Great Songs

Tonight Halifax had the pleasure of a free concert in the Grand Parade; the band -Great Big Sea! 
Although it was damp cold out, snowing, with ice or mud on the ground, spirits were high.  What a great concert.

 Great Big Sea's songs are catchy and say a lot about Canadian spirit and identity -particularly on the East Coast.  What filled the night with grace was hearing 1000's of people sing together, united in one voice, not one song or two songs but almost all the songs.  To sing means to express the emotions of being human and in adding your voice with that of others you are united in the lifting of each others' spirits. That is grace...and a good time.

the heart

There have been a number of scares over the past couple of days for myself and my husband.  We are both truly grateful to be alive -that our hearts are well and pumping.
Life is today's grace; for without life there would not be other graces to find, see, and experience.
Here is to many more days of life, grace, and love.


God, thank-you for the Spirit and breath of life. Amen.
Today my valentine goes to you.

Massage

There is something to be said for gifted hands.  Have you ever had a full body massage?  I had my first full body massage while on retreat at White Point. For an hour, lying on a hot pad wrapped massage bed under warmed sheets.  It felt so wonderful.
It is weird though: I slept for the rest of the afternoon -which was lovely; beginning last night legs and arms started to fall asleep, back of neck tingle a bit...my arms still a little tingly.What is weird my body feels relaxed despite being prickly.  I have found grace today in feeling my skin, in feeling muscles and where tightness is no longer, and in being able to stretch farther during Pilates.
If you are gifted with beautiful hands please share them with the world.  They are very powerful and unlock grace in the world. Thank-you for those who do share their God given gift!

A Prayer -hopefully to have one become more gracefilled

God,
Thank-you for the hope within me that every day I can be closer to what You would have me be.
please keep me faithful to the task.  Amen.

How To Be Alone

large chunks of time

My day was split into large chunks of time: 2hr of Scrabble with a friend, 3hr of walk and project with son, movie with husband, 3hr of quilt making for daughter. All these activities were focused different and grace giving - so mich so that exhaustion has set in. There will be grace in falling asleep quickly!

beating cold weather

Today was a hard day to go running.  The air is wintery and colder than we have experienced in a long time. I ran 11 km.  Not only did the air clean out the lungs, talking along the way with a friend stretched my lungs, and on reaching home the cold was enough to start a warming of the whole body when coming inside.  I am alive! Grace.

a stay-cation but not at home

Fri. night and Sat. night my husband and I stay-cationed in our home town.  We had theatre tickets already and he had a work supper one night.  Applause points from his work gave us a night at a four star unique hotel in an old  home.  Supper at their exclusive restaurant, a walk through the art gallery, lunch at a local Canadiana coffee house, and lots of relaxation in a puffy bed and butterfly arm chairs.
Relaxation is a fantastic grace!
What a way to spend the coldest days so far this winter!
The other grace, loving someone more today than yesterday and not as much as tomorrow. 

with the name Grace

Have  you ever noticed how many churches and chapels are named Grace?  Today I am wondering if these communities are full of grace; if when people visit they experience grace; if a community would name them grace if they didn't know the community's names?
It would be a wonderful thing if places were named according to their gifts.  That way when people went looking for grace, they went to Grace; looking for hope -go to Hope; for Resurrection -go to Resurrection.
The church community with whom I serve is called Resurrection.  Are we living our name?  Are we a symbol, a presense of Resurrection?

Martin Luther Does the Chicken Dance

having a cold

There is grace to be found in a cold.  On Monday it was a great excuse to curl up with a book by the fire, drink lots of warm liquids, and spend the afternoon with the kitty cat.  Lovely!!!