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!!!

The hidden messages in water!

outside looking in

The past few weeks have been an up and down roller coaster of emotions.  Life at home, with a daughter having left on bad terms, has been surreal.  Home life is much better and the relationship's in the house are growing however, emotions and worry for the one not here is great. 
The biggest grace experienced over this time was from the oldest's boyfriend.  He joined us for New Year's, spending the night.  He watched the Rose Bowl Parade with us (his first time ever seeing it).  We took him T.V. shopping and paid the unexpected environment disposal tax.  It was commented that he only wished he had a family like ours.
 Perspective is a grace; one that many of us do not fully appreciate as many of us have never lived from a place of real darkness.  Here is to one who lived in darkness and has been graced with perspective.

Canada Games Oval

There is nothing more Canadian than grabbing a pair of skates and heading off to an outdoor rink; in Halifax this winter it is a 400m oval on the Commons. To skate around and around with people of all degrees of ability, being blustered by wind on the North side,and enjoy the laughter and comments being made -there is nothing to compare. These are the simpler pleasures -grace- that makes winter tolerable. After starting to sweat, while the nose is cold, one begins to enter oneself no matter how many are on the ice. One's brain does a dance of working out pieces of gathered information and day dreams. The farther one skates the freer one becomes and the more grace is experienced. At 30 x 400m there was a lot of grace.

John1:1-20

"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God."
These words take on a new meaning when one looks at the work Dr.Masura Emoto is doing with "words of intent". His work involves finding the mystery of water. He experiments with words, music, or pictures directed at water, which is then frozen and viewed through magnification. Words like love and gratitude create beautiful crystals; the negative in any form causes water not to crystalize.
John's image of God in Word is quantum theory. Add this to speaking words of intent -God- and the world is given the gift, mystery, God-with-us, to heal the world and bring God's creation into God's vision. This vision is hope, love, peace,
joy.

"nothing beats the grace of a well thrown rock."  -from the movie "Men With Brooms"
 Or perhaps it is is watching the movie with ones family and everyone laughing.