I was honoured to be invited to speak at Glencairn Church (sister church to my home church WMB) a couple of weekends ago.  

It is a privilege to have been asked by Forward Church to facilitate their upcoming women's retreat day in October! I have found myself drawn into beautiful Scriptures and prayer exercises that help me to "Look Up"! I have been re-discovering how God first looks for me and pursues me, who He really is, his invitation for me "look up" and how that draws me to being more compassionate as I "look out" at the world. ​

Just put the finishing touches on the module I teach for this wonderful organization. I get to teach on spiritual rhythms and love being able to facilitate this day of teaching and retreat for these women leaders!

"

A girl and her guy got married yesterday
They found the one their hearts each love
And soaking wet with the October rain
Scorning the cold and the wind
They warmed up the room with sloppy-wet love
Coiffed hair... done
Suit jacket... gone
Just a naked joy in being with their tribe
Who came to cheer and witness and raise a glass or two
Hopeful in the birth of another wee family
Wrapped cocoon-like in the terrycloth-warm moments

​Before grabbing suitcases and jacket
And venturing out on the soaked serpentine road
To their own unknowable future
Carrying the little love they have accumulated thus far
And trusting in the capital "L" Love that surrounds them
To saturate and fill and enmesh the two
Into one

my neighbour's magnolia bursts pink joy
furiously into the street
the one I dug deep into dirt stubborn in its refusal
to bloom
or to die
nine Mays of hopes unrealized
(I place that much weight on spring beauty)
that I nearly walked right by the one blossom
one tulipy rose-coloured cup
in a sea of space between twig
that empty room awaiting its leafy annual guests
beauty jarring me into the reality
of this palm-sized miracle
that few (no one?) but me would care about

how like the gift of heart-kinship
that startles with unexpected colour
in that friend that appeared so suddenly
so out of place
filling a space that merely existed
but now shimmers with iridescent light
the brightness of joy to lighten and sharpen
and proclaim how I am not overlooked or alone


(May 2017)

​this page is so beautiful
soft white
untarnished
by the mess that is life
no dog-ears here
no eraser marks
​or scratched-out bits

just wide open room
for words that breathe life into the smoky-haze of noise and death all around
I wrap my Elsket scarf around my head and ears
     to shield me, to lead me
     to cause me to be in ways that whisper my 
     Belovedness
     like a distant tune heard by everyone
     that is somehow familiar, yet forgotten
     that pulls the corners of the mouth upward
     where lightness weighs more heavy than worry
     and joy permeates like moonlight on snow
     and creativity falls like confetti flakes released from grey sky blanket
     and love pours out in a hundred secret ways


Dec 30, 2016 - Elsket is one of several Norwegian words for love. I do not speak Norwegian, but my understanding of the term, is that is indicates the a very deep, intimate form of love, such as that expressed between spouses, or between a person and God.