Here’s the short answer. Yes. But there’s a longer answer that took me years to understand. — When the phone rings at 2 AM it’s never going to be good news. I bolt awake, heart racing. See my sister’s number on the call display. I’m already crying when I pick up. I’m so sorry sis, she whispers. It’s still dark when we race to the hospital, my…

This memoir is tragic, funny and heartbreaking. Now also a movie starring Woody Harrelson, Naomi Watts and Brie Larson. — Jeannette Walls was in a taxi going to a New York business party when she saw her mom on the street. Her mom was dumpster diving, rags around her shoulders to keep her warm while her little dog played by her feet. Her mom’s hair was matted and streaked with…

Here’s the truth no one tells kids about bullies and bigots — You know what your problem is? she says. Which one, I ask. My attitude? My big mouth? That I don’t care about status or social convention? Take your pick, I say, it’s a long list and she laughs. You’re too kind, she says. What? I say. It’s not really a…

But men are more “successful” at it — I come from a family of strong women. You had to be, if you arrived on the Canadian prairies back in 1913 with twenty-some dollars in your pocket, had no shelter but what you built with your own hands and minus forty blizzards were mere months away. My baba was…

I wish I could tell you only a few states allow child marriage, but it’s the other way around. Only a few states don’t. — You wouldn’t think people would get so mad about two people getting hitched. That’s what the bride’s mother said. “Eunice loves Charlie and Charlie loves Eunice, and’ taint nobody’s business but theirs. Never in all my borned days did I see such a commotion and flusteration about two people getting’…

Here’s what I never knew. Every one of us defies the odds every day and knowing that changed everything. — We’re sitting at Tim Horton’s Café, me and Heather, talking about a book she liked and I hated when she stops in the middle of a sentence. She’s staring over my shoulder. Oh, she says. Oh! Oh, Linda, she says and her hands fly to her mouth, her eyes all…

A publication for personal reflections. Personal essays, poetry and prose are all welcome. Here’s how to join us… — “I’m writing my story so that others might see fragments of themselves.” — Lena Waithe, screenwriter On Reflection. The name explains itself, I hope. You decide what you’re reflecting on. Doesn’t matter if you’re reflecting on what something means, or something that happened. What matters is that we see reflection. Essays, prose, and poetry are welcome.

I don’t think we’re going to end violence against women by writing pithy headlines that pit men against women. — Sometimes, you read a thing that’s so awful you can’t forget it. It’s not that you obsess on it. It’s more like that ugly thing sets up camp in your head and pops out to show its ugly face now and then. I read an article like that. It said…

ChatGPT is good at many things, but telling a good story isn’t one of them. Here’s what people can do better than AI ever will. — Let me tell you something crazy. One writer told me he uses ChatGPT to help with his writing because it writes far better than he does. Which is, ouch. It makes me sad that he thinks that. Because basically ChatGPT is hive mind. It doesn’t even write. Not really. It…