A long and Winding Road

A Most Consequential Meeting The main theme of Milan Kundera’s book, Life is Elsewhere, is the notion that the grass is always greener on the other side of the street. That is, that we might be happier someplace else instead of the place we actually are. I live in İstanbul but the circumstances around how I came to…

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THE SECRET LIVES OF THINGS

BEING THANKFUL I am a big believer in expressing gratitude and appreciation for the blessings in my life and feel this sentiment should also include being thankful for mundane things. I don’t have a lot of them but I appreciate everything I have. I am thankful for my bed, pillows, and blankets, for instance, as well as the…

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THE BLAHS

LIFE IS ELSEWHERE One definition of existentialism is that it’s a loathing of repetition. This has stuck with me over the years, as I’ve tried over and over again to prove that the grass IS actually greener on the other side of the fence. Thus, I started out on one path in university before taking a four-year break…

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Letter To My Son

Love Child I read once that a child born of lust has an undeveloped soul. So at the moment of your conception, I focused the full intention of my love into the act that brought you into being. It’s interesting because your mom and I had been trying to conceive for many months before that one, fateful, late…

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MY DREAM JOURNAL

Dream Power When I first came to Turkey back in 1994, my life was in a bit of a confused state. Around that time, my roommate lent me a copy of the book, Dream Power, by Dr. Ann Farady. It describes a way of looking at dreams devoid of all the symbology of conventional dream books, where instead…

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ON DEATH AND GRIEF

Slow Awareness “Pity not the dead. For the dead, being dead, feel no more fear, pain, or unhappiness. Pity those who are left behind.” Michael Wray Growing up in Canada during the 60s and 70s was a peaceful experience for me and most of my friends. The murmurs of war in faraway lands on the evening news went…

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Eastern Turkey Part 2, The People

  Previously In a previous blog, Journey to the Center of the Onion, I wrote about the trip my son and I had taken to Eastern Turkey last August. I described the places we had visited and the incredible historical and archaeological sites we had seen. In my next blog, Eastern Turkey Part 1, I went on at…

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The Power of Saying Sorry

Early Lessons Like most kids of my generation, I was brought up to believe in and practice the art of giving a sincere apology. I remember my mom telling me, “Don’t say it unless you mean it” and teachers in the playground prying kids apart and exhorting them to apologize and shake hands. It was a simpler time,…

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Eastern Turkey Part 1, The Food

  Previously In a previous blog, Journey to the Center of the Onion, I wrote about the trip I took to Eastern Turkey with my son, Emre. I told about the places we had visited and the incredible historical and archaeological sites we had seen. And although I mentioned some of the impressions these places made on me,…

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Journey to the Centre of the Onion

A Vırtue of Necessity We were half way across Lake Van when we saw Mount Ararat looming out of the mist… but wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. For two summers my son and I had wanted to go home to Canada to see our friends and family and particularly my ailing mother. Unfortunately, due to the strict…

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