NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

Where were YOU on Good Friday?  I was in a Community Care Clinic at the time most church services were starting, seeing where the real meaning of that first Good Friday is actually being played out. In our world today, it is in places like hospital emergency wards, community care clinics, prisons and palliative care facilities where we meet up with what the disciples were experiencing so long ago on that first Good Friday. They were scared, They were afraid. Their lives had changed in an instant. They didn’t know what was going to happen to them. The one person they had invested themselves in, [giving up family, friends, occupations, and homes] was gone. What were they going to do? How were they going to put their lives back together again? And so they huddled at the foot of the cross, not alone, but with others who also shared their grief and disbelief. You can almost heard them crying out ‘How could this be happening to ME?’ So we go to church on Good Friday and we t...

There was a loud bang on the window beside our bird feeders. Nothing unusual there as it is a weekly occurrence for birds to fly into it on their way to or from the feeders. However this time when my husband looked out to see what had happened a bird was lying on the bush beneath the window with its head pointing at an unnatural angle. He checked again later while having a coffee and yes, the bird was still lying there, motionless. It was our first fatality at the feeders and we both felt badly that, despite the stickers to warn the birds we have on the window, this had happened. Later on that day, when he was refilling the bird feeder, he happened to glance over at the bush again and saw the bird was still lying there in exactly the same position as before. However as he was watching, it stirred, gave itself a shake, and flew off. A Resurrection! Everyone has similar resurrection stories from their own experiences, whether or not they have actually ever been acknowledged as suc...

"I am rooted, but I flow" ~Virginia Woolf I suspect the Easter services  culminating with Easter Saturday's lighting of the new fire began hundreds of years ago when the general population were unable to read, and even if they could, print copies of the Bible didn't exist. And so the theatrics of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Saturday were there to tell the Easter story dramatically in both word  and actions, along with some stage props. What would it look like today, in Canada, for us to be waving the 'palm fronds' show our support of Jesus' message, I  wonder. There are no answers. In fact the questions isn't even out there. When, today, do I find myself in the 'upper room' of Maundy Thursday? What is or have been the Good Friday's in my life? What opportunity for transformation was there? Did I take it? And if not, why didn't I? What got in the way? How did, or do, I cele...

“I am rooted but I flow.” ~ Virginia Woolf (Here are some thoughts/questions this Lenten season as I try to come to grips over the next 3 weeks with my reactions and how they have changed.) Why do I react so differently to the liturgy for high holy days than I do on ‘normal’ Sundays? Things don’t have to be literally true to be true on normal Sundays… and more importantly I am able to give myself that latitude. I know [intellectually] that the same thing applies on high holy days. But it still bothers me! And that is the cause of my angst.  Do I perhaps deep down still want those special days to be truly special in the same way they were in my childhood or the first time I experienced them? Am I afraid of the loss if I am no longer able to see them in the same way? Is the whole package of liturgy, hymns, readings, and my expectations and memories around these events just too much for me to handle? Am I grieving the loss of my religious innocence? [Sounds trite...

 Few weeks ago we ‘bumped’ into some friends from a former church who we hadn’t seen in a number of years. After the initial small talk had been dealt with, they inquired as to what church we were now attending, mentioning one in the nearby town as being the most probable. Our answer, that no, we were now going to a church some distance away, brought a look of shocked disbelief to their faces. Had we said we were going up to ski every weekend or up to a cottage to snowmobile, that would have been accepted with nothing other than a raised eyebrow saying ‘really, at your age?’. This conversation has left me wondering WHY our driving to that church was more astonishing to them then spending the same time going skiing would have been. It says something about the society we live in, but also about the commitment expected of church-goers by members of that church, that it was seen that way. Lent seems like an appropriate time to think about not only just what our personal commit...

"We spend precious hours fearing the inevitable. It would be wise to use that time adoring our families, cherishing our friends and living our lives." Maya Angelou We are dealing with some medical issues right now in our family. As is quite often the case with these issues, there is a degree of uncertainty: uncertainly about the diagnosis, the treatment, the effect it might have on daily life going forward. I find myself amazed at the number of people who want to know the answers to the above concerns immediately, and don’t seem willing or able to let them appear in their own time. I am sure that 10 years ago I would have been right there with them! There is no doubt that being able to live with uncertainty makes life more livable. I was thinking about as well  those people who seem able to live in the present moment with whatever clarity or uncertainty it brings. They don’t even seem to ask those What? When? Why? questions that the others do.  Learning to live ...

Every afternoon I preview the upcoming shows for that night on the TV in order to make sure that the shows we might want to watch at a later date, are recorded on the PVR. And every time I see the nightly news broadcast marked ‘new’, it surprises me. Why???  I’ve asked myself the question many many times. Of course the news is new, I tell myself. Don’t be silly! Or is it as it says in Ecclesiastes 1:9 [MSG]  “What was will be again, what happened will happen again. There's nothing new on this earth. Year after year it's the same old thing.”    I must admit that seems to be the truth of the matter most nights. The news consists of political scandals from both here and abroad, loss of life due to extreme weather, natural disasters, or mass shootings. Every story seems to highlight the depraved side of human nature. Very few focus on what is positive or good. The writer of Ecclesiastes made a good point when he was writing  all those eons ago.  But ...