A New Year's Day reflection by Anne Lamott [Anne Lamott] I will flinch a bit today whenever someone exhorts me to have a happy new year. It might be the word โhappy,โ which is so giddy and clown-shoe slappy, in combination with my walking personality disorder. Itโs also that the emphasis will be on Hap,... Continue Reading →
Hope and resilience are the enemy of fear
What a beautiful statement by the children of Melissa and Mark Hortman who were assassinated by a domestic terrorist this past weekend Found on Facebook here. โWe are devastated and heartbroken at the loss of our parents, Melissa and Mark. They were the bright lights at the center of our lives, and we canโt believe... Continue Reading →
Fifty years and counting โ Our 1975 high school grad class meets for a reunion
I walked onto the rooftop patio of Victoriaโs Strathcona Hotel to meet almost one hundred members of my high school graduating class. Now fifty years after the actual 1975 graduation ceremony at Victoriaโs Oak Bay High School I wasnโt really thinking about the effects of the passage of time. Temporarily befuddled, a server pointed me... Continue Reading →
Hobbies and side-hustles
I am looking forward to visiting with others who graduated from Victoriaโs Oak Bay High School fifty years ago, the Class of 1975. As interest spreads my guess is that around fifty of us will show up at a Victoria hotel in early June, hoping that we are recognizable and we will recognize others. I... Continue Reading →
Waiting, waiting, waiting โ Stress testing telephone customer service
PREAMBLE This blog, takenote.ca, features a wide variety of topics. Recently, many daily posts have responded seriously to national and global politics, and rightly so. There is, however, a limit to what we and our readers can tolerate. Sometimes we need a break from politics and the serious matters which swirl around us. So today,... Continue Reading →
How Children Perceive Their Grandparents — Light relief from younger voices
. Onepicnowords - Pixabay A 2015 special feature from Leslie & Kay, founders of grandparentslink.com Coming of age in the early 1970s I remember listening to Art Linkletter who through his internationally syndicated show Links Little Oneโs shared (some say exploited) the impetuous comments from younger children for radio and television audiences. The comments... Continue Reading →