My friend Lorraine and I stood outside gazing at the night sky filled with a million stars shining and twinkling brightly against the darkness. The air was brisk and cold but we were bundled up in our parkas and snow pants, hoods over our toques, scarves wrapped around our necks and covering our mouths, warm boots on our feet and woollen mittens on our hands so we didn’t notice how cold it was out there…
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My son is named Raven and so people often send me anything and everything that comes across their feed that has to do with corvids. And so, I was reading about crows recently (as one does) and I was moved by the concept of a scarecrow…
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In today’s reading from Psalm 85:10-13, the poet describes the divine forces of love, faithfulness, righteousness, and peace all reaching out for one another from every which way, meeting in a surprising collision that results in the healing of the land and paves the way for the arrival of the Messiah…
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At the Ancaster Fair this past Fall I walked past one of those crazy mirrors that distorts everything. Among several ways it changed reality was to make me look thirty pounds lighter. I liked that. But it also made me five feet taller and distorted my body to look like a wavy spaghetti noodle incapable of existence…
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I find the Christmas season is hard to untangle as a pastor, as a mom, and really just as a person. So many of our cultural customs have faith stories conflated with consumerism. I love how Christmas lights interrupt the darkness of our shortest days…
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Perhaps after reading today’s lectionary, you were like me: uncertain of how to frame your thoughts and reflections in a way that would encompass compassion, hope, generosity, and love, considering the current political climate…
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One of our farm chores that often falls to me is closing the animals up at night. As I wrap up my work and shut down my computer, the brightness of its screen gives way to my dark walk out under the stars to close up the chicken coop and ensure all of our animals have what they need for the night…
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Welcome to the sixth annual New Leaf Advent Reader. I am so excited to share this collection of reflections with you! In 2018, when we put out our first set of daily reflections, I felt like I was leveraging the whole network to find people willing to write a reflection for this unknown project…
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We have arrived at the end of this year’s Advent journey. We appreciated your joining with us as we navigated the Known and Unknowns of our Advent experiences. Even as the lectionary readings move from the apocalyptic and mysterious to the familiar Christmas narrative, there are still mysteries that linger…
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As you read this, there's a good chance I'm currently trudging through boot-high snow with my arms weighed down by wrapped packages and Christmas treats. I'll also likely be shivering and complaining about the cold wind lifting the hairs on my neck. I'll be putting on a brave face, mustering up some deep courage, and tilting my head back every so slightly so my salty tears go back from where they came…
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Recently, my job of 18 years with the Free Methodist Church in Canada ended. The process of leaving my role has included many little moments that remind me that this is really happening. And it's all permanent. As I write this reflection, the IT department is removing my email access. I will no longer be receiving emails at that work address. Of course, I have other email addresses. Just not that one anymore. I’ve just finished a stretch of other lasts: last staff meetings, last leadership team meetings, last board meetings, last ministers conferences, etc…
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Over the last few years I've been learning how to form, shape, and work with clay. Immediately after reading the passages that were assigned to me, I sat down at the wheel. Some of you may know nothing about working with clay, and that’s totally fine, but for me, this is one of the times that my brain is actually quiet…
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Linger in the final moments of this season's Advent journey with a deep breath...and exhale. Pause this morning, noon, or evening to listen intently to the way your body feels in this moment. What do you sense? Smell? Hear? Feel? How are you holding the Christmas hustle? The seasonal blues? The pandemic woes? Exhale. Exhale a deep breath as it disappears into a frigid Canadian winter's eve…
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Growing up, I had all kinds of expectations about what my life would look like at certain ages and stages. I remember going to university to major in psychology and minor in music. As time went on in my studies, it became evident that my real love was music, and I graduated with a music major and a psychology minor. Not exactly what I had planned for…
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“Let’s rule out cancer,” echoed in my head as I sat in the waiting room. I had just left my OB-GYN’s office with instructions to get a blood test and an ultrasound. What had started out as a month of spotting (not unusual for me) led to a second month of heavy to excessive bleeding. I’d never been so scared in my life as my mind raced with what-if scenarios about surgery and chemotherapy…
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This day has been dark and gloomy. My window was enveloped in fog when I got up this morning. I could barely see the building next door. For some of us, this would have been a depressing day. But as I prayed and looked intently into the blanket of fog, I saw a vision of a little girl grabbing onto the right hand of Jesus…
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He’s usually in the background. If the kids in your church are putting on a nativity play, it’s one of the minor roles. He might lead the donkey; maybe he asks the innkeeper a question or two, but he’s a supporting character at best. This guy is never front and centre in the Christmas story. Most of the time, it seems like he’s just along for the ride…
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Recently, one of my children began his first year in a post-secondary school. We decided to have him live on campus because it was more than an hour's drive from where we live. I remember back in the summer, as he was mentally preparing for this next stage of life, I would often hear him say, “When I move out...” It was an interesting set of words that he chose…
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Family gathering is a gift and something that I have taken for granted. Although much of my extended family lives in Toronto, we have not seen one another in almost three years. Both the restrictions and our cautious COVID practice meant our gatherings have been mostly virtual and not with the whole entirety of the family…
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