NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

“Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them…“ Matthew 6:26 NRSV Right now the colouring app that I use daily is running a series of pictures called ‘Moments of Happiness’. What are these pictures about you might wonder. Celebrations? Family gatherings? Attending  a concert? All things we have missed over the last two years. The answer would be NO, NO, NO!  The pictures to date have shown instead getting a good night’s rest, enjoying a morning cup of coffee, making time for some self-care, cooking, and for today, exercising at home. All things that were part both of our lives both before and during COVID… and will be afterwards as well. I was once told as an adult that not only could I not sing, but that I never would be able to. Immediately I stopped singing (even in the shower). For the most part conductors in the various choirs I had sung in over the years had left me alone. So I had had that!  My frien

  “For he will command his angels concerning you: to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.”   Psalm 91:11-12 We are all familiar with how angels are portrayed in religious paintings; beautiful ethereal beings, dressed in white with golden wings. Indeed we may have or have had a guardian angel of our own especially as a child. For many of us, our guardian angel may well be another person who looks out for us, sheltering us from the worst of life’s trials, while we take on that role in the life of another. These last two years have been especially hard on all of us as we struggle to cope with or without that  guardian angel.  A friend (who tells me I was one of her guardian angels when she was a child) sent me this poem this past week. It struck a chord in me. And I hope it does on you too…. Whenever I thought of angels, perfect symmetry came to mind,   A Christmas choir of thousands, confident and fine

  “So much has been taken, but not everything. What this moment has taught us is that we have the ability to radically reimagine and reshape the world.” - Marc Lamont Hill, We Still Here: Pandemic, Policing, Protest, and Possibility (2020) As I heard Dr.  Eileen de Villa,  Medical Officer of Health for Toronto say on TV this past week, “COVID is COVID is COVID” . We might want it to be something else. We might be wishing for it to disappear.  We might try to deny its detrimental effect on both our health and the health care system.  But we can’t. COVOD is here and not going anywhere soon, if ever. Just like mumps, measles, influenza, cancer and a myriad of other illnesses, COVID-19 is here to stay. Our job is to accept this,  to stop pretending that life is going to get back to the way it was pre-COVID which is not going tp happen and learn to live with this new reality. As I was writing this, Hebrews 13:8 was going through my head. “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday and toda