The recent conditions of my parents

Posted on March 28, 2011 by doradueck

Today, for the last time, I turned the lock of the small suite my parents moved into nearly nine years ago. It’s empty – everything of theirs given away, sold, or piled into a spare bedroom at our house!

My father died more than a year ago. My mother had hip surgery in October and, unable to return to independent life, is waiting for a bed in the Personal Care Home on the other side of this complex. Yes, she’ll return to her beloved Donwood Manor, but never again to these two-and-a-half rooms, to these particular conditions.

Eugene Peterson speaks of “conditions” in the opening pages of his latest book (a memoir called The Pastor). He means the fact that his work — with the “immense mysteries” of God and souls — was carried out in place and time. Place and time in their most specific dimensions. There’s no avoiding the conditions, he says, and so he wants to be “mindful” of them.

Closing down my parents’ suite has pushed me into mindfulness also of the recent conditions of their lives. Continue reading →

Where’s the author?

Posted on March 15, 2011 by doradueck

One evening last month, the pastor and I were special guests at our church’s weekly club for neighbourhood kids. It was “I Love to Read Month” and we were invited to read stories to the kids – he because he’s a pastor who loves to read, and I because I’m a writer who loves to read.

Wandering around the church basement and observing the kids at play before the evening opened, I overheard one little fellow, maybe 6 or 7 years old, impatiently asking a leader, “Where’s the author?” He wanted to play outside, but not yet. “Where’s the author?” he repeated.

Hmm, I thought, sounds like they built this visit up a bit, but what in the world is this boy imagining when he hears the word “author”? How I wished I had something Inspector Gadget-y about me, maybe pens that shot out of my fingers or a miniature printing press I could pull from my sleeves! Yes, I wanted to make “author” seem more impressive than the ordinary, grandma figure I would surely seem to him instead. Continue reading →

Some women I love and honour

Posted on March 8, 2011 by doradueck

It being International Women’s Day, I took some time to set down the names of women I love and honour, beginning with my mothers (mother and mother-in-law, actually, but I’m not going to get technical about that here, or in the rest of this either), my daughters, my grandmothers, my sisters, my aunts. The list could go on and on, to include nieces and friends and colleagues and women I admire from afar, whether by acquaintance or through their books or history… But today I’m thinking of these first circles in particular, and I name them below, with gratitude. (Daughters and mothers, being the closest circle, are the largest names.) Each one represents a relationship, a unique story, qualities I admire, challenges I’ve seen faced in strong and various ways, and wonderful gifts given to me and our family and the wider world.