Links to my stories by topic/category —

One ex-student posted her sad story on Facebook. I don’t do Facebook, but a higher power urged me to check yesterday. — I didn’t teach Jane, but I did teach her four siblings. Last time we spoke, her eldest, and only daughter, was about to begin kindergarten. She’s five years old right now. Jane was immensely proud of her four handsome children. She is the eldest in her family, and the only…

Yet she never apportioned blame, typical of the empathetic human she was. — When my mother mooted the idea that she and Dad should migrate to Australia, I was less-than-positive. I felt she was too old to leave a country she had grown up in, to leave her family and friends, even to leave behind the hellish weather that put her on edge…

As is this letter to my dad to prepare him for the realization that what he will be reading next, is by contrast, worth celebrating. — Some years ago, a parent in our school, was so delighted by her son’s end of year results, she spent the next few days calling anyone who would listen, to share her (her son’s) success. What most of us saw as one door closing, and another yet to open, she…

In this space of betwixt and between, we are cautioned to rest awhile before confidently embracing the challenge of a new tomorrow. — Author and Franciscan friar, Richard Rohr, describes liminal space as: “where we are betwixt and between the familiar and the completely unknown. There alone is our old world left behind, while we are not yet sure of the new existence. That’s a good space where genuine newness can begin. …

Just long enough to touch the ground, and yet… — This little story was inspired by Mary Chang Story Writer this morning. It was meant to follow on from her personal March prompt, ‘movement’. Mary and I are on the same page on certain things, like exercising till we cark it, and so, after reading her March story, I thought…

An age-old Irish expression that’s fun and speaks of Irish people and their unique sense of humor. — My dad was Irish. From a place called Ballymacnab in County Armagh, and despite having left when he was a toddler, he was nonetheless super-proud of his Irish heritage. And he never failed to miss an opportunity to explain to us how as a British colony, his people were made…

When we can’t house our vulnerable and homeless, we should be hanging our heads in collective shame. — My friend has lived next door to a house for over thirty years. It’s a large, brand-new home bought by a Chinese consortium. Nobody has ever lived there. “Real Estate Institute of Australia president Hayden Groves said it was “interesting” to see foreign spending on Australian homes rising. “More than…

We learned one morning, that within two days everything would be closed down, homelessness our frightening reality, until… — I can never forget that morning. Up until then I had assumed the virus would settle down and life would go on as usual. But now the harsh reality was that we had two days to cross any borders necessary, and decide what was possible for an indeterminate future. We had no home.