Doris Ray’s first book, The Ghosts Behind Him (Caitlin Press 1999), chronicling her family’s devastating experiences with her son Bruce’s schizophrenia, was the recipient of a BC2000 Book Award. At the age of 21 Doris’s son Bruce was struck down by the symptoms of an illness which at times was so bizarre that it was…

I FORGOT TO WEAR PURPLE ON SCHIZOPHRENIA AWARENESS DAY   Sometimes these weird coincidences occur that remind me that there is a God – or as my father-in-law used to say a “Master Plan” May 24 was “Schizophrenia Awareness Day” in BC. I’d planned to wear purple as many others were planning to do. In…

THE PRESIDENT’S WIDOW Recently I was compelled to do a bit of research on the assassination of U.S President John F Kennedy. Back in November1963 I was a young wife and mother. The emotions I experienced upon hearing of that life altering event are still embedded in my psyche. Before that time everything seemed fairly…

Dr. Wayne W. Dyer Your past history and all of your hurts are no longer here in your physical reality. Don’t allow them to be here in your mind, muddying your present moments. Your life is like a play with several acts. Some of the characters who enter have short roles to play, others, much…

It was a dark and stormy evening. A big wind in rural British Columbia is simply an interruption between the snow or rain and the ever-popular sunshine. The important thing to remember is to stay off the lakes in your rowboat or canoe. But a wind storm in an urban setting can be an eerie…

I’ve been very busy lately as secretary for an advisory committee on “Mental Health and Addictions” recently set up in our Omineca-Lakes health district by Northern Health in Prince George. Members from five communities meet via video-conference- There are dollars in the bank to use for consumer education and/or employment creation ventures; we connect with…

I’ve been following the Occupy movement that set itself up in  groups of  shiny blue plastic domes in parts of Vancouver this past while. What began as an admirable protest against the enormous financial gap existing between the privileged and underprivileged in society, has deteriorated into a 1960’s  mish-mash of idealism, delusion and drugs. The…

OCTOBER Now that it’s October And for sure our summer’s over… I dig up the window boxes, Pillage petals, roots and stalks ‘n Scatter corpses on the ground Dead plants lying all around Replace them with some flowering bulbs With dreams of springtime I indulge I tuck them in the rich black earth That was…

PEACEFULNESS (ONE OF THE VIRTUES) It’s hard to differentiate ‘Tween angst and anger; hurt and hate When in your heart you feel a pain It could simply be the rain… If someone whom you love a lot Does not give a second thought To what you deem important stuff You think they do not care…

Perhaps the extreme sense of loss we Canadians are experiencing at the death of Jack Layton  is that we think Jack’s “time at bat” – to use baseball terminology – was cut short before he’d rounded the bases? Perhaps his death at the relatively young age of 61 will spur others to concentrate on what carried him through the length and breadth of his political career? Jack’s priorities were…