NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

“You don’t need a plan; you just need to be present.”  ~Bob Goff (Bob Goff is a writer and an international motivational speaker. In 2016 he launched the Dream Big Framework, a curriculum and workshop designed to motivate people to accomplish their biggest dreams and ambitions) We have all come up against those occasions both in our own lives and in the lives of others, when we have uttered these words, “I don’t know what to do!” either aloud or silently.  For some reason we seem to be hard-wired to feel that we must have the answers, must know what to do, or we aren’t being any help at all. Over the last 8 months I have come to appreciate those people who can just be present, without feeling the need to ‘do’ something. They are the ones who know instinctively what it is that they need to do.  They are acting in response to the present moment, not a previously thought-out plan or agenda. It is actually a little like prayer. Prayer, they say, changes ...

“Love doesn’t just sit there like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.” ~ Ursula K. Le Guin My husband is the bread maker in our family. Our grandchildren love his buns. And so the bread-making machine comes out whenever they are expected so that there might be freshly baked buns, still warm from the oven, for them to enjoy. There might be buns in the freezer that we could just warm up. But no, new bread must be made. And so it is with love, according to Ursula K. Le Guin. I had never thought before of love needing to be remade, made new.  We have all heard many sermons about Love, how we are loved by God and therefore must love others in the same way. Indeed ‘God is Love’ is a familiar saying taken from 1 John:4. In fact as The Message Bible put it: ‘Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God.’ And therein lies the clue… we  are not only born of God but we also have a relationship with God...

“What we must do is commit ourselves to some future that can include each other and to work toward that future with the particular strengths of our individual identities. And in order to do this, we must allow each other our differences at the same time as we recognize our sameness.” ~ Audre Lorde It was the last sentence of this quote by Audre Lorde, an American writer and civil rights activist, that caught my attention. I knew what our differences were! But I started thinking and wondering about just what our sameness might be…. As members of the human family we all have the same need for food, for water, for shelter from the elements. But the food, the water, the shelter can vary depending on where we are and the conditions there.  Here in Canada we need shelter from both the winter’s cold and the summer’s heat. In the tropics, the winter’s cold isn’t so much of a problem. So our housing needs are very different.  The diets of people differ depending on what is ...

“So much of religion and spirituality that is offered to us is about how to sand down the edges.  It just so happens that the jagged edges of our humanity are actually what connects us to God and each other.” ~Nadia Bolz-Weber Have you ever noticed how when you have a new car, there are new cars everywhere you look, or if there is a new baby in your future, pregnant woman abound? Well, these past few weeks my life has been full of new connections and what should arrive one day in my email but the above quotation! Those connections in my life have been the doctors, the nurses, the nurse-practisers, and the families of other patients, as my husband was moved from room to room on the Step Down Unit of a Toronto hospital.  And I never wondered why I, an introvert, was making all these new connections when I should have been sitting quietly in a corner letting the world pass me by. Then Nadia gave me the answer. Connections are made with jagged edges and I certa...