NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

Summer is upon us. And with summer comes that season known as "Construction”. Only this year, it is worse that before. This year it isn’t only lasting for the warmer weather months, it is lasting forever - or at least that is what it feels like! Multiple roads are completely shut for months if not years while bridges are out or roads and intersections are dug up to have new pipes laid underneath. All this is necessary… and YES, it will be nice when it is finished but there are some days I despair of that ever happening. Some days when I wonder just how I will get out of this small community to where I need to go. But on reflection it hasn’t been all bad. I have been forced, as a fairly recent newcomer to the area, to learn the back streets and the alternate routes to get places. I have become more familiar with the neighbourhoods in the community instead of relying on the main roads to get me where I need to go. In short it has been a ‘learning experience’. My husband h...

‘Thinkers often find (public) worship a very real problem as, inevitably, they are questioning all the prayers and hymns and checking out their words to see if they are logical, consistent, or true.” [Malcolm Goldsmith ‘Knowing Me, Knowing God’ c.1997] “ I’m boring!” Those words echoed through the almost empty office as I was asked about myself by my new ‘boss’. Even as the words came out of my mouth, inside my head I could hear the words “I’m not REALLY boring, but nobody else sees it …“ From a very early age I knew as a ‘left-hander’ [10% of the population] I was different. I struggled first to learn to cut with right-handed scissors, and later on to knit, crochet [This never happened until I was in my 30’s!], and thread a sewing machine needle. The smears of ink on the pages of my schoolwork and on my hand were inevitable. Blotters [remember those?] were my best friends. I was a bookworm who had read every book in our village library by the time I finished ...

We had a favourite restaurant, We liked the menu. We liked the ambience. We liked the food. AND it was nearby. Then a new waitress appeared. To say we rubbed each other the wrong way would be an understatement. So we found out when she was scheduled to work, and avoided the restaurant on those days.  Whenever we appeared we were greeted warmly and continued to enjoy what they had to offer, just not as often. She has since left and we are now appearing more often. However, we were able to continue to both enjoy what that restaurant had to offer and to give them the benefit of our money, albeit on a reduced scale, over that time. You have a favourite clothing store that you visit regularly. Then they change the style of clothing that they carry. You might go in occasionally when there is a sale, or a special event, just to see what is there and maybe pick up a couple of pieces.  It would be ridiculous if they should meet you at the door and say you weren’t welcome, that...

“When I married my husband I knew life would be interesting, I just didn't know how interesting!” I’m sure this comment that I heard a few weeks ago is one that many of us can related to. That project we undertook to fill in a little spare time, ended taking over  both our lives and our homes. Pursuing our interest in gardening finds us outside from dawn to dusk most days. Our new dream job keeps us at the office for longer and longer hours. Now we are able to travel as we once dreamed, we are home less and less of the time. The alternative to the above scenarios we might also have experienced: divorce or estrangement, a half-finished project in a closet, a garden full of weeds by the time July arrives, overtime grudgingly spent at the office, suitcases never out of storage. So just what is the difference? The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that the thing that makes the difference is commitment . Once we become committed to another person, a cause, or a...

“Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvellously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh I was at a four-way intersection the other day, stopped at the light in the left-turn lane; the road just wide enough for three lanes of traffic. A 16-wheeler was making a right turn into the lane beside me. I felt in imminent danger of being crushed by this vehicle many many times larger than I was. I had to trust that the driver from his vantage point looking down on me would look after me and my car. But there was still that moment of visceral fear, a fear of injury, pain, yes, even death. As we have waited for the results of a medical test, we have all known the fear of what the results might show, along with the niggling fear that had we only...