink in hand, enjoying casual conversation.

I am happy to say, this same method works for me! And we take it a one step further here at my house, by roasting the chicken, and cooking the turnips and potatoes the day ahead too. So when the family all roll in tomorrow afternoon, Lord willing, I won’t be flustered either, and will be able to enjoy my time with them.

Thanks so much, Nana, for teaching me about the really important things of life, by your example. You weren’t one for offering advice, but I think I picked up most of what I needed to learn by watching you quietly in action. What a blessing to my life you were, and you continue to be, as I think about your life.

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!

Hello to all,

Wow, September was a gorgeous month here in Ontario. It was the weather I was actually hoping for in July and August- temperatures were in the mid 20s, and there was very little humidity. I was able to swim at our local beach almost every day. Hallelujah!

Last weekend was our area’s local studio tour. I love it every year and this year was no exception. A wonderful surprise was finding a new cookie recipe to try. One of the artists not only had interesting, beautiful, sometimes quirky things to show, he also put out a plate of his homemade cookies, and was willing to share the recipe with me. I have tried it three times this week, and each variation was really good. You start with a bag of Quaker cookie mix- the oatmeal variety. If you use a whole bag at once, enough to make 4 dozen cookies, then you can add any combination of 1 cup of unsweetened coconut, 1 cup of dried cranberries, 1 cup of raisins and 1 cup of chocolate chips. The key ingredient is to also add the zest of one orange. If you don’t have a zester, you can use your normal grater, if it has a fine setting on it.

I tried the recipe the first time, just adding dried cranberries, as that was all I had in the house that day. It made good cookies. But the next time, I added coconut, cranberry, chocolate chips + the zest of an orange. My partner’s assessment was that these were his favourite of any kind of cookie I have ever made. Wow!

Right now the timer is going off and it’s time for me to get a batch of cookies out of the oven again. This time, I also added raisins, and we’ll see if that improves them even further!

A couple of tips- Wait for the cookies to fully cool before you try one. They are better cooled, and even better if you put them in the freezer, and eat them the next day after they have thawed. The recipe on the bag of oatmeal cookie mix tells you to bake them for 10-12 minutes for chewy and 12-14 minutes for crispy. Trial and error says that for my oven, 12 minutes is the sweet spot!

If you feel inclined to try them, happy baking! They sure make the kitchen, and the whole house, smell great!

PS This just in from my in-house taste tester: “ Leave out the raisins next time, I liked the last batch better!”

Hello there, everyone. We have made it into a new season, what feels like the ‘New Year’ to many. How are you feeling about that? This morning, on YouTube, I watched Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at the opening of the Toronto Film Festival. He said something which I thought was really amazing and inspiring:

“A young person is someone whose dreams are bigger than their accomplishments.”

I am sorry to say I didn’t catch who he attributed the quote to, and I haven’t been able to find it online either. If someone knows, please let me know!

What struck me about the quote was— Is having a dream the key to feeling and being young, deep down in your soul? I think it might be!

So as we enter the fall, what are your hopes and dreams?

I found a couple more quotes about the importance of having a dream:

“Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than one with all the facts.” — Albert Einstein

“Life is too short to settle; if you’re not doing what you love, then keep looking.” —Steve Jobs

Today, I want to offer a toast to the idea of having a dream and living it— the possible Fountain of Youth!

I am hoping and praying that you may experience a fall full of dreams, meaning, and fulfilment, as well as joy in the fall colours which will soon be emerging! May it be so!

Boy oh boy, what a summer it was here in Ontario. July and early August were super hot and dry. We went 49 days without any rain. Our lawn became straw, which crunched under my feet as I walked across it with a watering can towards one of my containers, hoping to keep the flowers alive until some rain arrived.

What a relief when cooler temperatures and some rain arrived last week!

Did you see the parade of planets in the eastern sky last week? I got up one morning at 5am and out the bathroom window I could see two very bright stars beside each other in the pre dawn sky. Upon looking up what they were, I read that at this time in August, Mercury, the moon, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn would be visible in a lineup across the predawn sky. So I got up each morning, went outside, looked into the eastern sky, and was awestruck each time by the beauty that I could see in the heavens. I hope some of you got to witness that too!

I wanted to share one more thing with you. Another joyful moment! Sheri and I self published my seventh book! It’s called More Tent Pegs: Acquiring More Skills for Life in a Tempestuous World. It is available, along with my other books on Amazon. If you don’t have an Amazon subscription, and you would like to purchase a copy of the book, or get a signed copy of the book, I would be happy to mail a signed copy out to you.

