I come from generations of ferocious volunteers – my father, who worked a full day running a textile business, would come home, eat, and gallop off to a committee meeting two or three times a week, a pattern which persisted for 40 years. In sharp contrast, I don’t like to leave the house except for shopping and parties, and these days I try to wriggle out of even those activities. This, of course, is very wrong and I am going to change. Robert Putnam, the Harvard sociologist who publishe...

I’m not the best environmentalist in the house – I admit it. Sometimes, if the compost bin is full, I put the onion skins in the trash instead of taking the compost outside and emptying it. But then again, I sometimes justify it by thinking that putting things in the compost bin is only the tiniest fragment of the environmental job. It’s easy for everyone else to claim the environmental high ground, even though they don’t ever take the full bin out to the composter and empty out the ...

My brother-in-law Ben is a quiet genius. He has a strong moral compass and a gentle soul. Ben is deep yet calm, he is wise and thoughtful, with a sense of timing and humour that can be brutally funny. I believe that Ben is one of the top booksellers in North America. He listens and finds out what people like to read, and what they are interested in, before suggesting an author. He’s a great resource for those wanting to dig further into a subject or author. It’s important for Ben to kn...

Building memories around the winter holidays is an important part of many families’ traditions. In my own, decorating the Christmas tree was one of the highlights. Each year, my mother would plan out a theme and use her vast collection of ornaments to decorate the tree. Our stylish evergreen was the centrepiece of our home and of the many seasonal functions we hosted. If you ask my mother what her most valued possessions are, she would probably say her holiday ornaments. Some of them she colle...

I love my daughters, who are 12 and 10, so when reasonable, I try to accommodate requests.  I figure if I’m nice to them, they’ll change my diaper someday.  We got a 15-foot above-ground pool recently. The pool required: tearing down 4/5 of a two-car garage but keeping a shed; ripping up tons of concrete; two trenches (electrical and gas); landscaping; fences, and a multi-level deck.     Relaxing in the warm salt water recently, I thought I was done when Erin, the elder, asked, “Kev...

Buddy, an amorous eccentric with high hopes but low stamina, fancied a visit with his girlfriend the other day, so he moseyed myopically across the bog between our houses and dropped in. Eventually this prompted a phone call between my husband, Don, and our neighbours to the east: “Cindy? Don. Buddy’s here” “Oh. I’ll come and get him – he’s been gone all morning” “Don’t worry – he’s having a nap…..” Buddy is a lovely old spotted “hound” from next door...

Friends have asked me why I sometimes write for Women’s Post. In short, it’s because I think that women are still, by and large, the “silent majority.” Sure, I know there are many prominent women in politics these days, and sometimes these particular women’s voices are every bit as loud as their male counterparts. What of the average woman? What about those who don’t have a public profile? Many of my friends are women, and many would fall into the category that I would call “the...

I’ve given much thought to choosing appropriate living arrangements for seniors as I watched the level of care for both my parents evolve as they aged. Recently, I spoke with Karen Hen of The Dunfield, a seniors’ living complex located in the heart of downtown Toronto, who gave me some tips on what to look for when selecting the right place to live. Karen suggests that when looking for an appropriate residence, lifestyle preferen...

Which is harder: being a wife or a mother? Before you toss out that question at your next book club meeting, be sure to pour the wine, because the conversation is about to get heated. And the answer is … well, in my experience, it depends. Both marriage and motherhood are partnerships. I tried out the idea that my husband call me life partner instead of wife, providing weeks of amusement for my two sons, who now insist that I am their life parent. (Life mother, they tell me, is too gend...

What is my mother like? Think Joanne McLeod, but with style. Growing up, I would stumble into the kitchen for a snack, and there she would be, standing beside her Hal Johnson (my stepfather), giving me the eerie impression they had just wrapped filming an episode for a knock-off of Body Break, those 90-second television spots featuring Johnson and McLeod telling viewers to “keep fit and have fun.” A health fanatic, my mother has ...