NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

A truck driver once said to me that he felt responsible, like a parent, for all the other driver’s on the roads. And I’m sure you have heard other people say, “Don’t mother me!’ Obviously there are different ideas of just what makes a parent out there. And probably we have all held both of them at one time or another, possibly even at the same time. When we say ‘Don’t mother me’, we are referring to that parent who is forever telling us what to do, what not to do, worrying over whether we have the brains to come in out of the rain. The second type of parent [the one we see ourselves as..lol…] is a parent who looks out for their children, whatever their ages. By their actions, that parent tries to make those lives as safe, as secure, as life-giving, as they possibly can. A full definition of parenthood from the Merriam-Webster online dictionary is ‘the state of being a parent; specifically: the position, function, or standing of a parent’. According to the dictionary then, b...

"You can't go back to how things were. How you thought they were.All you really have is...now.” ― Jay Asher, contemporary American author Lately, I've felt like Rip Van Winkle, a character in a Washington Irving short story who went to sleep before the American Revolution and woke up twenty years later in what was literally a new world. I 'woke up' sometime in November of 2016, looked around the world I inhabited and began clearing out cupboards and closets, replacing a chest of drawers I could no longer open, light fixtures that were unsatisfactory, installing a dishwasher, extra railings on both sets of stairs, an intercom & doorbell and security lighting .... In fact I 'woke up up' and saw the things that needed to be done if we were going to be able to continue to live here safely and comfortably for the foreseeable future.  Perhaps you have had something similar happen when you returned home after being away for a period of time. I ...

‘All of them deserted him and fled.’ Mark 14:50 If you have internalized that all religion is a human construct whose purpose is to make sense out for our life, then it is just a small step to saying that Christianity is then just like a Rotary or Kiwanis club. All of these might be seen a leading to an inconvenient life [a phrase I once heard applied to the Christian life] in that they ask that their adherents live a good, useful life in their communities. But what if we need to take our Christian commitment to another level? In chapter 14 of the Gospel of Mark, we find the disciples who had been with Jesus daily, deserting him and fleeing from the garden. We find Peter, who is said to be chief among the disciples, denying that he even knew Jesus not once, but three times later that same night. And WWJD [What would Jesus Do?] as the bracelet asks today? Well, he was upset and agitated, again according to Mark. Why this behaviour? Because they were scared. And why were t...

"It is possible to become discouraged about the injustice we see everywhere. But God did not promise us that the world would be humane and just. He gives us the gift of life and allows us to choose the way we use our limited time on earth. It is an awesome opportunity." ~Cesar Chavez Stopping at a stoplight one morning recently, we felt a jarring motion from the back of our car. As I put on the 4-way flashers, my husband got out of the car to inspect the damage. A lady hopped out of the car behind us exclaiming, "We didn't hit you!" 'Well,' he says, 'somebody did!' 'Maybe we tapped you!' she conceded. Fortunately there wasn't any damage and we continued on our way. However, while I found it more than slightly amusing, I also found the exchange stayed with me. For me this encounter illustrates one of the problems with our society today. While it wasn’t all right to hit our bumper, it apparently was all right to tap it. In othe...