Looking Forward to a Bird-Filled Winter

This is our first go at maintaining a bird-feeder out on the deck. We've already attracted enough birds to empty the feeder in a day. There are sparrows, chickadees, cardinals and blue jays as well as a bunch of birds I don't recognize as yet.

I'll be using my "Birds of North America" field guide.

Gender Expression and Gender Identity

There is a bill before parliament right now (bill C-389) that wants to make it a criminal act to discriminate against anyone on the grounds of gender identity or gender expression. If you translate this into real life, having separate washrooms for men and women could be construed as discrimination.

The way I see it, a man is a man and a woman is a woman. The plumbing says it all. We don’t need gender identity imbedded into the Charter of Rights.

Personally I’m not ready to share a washroom with a bunch of men standing at urinals. And I’m sure they don’t want to share that space with me.

I Love My Cat

Isn’t she cute?

Cancerous Thoughts

When you have something physically wrong with you, what is your first thought?

I have a friend who espouses that in this day and age, when we find an unfamiliar spot on our skin or feel a pain, our question becomes, “Is this cancer?”

I didn’t believe her, but now since she presented her theory, every time I suffer any kind of pain, "Is this cancer?" does float across my mind.

There was a spot on my leg. It grew as the months passed. I went to the doctor. She gave me cream for nummular eczema. Is that all?

I burned the roof of my mouth and a blister developed. My mother had mouth cancer which started with blisters in the mouth. Even though I knew my blister developed after burning my mouth with very hot soup, cancerous thoughts attacked me.

My question: Is the fear of cancer a carcinogen?

Where is My Head?

I started preparing supper later than usual because I spent more time than I planned writing.

That’s why I had to cook and stir the pudding while I was cutting the meat and vegetables for the pepper steak.

That’s why I burned the pudding. 

I forgot to take my homemade tomato sauce out of the freezer until I needed it for the recipe. That’s why my pepper steak took longer to cook than usual. I also forgot to cook the noodles until everything else was ready.

That’s why we didn’t sit down to eat until 6:30, an hour later than usual.

“I don’t know where my head is,” I remarked to my husband as I wrestled myself into the present.

“Your heart isn’t in your cooking,” he observed. He doesn’t like eating later than usual.

The truth is my head and my heart were both in writer’s world.

Is It A Wasted Day When…?

• You have writer’s block so you spend the morning of your writing day cleaning your kitchen appliances instead of writing?
• Your appliances are gleaming and you still have writer’s block?
• Your husband looks at your appliances and only notices the spot you forgot to gleam?
• You try to have your daughter’s camera fixed, but Black’s (where you bought it) won’t send it in because their computer is down and they won’t let you leave the camera there because the paper you have to sign isn’t available because the computer is down?
• You go to Old Navy for socks for yourself and end up with men’s socks because they only have anklets and big fuzzy warm socks and men’s socks and you don’t want to go to another store just for socks?
• You go to three different places looking for picture frames and none of these place have frames in the size or style you want?
• You go back to Black’s and their computer is still down?
• … you go home with something to write about?

We Were Hoping for a Toboggan Hill

We’re losing the soccer fields across the road. We’re getting four improved ball diamonds a parking lot and a new playground.

And on the other side of the park, instead of a school, we’ll have a row of homes. 

Should We Take Our Cat to Church?

On Sunday I came home from church to find my glasses case—which I had left in perfectly good condition on my dresser beside my bed—on the floor at the top of the stairs battered and chewed.

 

Why Believer’s Children Go to Church (or Don’t)

Do you know the main reason children of believers continue to go to church after they have left the family home?

According to Professor John Bowen’s research based on 333 interviews of young people who grew up Christian it’s not because of the church or the people.
 
The main reason children of believers go to church is because they have a relationship with God.

The main reason children of believers, who don’t go to church, don’t go to church is because of the church (not because they have given up on God).

Professor John Bowen, Associate Professor of Evangelism at Wycliffe College (University of Toronto) and Director of the Wycliffe College Institute of Evangelism, has written a book called, “Growing up Christian: Why Young People Stay in Church, Leave Church and (Sometimes) Come Back to Church.

My conclusion: let’s always meet God at church.

Ants Before the Storm

According to my plumber when ants invade the home, you know there is a storming coming.

These ants came to my house.

I spent a week feeding them ant killer.

A storm came.

They disappeared.

Conclusions:

1) Ant killer works.

2) Plumbers know things.

Worshipping the Worship

We had the most awesome time at church on Sunday evening. A troop of First Nations musicians took over the platform at church. This wasn’t a performance—simply three hours of pure worship, genuine let’s get together and worship.

Chairs were set out in three rows around the room. The centre of the sanctuary became the dance floor. We danced to the drumbeat. We danced with flags and enthusiasm and love for God and with each other.

Three hours flew by.

But, there was something wrong—there was something wrong with me. I was worshipping the worship. I was so busy doing this, I hardly took time to connect with God.