Lessons from tina

Lessons from tina

Tina has been a lot on my mind this week. The Queen of Rock ‘n Roll died at 83 at her home in Küsnacht, Switzerland. Tina has certainly packed a life, and her death was peaceful, and yet, her loss felt like a punch in the gut, disproportionately upsetting. I was eight...
On dreaming

On dreaming

Before my father renamed me a ‘Fire Dragon,’ I was a ‘dreamer whose feet rarely reached the ground.’ “Where are you now?” he’d snap me out of a moment of reverie and pull me back to the reality I was trying to escape. He’d shake his head disapprovingly and say...
DOLCE FAR NIENTE

DOLCE FAR NIENTE

On the Importance of Beauty, Good Food and Meaningful Connections   I have found my felicità in a bowl of spaghetti alla carbonara. I am in Rome with my mother and we have stumbled upon this cozy brewery in one of Rome’s narrow streets, about a four-minute walk from...
From shithole to a château

From shithole to a château

The Rebuilding of a Life “Maman, tu est formidable,” says my eight-year-old daughter as I struggle to push my queen-sized mattress up the third floor. This queen sized mattress, and my daughters’ art work is all that I have taken from my previous Mile-End home and...
Melancholia, my friend

Melancholia, my friend

It’s January twenty-four, minus twenty something degrees that ‘feel like’ ten degrees colder. I haven’t actually bothered to check the official temperature because I’m too cold to get out of bed, turn on the heating and reach for my phone. I feel like jumping out of...
CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR DIVORCE

CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR DIVORCE

When you announce your engagement, it is natural for people to congratulate you with great excitement and immediately glare at your ring. When you tell people that you have just separated, however, the acceptable etiquette is to produce a piteous sad face, accompanied...