Category Archives: Day to Day

Today seemed like friends and family day at the office – started out with my daughter, Rachelle, part way through the morning, a friend, and to finish up the morning, another daughter, Grace.  Then, lo and behold, another son calls me with an emergency – a piece of tooth broke.  I take home a mirror so I can check him out when he gets back into town – to really be my last patient of the day.  The rest of the patients were also friends, just not so close that I see them any other place, although you never know when a patient/friend will turn up in unexpected places.  My friend Keith, for example, was the violinist for the special Easter presentation at the Anglican church up the road.  Exchanging Easter blessings with a friend/patient was one of the special perks of that day.

University exams are over and now kids of mine are coming and going.  They show up unexpectedly, as Christian did last night.  They appear raid the fridge, use the guest bed and move on back to “their” places.  I am glad they belong here and know there is always a welcome, or at least a sense of comfortableness at our house.  I wonder what it will feel like to have an empty house.  I wonder if it will ever happen!

I hope that my guests/visitors who visit this blog space also feel welcome.  I have renewed acquaintances with some old friends here.  Thanks to those of you who contact me from far away – Gail, Seto, and others.  It is good to have friends and it is good that friendships can be picked up again even while long distances separate us. 

This has been a beautiful weekend.  The weather was great and I had the first real day off in a long time.  It was my regular Friday off but since I am usually seeing kids at the school dental program, I don’t usually get a real day off on Friday.  This Friday there was no school so no kids to check.  I slept in a bit and read.  I even did enough housework to relieve any sense of guilt associated with spending a large part of the day being fairly lazy.  The best part of the day was taking a friend to lunch in honor of her upcoming birthday.

Today began slowly too. 

Micah came over to do some yard work for me.  Goodness knows this yard needs all the help it can get!  I thought raking two sections of the yard would keep him occupied for about an hour – maybe a bit more.  He kept coming in to see if he was done yet.  We would go out together, I would show him how to really rake hard to get the old dead grass out and get the leaves out from the edges where they piled up in the winter.  Then I would suggest that he go at it systematically, sort of dividing the area up into smaller sections, doing one area well and then moving along to a new spot.  I don’t know but I think he got lost out there in the back by himself.  He came in about fifteen minutes later.  “Could I come and check to see if he was done?” 

I said, “Well, did you do the whole area like I showed you?”

“I don’t know,” he replied.  “I think so.”

“You must know if you did it all or not,” I said.

“Well maybe not exactly.”

So back we would go.  I would show him how to really rake hard again, and point out the 3/4 of the area that looked pretty much untouched.  By the end of two hours, he had done a good job over half the area I had estimated he might get done, gotten paid and was on his way home.  I think if he sticks with this job, he could keep going at it all summer.  I think he will learn what I want him to do – and get faster.  I like Micah.  But this may just not be his sort of work, do you think???

There was still time in the day for coffee with a friend.  That is always fun.  We were fantasizing about a fund raiser art show as well as getting a group of friends from the church together as a team for the Relay For Life.  Any artists out there with good work to donate?  Anyone with legs that would like to be on our relay team?

I have sent my daughter off to North Battleford to dance competition.  She can drive, she’s 18 and so I bravely let her use my car to get there.  I am driving hers.  What a deal she got!  I realized this again as Icrammed myself behind the front wheel.  Her seat seems to be stuck on “very close” as in about six inches between the steering wheel and the seat.  I can fit but just.  I don’t recall her telling me that there was a problem with the seat!  Oh well – two days.

I had to go to the hospital tonight.  Parked in the doctors parking lot.  It looked a bit out of place this 89 jalopy with peeling paint – but it has a valid parking sticker.

Wow!!!!

The call came this morning at work.  I have been accepted into the Certificate in Spiritual Direction program at North Park Seminary in Chicago. 

I have been waiting – patiently, mostly.  I have been trying to wait on God for this and have been telling myself that I would accept whatever comes.  But I must admit, God knows how much I have been wanting to do this.  I guess it is what he wants for me too.

The course begins in July.  It will be quite the way to start my vacation. 

Settle down, heart.  There will be a lot of just hard work I am sure.

Tomorrow it is back to work – although it turns out to be a very short week for me, today being a stat holiday and Friday being my day off.  This week is a school break so I am really off on Friday.  No school program to supervise. 

This weekend has been good but very busy.  Easter services were a refreshing break from getting all the documentation in order for my taxes. 

Oh, yeah – I also cleaned house.  A major cleaning.  I even emptied out a closet that, well I confess, had not been cleaned in ages.  Today I shredded, recycled and filled a bag for the Salvation Army.  The yard was also a disaster area so I hired Micah and he put in a good 5 hours of work on it.  We can now walk on the deck without getting wood chips caught between out toes.  Our dog thinks she is a wood chipper! 

One of the best things I did was begin walking again.  It is so easy to just gradually stop that kind of physical activity in the winter.  A stationary bike is no substitute for walking along the river bank.  Tonight I took Maisie (the dog) for a walk.  She hasn’t been trained much to walk on a leash but she seems pretty easy to train.  By the end of the walk she had stopped pulling on the leash and would sit down when we stopped moving.  I rewarded her with a big rawhide bone which is nowhere to be found.  I have no idea where she hid it.  I just wish she would chew it up rather than the firewood that Micah stacked by the fire pit. 

