NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

When I asked our PSW if she had gone out on New Year’s Eve, she replied  “No’. Then she went on to explain that the PSWs were all on ‘High Alert’ because if things could go wrong, New Year’s Eve was a prime time for them to do so. The phrase caught my attention because it was an apt way of explaining my life for the last 2+ months. Six times over that period we have had to drop whatever we were doing, or hoped to be doing, and make our way down to the ER at Toronto General Hospital. Yes, ‘high alert’ covered that way of living. But here’s the thing. What if we, as followers of Jesus, are actually called on to live in ‘high alert’ 24/7?  What if we have become so complacent, so conscious of what society expects from us that we have forgotten the radical nature of Jesus’ teachings. If we really want to live out the basic premise of Golden Rule, to actually do good to those that hate us, to help those who need help no matter who they are, then we too are being calle...

“Here is a simple rule-of-thumb guide for behaviour. Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them . Add up God’s Law and Prophets and this is what you get.”   Matthew 7:12 [MSG] New Year’s Eve has come and gone. We chose, albeit unwillingly, an unique way to ring in 2020 and the new decade by spending the 24 hours from the afternoon of December 31st to the following afternoon in the Emergency Department of a large city hospital. But that’s not why I will never forget this New Year’s. I will never forget it because of what I learned. Despite the fact that it was probably one of the busiest nights of the year for the Emergency Department, and we were their least critical case, the staff were unfailingly thoughtful and kind to us throughout the entire 24 hours. From moving us to the quietest part of the Department so that my husband might be able to get some sleep, to providing both of us with heated blankets, they did every...