All Posts

Yves gets up early to catch the first worm. I sense him slipping out of bed, tiptoeing from the bedroom and softly closing the door. I luxuriate. I stretch in every direction, then nestle deeper beneath the duvet. My feet find the cool pockets untouched by warm bodies, and I wiggle my toes with quiet delight. Three more hours before I must rise. This is my favorite part of the morning. The dreams that visit now are the ones I will remember. I gather fragments from earlier dre

Christmas Eve at Baba Yuzak’s tiny house in Alvena, Saskatchewan was the loudest kind of love. The kind that didn’t ask permission. You came in the back door, through the kitchen, and somehow the whole family fit, even though by any normal math the place was too small. The house had one bedroom maybe 2. If it looked small to me as a child it must have been impossibly small. Yet that kitchen - Stove, sink, and enough chopping space for one - fed what felt like an army. My pare

"Read them to me," my mother said, placing a box of greeting cards on the table between us. "I can't see anymore." Every card was from my father. I had travelled to Saskatoon the week before Father's Day 2026 to spend time with my mother in her assisted-living apartment. At ninety, macular degeneration has stolen much of her sight and leaves her disoriented at times. I picked up the first card and began to read. Before long I found myself asking, "Tell me about Dad."

When I was about four years old, I would whirl around and around until I fell over, then lie on the ground enjoying the dizziness in my head and body. Over and over, I'd spin. In my early teens, I began smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol—not because I had a mature palate, but because I was fascinated by the effects. I was drawn to the shifts in body, mind, and emotion that arrived soon after partaking. Then came marijuana, such an easy way to alter perception. Since I wa