Let businessmen wear black
and straight-laced grey faces,
but let poets punctuate
their wardrobes with patterns
that leave lingering traces…
Let bards wear bright flowers
and nice funky hats,
red shoes or loud boots
and snazzy jackets that shout:
“Oh, yeah, that’s right,
you know it—
you guessed it:
I’m a poet!
I’m a walking, talking metaphor—
a symbol in motion and what’s more,
a barrel of books, ready to pour
the golden brew of language
upon your heart’s door.”
I’m excited to share that I’ve had a poem published on The Amethyst Review today!
Hearth-Song was inspired by a book on Old English I’ve been reading called “The Word Hord: Daily Life in Old English.”
In examining poems like Beowulf and in other writings in Old English, it was clear how important it was to belong to the warm fellowship of the hall, safe from the perils of loneliness outside. My poem plays with these ideas, while emphasizing the importance of friendship, especially in encouraging each other to grow as artists.
Here’s the link if you’d like to read it!
https://amethystmagazine.org/2024/06/08/hearth-song-a-poem-by-anna-eastland/
Thanks to my great friends in The Habitations Poetry group for helping me refine this poem with your poetic wisdom, and to Sarah for sharing my work on the beautiful treasury of poems that is the Amethyst review!
Happy New Year, everyone! Perhaps many people are planning their fantastic bucket lists for 2024, but I’m not quite there yet. Let me first share some of the crazy little adventures I had in 2023, including various things I never planned to check off my to-do list!
1. Fishing a school of fishy crackers out of the toilet when the toddler dumped them there, or rather, to be more accurate, flushing them!
2. Getting pulled over by the police in a cab when rushing my daughter from the orthodontist back to Highschool, on the way to my younger children’s elementary school Christmas pageant. My poor cabbie looked like Santa with a giant beard, and I, sitting there all flushed with a “lunch on the go” Freshslice pizza box on my lap, begged the officer to take pity on him, as I had been telling him about my mad-dash day and probably distracting him from slowing down in the school zone…thank goodness he got off with just a warning! I missed my 5 year old singing “Winter Time is Here” but caught the other 3 kids’ acts…then went to the evening show to see it all again, on time this time. Phew!
3. Playing the part of a giant sassy crow in a Christmas play called “Suki’s Reindeer Wish” with my local literary arts guild.
4. Getting a Christmas poem published in an anthology of Christmas poetry called Harmonic Verse by Local Gems Press. https://www.localgemspoetrypress.com/harmonic-verse-preorders.html
5. Dressing as a pirate and narrating spooky stories for a Halloween show called “Killer Verse” with the same wild and wacky arts crew…
…and discovering that my toddler had painted the table with Nutella while I was at dress rehearsal. He later repeated said visual art performance with yogurt.
6. Drinking white wine while drinking in the beauty of my dear friend Jude Neale’s (https://judeneale.ca/) poetry at her book launch for her gorgeous new book of poetry, accompanied by the paintings of Nicholas Jennings, called Water Forgets Its Own Name.
7. Being given a surprise trip to Saskatoon by my husband, to spend 5 days with my soaking in life with my bestie, and having amazing Mexican food downtown there.
Well, that’s enough adventures for one night! I hope you all survived the madness of December, had a very Merry Christmas, and are enjoying some relaxing vacation time before the business of school starts up again. Happy New Year!
At the beginning of Lent, I was chatting with a close friend on the phone and she told me that she and her husband planned to give up guilt for Lent, in favour of gratitude. By this they meant not guilt for actual wrongs done, the natural response to sin and hurting others, but rather shame—the feeling of unworthiness or unlovableness that we can sometimes fall prey to when we make a mistake or fail to prevent something out of our control.
Giving up such negative feelings, and looking for ways to turn difficult situations into opportunities to see the good and give thanks for it struck me as a great idea. So in the spirit of practicing gratitude, I will share a list of blessings I’m grateful for with you right now:
1. When my mother-in-law sent me birthday money this year, I decided to put it towards Kindle Unlimited, and have been enjoying reading lots of books on my iPad when I can’t sleep lately. Tonight I’m reading 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do, and the first one they don’t do is indulge in pity parties! So I’ve put away the balloons and party hats, and brought out my gratitude list instead. 🥳
2. Various back aches and late pregnancy cramps made the midwives give me an ultimatum: no more vacuuming or carrying heavy things like the laundry basket to your outdoor laundry room under the stairs. What great things to give up for Lent! 🤣 I’m grateful my husband has taken over the laundry, and that he now has more first hand experience of this charming chore. “Is there more dirty laundry already? I feel like I just did a bunch!” Exactly honey. So it goes.
