Thoughts from Chickadee Lane

Tis the season of egg nog, chocolate and concerts!   in the past two weeks, I was happy to attend five unique Christmas concerts - with plans to attend two more concerts this weekend. And if I had the stamina there are many more opportunities this time of year to enjoy wonderful live music. While I sit in the audience, I am filled with gratitude for the multiple musicians who graciously share their time and talent to create something beautiful to lift the spirits of all. Thank you and kudos to the music directors who with great skill and generous grace lead a group of strangers to become one voice. Thank you and kudos to the singers and musicians who sing and play for pure joy. Thank you and kudos to all who rush away from their supper table, who leave home on winter nights, drive to a practice site and give their all to be part of something bigger than themselves. As I live with one of those singers, I know first hand that the beauty they create does not happen in a vacuum. It tak...

Long Reach United Church, Dec 6, 2023 December 6 is etched in the minds of many of us. Especially Canadians. It is the day when in 1989 at École Polytechnique, 14 women were killed because they were women. Another 13 women were injured. All by a man motivated by hatred of feminists.   On that day, I was working at the toxicology lab of the Atlantic Veterinary College. Actually it was not until the evening news that I realized the horror of the murders. I recall vividly the conversations at work on Dec 7. A primarily female staff, our hearts wept at the realization that these women were murdered because they were women interested in engineering. We were a group of women who also loved science and technology. This horrific act of systemic misogyny was very personal on many levels. Fast forward 34 years to Wednesday’s National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women when people gathered across the country to never forget that day and acknowledge that gender based viole...

Last week David and I were thrilled to meet and cuddle nine-day old Oliver. Oliver, all legs and arms, all warmth and wonder. Like a rose bud, slowly unfurling from months in the womb.   Yes, newborns arrive every day and everywhere. Still each child is so precious and unique. To be in the midst of a newborn’s breath is to experience the power of love… to be captivated at the universal wonder of life. As a friend recently said, “You look into their deep eyes and you can see where they came from.” Caress a newborn’s head and it is as if you are caressing life itself. As if we are connecting to all that is pure and holy, connecting to generations long past. At no other age are we examined so closely searching for familiarity. We examine fingers and toes. Yes. All there. Fingers and toes that seem to have a mind of their own… as if they don’t know which way to point.   We search for family features. Dark steel eyes - must be like his father. Lose ear lobes - must be like his moth...

                                                                      Holly by our door on Chickadee Lane. Christmas decorations are popping up everywhere. People are outdoors. Lights are being installed. I need this season… especially this year as I wrestle with a conflict of feelings. The images of the ongoing war in Israel and Hamas fill our screens. My heart aches at the deaths of over 14,000 people and I wonder, How can this be? Have we not learned a better way as humans?   At the same time, I can safely go to bed at night and not worry about the possibility of bullets entering my home. I can sleep soundly. How can this be?   While the numbers can be overwhelming, these days I think especially of one -   Mariam who I met in a small city near Bethlehem in 2001 w...

When we don our poppies on Saturday, I wonder what will we remember? I have no personal experience of war. Except through the lens of others. In her later years my grandmother, who lived with us and whose bedroom was next to mine, would cry out at night for her brother Theo McCoubrey who was killed in WW1. On a shelf in our home on Chickadee Lane sits a picture of David’s Uncle Roland Sterling dressed in his Air Force uniform. Roland was killed in WW11 in a mid air collision while training to be a Royal Air Force Navigator. (UK)   Then there are the media pictures and haunting tragic stories of the present day Israel-Hamas war and Russia-Ukraine war.. These scenes enter our living rooms and hearts and fill my senses with deep sadness and anger that war continues.  How have we not found a better way? I have neighbour’s and friends who served more recently. I see the PTSD that lingers. For me, the slam of a screen door brings happy thoughts of summer. For many that same sound sp...

Happy Halloween! The first snow of the season has arrived here in Chickadee Lane and decided to stay… at least for a day or two! As I put out the treats this morning, memories of childhood Halloween come to mind. Memories of turnip jack-o-lanterns. Memories of how my sister and I, along with a few neighbour friends, would practice Halloween.   We would head out several nights before the big night, walk up and down the country road planning and plotting tricks we would do. Tip over someone’s outhouse. Move a road sign.   In preparation for the scary night, we would gather bulrushes and soak them for several days in used diesel fuel to be used as torches. I can’t imagine how our parents allowed us to play with torches! As wisdom would have it’s way, we never did use the torches. We never did move a road sign nor tip over an outhouse. The thrill was in the planning and possibility.   It was a different time. A night when mischief was expected. No adult accompanied us along t...