NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

There is a time for everything,  a season for every purpose under      heaven,  a season to be born and a  season to die,  a season to plant and a season to harvest;  And God’s gift to us is to eat and drink and find fulfillment in  our work.  Ecclesiastes 3:1, 2, & 13 At the beginning of a new year, we look ahead wondering what it might hold for us. With the writer of Ecclesiastes, we query what lies ahead for us: promise or pain; fulfillment or frustration, life or death. And where, we wonder, where will God be in all of this? Our lives are full of many births and many deaths, each one as miraculous or difficult as the last.  This coming year will be no different.  The important thing I take from these words is that there is no dying without rebirth, no planting without harvesting, no tearing without mending, no hurting without dancing. No matter what the coming year holds for us, we will experience joy with our sorrow, faith in our doubting, and trust in ou

“What can I give Him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb; If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part; Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.” ~from ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ by Christina Rossetti Many of us will be singing, or have sung, these words at some time over this Christmas season. The first verse of the carol, ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ begins with words that echo many Christmases here in Canada: ‘In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,’ and so we usually find it included in at least one of the services held at this time of year.  For me it has always fit in with the sentimentality of a Christmas Eve or Christmas Day service. Yes, we can all give our heart to this young babe - after all who doesn’t find babies hard to resist~ The songs of angels singing in the heavens, a bright star in the dark winter sky, potentates arriving from afar

Advent has always been about waiting. As a child, before I had even heard about Advent, I remember the waiting: waiting for the Christmas cake to ‘season’, waiting for the Christmas parcels and cards to arrive from aunts and uncles, waiting to put up the Christmas tree, waiting for the Christmas concerts to happen at school and church, and of course waiting for Christmas morning! Things have changed over the years. Advent traditions have come and gone. Throughout the business of a young family, of studying, of working, there was always that kernel of waiting, of waiting for something special to happen. This   year, it has changed again, and is now the waiting for two of our grandchildren to return from university to celebrate Christmas at home.  When I first became aware of Advent, I remember thinking that the waiting was all about waiting for Jesus’ birth, and although I tried to make that the focus of my thoughts, so many other things kept getting in the way. It is only fa

S.A.D. or Seasonal Affective Disorder is prevalent during the dull dark days of winter. The Mayo Clinic in their online writeup say “Don't brush off that yearly feeling as simply a case of the "winter blues" or a seasonal funk that you have to tough out on your own. Take steps to keep your mood and motivation steady throughout the year.” One of the things making this season harder than it already is for many people are the saccharine holiday tunes that are playing ad nauseam everywhere we go. Take, for example, It’s a Marshmallow World [1949] sung Dean Martin, among others. The words of the chorus capture of the feeling of entitlement that is so common in our society. “The world is your snowball, see how it grows, That's how it goes, whenever it snows, The world is your snowball just for a song, Get out and roll it along.” Life [or the world] owes us all that is good. We deserve to live the good life, and to have more and more and more …. [Envisi