3. I had a nice outing to the dollar store with my daughter on the way home from ballet class, and bought cute socks for myself and the baby to put in our hospital bag. His have tiny blue stars, and mine say on the soles, “If you can see this, rub my feet.” Thought they might make the nurses laugh.
4. I’m also really grateful for Jenn Dean, a parenting coach from the Families Matter Most podcast. I first saw her speak at on online homeschool conference recently, and found her approach to fostering positive thinking though addressing core beliefs which influence our behaviour so compelling that I’ve started doing some coaching with her on Zoom. She’s great!
Jenn encouraged me to journal and keep track of my thought processes, especially when something goes wrong, so I can be aware of what core belief is affecting my response. Sometimes that belief could actually be a lie, such as “Such and such went wrong because I’m useless and mess up everything.” In this case, awareness of the lie is a necessary step to be freed from it and embrace the truth, which is simply that some days are harder than others, and tomorrow is a chance to try again. I liked this journal and got it for myself.
5. I’m also grateful for the sweet surprises my friends have brought me lately, which are such a tangible sign of their affection and support. Isabela and Claudio brought us pizza buns and homemade chocolate chip cookie dough, Lisa brought us tiny red velvet cupcakes made by a talented coworker, and tonight, Sister Corina brought us Purdy’s chocolates and a fruit topped cheesecake! Yes, this baby is destined to be chubby and cute, and everyone is ensuring their part in that! 🥰
6. I could just keep going, but this list is getting long, so the last one for tonight is my amazing neighbour Lorie, a retired nurse who does professional house cleaning part time. She has been a total Godsend, and has been helping us declutter and clean our house, one room at a time. First, we tackled the garage, and after hiring the great guys from Half-Price Rubbish Removal, we now have so much more space to store things in an organized way. Everything is being sorted and labelled, such a bins of clothes for various kids to grow into. We even strung up a rope in the garage to hang extra or off season coats, so I can see what we have before buying new ones.
Sometimes it’s a struggle emotionally to let someone else help me deal with my mess, but in those moments I’m trying to reframe things. Instead of thinking, “I’ll never get organized on my own cause I’m too sloppy,” I think, “Caring for all my kids and house is a big job, and I’m so grateful to have friends willing to pitch in and help.” Lorie does such and good job, and is so cheerful about it, that we call her our “Fairy Clean Mother,” whose super power is making things sparkle. The kids love her, too, and are inspired to help out more, which is a huge bonus!
What is one thing you are grateful for today?
My mom sent me this lovely little story from Facebook recently, and then my mother-in-law called to read me the same thing. I thought it captured both the stress and hope of these difficult times beautifully.
I found it really inspiring. As we each write the story of our own lives, it makes sense to write our headlines, too…so we can focus on the things that matter to us and make our days meaningful. So here are a few headlines of my own:
Toddler takes walk and is delighted by flowers, hugs a rose.
Proud kids learn to make sushi at home: take that, take-out!
Neighbours share bread and laughter over their fence, feel less alone.
Baby with dangerous condition born safely and survives operation, parents rejoice.
Woman reconnects with dear friend after 3 months, makes her day.
Family transforms ugly concrete backyard into beautiful courtyard garden using old furniture and garden pots given by their neighbour.
What beautiful story are you writing with your life today?
To think of one thing you are grateful for is enough, but feel most welcome to share one of your life’s headlines in the comments below!
When I was in the depths of grief after losing my baby daughter Josephine five years ago, I found it was very hard to go through holidays that focus primarily on being joyful. The pressure to be happy was too much. Christmas is cosy and lovely and normally a huge favourite of mine, but not when the pain is still too raw. In times of struggle, I prefer Easter.
Why? Those of you who know me might be thinking of one thing: chocolate! All the chocolate without all the work of Christmas. I am definitely a believer chocolate’s ability to comfort and to express affection when given. I almost always include some chocolate in the grief baskets my friend Julia and I make for bereaved moms, along with my baby loss poetry book and other encouraging books and self-care items, but no, chocolate isn’t the reason.
