September 6, 2006 · 6:27 pm

At last!

At last!  Kamu (aka Yaunde) has just walked through my door.  First order of business – he is taking a shower.  The trip is long.  He left Cameroon on Monday evening and has been travelling since, except for last night somewhere in Toronto.  And his bag was left in Paris – didn’t make the plane for some reason.  It will come but he is tall – 36 inch leg and no one in our house has legs that long for sure.  So we’ll do some laundry and he’ll be set till we make a Value Village run and see what we can pick up.

It is so good to see him.  So good that the long wait is done.

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September 3, 2006 · 9:59 pm

Bugs add flavour to a ride.

This summer has been one of the nicest I can remember, as far as weather goes, for a long time.  Tonight I went out for a ride just before sundown.  The temperature was just right, the sky was a gorgeous orangy pink.  A jet stream reflected gold in the west.  And the number of gulls gathering to migrate was simply incredible.

And there were clouds of little black insects.  I wasn’t too bad off on a bike but everyone I passed was swatting wildly.  I just kept my mouth closed!

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September 1, 2006 · 9:07 am

Waiting till the last moment

So if your dental insurance is running out in less than two weeks and you haven’t been to the dentist for years while you had good dental insurance, whose fault is it when we can’t get you in so that you can get all seven fillings and two hours of cleaning and maybe a root canal and a crown or two done in those two weeks? 

People have no qualms about putting the pressure on us. 

Mostly they are fearful people but — how do we be gentle and patient under the circumstances?  Getting that much dental work done in less than two weeks is going to hurt…if we can even do it;  which I doubt.

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August 31, 2006 · 10:50 pm

Everything that I need?

Psalm 23:1

The Lord is my shepherd;

I have everything that I need.

 

We meditated on this Psalm at the beginning of our meeting tonight – a few people, the church council with work to be done.  

 

By halfway through the meeting, I think I had forgotten already.  The problem of getting volunteers – not just warm bodies but people with a vision for the tasks to be done – is daunting for me.  We need adults who will look after the real little kids.  We need adults who will teach and care about the little bit older kids.  All we need are a few each week –  its not like they have to commit themselves to help every Sunday – maybe once every couple of months.  

 

But here I am again, focusing on the problem.  

 

The only way we are going to resolve this issue is if the adults in question hear God calling them to do this sort of thing.  And since Jesus said to ask for anything – well I am asking.  Maybe this is not the way he wants to get this job done; so I’ll be listening for that kind of message too.  Maybe it requires a major shift in my thinking.  Or maybe I am just tired of trying to accomplish too big a job mostly in my own strength.  

 

So I think I will try to listen more.  We have simplified our children’s Sunday class time down almost as much as we can.  Maybe we need to just incorporate teaching for children into our main worship time.  Maybe our small group needs to be so child friendly that the kids are as much at home in the sanctuary as in a “class”. Pews don’t contribute much to a child friendly atmosphere though. 

 

Whatever.  Jesus certainly cared about the kids that hang out around him.  I wonder what he would do, or wants to do with our kids?  He has everything that we need.  The psalmist goes on to describe God’s bountiful provisions even through the roughest of places.  For me this is a rough place.  Provide, please God.

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August 29, 2006 · 10:42 pm

The end of a busy day

Tonight I rode home from work.  The 5 minute bike ride is hardly a big physical effort but it is better than nothing.  I like the ride, especially the part on the river bank.  The geese, ducks and gulls are gathering.  a sure sign that the seasons are changing.  leaves are also starting to fall and today with a strong wind there were almost as many branches as leaves on the path. 

I had a roast in the oven cause I had no idea if I would be having 7, 8 or 10 for supper.  I had green beans that I picked up at the farmers market on Saturday and I wanted to cook them as well as some more of the corn on the cob.  We ended up having a pretty substantial meal.  The last of the stragglers came home and ate around 9. 

Massa wrote his drivers test today for the second time but was again unsuccessful.  I know he knows the signs well.  I suspect it is the way questions are asked that is hardest for him.  I guess we will have to work harder with him on this.  I imagine he is more disappointed than he lets on.

I had time to run up to the church to help set things in order for the funeral tomorrow.  Then back home to clean up from supper. 

And then Sara needed to discuss the assignment she has – to write down her philosophy of life. 

