Category Archives: Personal

Life while away

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Almost three weeks I’ve been away — west to British Columbia and then east to Ontario — and in the true spirit of Away, I’ve not been blogging, except for that quick previous post about history meeting and history making on June 5. I like to concentrate on holidays or visits or whatever it is that takes me away. But my neglect also reflects the zone I still inhabit technologically. Blogging adheres to my writing work, which in its turn adheres to places and routines such as my home office, my own desk and computer, a particular view out the window, and the hours I give to being in that room, fed by thoughts gathered in the daily rituals of kitchen and yard and relationships, and in books undertaken in my several favourite reading spots. In other words, blogging — for me — isn’t handheld yet, isn’t easily portable.

Which isn’t to say that I haven’t been gathering all manner of experiences while away to think about further, and that I haven’t been reading, which travels along as easily and necessarily as my toothbrush. These weeks have swung the gamut of life’s highlights, in fact, from Birth to Death and the celebration of a child’s major Milestone, and I’ve been into several fine books. But now I’m back, re-settling Home and the routines of my work, and then I remember, oh yes, Borrowing Bones… Continue reading →

History work

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I’m currently in beautiful British Columbia, to be of assistance before and after (depending on the day of arrival) a new grandbaby’s birth, and to attend the annual meetings of the Mennonite Brethren Historical Commission. The meetings were this weekend in Victoria, where member Ben Stobbe lives, and where he and Linda and the Saanich Community Church showed us wonderful hospitality. All of B.C. is in a particularly good mood, of course, with their Vancouver Canucks leading the NHL Stanley Cup finals, 2 games to 0. This was my first full meeting on the Historical Commission and I enjoyed it. Hanging out with archivists and historians is more fun than it sounds, honestly! Each of the four archival centers (Winnipeg, Man.; Abbotsford, B.C.; Fresno, Cal.; Hillsboro, Kan.) are represented, and there are 6 additional members from Canada and the U.S.; it’s a bi-national board. It’s not my job to report on our decisions, but in general, our mandate is to foster the study of our church history in order to serve the contemporary church, and how best to do that is always an interesting challenge.

Now I’m back in our children’s home, on the mainland, and slipping into the rhythm of life of a young, busy family. In the next weeks, D.V., another name will be added to the family genealogy, and there will be a variety of interactions with our grandchildren. (For example, the grandson and I are reading some of the stories in Peter Dyck’s A Leap of Faith.) All this also a kind of history work!

A day alone, and listening

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H. was away all this Sunday, so it seemed a good opportunity to take an “alone” day, and to have it in the area of the city where parts of my current novel project are set. It’s a kind of research, hanging about places where things might happen to your characters, at specific times under specific conditions, and maybe making some notes about how trees look there at this time of the year, or mulling over how traffic sounds, for example. (We talk about “the sound of traffic” and we know what that means, but how would you describe it? From close or far away, or heavy or light, when it’s trucks or cars or motorcycles. I mean, besides vroom, vroom! Sounds are harder for me to write than sights.)

Manitoba's "Golden Boy" as if caught in a tree

I couldn’t have asked for a better day for the necessities of aloneness and research. It was such a fine day — clear, sunny, calm. And I think it was “useful” too, in terms of my work, though one doesn’t always know what details will be useful as the novel proceeds. But it was also a lovely day quite apart from any usefulness. And if you’re interested, here’s a bit of it. Continue reading →