The MotherVerse Blog: mothering out loud

My boys are just beginning to verbalize their fears. They have, of course, been frightened before they were able to say so. Even unborn they would poke their tiny elbows into my belly when various power tools ripped through our unfinished house. And like most children, they’ve displayed their fear of abandonment in piercing screams […]

Yesterday was National Women’s Day here in South Africa.
August 9 commemorates the initiative and courage of thousands of women who, in 1956, marched on government buildings in Pretoria to petition against “pass laws.” These laws, one of the most egregious acts of the apartheid era, restricted non-whites from residing, working or traveling within urban areas. […]

I’ve had many comments on my accent since moving to South Africa from Canada. Most have been positive: “I love your accent – where are you from?” Some have been more pointed: “That is the strangest accent I’ve ever heard!”
All comments are surprising because, like most people, I don’t think I have an accent. Almost […]

The solstice is creeping upon us: summer in the Northern hemisphere, and here in the South, winter. I’ve yet to experience a full circle of seasons in South Africa, so this winter is new. Yet even now, even before the solstice, it’s clear our Canadian winter rituals will fare poorly in the Western Cape.
At home, […]

As I crawled under a stack of covers last night (it’s cold here!), I opened James Hackett’s Haiku Poetry (1968, Japan Publications), to read some beautiful words before sleeping. At the back of the book, he lists twenty suggestions for writing haiku in English. Apparently, these are famous but they were new to me. Since […]

The recent flash of xenophobic violence in South Africa may have faded from overseas news coverage but the suffering has not ended.
The violence, aimed primarily at immigrants from other African countries, has left over sixty people dead and tens of thousands as refugees. These people are afraid to go back to their houses (or shacks) […]

Alex, one of my two-year-old twins, bent over his snack at playgroup. He studied the scone and jam as if they didn’t quite make sense. “I wan some wii,” he said, without looking up. A group of mothers were standing around the small table watching Alex and their own children. They looked to me for […]