NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

During a discussion of reading tastes the other week, I made the statement that until recently, though a voracious reader, I only read fiction. When I was asked why that was, I was hard pressed to come up with a reason. However for the last 8 years, I have read non-fiction equally voraciously.    As I have been thinking about this and what made the difference, something became apparent to me. I read and still read fiction because it lets my mind explore many different avenues, all avenues with no definitive answer (unless it is ’who dun it’ in a mystery). I have become ‘friends’ with the characters entering into their lives.  Nonfiction on the other hand, was about facts and discoveries, interesting in themselves as things to know but not leaving anything for my mind to discover.  Perhaps I was reading the wrong nonfiction books, I don’t know. I do know however that the nonfiction I have been reading for the last 9 years positively begs for my mind to ...

“Voting is a decisive act of Christian faith  that I matter, society matters, justice matters, and others matter.” Richard Rohr, OFM This coming Monday there is a Federal by-election being held in my riding. I hope everybody will get out and vote and yet I know that is not going to happen. There will be lots of excuses; excuses about the weather, about one  person’s vote not making a difference, about the quality of the candidates, etc. etc.  As I told my children when they got to the age where they could vote, “If you don’t vote, you can’t complain about the government you get!” [And we know how people love to complain about politicians!] Then there is the fact that if you go to church on a Sunday near an election, you won’t hear much about it. Because, ‘don’t cha know’, Church and politics don’t mix. Despite the fact that the Christian religion began its dominance as the major religion of the Roman Empire in the 300s under the auspices of the emperor Constan...

“Time is how you spend your love.” Zadie Smith I wonder why I have never thought of love in just this way. It strikes me as being not only true but also an easy way to test whether or not I am really following the new commandment from John 13:34-35. “Let me give you a new commandment: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another This is how everyone will recognize that your are my disciples - when they see the love you have for each other.” It is easy to give lip service to the idea of this kind of love but far harder to actually put it into practice. We all have excuses as to why we can’t. We are too busy, too old, too poor. The excuses go on and on.  But what is the most precious commodity that we all have? Isn’t it time? Once a day, an hour, or even a minute has passed, we can never recapture it. Unlike material things we can’t hoard it like the Rich Fool [Luke 12:13-21]  or can we invest it in such a way that it will accrue interest and...

“ Why? Why? Why? Why am I writing my blog? What is it that has kept me doing it for almost 6 years? How could I possibly find so much to write about?” These thoughts and others like them whirl about in my head at night when I can’t sleep. The suggestion that I write a blog came out of the blue, a suggestion that it took me almost a year to act upon. The beginning of this blog also owes it existence to my introduction to EfM ( Education for Ministry), an adult education course in modern biblical scholarship within the Anglican community and my experiences there. As I said to anyone who asked why I was writing a blog (and by inference, why would anyone ever read it!) my goal was to make people think about their faith. Not to convince them of what was right or wrong, but rather to have them consider another way of looking at their faith and how it impacts their lives. It seems that this is not actually true any more … or so I discovered this past week as I was reading ‘Honest to ...

A brave soul asked me a few months ago to post regularly on the church’s website. He was the administrator of the website, and the only one posting at that time although there were plenty of readers  He hoped that by encouraging me to post, others might also jump in. As I agreed to his request, I made the comment that he really didn’t know the risk he was taking by encouraging me. His response was, “ Anything is fine, as long as it is Christian!” I laughed and didn’t think anymore about it. Only that comment keeps popping up from my subconscious mind.  My problem with it is ‘What isn’t Christian?’ Of course there is more than one way to interpret that. Not knowing this individual at all well, I’m still not sure just what was meant by that remark. Does he see as Christian anything that has to do with the Anglican church, or is it organized religion as a whole? What boundaries does he put on ’Christian‘ in his mind? I’m still not sure four months later. I do know however ...

BRRRRR! Was it  ever cold! So cold, in fact, that my cell phone turned itself off after just a minute or two outside even though it was in my coat pocket! I HAD NO IDEA THAT IT WOULD DO THAT! It never had before. Not only did it turn itself off out in the cold, it also did it a couple of times when it was back inside. WHAT?? But was it, the technological wonder that a smart phone is, just mimicking human reaction?  I know I have shut down at times when the stress of what is going on around me, becomes too much to deal with. And that it has taken time, with many false attempts,  for me to regain my equilibrium again. So, one might say I am no smarter than a phone! Just as my cell phone needed help to turn on again, so too do humans. It is much more difficult on our own. In society today there is help available to us, if we look for it and are willing to do the work involved. There are therapists of many kinds, self-help books, and if we are lucky, supportive fam...

"Tradition is the illusion of permanence.”  ~Woody Allen Winter came early to Ontario this year. Things on the calendar were being shifted until less inclement weather or being cancelled altogether. So when I heard the weather report for heavy snow with streamers starting in the mid-afternoon and lasting overnight, I was not happy. We had been planning to meet an old friend for dinner, something we had been doing for at least 6 years, ever since we no longer saw them on a regular basis during the normal course of our week.  The next few weeks were busy for our friend, and in any case Christmas was closing in. What to do? Cancel until the new year? That seemed a long way away. Then I had an epiphany! Why not see if our friend was available for lunch instead of supper? Just because we had always HAD supper didn’t mean we couldn’t change. After all we were all retired…. Sounds simple, right? Even obvious.  What this exercise did was point out to me though was just...