NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

‘ Patience is not waiting passively until someone else does something. Patience asks us to live the moment to the fullest, to be completely present to the moment, to taste the here and now, to be where we are. When we are impatient, we try to get away from where we are. We behave as if the real thing will happen tomorrow, later, and somewhere else. Let’s be patient and trust that the treasure we look for is hidden in the ground on which we stand.’ -Henri J.M. Nouwen Until reading this quote by Henri Nouwen, I have always seen patience and hope as two sides of the same coin. By exercising patience, one is exhibiting hope that the desired outcome will eventually come about. To be patient is to mark time. But Nouwen puts a different spin on it. Patience he says is to live in the moment to the fullest, to appreciate what is around us and to savour it. Impatience is simply wishing we were living in the future and ignoring what the present has to offer, the fact that what we ar...

A friend of mine [let’s call her Sally] went to a conference recently focusing on the problem of the aboriginals in today’s Canadian society. One of the highlights of the three-day event was a presentation of aboriginal dancing and drumming. One of the presenters explained to the audience the meaning of the colours of the feathers and other parts of their costumes. Oops, sorry….. he distinctly told them that what was being worn were not costumes, but rather regalia! This prompted a further conversation with my husband about the clothing he had worn as part of a Barbershop group, which they had called uniforms. Now the barber-shoppers didn’t need to explain to anyone what their outfits stood for. That was obvious to everyone who saw them. They were a collegial group and their name was clearly visible. Even dressed in red and white striped coats  with handle-bar moustaches and straw boaters, they were still identifiable as belonging to the Barbershop movement with started ...

First of all I have to say  that I DON’T do mornings .. or at least I DON’T do mornings well! In any event I headed off to the gym this morning and shortly found myself travelling south instead of north! I had been busy thinking about a conversation I had had yesterday, and the car was following the road most travelled! Once I realized what was happening, I turned around and headed back, still not taking the most direct route to where I wanted to end up.  I was reminded of those words my GPS [Nellie] speaks each time I head out with her: “Take the hi-lighted route” because that is exactly what my mind did, it took the route that was hi-lighted until I intervened and changed it. And even then I didn’t change it to the most direct route but rather to the one that I was more familiar with. I wanted to go to the gym. And I wanted to get there as quickly as possible because I had a deadline to get the car back home by. But despite both of those things, my mind took over ...

“Never lose your nerve, your temper or your car keys”  H. Jackson Brown, Jr. I have been driving by this sign outside a nearby church for couple of weeks now. The first time I thought is was  ‘cute’. The second and third time however I started to wonder just what it meant that gave it a place on a church sign. ‘Nerve’ could be translated as ‘fear not’ while ‘temper’ could fall under the ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you. After all who likes it when someone loses their temper at them! But the car keys? Was that just a throw away line, something to make you smile as you read it? After all, who among us has not misplaced, if not actually lost their car keys, with all the angst that brings with it. But perhaps, just perhaps, the car keys are actually the main point.  When we lose them there is the resulting inconvenience, cost [especially in these days of car keys with micro-chips], disruption, and blame. Once they are found or re...