by Sue Horner | Dec 22, 2022 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
In December 2016, Facebook memories showed me a photo of my black Lab, Jake, staring at my son’s Christmas stocking. That photo was taken during what turned out to be Jake’s last Christmas. With the famous clarity of hindsight, I thought, and wrote about,...
by Sue Horner | Dec 9, 2022 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
This last month of the year, many of us are getting ready for family gatherings. Some have lost or are estranged from loved ones. Some just don’t have the heart after the past few years. Maybe it all reminds you, as it does me, that life is short. That reminder...
by Sue Horner | Feb 6, 2020 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
“Life is really, really, ridiculously, annoyingly, infuriatingly, terrifyingly fragile.” So says Katie Hawkins-Gaar, a writer and journalism consultant…and young widow. Her husband Jamie died in 2017, collapsing less than a mile from the finish line of a half marathon...
by Sue Horner | Dec 18, 2019 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
In my house, Christmas isn’t Christmas without shortbread cookies, made with my mother’s recipe. Almost all of us have food traditions for family gatherings, especially during the holidays. Some of the food is expected, even demanded. Not all of the dishes are...
by Sue Horner | Oct 31, 2019 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
“When you make friends with fear, it can’t rule you.” – Writer Anne Lamott, in Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith With Halloween on the doorstep, it seemed time to talk about things that scare you. No, not zombies and ghosts — I mean things you want to do...
by Sue Horner | Dec 19, 2018 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
This last month of the year – when many of us are getting ready for family gatherings, yet others lose or are estranged from loved ones – maybe you are reminded, as I am, that life is short. My own preparations for Christmas always bring to mind a tradition that...
by Sue Horner | Jun 7, 2018 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Our neighbourhood is atwitter (sorry) with robins this spring. One scurried along the sidewalk ahead of me the other day, tiny legs flashing, just edging out of my way. “Why would you walk when you can fly?” I wondered. It suddenly hit me that we could ask ourselves...
by Sue Horner | Oct 19, 2017 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Like many Canadians, I was dismayed to hear of the death this week of Gord Downie, just 53, quirky lead singer of Canada’s Tragically Hip. His diagnosis with an incurable brain tumour last year made the ending inevitable, but it still came as a shock. Like many...
by Sue Horner | Aug 3, 2017 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Do you have a positive outlook on life? I usually do (against all odds, you might say), but had never kept a daily journal of positive thoughts until 2014. For my birthday that year, my friend Sheila gave me a blank journal entitled, “Your story isn’t over yet.” It...
by Sue Horner | Dec 22, 2016 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
All this week, Facebook has been showing me festive photos I’ve posted in previous years. My dog staring longingly at my older son’s Christmas stocking, shown here, is a classic. In the December issue of my newsletter, Wordnerdery, I share what Jake and letting go of...
