I went to Barrie in the Fall










It had been a short ride, an easy one. We had only enough time to push the bike onto the ferry with all seven of the load’s cars, pay our fare, and breathe the salt filled waves before we were docking on the other side of the crossing. It was a ferry ride to an…
Jet lag kept me from sleeping. I rolled over and checked my inoperable cell phone. At least it still tells time. That’s progress. 5:15am. And a few text messages. Wait. Text messages? Up here? Apparently Verizon does work outside the country of origin. I answered the texts. One needed me to make a phone call….
One of my favourite weeks of the year is the one I set aside to look back on the clients and weddings that have consumed the past twelve months and celebrate the adventures and stories and tears and joys along the way. This week is one of the best such reflections because this year has…
Guys! I GOT TO GO TO NORTH CAROLINA! As I started the cross-continent journey to North Carolina late last month, I did the math: it had been almost TWO YEARS since my last trip to my hometown. While this may not be abnormal for most immigrants, I have been incredibly grateful to be able to…
Aren’t we four and ten still? Writing secret messages back and forth when we were supposed to be asleep? (Sorry, Mom & Dad.) Aren’t we six and twelve still? Bickering over who had to make the bed and what the standard of “clean” would pass for a clean room? Aren’t we just eight and fourteen, facing the enormity of a…
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about happiness. And happy memories. And happy pictures. And – especially – happy places. You see, I have a lot of happy places. There’s the room in the mountains of Southern Virginia where I lived in for four months while recovering from pneumonia. There’s the rock on the shores…