indiaharrisdotcom
From maple leaves to mango trees. I'm a Canadian woman living on a tropical island in the Philippines. Welcome to my world...
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“Ma’am, you need to come over here now. Edward has died”, said my husband’s live-in housekeeper over the phone, almost exactly two years ago today. Edward and I had not lived together for several years, but we were still legally married. I had planned to visit him in two days’ time. Now he was dead? My knees buckled and I had to sit down. “What happened?”, I asked. “I don’t know, Ma’am,… Read More
It feels like I’ve been hurtling through time and space lately. Always on airplanes, always saying hello to someone or someplace — and of course, always saying goodbye. The celebration of a greeting is never without the sound of a clock ticking, a reminder that there will be sadness when we part. Life is full of circles and I need to remind myself that endings are not the end. How can we… Read More
I’ve just arrived in Canada and am surprised at what I see — which is not much. The flaming colors of autumn are now lying on the ground, drab and faded. Color is rapidly disappearing from the world, in preparation for winter grays and white. It makes me feel tired. Very tired. In fact, I had no idea how tired I am. I can’t stop sleeping. In the tropics, color never fades…. Read More
And now, for something a little different from my usual posts… Last night I was in Hong Kong, reading an excerpt from my published story, “The Rainiest Season”, at a book launch party (that’s me in the photo, signing books). I thought I would share the same piece with all of you. It’s a very personal, true account of the breakdown of my marriage in the Philippines ten years ago. This excerpt… Read More
I have just resurfaced from a horrendous ordeal — which is the reason there have been no blog posts for a while. Some of you may remember from an earlier post (“Homecoming” in July ) that the owner of our house gave us three months’ notice that he would be moving to the Philippines from Australia in October. And yes, this is now October. I always knew that we could only stay until the owner retired… Read More
There are moments when it really irks me to be compared with other versions of myself. Those wishful tricks of the mind that cloud the truth of who I am right now. Am I expected to remain seventeen forever? Or the wife of a man who is no longer alive? A student of history? A sailor? Those versions of myself belong to yesterday. Today is where I want to live. But maybe… Read More
These photos are special to me because they represent the completion of a great circle in my life. Once upon a time I was a backpacking adventuress, with lofty dreams of placing both feet on all seven continents. Well, I’ve done that, but not in the way I had intended. In Auckland, New Zealand in 1994, I found myself facing an unexpected fork in the road: I could either catch a bus… Read More
To be honest, I’ve put off writing this post. I have found laundry to do, books to read, closets to reorganize — anything to delay revisiting the day I returned home after Typhoon Glenda. But you, dear readers, have very politely read the first two installments of this story, and you deserve to know how it ended. When I walked into my house on the morning of July 17th, I was looking… Read More
India
"My life is all about travel, photography, helping animals, and writing..."
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July 2014
Camping in Washington state
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