Monthly Archives: October 2007

October 13, 2007 · 4:50 pm

Here I am – in Winnipeg

Got into Winnipeg right on time this morning, picked up the rental car and made it safely to the hotel where Leo has been staying for much of this week.  He treats himself well when he travels for work.  I am always a bit stingy with myself.  But here I am in a suite with a king sized bed and it is quite lovely.  And I am hooked up to high speed which makes it even better.

Tonight I go to see Leo become a Fellow of the College of Family Physicians and then we attend a concert by Chantal Kreviazuk ( I think I mistakenly told some folks it was Christina Aguilera – which is a bit different genre of music and definitely not from Winnipeg )  So we should have a special evening together.  Fun and relaxing I hope.

After yesterday, I need some relaxation.  I was in the operating room all day.  As I was finishing up the last case there, I got a call on the phone.  A young girl had been in a skating accident – could I come back to the office and splint her teeth?  It is easier to splint teeth using orthodontic brackets than just building up a splint out of filling material.  So I headed back to the office, canceling my 4 o’clock appointment with my spiritual director.  And lo and behold, I had forgotten that my sister was also coming in.  That I had totally forgotten.  My mind seems to need less busyness in order to remember things well these days.  And by 6 pm Sara and I were on the road to Saskatoon where I had made arrangements to see a friend for coffee in the evening.   9:30 pm saw me back at Dave and Annette’s  where they and Kieran were watching Surf’s Up  on the T.V.  They fed me a piece of absolutely delicious key lime pie from the Konga Cafe.  And then I began to yawn.  Kieran and I both hit the pillow early.

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October 11, 2007 · 2:35 am

Can too much be said about love?

Randall had a little discussion going on love.  A friend told him that he has discovered that a lot of the complexity of his life has been simplified by his discovering that he is loved.  He stated that he was “just a boy who needed to be loved.”  

I think that this is a pretty profound discovery.  I don’t think he is talking about the kind of stuff that passes for love between young people that after a few months dissipates, revealing it for what it was really – simply infatuation, sexual attraction or even hero worship.  I believe the sort of love he is speaking about carries with it a deep knowing within him of acceptance for who he is by another who knows enough about him to know many of his warts and bumps and loves him anyway.  The other not only accepts him for what he is but delights in him.  And I take it that there is a reciprocal acceptance of the other.

This sort of love is found between parents and children as well.  Dixie wrote about the love she has for her children and how, in spite of her not always doing the right thing for her children, she can be a good mother because she truly loves them.  In fact it is partly because she loves her children so much that she cares that she does the right thing when it comes to childrearing.  

I believe these kinds of human love reflect the love God has for us.  And I think that our need to be loved in order to be healthy humans reflects something within us that has been planted there by our designer.  If the essence of God is love then perhaps our search for love is in reality a search, at the deepest levels of who we are, for God. 

One of Randall’s anonymous commenters said he didn’t think the kind of love that helps  a person discover who they are exists in his world.  Makes me sad to think that many people don’t know what that is like.  Human love can really be life changing, as it has for this friend of Randall.  It is healing and transforming and good.   I think it is the kind of expression of God that we as his human followers need to live out.  We need to make it real in the worlds of people who need to experience it because it really does change people.  God is like that.

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Filed under Dealing with stuff

October 9, 2007 · 3:23 am

St. John Chrysostom – on reading scripture

I came across this quote via Sojourners:

Christ, in sending the [people] to the scriptures, sent them, not merely to read them, but carefully to search and ponder them. And did he not say, “Read the scriptures,” but “Search the scriptures.” … Their meaning is not expressed superficially or set forth in their literal sense, but, like a treasure, lies buried at a great depth. And those who seek for hidden things will not be able to find the object of the search if they do not seek carefully and painstakingly.

– St. John Chrysostom
Homily 41 (John 5:39-47), A.D. 390

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October 8, 2007 · 4:42 am

And I am thankful for…

Here I am, almost at the end of a busy Thanksgiving day.  Some of the kids are still hanging around the kitchen.  A baby is crying in the room downstairs.  And I think I will sleep well tonight.

