Connection: Family Meal Times

We are wired for connection. We do better when we spend time together with other people.  The first in a series… Family meals are challenging these days. In fall, sometimes seemingly impossible between music lessons, sports teams, parental work demands.  With each family member having a different but full schedule, figuring out how to get …

Controlled Separation: A Marriage Coma

The ideas in the article were included in my book, as a part of my passion to help people make their marriages better. Finding ways to change destructive patterns are important…sometimes, small changes can make a big difference.  Sometimes, a big change is required to open space for the important shifts that are needed. For …

The lunch that started something beautiful

I will always remember Sunday lunch of the August long weekend with special fondness. It was the start of a somethin-somethin with Husband and I…though it wasn’t nearly the start of our romance. Husband’s wife, Car had died in late winter. In the months leading to her death, I had asked Car’s sister of how she …

Word Inspiration

I love words. My 15 year old self would not believe my current love of words to be real. I knew how to get a near perfect math mark because equations just worked.  English was frustrating to me because of its subjectivity…how does one write a perfect essay? Words annoyed me in ways numbers didn’t. …

Introducing Ellie Jack and Ruth Shantz

Change…Hard and exciting.  New opportunities and challenges. We like stability and routine, and knowing what to expect. Change is unpredictable, but creates unknown possibilities for new goodness! Change brings grief for that which we knew and loved and let go. Shifts brings excitement for things that are now possible that previously couldn’t happen. Two years ago, …

A Gratitude Returned

Husband has long invested in his Junior Tribe Members. More than most fathers, I think. One more reason why I love him so much. His is seasonal work.  He works long, hard hours in the summer, and less so in winter. When his JTM’s were small, he was often at home during the parenting during …

An Open Letter to Indigenous Peoples of Canada

Update: In case you’re interested…more recent thoughts on the discoveries of the unmarked graves at numerous locations across the country was written for Canada Day, 2021 Dear Indigenous Peoples of Canada, I feel like I have to write this letter. I’ve been apprehensive about writing it because I fear that my white privilege will be …

Storyfull gifts

I have everything I need, and many things I would want. So…knowing my birthday was coming up, and knowing the Junior Tribe Members might ask me what I would want for my birthday, Husband and I cooked up a plan: I would ask for stories for my birthday. Several weeks ago, we gave each person …