NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

“It was a cold but sunny January Day. The surface of the parking lot and the sidewalk was snow covered an just a little slippery. I was standing contemplating the step up to the sidewalk wishing I had brought my cane from the car when I saw a hand extended to me. It belonged to an elderly gentleman. I thanked him for ‘the helping hand’ and we chatted pleasantly as we both went into the pharmacy, he to find his wife and me to pick up a prescription.” It was just a small, unimportant encounter that lasted only a few minutes. But I found myself reliving it over and over again in the days and weeks that followed. It made me smile, that simple, unimportant event. I might well say it made my day! Unfortunately he doesn’t know what a lift he gave me just when I needed it most.  I hear people all the time saying, “I want to do something to make the world a better place but what can I really do? Nothing !” And yet by the simple gesture of offering me hand, this gentleman changed my...

 February is 'Heart Month" in Canada, and a good time to look at just how the writers of the Bible understood the word 'heart'.. For sure, they weren't thinking about heart attacks as the Heart and Stroke Foundation does today. “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord”  (Jeremiah 31:33-34) “You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all; and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”   (2 Corinthians: 3: 2-3) The human heart has been written about for hundreds of years  by poets and sages as the seat of where human emotion resides. Once a year, in ...

A miracle happened today at our house! We bought a new scale, an Aria, because it was suppose to interact with our Fitbit devices and our computers. After loading the software on both of our computers a couple of days ago, I stepped on it for the first time this morning. It immediately greeted me by name, and sent the information to the correct computer. How did it recognize me? A miracle! A dictionary definition of ‘miracle’ is: ‘an unusual or wonderful event that is believed to be caused by the power of God: a very amazing or unusual event, thing, or achievement’ For me, living in the first world, with constant exposure to computers, the second meaning, ‘ a very amazing … thing, or achievement’ explains my seeing it as a miracle. I know that someone (probably a lot of someones), somewhere, understands the why and the how. But for me, with my limited knowledge and understanding, it is nothing short of a miracle. Now, if I were to take this technology and place it in...

In a recent blog of Richard Rohr’s, ‘Transformation as Awakening’,  January 11, 2015, he asks the question:  "How can we turn information into transformation? How can we use the sacred texts, tradition, and experience to lead people into new places with God, with life, and with themselves?” It would be nice if I could say Rohr then goes on to say exactly how that can be done and list those steps here for you!  Richard does go on however to include the following quote from Tobin Hart, author of From Information to Transformation and a professor of psychology, who maps six interrelated layers of knowing and learning:  1) information;  2) knowledge (where direct experience brings information to the level of mastery and skill);  3) intelligence (integrating intuitive and analytic),  4) understanding (seeing with the eye of the heart);  5) wisdom (blending truth with an ethic of what is right);  6)  and finally transformat...

Is the main purpose of the church to provide community? I doubt that anyone would say ‘Yes” to that question. If the reason we go to church is for the community, then I would posit, the church is not fulfilling its real job. I recently heard a preacher make this statement during the sermon: “Some folks, if they are honest, would say that they come to church for the community, not the sermon not the liturgy…  but because they like like the company of like-minded people…and that’s OK, that is a valid statement” And so I ask you, “How any times have you heard a similar statement or perhaps even made it yourself?” It was probably followed by something like ‘It doesn't matter who the priest is’; 'I really don't care if they don't use......’;  and a lot of others, all to be followed by ‘I go, because of the community, because of the people there’. And of course there is nothing wrong with this statement.  We all like to be with people who think like we do and ...

‘For the last year’s words belong to last year’s language and next year’s words await another voice. and to make an end is to make a beginning.’ ~T. S. Eliot These are thought-provoking words with which to begin a new year. Can I, or even do I want, to leave the words, and by extension the happenings, of last year behind? Do I really want to see the new year as the beginning of something new? How much baggage do I want to being with me?  Do I actually need to bring any of it? These are all questions I have been asking myself over the last  few weeks. New Year’s thoughts aside, these are challenging words for anytime.  I know that I do not always see an end as the beginning, right then, of something new. Yet even the grieving that accompanies the end of something is in fact a new beginning, a new way of coping, a new understanding of reality coming into fruition. ‘ For the last year’s words belong to last year’s language and next year’s words await another vo...

Most people change their email addresses, and most computers remember those addresses long after they have been ‘deleted ’   from your contact list. Just the other day, I got caught again! Admittedly I wasn ’ t paying all that close attention to what I was doing.  The email had been written, proofread and mulled over. Adding the address was a ‘no-brainer ’ . Several days later however I noticed one of those ‘Delivery Status Notification Status (Failure) ‘ messages and found to my chagrin that the computer had picked up an address long discarded in place of any of the current ones. So off the message went again along with a note of apology this time for my lack of attention the first time round. As I was silently berating myself for my inexcusable carelessness, I realized that my mind is very much like my computer in this regard. Not long after this, my husband was reading a monthly publication and remarked that he   ‘missed’   a certain column in it, one that...