Although these days, when things are extra stressful around the world, there are times when I’d like to simply bury my entire face in a Tuxedo chocolate layer cake, there is something chocolate cannot do: accompany me in my suffering. Share my grief. Give dignity to my tears, by saying, “I, too, have suffered. You are not alone.” This is something God can do. This is something Jesus does from the cross.
“There is no evil to be faced that Christ does not face with us. There is no enemy that Christ has not already conquered. There is no cross to bear that Christ has not already borne for us, and does not now bear with us. And on the far side of every cross we find the newness of life in the Holy Spirit, that new life which will reach its fulfillment in the resurrection. This is our faith. This is our witness before the world.” – St. John Paul II
Despite all the wild and crazy things that happen in a complex world where there is human freedom, and also the realities of pain and death, we can be consoled by knowing that we do not suffer alone, for we have a God who is compassionate. As I would tell my kids in homeschool, compassion comes from the Latin “cum” (with) “passio” (I suffer). But why would God want to enter our mess, instead of remaining “aloof in icy splendour,” as the archbishop of Toronto poetically asked yesterday?
Love. A personal love for each person ever created. A tender love for you and for me individually. A desire to accompany us in our hardest moments, and to help us bear them.
I have experienced this same desire myself. After losing Josephine, I had an intense desire to be with others who were in pain, to accompany them in their mourning, to hold their hands on the long road to recovery. I could not make their pain disappear, but I could feel it with them, and let them know their grief was valid–was in fact a beautiful sign of their immense love for those lost.
So if you are in mourning this Easter, I encourage you to reach out to the source of love through prayer. God truly cares about your struggles, and wants to help you carry your crosses, as once he carried his own: with blood, and sweat and tears, but also with the dignity of one who gave his life for others freely, out of love. By reaching out to console others in pain, you, too, share in the healing power of God’s generous love, a love stronger than death.
The faces of old friends
grow dearer with each passing year
Every wrinkle a trace of their joy
and sorrow
a reminder of the fragility of life
bittersweet
Precious and dear
the ones we love
Each grey hair adds to their beauty
for time adds to the treasure house of memories
we share with them–
they are ever more familiar
and beloved
Friend, are you afraid to be vulnerable?
If the butterfly remained encased in its chrysalis,
–silently safe–
it would never share its beauty with the world.
We went to the Dosa Factory restaurant
with a very good old friend
and our seven kids.
They were very good:
one napped quietly and the others played card games like “Go Fish”
and set up their Littlest Pet Shops on the lazy Susan
to show our sweet friend
who expressed genuine delight.
They sat in their seats and were very good indeed…
except the toddler
who played musical chairs
and repeatedly catapulted himself off his high chair,
grinning delightedly under his cropped golden mop:
“Wheee! Whahoo! Wheee!”
Of course the encouraging smiles of the surrounding people
just added fuel to the fire
and when he hid under the table
it wasn’t in shame but in jest…
he was playing house!
It was all well and good until he spilled water all over his pants
and decide to strip down, then and there, in the high chair….
and then bolt–laughing!–
as Daddy followed in hot pursuit.
After being bribed with “Coffey” (sweet milky chai tea)
he temporarily settled back into his high chair
(now in his pants again…which were only pjs…but still)
and sipped his drink off a spoon with relish:
“It’s yummy, Mama; it tastes GOOD!”
And while all this went on
we ate mutter paneer dosa, and chicken korma and naan
and talked faith and philosophy,
the importance of being yourself
and why the little things matter,
and I nursed the baby
and bounced her as she cooed and giggled
those new little laughs
that are like spring flowers
meeting with the world for the first time
to share their loveliness.
And once the kids escaped their seats
and scampered about eating fennel seed candy,
we settled up and walked home in the slight rain
to the scent of June roses
perfuming the grey evening with hope
and splashes of colour.
She tore through Paris
lighting up the street corners
with her flashing smile
A haiku for my buddy Bernadette, and her sister Lucy, too, who are bringing some real Canadian warmth to good ol’ Paris!
Thanks to getdrawings.com for this pretty picture! 🙂
Just East Of Crazy Land 