It’s obvious to all that we are living in a tempestuous world these days. In More Tent Pegs, I wanted to offer 20 brief chapters about things I have found help me interact with our world with more skill and grace. I am hopeful that this book will contribute to our ability to find our calm in the midst of these very uncertain times.

May it be so!

Recently, our minister asked the children of the church, “What is the most important day of your life?” The children gave a variety of answers that included such things as- the day I get married, the day I graduate, the day I win at a sporting event. Our minister agreed that these are all very important days, but then he said, “I think the most important day of your life is today!”

What a great perspective!

Upon reflection, I think there was great wisdom in Allan’s comments. We all know no-one is guaranteed tomorrow- so that’s pretty clear. Yesterday is now past. However, it seems to be all too easy for we humans to get stuck in mulling over yesterday and/or worrying about the future, thereby missing some of the gifts of having today to live. If today might be the final day of our life, for sure I want to treasure every spoonful of the strawberry Kawartha Dairy ice cream before me in my dish! I want to treasure and lean into the hug of my partner, and savour watching the Open on TV. I will enjoy that cup of herbal tea and cookie with my partner this evening. As I cherish every moment of today, today does begin to transform into the most important day of my life!

Thank you so much, Allan, for teaching the children, and by extension, the rest of the congregation this important truth!

I have been enjoying working my way through all the books that novelist Jan Moran has written. In the most recent one I read, Seabreeze Book Club, I came across the following lovely quote:

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one” (242). —George R.R. Martin.

Reading that quote, I heaved a huge sigh of pleasure. YES! That’s what reading a cozy mystery or a wholesome family novel is all about for me. It’s so great to be able to slip into the lives of a set of characters and enjoy being part of what’s going on vicariously. I love to stop midday to read another chapter, and I especially relish doing that at bedtime. A bedtime story is a wonderful thing, no matter what your age.

Of course, we have to keep up on current events, and we need to read non-fiction which we deem important. But there is a beloved place in my heart for a wonderful fictional story that uplifts me. I am so glad such a thing is available! Hallelujah!

I usually take a week away in May each year to go to a small family run resort for a week of writing and visiting with friends in the Haliburton area. This year, I decided to stay home, and focus on writing from my home office. In order to simulate the solitude and silence I would get in a writer’s cabin, I decided to turn off my smartphone from 9am to 5pm each day. I was astonished at the effect that had on me. Just knowing the phone was off for that period of time instantly gave me a boost of inner peace and calm. Like most other folks, I was used to looking at my emails, You Tube feed, and the CBC news app a lot during each day. I was wondering why turning the phone off had such a profound effect on me, when I read a paragraph in The Inner Bonding Guided Journal. Inner Bonding, by Dr Margaret Paul, was written in 1992. I had read it many years ago and learned from it, but then saw that in 2024, Dr Paul and an associate Dr Chopich put out this guided journal. In the section, Three Pillars of Health and Wellness, the first pillar is Nutrition which they say equals anything you ingest, so it will need to be digested. They write: “This pillar is primarily about nutrition, food and healthy eating, but can be anything else we consume or have to process with our physical/emotional/mental body, like substances, environmental phenomena (polluted air), noise.. And let’s not forget technology, screen time, and social media consumption!” (23)

This description of what Nutrition is stopped me in my tracks. WOW! When put that way, of course, what we view via our smartphones is something that we ingest and must also digest. This takes time and energy. When I decided to turn off the phone for 8 hours in a row, immediately, this eliminated a source of input, and that meant the need to process and digest was eliminated too. Again, WOW, when I consider the instant transformation I experienced- going from mild inner agitation and emotional fatigue to inner peace and calm.

Simply put, I didn’t realize how much of an effect smartphone use has been having on my state of health and well-being.

Have you ever tried a similar experiment? If not, and you would like to experience more inner peace, I invite you to experiment with turning off your smartphone for the length of time of your choice, to see what happens in your inner world. Like me, you might be astonished by what you discover!

PS I am making really good headway on More Tent Pegs, and if things go well, I think I will be able to plan a fall book launch! Enjoy this beautiful late spring, and may you have a great summer of fun and rejuvenation!

Recently, my daughter Joanna shared with me that she was told that the secret to being a successful minister is to have a backbone, a wishbone, and a funny bone. I loved that! And as we discussed this wise advice, we realized that, really, it applies to everyone. If we all had an operational backbone, wishbone, and funny bone, wouldn’t we all be the better for it?

