I belong to a very small Circle in southern Ontario. Our members are so geographically spread out that we meet only 4 times per year. At every meeting we raise some Circle funds through our “Books for a Loonie” (translation: you can buy the gently used books we bring for one dollar each) and other…
Weekly, my trip to the heart of the city includes an 8-block walk along a major city street. There are “regulars” on every block holding out cups and signs with some version of the “cold, tired and hungry” message. They wear their hard lives on their faces, and keep all their worldly possessions stacked around…
If I were to start a career as a rapper, I would choose the handle R.K.IK, pronounced archaic. That reflects how I feel when I meet the next best thing in technology. Whatever I am trying to learn to do, my limitations are clear. My thumbs won’t tap fast enough, software never feels intuitive, I…
November is a good month to be thinking about peace. November 11, 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the end of World War 1 – the war that H.G. Wells called “war to end all wars”. Clearly it was not that. At sunset on the 100th anniversary, in Canada, bells will ring 100 times from…
You can’t miss it when you drive down the street in Brookhaven MS. The large Maltese Cross on the upper side of The King’s Daughters Medical Center is visible, welcoming and identifying. The KDS founders knew that “the sign we wear” would help people find us and learn more about us. It was designed to…
I love the fall season. As child it meant a new outfit for school, new pencils and best of all, new books. As adult I find a sense of renewal in the fall. Fall feels like the start of a new year to me. The harvest is in, the wind is cool, and all living…
I don’t mind waiting. It doesn’t frustrate me to be in a line at the grocery store, the gas station, or the doctor’s office, for example. That’s time I gain to think undisturbed by phones, computers, devices, or people. I choose not to use express lines at the grocery store because “express” is a code…
My Fitbit congratulated me on having walked 1,869 miles or, as we say in Canadian-speak 4,111 kilometres. Evidently that is equivalent to walking the length of Japan. Before you get too excited, please know that I have had this Fitbit for several years and, in fact, have almost worn out the band. Still, it is…
Over the past five months, your Internship Development Committee has been working hard to create unpaid, for-credit internship opportunities for college age students. This is a new program for us, so the learning curve has been steep. There are labour rules, college and university internship standards and requirements, and logistical and budgetary information to absorb.…
The General Convention 2018 Call went out to all of our members this week. Along with it were the supporting documents – registration form, 2 sets of bylaws and 2 slates of nominees for leadership position. That’s just 5 documents. But, those 5 documents represent at least 500 hours of work by our members. Starting…
When we lived in Greely, Ontario we belonged to a small church. It didn’t stay small for long as God blessed the work of the pastor and all the leaders, bringing in many seekers. There were many reasons for this growth but one of the strangest was folks who had read our church signs and…
Last week, Theresa May, Prime Minster of Great Britain, announced a new government position – the Minister of Loneliness. A Minister, not in the religious sense of the word, is the British equivalent of a US Secretary. This was a startling announcement! I assumed she would launch into a description of the elderly population in…
I have often wondered if there is a connection between the climate one grows up in and the character of the people who live in it. There must be a reason that we often ascribe attributes to groups of people – the hardiness of the north-easterners, the hospitality of southerners, or the grit of the…
I have no objection to the concept of re-gifting. I don’t mind receiving a gift that was first given to another. And, from time to time, I re-gift to others. I recently found a scarf, unopened and unused, that I thought was perfect for my friend so I gave it to her. When I think…
My son has a virtual reality system. To play, you put on an eye mask that looks like overgrown ski goggles. Then the headphones come next. Your mind accepts what is not real which is one of the reasons that no one is allowed to play with this system unsupervised. It is a wondrous thing…