Lessons From The Seasons

Finally the good weather is starting to show up. Our group is feeling the pull in many directions. There are end of season recitals, start of season soccer games, family visits that didn’t happen in winter weather, the call of the open road…

Last Sunday a few of us went to a local nursery. Oh the pansies! Forty varieties of day lilly! Lavender and sage and racks and racks of seeds! It was wonderful. We sat by the fountain and listened to the spring sounds. We thought about the sacredness of creation. We meditated on all the lessons of the peace lily. We imagined future garden projects. We looked forward to even warmer days and more sunshine.

The plaque on the fountain invited us to “learn the lessons the season can teach us.” I’ve thought about this in the days since Sunday. Our planning group also met this week to work on our calendar for the next quarter. Where? What? When? Who? Oh the questions were flying about. Some had answers; some didn’t. But that’s OK. I was reminded to think about the lessons we’ve learned in the year we’ve come through. Some of those lessons learned from the seasons.

Everybody brings what they can. It takes us all to do the work. But not all at once. Some things won’t get done. Or, plans will change when one (or more) of those “W questions” don’t work out. We won’t fall apart if plans change. We need to stay in touch with each other and not be apart for too long. But if we need to take a trip, or a day off, or just need to say “No” it doesn’t mean forever. We’ll be back when the sun shines.

We have much to celebrate and we’re putting celebrations into our calendar. We’ll also allow time for rest. So there will be spaces but we’ll try to keep communication lines open. Drop into the Foyer for news any time.

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How To Be Resurrection People

8 Mitchell Street long ago

8 Mitchell Street a year ago

8 Mitchell Street now

It’s been a year since we walked away from our church building on Mitchell street. Some of us went kicking and screaming. Oh not literally, but certainly it was really, really hard. None of us made the move easily. It is hard to face death. And any way you look at it, we were facing a death.

Our congregation had met for generations in that building. It was a big part of the identity for children who had grown up there. They gathered on Sundays got married there, brought their children to be blessed and grew old with their families around them. Many of us could look back at memories like this. As with any life nearing its end, we focused on those happy memories and we hung on to life as we’d known it forever.

But it was time to let it go. It was not what it had been. And we spent far too long clinging to what had been. It was time to imagine ourselves into a new future. It was time for a new life with new energy and new vision. It was time to become Resurrection people.


We’d been listening to sermons about the Easter event, the resurrection of Jesus for all those generations. It was time to take the message to heart. To test our belief. To see what it really means to lay down that old life, take up our cross and pass through the experience of death and move on.

This week, they knocked down our old building. While there was some sadness, it’s not the sadness that marks our identity this Easter week. Because we have been resurrected to new life. We’re almost a year into our new being. We’ve had fun imagining ideas like buying a bus and painting a sign “Nomads for Jesus” on the side as we drive around to pick up members wherever they live, chatting and singing along our route to drop them off again.

We never did that though it’s still a possibility. Anything is possible to this group watching for ways to be real in and for this neigbourhood. Our eyes are fixed firmly on the future and what we can do to make it the best it can be for our neighbours. After all, and finally, we are Resurrection people!

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Being In Community

You’ve no doubt heard the illustration of the people in a mad rush to pull babies out of the river. They call others to come, set up rescue chains and look for more resources to help with their urgent task. Until some one, eventually, realizes the need to go upstream to stop whoever is throwing babies in the river!

Last Sunday we had a guest. Karyn Kirkwood, the executive director of the Children’s Foundation of Guelph Wellington came to share some of her experiences with the various programs and projects benefiting the children of our community. She spoke about little children who come early to school for breakfast they don’t have at home. She told of school principals who tell her that it’s the breakfast program that KEEPs many youth coming to school who would otherwise have quit! She shared lots about Adopt a Family and the summer camping benefits. She reminded us of those inevitable questions “What did you do for summer vacation?” or “What did Santa bring?” Hundreds of children who didn’t used to, now have answers to share.

She came to thank us for our fourteen years and thousands of dollars of support for these and various food programs, but expanding through the years to include others. One important thing we learned was the number of other groups, organizations and partners collaborating with them. We are certainly not alone in our belief in the importance of investing in the children of the community. Remember? Look for the helpers when there’s a BIG task to be done. We are grateful to live in a community with so many helpers!

We are grateful for all these people who have made it their business to keep those babies out of the river. And we count it as part of our mission to pursue peace to be involved with this great organization and all the staff and volunteers. Do look to the list of links at the bottom of the page to learn more about them—our partners for more than fourteen years.

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Stepping Up

Energy levels ebb and flow. When we feel a bit low someone else in the group will step up. This week was one of those times.

Thanks to all the step uppers…the steppers up…the up steppers.

That’s how it works in community.

Thanks to all those who stepped up.

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Day Off

I recall driving to church on Sunday mornings in my childhood. We’d go past many fields where our neigbhours were out in their fields, ploughing or cultivating, even harvesting. I would always feel sad (or lucky) that they had to work while our family got the day off to go to church.

Even in times when the rest of the week we were hurrying to complete whatever task the season called for, my dad always said “There will be time.” And as far as I can remember, there always was.

Now that I’m retired and every day is a “day off” I still feel something missing if I don’t have that time to be heading down the road to church. This week we were contending with ice, so we wisely avoided the road. And we don’t feel the least bit guilty. We’re not so foolish to believe that the mere act of getting to church is some kind of rule or commandment to be obeyed.

But there is something about being together, about the chance for mindfulness about the values that unite us, even the notion that “where two or three are gathered” the feeling of Jesus in our midst is there.

If someone needs to miss this gathering time for extended periods there is real joy when they return. We hope never to shame those who’ve missed meeting, only real rejoicing when we see them again. We try to make this one essential characteristic of our little group. If you ever want to drop in, know you’ll be welcomed with love as we scooch over to make room for you in our circle.