Chronicles of a Shoemaker's Daughter

Though I am pretty much agnostic nowadays, I spent the first 5 years of my academic life in Catholic elementary school. And, I recall fondly that one of my favourite stories, told by the Sisters of St. Joseph, was that of Lily of the Mohawks. I don't know why, but I always felt that she was my big sister and protector ... Sometimes I think it was because she was rebellious and defiant. These days, I think her story might have been a sort of Catholic marketing tool of the times, used to further the cause of colonization by showing other Aboriginal people that she found refuge in Christianity/Catholicism. But those were different times, and the context was what it was, and I am not here today to do a critical reflection on oppression per se. What I am reflecting on, even as an agnostic, is the deeply moving, spiritual implications for many communities, of the events unfolding this weekend. This is the first ever First Nation saint, after how many centuries of colonization? Perha

I am in a reflective mood lately.  All this looking back ... and forward ... has led me to start cleaning up.  My house.  My office.  My files.  In doing the file cleanup, I discovered some writing that I did a while ago.  Always interesting to take a peek at where the mindset was at a given point in time.  And to reflect on what has changed in our personal lives and the lives of those people and places that we care about ...  I found this piece on another blog that I had wanted to launch, but which is now going to be used as a place to store some of my favourite photos.  As I delete the posts, I'll bring some excepts back here.  Some of my ramblings had already been cross-posted at the time that I wrote them. Some were deleted from this space because I felt at the time that I didn't want to contaminate a space that had originally been dedicated to some light, amusing (hopefully) chatter about a few trips away from my land-locked Canadian home.  But seriously, I am only one

In August, 2011, I wrote the following piece.  Some of you reading this will remember that I was in the throws of completing grad school, and moving toward an internship, which I knew would interrupt my already dwindling income.  Some of you were also in my cohort, and suffering along with me.  Others were baffled by some of my decisions, including going back to school on weekends ... But, I remained steadfastly attached to the notion that my life had gone out of balance and that I needed to make a whole whack of corrections to bring it back into balance.   Having a bucket list helped.   I share the partial bucket list and year-old reflection, today in the hopes of reminding some folks out there that we are all "works in progress" ... and no different from our "neighbours".  Flawed.  Imperfect.  Striving.  Stressed.  Magnificent.     So, whether you want to make a small change, or if we are going to take stock to launch some sweeping corrections a