I looked in the mirror this morning and shocked myself with what I saw there. I saw a woman whose forty years weigh heavily in the lines and shadows of her face, a woman whose mouth has been turned down at the corners with bitterness.

Where is the proud, smart, carefree woman I used to be? The woman with smile lines instead of wrinkles, and a sparkle in her eye instead of dark circles underneath? I used to look forward in time and see nothing but a broad road ahead, full of interesting twists and turns and forks; a path blazing with light and possibility. At forty I look back and see the road I travelled and I’m surprised. It’s straight and flat and predictable, and all those forks and twists are dead ends now, choked with weeds and closed to me forever. When I bother to look ahead now, I see a road cloaked in dust. So many have sped ahead of me, finding their paths and blazing their trails that I cannot see my own road anymore. Read the rest of this entry »

Will Shakespeare said it:

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.

But, much as I adore the Bard, I just don’t buy it. To my mind, names are really important things. A rose, indeed, would smell the same with a different name, but say for example that by some trick of etymological evolution we called them thornflowers. Not a totally inaccurate description, but one that evokes a different emotion (irony, perhaps) than the simple and monosyllabic rose. Read the rest of this entry »

About two weeks ago I got a PACT email from the Calgary Police Service – it’s a service they provide to communities to keep them abreast of crime trends and/or warnings. This one was about a break-and-enter scam whereby a guy (or a couple of guys) were posing as window-washers…they would come and ring the doorbell; if you answered, they’d offer to wash your windows. If nobody answered, they’d kick down the door and rob the house. Read the rest of this entry »