Featured Writer: Brenda-Lee Ranta

By Raja's Insight on April 1, 2018 • ( 3 )

Brenda-Lee Ranta resides in a small mining town, in Timmins, Ontario, Canada. She has been employed with her local Police Service for 19 years. She shares her journey with her life partner, who is a musician, poet and lyricist; their rescue dog, Jake and rascal cat Fritz. She is the mother of three children, two step-children and three grandchildren. They are her greatest pride and joy.

Always moved by poetry and prose, she has been most inspired by the works of Leonard Cohen, an amazing Canadian word-smith. This is her first book containing a cross section of her works.

Here is an excerpt from Brenda-Lee’s latest book A Soul Passenger

Chapter 2 A Place Called Home

In the aftermath of a warm autumnal rain,

a rainbow arched across the sky

its final farewell to summer

a promise to return again in spring

lest we lose hope along the way

lest we forget that even though

leaves shall die, shrivel,

blowing away in the wind,

new buds will form again

when the rains return

in a rainbow sky

As the first Christmas passed, in the new definition of what her family had become, Brandi struggled with trying to maintain some tradition for her children’s sake. It was quiet, with her children having other places to go, friends to see. A certain melancholy took over her. It was a melancholy from her childhood, remembering the warmth of being in her grandparent’s home at Christmas, the smell of fresh baking, the echoes of laughter; her mother in the little black dress, a string of pearls; itchy crinolines under silk dresses, parcels with beautiful curly-cued bows. Funny how those memories flooded back to her as she sat alone in her living room on Christmas night, once her children had gone out for the evening. Single and alone during holidays, was a new experience, not particularly heart-warming. Packing up the decorations for another year, she looked ahead to the New Year. She was still in the process of self-discovery.

Brandi struggled to overcome a phenomenon that had occurred since leaving her marriage. Having basically lived in her bedroom while married, she now felt enormous trepidation at being in her new bedroom, a claustrophobic feeling overcame her every night. She would procrastinate going to bed until she was so overcome with fatigue, she was sure to fall asleep once she got into bed. She slept with her little bedside television turned on. There were many little phobias emerging as time went on, that would leave her frustrated and angry. She didn’t know herself at all, after all these years, still wondering what she wanted, “what are your dreams?” she would muse, still. She had also taken to drinking a couple of glasses of white wine after dinner, when her children had gone out to do their own thing.

At first, the nightly couple of glasses of wine were relaxing after a hard day at the office, later it soothed her loneliness, making her numb enough to not care whether she was alone or not.

Continued in book . . .