Right now my philosophy is to get off my aching foot and into bed.  Tomorrow will be another day. 

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August 27, 2006 · 7:26 am

Watching love work

We said goodbye to a friend last night.  We won’t see him in his home again and we will miss him, especially when we go out there to visit.  He loved his home by the lake with the garden all around, the hummingbirds hovering around the feeders, lots of birds and squirrels outside the window, the lake just the other side of the house.  So, he spent his last days there surrounded by all of the natural beauty he loved and by his family who cared for him.

 

On Friday evening Leo and I went out to see him.  He could no longer respond to us by then and we knew it would not be long.  His body was riddled with cancer but he never had given up easily, and I guess it was no different fighting disease than throwing his efforts behind any of the many endeavors he undertook in life.

 

When we were there on Friday, it was time for the homecare nurse to come and care for him as well as time to change and turn him.  I watched this act of love take place.  The bedsores were tended, lotion was massaged onto his drying skin, and he was changed into a fresh gown and was given fresh sheets.   His wife, daughter and sons were not careless.  It was obvious that they were handling a man that they loved – this care was itself an act of love.  Just bringing him home where they were obligated to provide this kind of care round the clock was an act of love and care.  They did well.

 

It made me hope that when it is time for me to go I can die a good death like his, in a place I love surrounded by family caring for me.  I don’t know that my state of consciousness will have much to do with it.  There is something about love that reaches through all that to envelope the dying person, I think.  Seeing that sort of love at work makes me contemplate my own time of passage with less trepidation.

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August 25, 2006 · 7:37 am

Departures and homecomings

The words of Henri Nouwen in todays meditation seem very appropriate for these days of pending loss of a dear friend from cancer, children moving away for work and school, children just trying out their limits. 

Every time we make the decision to love someone, we open ourselves to great suffering, because those we most love cause us not only great joy but also great pain. The greatest pain comes from leaving. When the child leaves home, when the husband or wife leaves for a long period of time or for good, when the beloved friend departs to another country or dies … the pain of the leaving can tear us apart.

Still, if we want to avoid the suffering of leaving, we will never experience the joy of loving. And love is stronger than fear, life stronger than death, hope stronger than despair. We have to trust that the risk of loving is always worth taking.

Love not only makes the homecomings painful, it makes the reunions sweet.

Leo came home late last night from Ontario.  That is good.

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August 19, 2006 · 8:16 pm

A male multitasker?

Tonight driving home from dinner out, we passed a young man walking along the road.  We all looked at him and then looked a second time.  His ears were plugged into an MP3 player or discman and as he walked he was not looking at the road at all.  He was reading a book. 

I guess he could multi-task! 

I am pretty sure that I would not be able to concentrate on a book well enough to enjoy it and walk at the same time, and then to listen to music at the same time!

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August 17, 2006 · 5:13 pm

I did it!

I have been toying with starting a new adventure.  In the Spring I attended a music event, actually a dance performance by a local group.  As part of the evening they also featured several musicians, obviously not higly experienced, but pretty good.  One of the musicians is a patient of mine so I commented on the performance the next time she was in to see me.  To my surprise, I found out that she had only begun to play the cello recently and was part of a group that got together to play strings for fun and to learn.  I was intriqued.  I love the low tones in music best and have sort of wanted to try something new so I asked about joining the group.  I am going to try learning the double bass.  Yeah.  Those great big things. 

 

On Tuesday I got in contact with the leader of the strings orchestra and rented a half size double bass.  I have been plucking away at it since then.  It will be a challenge but fun.  I think there will be two adults in the beginner group – but I really don’t care.  I just want to learn how to play this beautiful instrument. And as the saleswoman stated when I told her I really was a rank beginner, “One really nice thing about the double bass is that it does not screach when you play it.”

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August 15, 2006 · 9:45 pm

Please – Just two more weeks off?

My vacation is about finished.  Tomorrow it is back to work. This morning I dragged myself out of bed at about 8:30.  That is very late for me and if I do that tomorrow, I will miss about two patients.  I was a patient myself again today and so I had a look at the schedule.  It looks absolutely crazy!  I may have to remind them that I will be back in the next day too so I don’t  have to see everyone the first day back!

The vacation has gone by way too fast.

I think I need another two weeks. 

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