I don’t know how we get on these things. We were talking about the dog. Next thing we’re talking about my manhood.
Did we get the dog fixed? Nobody remembers. The boy thinks yes. The girls say no.
I hereby resolve – No more children, no, not ever Read More »
(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, December 24, 2016)
MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ It was just past sunrise in Congo at a mission refugee camp. This is when I walked into it. It was a certain and gentle light. It was in a church. I was alone.
It wasn’t much of a church, just plain with a dirt floor and simple benches and open ceiling. The space was empty. Still. Voiceless.
Awe and joy on the journey Read More »
(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, December 9, 2016)
KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ The story of 2016 is the story of surprise.
Surprise isn’t always the worst thing in the world. When all goes as expected, day after ordinary day, it’s hard to remember what matters in life.
Winning, like losing, is about more than meets the eye Read More »
(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, November 12, 2016)
KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ It started with a skipping rope, a plain green skipping rope, the kind you’d find at any dollar store.
It was a simple investment. You’d be forgiven for opting to instead spend the money on your morning double-double.
How a simple skipping rope changed lives Read More »
(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, October 22, 2016)
KAMPALA, UGANDA – It’s hard to know what to make of it somedays, what to make of these remarkable matters like belief and truth and monsters.
I mean, when I was a young reporter I wrote about a monster that nobody believed in, and even that caused a stir. It was the so-called Lake Erie Monster, affectionately known as LEM.
Belief, truth and monsters who are all too real Read More »
(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, October 8, 2016)
MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ Someone (a writer, naturally) once said that writing is like prayer. Prayer, it seems to me, is like gardening. I’ve struggled with all three.
The small garden behind our African home is testament to this. Many seasons it’s been a disappointing annoyance. Nearby trees steal valuable sunlight and nutrients. I suppose the space should never have been chosen to start.
On gardening, grace and writing Read More »
(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, September 17, 2016)
ABOARD KLM FLIGHT 535 TO UGANDA ✦ I’ve always envied people who could watch their mothers grow old.
My mother, I’ve shared previously, passed on when I was in kindergarten. I hadn’t seen her for two years prior to that.
Funny to think of it here, half asleep at 40,000 feet.
We live with our parents, even when we don’t Read More »
(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, August 27, 2016)
HAMILTON, CANADA ✦ It was a different time and place on the day I watched another human being die in my father’s arms. I was just a boy.
Bert had epileptic seizures, medically uncontrollable then. Tall and lanky, he’d crumple and fall hard on the floor in the house, or outside under the apple tree, or in places between, shaking, convulsing, rigid as a board. I’d watch. All the time. Bert lived with us.
In honour of my father and his well-lived life Read More »