We ate just about all the turkey.  There might be enough for one more sandwich.  And for the first time I almost ran out of potatoes before we all had filled our faces!  I guess that can happen when there are 19 people around the tables!  We stuffed ourselves and then had dessert.  Sara makes a mean apple pie!  And then there were the apple tarts with almonds that Annette brought plus pumpkin pie and ice cream.

It was good to all be together – except we missed Christian who was playing a gig in some God forsaken town and due to a flat tire missed the last bus to PA.  He called though and is coming home on Tuesday.  So I must go and find a smaller sort of turkey and we will feast again on a smaller sort of scale with him.

I think we met most of the boyfriends we hadn’t met before too.  Hope we didn’t scare them off.  We tried our best to get Leo to behave!

It was a fun day for the most part.  Although finding some needles under a tree in the park where the little kids are looking for sticks to throw into the river isn’t such a great thing!  Guess we need to be careful and just check out the playing spaces before the kids are allowed to scavenge sticks and pine cones and things on their own.

I  am very thankful to be a mom and a grandma with a house full of noisy kids and grandkids and friends.  God has blessed me richly!

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Filed under Day to Day

October 7, 2007 · 4:00 am

Its Good to be Family

The day has been busy and yet I have had a sense of well being all day long. From shopping in the morning with my girls to preparing the stuffing ingredients for tomorrow, I just have had a sense that it is good to be family. It is good to be together for this holiday. Tomorrow I will have a house full of people. And I think I will be grateful to be who I am with this huge family around me.

Tonight the grandkids were together for a little while. Kieran is idolized by Zaka. Everything Kieran does, Zaka mimics. Then later after Kieran had gone, Saka was being the bigger cousin and was trying to help hold Ronin. As he was trying to hold Ronin, Asen was taking pictures. Each time the flash would go off Zaka let out a whoop of joy. He sort of forgot that he wanted to hold the baby in favour of him being the centre of attraction himself.

Zaka is right in the terrible two’s mode. He did not want Grandma to tell him to sit at the table with his juice so he went over to the cup sitting on the table and pushed it over – on purpose. Grandma (me) was not too happy with that reaction so we were not on speaking terms for a few minutes. Not sure we accomplished any sense of my being in charge over that one!

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October 3, 2007 · 9:55 pm

A crazy story!

I was wandering around the blogesphere and came across this story The Case of the Purloined Pin at Anotherthink. 

It made me laugh – a perverse sort of little laugh.  The real owner – I mean the original owner – must be a tad upset.

Warning – if a limb is amputated and you wish to be rejoined with it at departure time for the rest of your mortal remainders – chose a bit better storage place than a barbecue smoker!

Now if you are curious – slip over to Anotherthink’s site and have a read!

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October 3, 2007 · 6:14 pm

Grace Filled Lives – Becoming God’s Masterpiece

A while ago I was asked to write an article for our denomination’s magazine The Covenant Companion. I did and it was published in the most recent edition. Some of you are asking if it is online and it is not – yet. So here it is. Enjoy.

Becoming God’s Masterpiece

There is a difference between belief in the grace of God and embracing its reality. I grew up with grace, believed in it, and depended on it. But the enormity of what it was didn’t come till later. Continue reading →

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Filed under Books and Articles

October 3, 2007 · 3:16 am

Changes

I decided to switch over to WordPress.  No, the picture in the banner is not mine but I sure do like it, especially for this time of year.  Hopefully it will change with the seasons – if I can figure out how to do that.  I guess there are a few other things to tweak a bit too.

Little by little big changes happen.

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October 1, 2007 · 3:28 pm

Autumn in the Foothills

This weekend I spent time up at Kings Fold Retreat and Renewal Centre. Autumn has sprinkled golden trees amoung the evergreens. It was beautiful.

This was the view from the window of my room:

The golden leaves seemed so golden. The air was crisp and we had a skiff of snow on Friday night that was gone by the afternoon.

I want to go back.

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