I’m tired of all this. I don’t want to hear another word about pandemic or COVID. But that’s not the way it works. I can turn off the news, but that doesn’t end the pandemic. I can ignore the case numbers, but they still are what they are. It doesn’t matter to COVID-19 whether we are tired of it or not. It is a virus and it will spread as long as we provide it the means to do so. It does not get tired of doing so.   I was thinking of those who lived through the first...

This is a season of discontent. Nothing feels quite right. Whether in our jobs or in our family relationships (outside of our bubble), it just doesn’t quite feel like we are doing the job we want to be doing. As teachers, nurses, doctors, ministers, store clerks and also as grandparents, neighbours and friends, almost everything that comes so naturally to us, in how we do our job and how we relate to those around us, is now restricted or requires numerous protocols. It is exhausting and frustrating. It leaves us feeling so dis-satisfied and discontented.  When we feel this way, the...

Grace and Peace to you this day.   You are in my prayers today as I bring thoughts of you to my mind and hold you in my heart. These days are indeed filled with scatteredness and all the trembling that comes with anxious times. Today I am especially mindful of all the lacks and losses we are experiencing. All we can do is find our tears and grieve. What?!, you say. What do you mean find our tears? Isn’t this the time to be strong and be resilient in the face of such a crazy time? Stay with me now....

Every night when I leave our church building I fix my eyes upon the pendant light shining in our church's front entry way which we keep on 24 hrs as a beacon of hope in the downtown.  I often gaze at this light and pray for all those folks that I couldn’t get to that day, for all the folks that I was able to be with and, for all those who might cross my path tomorrow.  I imagine the light guiding those who need hope, peace, healing, and love in their lives to “safe harbour”—to safe respectful sanctuary—to the unconditional...

November 11, 2017   Good morning everyone.  I invite you to hear these words from poet and writer, Susan Bentall Boersma:   There is a yearning  in hearts weighed down by ancient grief  and in centuries of sorrow.  There is a yearning  in hearts that in the darkness hide  and in the shades of death abide,  a yearning for tomorrow.   Captured in the ritual of today’s ceremony of remembering and silence, there is a yearning.  There is a yearning for an end to strife and violence and needless suffering.  There is a yearning for right relationships and justice amongst all...

I just made a coffee date with a friend.  We meet about once a month to check in about life, the universe and everything. The topics flow from what’s going on at home, to what we’re noticing around us, to recent discoveries in the world of science or how to best come alongside our adolescent sons.  It’s great.  I’m grateful.   I just wanted to share that.  Partly because I have the sense that this is becoming a rare practice (which is why I feel grateful).  Lately and for whatever reason, I am aware that in our North American context, there...

To Your Excellency, the Right Honourable Julie Payette, Please don’t make fun of my faith. I cheered you on the day you were installed as Governor General of Canada. I celebrated that you acknowledged the Indigenous Peoples and spoke in one of their languages. I agree with you that climate change is mostly human caused and that we must quickly become the solution. I also believe in God, a God who is the creator of the universe. To me, it takes just as much faith, maybe even more, to believe that the universe started with a random fluctuation. I believe in...

For a lot of people, populist Christianity makes no sense, isn’t credible or relevant.  I think these folks have a point.  I don’t blame them for thinking so, especially if their source of information is primarily TV, radio, angry editorials, scathing social media posts, or some hapless simpleton blaming the recent hurricanes on God’s judgement against gays and lesbians—yes, that was really said.  And sadly, similar pronouncements continue to be voiced out-loud that are equally vitriolic and full of hate against “others”.  No wonder many steer away from church and Christianity.    At times, it feels like an up-hill struggle to...

I’m comfortably settled in seat 13E for the 5 ½ hour flight home from Halifax.  I scan through the selections of onboard entertainment and select a film called “Lion”.  After a light-hearted chat with the young landscape design guy on my right who has somehow managed to fold his lanky 6’ plus frame into the window seat, he puts his hat over his face to catch some shut-eye after a long and shall we say… arduous Cape Breton family reunion.  Susan, seated on my left is well into her book.  I pop my ear buds in and press “play”.    The...

I have long held onto the wisdom that there is no “them” or “us”.  We are all human.  When we cause harm to another we harm ourselves.  When we act compassionately toward one another we appeal to the human heart—we become aware of not only our experiences of pain and suffering, but we also “see” each other as wondrous creatures full of capacities for love, understanding and gratitude.  When one or more of these capacities emerge, any notion of “them” and “us” fades away and we experience a deep and simple joy.   The deep and simple joy that I am...