When you learn music, your hemispheres fire off together, and since you’re not just sitting there listening to a lecture, you’re also doing some fine motor function (and/or gross motor function if you’re on percussion or canon), a bunch of those lobes are on fire too.
Continue readingTag: breaks my heart
centre of the universe: Small Kindnesses
When my mom died, we asked people to bring rocks (she liked this Jewish tradition of remembrance) to put in a basket in her memory. Some folk painted rocks, some folks brought little ceramic knickknacks and gewgaws, others brought rocks from their gardens or farms, or maybe just from out
Continue readingcentre of the universe: The Last Thing
Grief is an oscillation between want and have, between need and want, between here and gone. It does strange things to a person. When my mother died I kept saying to my aunt, over and over, “this must be so hard for you”. A Freudian might call it transference. My
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Close to Home
Sometimes something happens that hits pretty close to home, but you can’t describe why it hits close to home and you don’t really understand why it’s hitting as close to home as it is. You just know you hurt and this kind of hurt isn’t something your amazing group of
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Danger Zone
Please go read this article (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/gretchen-kelly/the-thing-all-women-do-you-dont-know-about_b_8630416.html). I’ll wait. If you’re already on Twitter, you’ve seen this already. I spent about a decade trying to look not-female (which was tough, given my body shape) and being very angry that I couldn’t go out to the club or the bar without having to
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Don’t Need to See
I love radio. I’ve always loved radio. Right now, I love radio more than usual. Just because you can do something, like take photos of dead refugee children, or take live footage of people being shot in the street, doesn’t mean you should use that footage. The best news reporters
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Not with a whimper
I thought I would be much, much older before so many of my friends died. I thought I had more time. That’s the thing, isn’t it? We always think we have more time. Well, we don’t. That’s just the thing. Cherish every single moment because while time is not finite, our
Continue readingcentre of the universe: It ain’t easy
This is a difficult post for me to write. To be honest, I don’t even know if it’ll ever get posted publicly. I’m not particularly good at this sort of thing, and the idea that people use their blogs to kind of…I dunno…bleed out all over the place gives me
Continue readingcentre of the universe: When a Body
My granddad is in this photo. He’s the kid perched on the plough. It’s his father driving the car. David Henry. My granddad ended up looking just like him. Uncle Reg is beside David Henry, and their neighbours are standing … Continue reading →
Continue readingcentre of the universe: By sea, by land, by air
Canada has operated internment camps for Japanese, Ukrainian, German, and Italian Canadians. These Canadian citizens and immigrants were accused of being saboteurs and spies and were forcibly removed from their homes and were detained in government-run work camps throughout the country. They were not permitted any defense, and in fact,
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Used To Be Pretty
Some folks seem to have this idea that if only they have more or get more or get something different, that all of the Bad Things in their lives will be magically fixed. This is a troublesome mindset. I think it’s related somehow to the bullshite idea that if you
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Late last night or the night before…
Last night I was fortunate enough to be able to play in my first ever tabletop Werewolf game, hosted by AJ. It’s all done by magic now, you see, with (so far) four players in three different cities playing via videoconferencing. Let me tell you, I’m liking this. So after
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Head Like a Hole
First, I’d like you to go to Netflix and watch a documentary called “Head Games”. It’s about brain damage due to contact sport. It talks about concussions in football, hockey, and boxing. And entertainment wrestling (not greco-roman wrestling). It’s an incredibly interesting and well-done documentary. One of the really good
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Without You
I can’t stop thinking about you. It’s strange, and I don’t believe you’re gone. I never thought of picturing a world without you in it. I don’t want to picture that world now. I wonder if she mourned you or whether your death came as a relief. Whether she stood
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Red Door
I know it’s trite and overdone, but this is pretty much how things are going today:
Continue readingcentre of the universe: David
You always remembered Because one time, in passing, I told you “Irises are my favourite flower”. Every year on my birthday, an Iris from your garden. One year, a drawing of an eyeball. “Here’s your birthday iris,” you’d written. Sometimes – often – I hardly understood what you were talking
Continue readingcentre of the universe: But sometimes, good things happen
I have been pooping an awful lot on and around social media lately. The truth of the matter is that I haven’t missed effbook at all since we broke up. We still see each other now and then in the grocery store, and while we may not make eye contact,
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Sometimes, everything works out
There is nothing quite like the feeling of painstakingly hand-knitting a sweater for someone who dies partway through the process, then having to repurpose the sweater for someone else whose arms are longer. I say this only because it’s a … Continue reading →
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Spin
Not long ago, my provincial government decided to do away with a program that created hundreds, if not thousands of jobs in the province, and which brought with it millions of dollars in revenue for the province. On the face … Continue reading →
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Antisocial Media
Putting stuff out into the EEEEeeeEEEeeEEeether is not social. It’s narcissistic and self-serving. It’s ego-stroking. And I am the worst for this. (For reference, see “centre of the universe: the dreaming”. AKA: this bournal.) It is altogether too easy to … Continue reading →
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