The geese, crows and robins are back. 

The sun is up before 6:30 already. 

This morning it rained – a good rain, not a freezing one.

Today the ice went out on the river.

It is definately spring.

I have begun reading The Genesee Diary  by Henri Nouwen.  The thing that strikes me most about the book is its simplicity.  It is a journal of his daily life.  He lets us in on so many of his feelings, good and bad, frustrating and inspirational. It is striking in its honesty and in the way he expresses his feelings just like I would, not like the saint I sort of expected.

I struggle with the ordinariness of my daily existence.  It is hard to comprehend that this routine life is pleasing to God or that this is how he created us to be.  Well, maybe he intended for our existence to be more “whole”, not so full of messiness, but that is only a distant longing in reality. 

What would my journal be like if I was writing in a way similar to Henri Nouwen?

This morning I got up and spent some time reflecting on Psalm 25. 

Show me the path where I should walk, O LORD;
       point out the right road for me to follow.

Lead me by your truth and teach me,
       for you are the God who saves me.
       All day long I put my hope in you. (vs 4,5)

I wonder if I put that into practice today.  Did I listen for God’s direction?  More likely, I just went about my day as it was programmed, without much thought – other than what to take for my lunch.

I try to pay some attention to the fact that my patients are loved and cared for by God every bit as much as I am. 

God sends me one of my long time patients – a very simple woman.  She tries hard to care for herself but is not very successful at it.  Still, she does much better now than when we first met.  Life has not been easy for her. 

Then there is the guy with the really gross mouth.  It is hard to see the “belovedness” with which God loves him.  

Returning home there is supper to prepare.  I am asked to feed and baby-sit my grandson.  Somehow this task is more easily done – more palatable – at least until I have to go and change the very poopy diaper.

And my evening is spent tidying up the office.  To tell the truth, I have misplaced a paper I need.  After everything is checked through, without finding what I need, I do ask God for help.  I feel like a child who has by their own fault left a job to the last minute so that they have to go to a parent for help.  I guess God understands my dependence and likes me anyway.  And there are the papers.  I feel as if he has just taken care of me – as a father would his child.

And to wrap up my day, I am asked to help straighten hair for Sara.  She is getting ready for her big trip to California over the Easter vacation – going on Calbreak with YFC.  She will have fun.

What have I learned from my day? Looking back over it, it has been good.  Mostly just ordinary and busy but there have been places where I have also seen God. 

Now to bed.  Sorry Fans – no time to scan the paper.  I will try tomorrow.  Tomorrow will be no less busy, no less long.

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

I trust in you, my God!  (vs1)

It all started a while back when things began to get packed up in my Aunt’s suite.  Then it moved into a higher gear last Saturday when several of us got together to pack up and move Auntie’s stuff out of the suite.  Who would have known that one room and a small storage area could contain so  much stuff!  I think we had one semi load of doilies.  I think the count in the room was 42. and we kept adding to the count as we packed.  These were just the ones that were in actual use – under some little nick knack to either set it off or protect the surface under it.  There were more in drawers not being used.  And there were cards – from long ago.  Some read, some still unopened. 

Too much stuff.  She’s a pack rat!

But you know – every little thing was at one time very special to my aunt.  She loved cute little things; still does.  She doesn’t remember who they are all from now but each one represented someone who loved her.  I wonder if for her, throwing things away was too hard because it all meant something – it represented a relationship.  Now we sort these things out, trying to judge on some arbitrary merit system, which pieces are important or suitable to take along for her room at the care home.  We see these things without the attachment to friends and dispose easily of what has to go. 

Today my aunt left the hospital.  We took her to her new place, she met some of the other women who live there too.  She knows many of them already.  That is a good thing.  I think she will be OK.  And she looks out the window and recognizes the area.  She will be living in the building that once was the women’s dorm at Covenant Bible College, where she spent most of her working years.  She looks out the window and some memories come flooding back

The next couple of weeks are going to be so busy.  I have found that over the last week I have had little time or inspiration for blogging or even for reading some of my favorite blogs. 

Just too much going on.

My Auntie to move and things to do for her.  Children needing my timeand a place to hang out.  Grandchildren needing babysitting.  Committees needing work. 

Sometimes it gets to be almost too much.

Thanks friends who take the time to pray with me and for me.  As witness to the power that God has in providing strength for the day – I am still in one piece.  I still make it to work in the morning and through the day.  I am still sane – I think. 

But I may lay off this blogging for a bit – a week or two.  We will see I guess.  Sometimes this place acts as my stress reliever too.

Late yesterday afternoon, Sara and I headed down to Saskatoon.  She and I needed to be at a parnet/teen meeting getting ready for her trip to California for the Easter break with Youth For Christ.  Since Sara has been little, visiting Disneyland has been one of her dreams.  Since it was never high on our agenda for vacation spots, I am glad she can finally go.  She has no friends who have decided to go along with her; it’s fairly expensive, but has has been working with this trip in mind.  I think she will do well in the friend making department – she is one of the nicest kids I know.(even if I do say so myself)

Anyway – those roads to Saskatoon!  Not bad from PA to Duck Lake.  Then they became snow and ICE covered for major stretches.  Slow driving – 60 to 80 kph most of the way.  And back over the same roads at night.  I hope it wams up enough to melt that stuff off the roads soon.  Leo drives the same roads today.