NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

Just lately, I heard the phrase “Stock Market Spirituality” and it caught my attention. I have been aware of the” Prosperity Gospel” but this seemed to me be slightly different. The “Prosperity Gospel” according to Wikipedia is “ a Christian religious doctrine that financial blessing is the will of God for Christians, and that faith, positive speech and donations to Christian ministries will always increase one’s material wealth”. In other words, if you talk nicely about God and give your money to the church, God will always make you wealthy. If this  doesn't  happen, it simply means that either you  aren't  talking nicely enough, or, more likely, that you  aren't  giving enough money to the church. Again quoting Wikipedia “if humans have faith in God, he will deliver his promises of security and prosperity” The term “Stock Market Spirituality” seems to me to have a slightly different connotation . The Stock Mark...

“What if we became the perfect church for imperfect people, the church of unfinished theologies” - Donna Schaper, Still speaking Devotional: June 29, 2013 I loved this quote when I first read it more than a year ago, and I still do! Just imagine what it would be like if the institutional church as we know it today, became a church of unfinished theologies instead of a church that knows all the answers. What if it was open to changes, to growing, to experimenting, to trying out new ways of doing things and expressing ideas…. The possibilities are endless, for success as well as failures, for growth as well as dead-ends, for learning about ourselves and our place in the cosmos. Of course the phrase ‘unfinished theologies’ also implies that they will never be finished and what a wonderful thing that would be: to continue to explore, to wonder, and to imagine just how the ‘Mystery’ can be comprehended. As well, we need to give up the idea that in order to be part of the church,...

Have you ever driven a little slower on the highways to save on the cost of gasoline? We went on a road trip lately and the person driving [not me!] was very focused about staying within the speed limit regardless of the other traffic. When we filled up at the end of the journey, we found that the cost per KM was under 10¢ instead of the .11¢ or .12¢ we had been getting recently!! WOW! We saved money … not much mind you, but then every penny counts or so they say! It was only later that it dawned on me we were celebrating the wrong thing.  It wasn’t the money saved that was important but rather that less of the finite fuel supplies had been used. Do you try to do your laundry in the evenings? I must admit that I never have, even as a retired person. The experts say that 90% of the washing machine’s energy consumption is in heating the water. I use only cold water, except on rare occasions, and prefer to hang my clothes outside when the weather cooperates. However energ...

It is fascinating to watch the comings and goings at our bird feeders: to see the chickadees, cardinals, goldfinch, humming birds and the Baltimore orioles, among others, as they try to get their share of the food. Some of them refuse to let others join them at the feeders, while others will only allow those of their own kind to join them. Some of them try to get sustenance from either the hummingbird or the oriole feeders, only to fly away in disappointment. Occasionally we see 3 or 4 birds of the same kind at the feeder, and very occasionally we see different varieties feeding together. Of course when the hawk appears in the sky there is nary a bird to be found. They have all scattered to hide in the juniper bush or the lilac tree close by. I realized today as I was watching them that they mirror human society as it exists today. For the most part, we humans are programmed to look out for ourselves, for survival. If we do care about others, it is mainly abou...

A number of our friends have been busy this past spring updating their wills, along with all the angst that accompanying that task: trying to make sure that what they have accumulated continues to go ‘where’ and to do ‘what’ they wish it to. We ‘baby boomers’, it seems, don’t want to give up control even in death. We want to ensure that ‘our’ assets go to ‘our’ family or tribe, with little or no thought to those who have no expectations of ever receiving anything from anybody. When you live in a world that expects everyone to look out for themselves and denigrates those who for various reasons can’t, this is entirely normal. The more I thought about the  legacies  that I have  received , the more I came to realize that those legacies that really counted I  couldn't  put a dollar value on or include in a will. I never met my maternal Grandmother. But as a Barnardo child, orphaned at a young age, she came to Canada with her siblings, suffered th...