A backbone, for me, implies having the courage of our convictions- that we know what is so important to us, that we would definitely stand up and defend it. Just writing these words makes me sit up straighter in my chair. For me, bullying is one of those things. There’s something about someone taking advantage of another who has less power than they do which really riles me up, and I want to come to the defense of the weaker party, and stand in solidarity with them.

Having a wishbone is important too! Having a dream or a vision I am working towards is essential for my sense of well-being, for sure. When I am writing a book or creating a workshop or retreat which I think will benefit others, everything is right in my world. When we can look beyond a present time of suffering and still envision a brighter world, we can live with hope in the midst of a time of stress and struggle.

But I think the most important thing we need to manage life on this planet is a funny bone. When I ask people to list their most important personal values, sense of humour is always on the list, with the comment, “How would we ever manage without it?” Exactly! I don’t know how. That’s why shows like This Hour Has 22 Minutes have been so helpful during the past few months. It’s so good that someone has the capability of making us laugh at the current political situation in North America. What a gift that is to us all.

Hearing this saying yesterday led me to ask myself the following questions:

1) Do I know what I would stand up for? Am I doing that when needed?

2) Do I currently have a personal dream, and a dream for the world, that I am holding tight to, doing something about, and praying for?

3) Am I getting too serious, or too cynical or pessimistic about life? If so, how can I bring humour back into my every day?

Backbone, wishbone, funny bone- they are essentials for our back pack on this journey we call life. May these tools be accessible to us all, and may we be able to shine some light in this world by using them for good, to the best of our ability.

Wow, we just came through quite the experience- an ice storm, which led to a power outage which lasted for four days for us, and is still ongoing for some folks in our area. It was a time of returning to basics. We have a woodstove, so we spent our days within a few feet of the stove, trying to stay as warm and cozy as possible. It was VERY quiet. Our cell phones weren’t working well at all, and we had very little access to the internet, so we didn’t know what was going on in the outside world. That was actually a blessed relief. I ended up deleting several Youtube subscriptions to political videos because I could see how much calmer I felt not knowing every new detail about American politics.

Although we didn’t have access to using our microwave or oven, we were able to use the stove top burner, because it’s fueled by gas. In order to keep our spirits up, I started thinking about what kind of treats I could create in one pot on the stove. Do you remember Rice Krispie squares and Chocolate Noodles? I rustled up the recipes for these old favourites in an old recipe card box that I had started when I was in my teens and twenties. The Chocolate Noodle recipe was the one I used to get my Girl Guide cooking badge. It is good and chocolatey- great for raising the spirits during a long power outage! In case you don’t have the recipe, here it is:

Chocolate Noodles

Melt 3/4 cup chocolate chips and 3/4 cup butterscotch chips on low heat. Stir in 1/2 cup of chopped peanuts. Stir in 1 and 1/4 cups of chow mein noodles, til they are coated with the chocolate mixture.

Place a spoonful of this delicious mixture on a sheet of waxed paper. Let cool. Eat and enjoy!

When the power came on, we felt so relieved. We also felt closer to our neighbours, more grateful for all that we normally take for granted, and happy to have found that good old recipe box of directions for how to make old fashioned yummy treats!

I have been feeling out of kilter today, though I wasn’t sure what it was about. Last Friday, I turned 70! I had a wonderful party with female friends and my two daughters. I thought that’s what I needed- to go through this big transition in the company of other women. It turned out to be so true!

So in light of such a beautiful day last Friday, I have been wondering what’s making me feel so unsettled today. Finally it hit me- tomorrow is the first anniversary of my Mom’s death. I have just spent the afternoon reading over the approximately 20 blogposts I wrote in 2024 after Mom passed away. What a journey it has been. I do feel like I have reached the place of well integrated grief, at last. This week a new book came out by one of our favourite authors, and I said, out aloud, “Mom, I sure wish I could share this book with you.” It now feels kind of sweet and comforting to talk out loud to Mom about things like this- a new book, a beautiful bouquet of flowers, plans for my 2025 garden. I wish she was here with me to celebrate these things, yet I know she is at peace, with Dad, and I am feeling pretty happy and at peace too.

So I don’t know how I am going to honour Mom tomorrow, but I know I will. Likely, some friends and family will get in touch with me, and I will get in touch with some of them too. Mom feels like an ancestor, who is there to guide me when I need advice, and I can talk out loud to her now and then. She’s with Nana; she’s with Dad. She’s where I will be one day too, and that is a deeply comforting thought.

Hallelujah!