Away

If I never left I could not understand contentment. For being away is the only way to come home.  Then when I stay and  wait, the journey feels  a gift. Without one, I can’t truly love the other, Travel: ‘tis  a most ingenious paradox Cue the music. Book the trip. Go away. 8.12.22 | SDG

Book Review: A Country Doctor

I’m writing this book review on a coach bus en route from Prague to Heidelberg, Germany. It’s scheduled to be a six-hour trip so I have plenty of activities to keep myself entertained—although admittedly my favourite thing to do is probably just staring out the window in silence. However, I just finished reading A Country…

Book Review: The Hiding Place

I remember my paternal grandmother recommending that I read The Hiding Place when I was in middle school. At that time, I had a healthy obsession with World War II era stories. I loved reading The Diary of Anne Frank and was fascinated by my grandparents’ French neighbors who had participated in the French Resistance…

Book Review: Greater Than Grief

In Greater Than Grief, Christena Estby documents her family’s journey through the trials, triumphs, pains and joys of raising four kids, two of whom have a terminal diagnosis of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. It is an amazing story of embracing life as it comes and along the way, finding positive coping mechanisms to manage when things…

Book Review: The Secret Garden

I grew up in the heyday of the 90s movies. Disney was still animating by hand, cartoons were a normal part of weekend plans and live-action movies had that specific film-processing quality that made everything feel magical and nostalgic. Such was the case for the 1993 film, The Secret Garden, which I watched with consistent…

Book Review: Until Heaven Parts Us

I have been dancing and teaching dance for the majority of my life, which means that I have met so many wonderful dancers along the way. Our paths don’t always continue to cross after they leave the dance studio where I teach, but thanks to social media, I often follow along their adventures from afar….

Just be

In general, I have a very hard time not multi-tasking and an even more difficult time fully relaxing to enjoy a moment. My body and my brain move extremely fast. I unintentionally leave most people in my dust on “leisurely” walks because my legs move swiftly. I like to squeeze a workout in to 10…

Book Review: Persuasion

When the trailer for the new film Persuasion came out, I watched it eagerly with the anticipation of seeing familiar characters and plot lines. Feeling confident that I had read all of the published novels of Jane Austen, I was thoroughly confused when not one scene or theme jogged my memory. Of course, when I…

Book Review: The Woman Who Smashed Codes

I’m not entirely sure how I first knew about The Woman Who Smashed Codes, by Jason Fagone, but it’s been on a list of “books to read” on my phone for a few years. I know I received my copy after putting it on a Christmas wish list one year and was pleased to open…

Book Review: The Bluest Eye

I picked up a copy of Toni Morrison’s Nobel Prize-winning novel, The Bluest Eye sometime last year in a Barnes and Noble haul. As is typical of me, I often buy 4-5 books at a time while already immersed in 2-3 books, so the new titles get temporarily shelved. After finishing World of Wonders last…