NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

One thing this pandemic has taught me is that I  can’t cope with  everything...that sometimes I have to be OK with doing the second or third best thing.  With online ordering, what you see is what you get. I can no longer spend a day going from store to store in the mall to find the absolutely perfect item. Some things I just have to let go!   At the same time, there are some things that need to be done like making medical appointments although often not right away. A day or two delay is OK there.  This blog is another good example of this. Instead of feeling that I need to have to time to write my thoughts out in full (which never happened) I now use Notes on my phone to jot down random ideas so that when I have some time I can pull them together into a hopefully cohesive whole.   There is a freedom in knowing no one will be coming visiting, no one will notice if the dusting misses a week or so - or if the vacuuming really should have been done t...

  We are all familiar with the saying, <Hope springs eternal in the human breast>.  About 3000 years ago, Paul wrote in Romans 12:12, that we should rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer . (NRSV). The modern day equivalent to this from The Message Bible is < Be alert servants of the Master  cheerfully expectant.  Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder. >      The second wave of the Spanish flu (1918) was worse than the first and it as followed by a third wave. We are now in the second wave of COVID-19. History is repeating itself! We are tired, fed up, and yes, scared. If you have been following the guidelines and avoiding all unnecessary contacts, things like visits to the dentist, hearing aid tests, and other types of personal care are long overdue. We are all feeling the effects mentally, emotionally...

 Over the last number of days the news media and the politicians have gone from lauding the appearance of the vaccines to lamenting that they are running out.  This switch followed a comment on the media that there were vaccines being kept in the freezers and not getting into the arms. Now if you were closely following the breaking news story you would  have realized that while one particular vaccine had been used up at one particular site, the vaccinations were still proceeding with a second vaccine and that more dose were expected within days.  It reminded me of a Christmas Eve service years ago when we ran out of leaflets for the service despite extras being prepared. As the person responsible for the preparation of the leaflet I was accosted after the service by a parishioner who wanted to make sure I understood how serious that was. My response to her (that set her back on her heels) was isn’t that a great problem to have!  I feel like that same response al...

 As the new year begins I find myself thinking about the year that was -  perhaps because of the many programmes on TV that talk about it. Their reporting is full of statistics about how the pandemic unfolded, the struggling economy and the number of lives lost ... promising us that 2021 will be different! And so I decided to make my own list of the highlights in 2020 from my perspective. So here they are in no particular order,  2020 in the eyes of this senior. Our most significance purchase was a Dyson free standing vacuum cleaner! The built-in vacuum systems in the house proved too cumbersome for my arthritic hands to cope with for an extended period of time. The virtual world became our playground with weekly virtual bridge games and ZOOM chats as well as the occasional concert.  Nor will we forget attending our first virtual vestry meeting via ZOOM and watching sermons on YouTube. We celebrated the one year anniversary of Clarke’s return home from the hospital i...

  "Religion, whether we like it or not, is intimately tied to the culture in which it exists." Phyllis Ticlke I, for once in my life, am not planning on making any New Year Resolutions as we leave 2020 and roll into 2021. Our lives both individually and corporately this past year have involved little else BUT change as we struggled to come familiar with the unknown entity called COVID-19.  Indeed, as the health officials became more familiar with this virus, their advice changed to reflect the new knowledge that had been gained. And so our lives changed as well. We all remember the mask question. Do we wear one or not? The answers ranged from ‘If you want to you can but masks don’t really make any difference’ to ‘They help protect others but not the wearer’ to (and I believe this is where we are right now) ’While masks protect others, they have also been shown to protect the wearer as well’. Sometimes I feel like I’ve spent the last 10 months on a Merry-go-round! Don’t get me...

  “Jesus is the reason for the season“ is a saying we are all familiar with hearing in December. This year however we well might hear people saying “COVID is the reason for the season” , the reason for in-person shopping being discouraged, for the lack of office parties and other Christmas gatherings, as well as for not celebrating with family on Christmas Day. And yes, even. (or especially) in our churches where with attendance being severely limited, there have been no Carol services, no pageants, and no packed Christmas Eve service planned for. Christmas Day looks very different this year in our house, and I suspect  in yours as well. There are very few decorations out because with no one coming into see them, why bother? I would just have to put them away again by January 6th! While we meet friends on ZOOM I miss actually seeing them face-to-face. I could go in and on, but you can fill in the rest yourselves. So some might say that Chrismas is ruined this year. But in rea...

This year has taken forever and at the same time has gone in the blink of an eye. I wonder if you feel the same way...   Last March the prospect of a month’s lockdown seemed to be forever. Had we realized then that 10 months later we would be looking forward to another 10-12 months of COVID before the vaccines have reached everyone and we can begin to relax our precautions just a little, it would have felt like forever! Time, however like religion , is a human construct, at least according to Christopher Hitchens. I remember seeing a television show where Hitchens explained how time doesn’t really exist. It is something that humans used to explain the disconnect between for example sunrise and sunset, or when you start on a walk and when you got to your destination. We have quantified that disconnect and used clocks and calendars to keep track of it. His point was that there is really only this moment right now, and what we are doing during it is really all that is. Sounds sort of ...