Reframing Weakness

Spent some time at the lake house this past weekend. Was able to sit here on the north side of the house where I sat so many times and had coffee with Mom. It was her who told me, "get some chairs and your coffee - we can sit on the deck over here, this...

Feelings are not facts…

Part of my job at the Pregnancy Care Centre for many years was talking about grief. Whether it was working with a client through her journey of pregnancy loss or training volunteers to do the same, I’m likely more familiar with the grieving process than many. You’ve likely heard about the five stages of grief...

Love One Another

Last week, here in Alberta where I live, a new round of COVID restrictions was announced by government. These included all K-12 students learning from home until May 25th, businesses being reduced to 10% capacity and places of worship being restricted to 15 people. These are some of the tightest restrictions we've had here since...

What Grief Looks Like

I threw out the funeral flowers today. I got home from work today, feeling a little wobbly. Feeling like if I stopped, if I sat down and let myself feel all the things, it was probably not going to be good. So, I took a few minutes, let go of a few of the tears,...

Scars

I think it's probably fair to say that most people have scars of some sort. I have a mark on my right leg from an unfortunate incident with a lightning rod when I was a kid. It wasn't a big deal, but it left a scar and a remembrance. Looking at that scar, I remember...

Resiliency

The last day of 2020. Wow. Who would have expected the year that we've had when we stood on the precipice of it last year this time? To say that it has been a year of change would be an understatement. It definitely has been in our household. In addition to all of the changes...

Making Room

To say that Christmas looked different this year might be one of the understatements of the year. That being said, I've loved seeing so many posts online of families celebrating in new, smaller ways. Our Christmas definitely looked different than it usually does. As an extended family of 40, you can imagine the noise and...

When Faith is Work

One of the classes I took last year at Briercrest Seminary was on spiritual formation and included a detailed look at a number of different spiritual disciplines - prayer, solitude, fasting, etc. Parts of the Christian walk that require intentional time and effort. Practices that require discipline. It can be hard to associate the word...

Holy Ground

"I don't understand why I can't do it - I've done harder things than this. Why can't I do just dig deeper and do it?" These were my words to my husband over the past few weeks, generally delivered amidst tears, sometimes sobs, always in frustration. Tired, worn out and just frustrated. Have you ever...

Finding Fresh Air and New Life at the Lord’s Table

Growing up in the church, the Lord's Supper has always been a part of my life. The tradition I grew up in dictated that participation in the Lord's Supper (also referred to as Communion or Eucharist) began after a public profession of faith, and for me that was at the age of 18. In the...