Oh, Hello September

Woah - Hello September! When did you arrive?

September will always feel like "back to school" time. Time to bring out the pants and socks, the new notebooks, the pens and the backpacks. Time to leave the flexible summer days behind and enter into the schedule filled with school, extra-curricular activities, and youth group. It's time for packed lunches, late night paper writing, Saturday sleep-ins and life being organized by the agenda book.

For the second year, September does not have me going back to school (although late-fall may see an online course). September now means cooler days, a more relaxed schedule and the next set of projects and deadlines approaching alongside a very full schedule. September still has the joy of bringing out the fall wardrobe (I'm one of those people who love fall and winter clothes!) and doing some preparations for children and youth ministry in the church... which is sort of like school preparations!

My work has the summer months as the most full and most busy months of the year. The summer months are filled with some of the most joyful and holy days as people gather together to form community, to pray, to play and to learn. Which means that when the fall days come I have both a more relaxed and more flexible schedule alongside a more full schedule as commitments beyond Sorrento Centre come back to life and the meeting commitments I have made fill up many days and weeks of the year.

At the Cathedral everything starts up again in September: Sunday School, Youth Group, Young Adults, Staff Meetings, Bible Study, Parish Dinners, and the list goes on and on and on! And I am so excited and so ready to continue the planning and get back in touch with everyone. Alongside this my National Church commitments begin again: meetings, readings, writing, gatherings, traveling. There is much new for this year, namely - heading off to the World Council of Churches in South Korea as one of the handful of delegates representing the Anglican Church of Canada. Excited. Terrified. Honoured.

For me, the fall days also are the days when I get back into my cooking and preparing of meals. And I love cooking and baking - so when the time comes for me to get back into the kitchen I find myself filled with peace.

Fall means planning, traveling, preparing, cooking, resting.
Fall means new challenges and opportunities.
So, as much as I am surprised that September has already arrived I am also so very ready for it!

Ten on Tuesday

Moss... Moss amazes me

1. I miss having my brothers and sisters here. I miss the laughter, the energy, the moments of deep love and compassion between siblings. I even miss all the dishes - dishwashing was the pocket of time for me to think, breathe and pray. And most of all, I miss being able to *show* them just how much they are loved.

2. I may miss them but I'm also very much content with the current quietness that exists in my house.

3. After being away for almost the whole day I find myself thankful for friends from faraway, sherbet, television that does not require me to think and tea.

4. I sat down last night with my journal and the "Writing to God: 40 days of praying with my pen" book I've been working through and read "Monday of Holy Week" and sat there for five minutes in disbelief that we're already in Holy Week.

5. I was the narrator for the shared Gospel Reading on Sunday and when the congregation replied/shouted (twice) "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" I was sure that I was going to either a) burst into tears or b) fall over. There was something powerful and terrifying about having that shouted out around me: sides, front and back. I wonder... I wonder how Jesus felt.

6. Along with not being able to believe that Holy Week is here I can't believe that Easter will be here this weekend.

Sun shinning through the trees at Paul Lake

7. I have so much school work to do right now and almost no motivation to do it. Let's hope my interest comes back when I sit down and actually force myself to sit, read, research and write. And yet that is part of the scary part... I'll end up so focused and excited about my research and writing that I won't want to stop.

8. I'm so very thankful for community. For a community where I am loved, accepted and supported on my good and focused days and on my grumpy, close to tears and exhausted days. Community sustains me, especially the community that is grounded in faith and God's love.

9. The daffodils have been blooming at the Cathedral for probably almost two weeks now... it's a sign of new life a reminder of the resurrection story.


10. My hope for this Easter is that I will look at the world with refreshed and reenergized eyes.

Time for Creativity

Sometimes you just need to have your soul fully, delicately, and wonderfully filled. And sometimes you don't even know that it's what the deepest depths of your soul needs, but when the opportunity comes those deep depths of yourself just soak it all up.

This past Wednesday the staff at the Cathedral gathered to decorate Easter Eggs. This time to explore and be reminded of the creative side within me was just what I needed, it was just what we all needed.



Of course, the problem now is figuring out how to move from being creative to paper writing... or maybe accepting the creativity that can and should exist within the words on a page, yes even in academic papers!

But as this week ends and we soon begin the journey through Holy Week the opportunity to explore my creative side once again and engage in some repetitive and delicate work with good company filled with creativity and laughter is feeding me.

Christmas Day Thankfulness

The long awaited for Christmas Day is coming to an end. My eyes are asking, "when is bed time?". My mind is asking, "how much longer can the kids who stayed up until 3:45am and woke up at 6:30am stay awake? When will the adrenaline from the excitement die down?" It's the beauty of having brothers and sisters who are still 8, 10 and 12 years old. The excitement is so present. 

As they sit playing a game and try to figure out new pieces of technology and I've opened every near impossible plastic case and read every set of instructions they still sit engaged and excited. And I sit here enjoying a pause in the evening and enjoy a cup of tea. Dad and Wesley are sleeping (I took my nap this afternoon!), Sara has gone to spend time with her boyfriend in Kamloops, Stewart is working and Deana wasn't home this year but is with her boyfriend and his family in Edmonton. 

We've enjoyed a Christmas feast and I even managed to shepherded the kids into helping clean up dinner and Christmas Day craziness. I've still got the talent!

After a very long December I've been thinking of what I am thankful for. Here is a start:

- My loving family. We're spread out and things are a bit different these days but they are all still beyond amazing! 

- Christmas Eve worship. The celebration of Jesus' birth with good friends and amazing worship leadership. It's an extension of my family, it's the community where I feel safe. 

- My role as a sheep in the Cathedral Nativity Play, my two year old "buddy"who gets so excited when she sees me... it makes my day every time I see her! We were sheep together!

- Aaron narrating for me the game he is playing on his DS

- Taylor and Rhys sitting on the couch together, helping one another figure out the unknowns of an itouch

- Sara's willingness to stay around and help with the clean-up before taking off

- The many phone conversations with Deana, distance may separate us but we talk oh-so-much!

- The love Stewart has for his brothers and sisters... he can't hide it!

- Wesley's humor, hardworking and caring self. 

Obviously there is lots more that I am thankful for on this Christmas Day. Maybe it is a good idea for us all to take some time to remember all the things we are blessed with. 

Merry Christmas my friends. May God bless you this day and all the days to come.