The wind was howling, blowing into all the crevices it could find.  The 12-foot trees were bending backwards with the force of the wind.  The windows were rattling in their tracks. It seemed worse in the night-time when there were no other noises to distract my ears. As I looked out the big windows at the back of our house, I could see my pot plants had no hope. Scattered across the pavement. New plants that I had just procured and planted in our new garden were getting a beating. But there was no way I could protect them.  They were open to the elements of the weather. Thank goodness…

Willow asked her Mum, while I was travelling in the car with them, “Which world is Pa in now?” Because Pa had been travelling a lot and moving from place to place, we all did not know where he was at any certain time. The different countries, to Willow, are different worlds. As Willow’s sixth birthday approached, I remembered this conversation. I found a map of the world with a compass and stickers of landmarks of the world such as the Pyramids, the Eiffel tower, the Himalayas, the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon, Uluru etc. and animals like whales, dolphins, kangaroos, eagles, moose, deers, bears, giraffes, elephants etc. She could…

As I locked the door and spun around on my heel, the next few seconds were a bit of a blur. It had been a rainy day and just coming in from the outside my shoes were wet. Not a good idea to spin I thought but too late. One leg went to the left, the other leg to the right and my bottom landed on the floor. Within the few short seconds I had before I landed on the hard tiles, my brain told me to protect my arm and leg.  God was very good to me, except for a few bruises and aches and pains, I was fine.…

The phone rang. It was my Mum! Just her ringing me warmed my heart. She lives four and a half days drive away in another state and I don’t see her as often as I would like. I even shared with one of my daughter’s how special it was that Mum rang me. She asked me about the newborn granddaughter and her Mum, to see how they were going. She is such a caring mother of six, grandmother of twenty-three and great-grandmother of thirty. As I started the day, I looked at the Christian Calendar. The Assumption of Our Lady. My thoughts turned to Mary, the Mother of God. Our…

My week has been so tumultuous, packing, cleaning, moving, unpacking…… I still don’t know where most things are. No, I lie, they are in a box somewhere in one of the rooms. I was going to be so organized. All the boxes are labelled but the removalists and the helpers were coming in at such a “rate of supply” if there is such a thing, that I got overwhelmed.  As they entered the front of the garage, I tried to direct them to which room or where to go at least. I was inundated so much with an onslaught of boxes; I ended up just stating “Leave them here.” (In…