Bruce Atchison's Page

Sight loss is a difficult problem for anybody to cope with. Thirty-five years ago, I could write with an ordinary ink pen and read with an 8 power magnifying glass. Now I need felt markers and a 12 power set of lenses. Several operations to deal with my glaucoma, as well as the effects of aging, have taken their toll. As my vision worsens, I'm increasingly aware of the fact that I'll soon have to relearn braille. When I was at Jericho Hill School for the Deaf and Blind in the sixties, I was give… Continue

Though rabbits are beasts, they can certainly reason and plot mischief. No bunny demonstrated that better to me than Gideon, a Himalayan I adopted from the Edmonton animal shelter in 1997. Right from the start, he was like a fur-clad Dennis the Menace. Instead of being a boring carrot-eating lump, the stereotypical image most people have of rabbits, he was inquisitive and full of energy. In 2006, I published a memoir of the years I spent with him, as well as a number of other free-range troublem… Continue

One writer on the Inscribe list recently posed a question that generated a flurry of replies. She asked us what would be a good Christmas gift to give a writer. Some members suggested note pads and pencils while others suggested e-book readers or voice-recognition software. I chimed in by saying that all I wanted for Christmas was to be left alone. That generated even more responses. Why would I, or anybody, want to be without the company of family and friends on such a festive occasion?

To sta… Continue

Most children spend a few hours each October 31st happily going from house to house trick-or-treating. That pleasant pastime was withheld from me in 1964 when I found myself 500 miles from home in a boarding school. From my Deliverance From Jericho (Six Years in a Blind School)… Continue

To adults, a tree is just a tree. It's something to plant, trim, pick fruit from, or cut down as desired. When I was seven, I became extremely fond of one. in my Deliverance From Jericho (Six Years in a Blind School) memoir, I explained why this decorative landscape item became a source of comfort for me.… Continue