A View from my Window  ~ May 11, 2023

          We just had our last line dancing class until the fall. I enjoy line dancing! It is great exercise and helps me to get a lot of steps in on my phone/pedometer. The people I dance with are a lot of fun too!

          It is also a good workout for my brain. Every dance has different steps. On the Tuesday class Norma, the instructor, usually goes over the step pattern before she turns the music on. But on Thursdays, she just starts the music and we are supposed to remember which pattern it is for that song. Sometimes that can be challenging!

Within a song, the pattern usually includes turning and eventually dancing to all four walls. If we don’t turn correctly, it is quite possible to find yourself facing a different direction from everyone else, unexpectedly. I remember one time when people remembered the pattern differently and we had people facing all four directions and doing different steps all at the same time! We got a good laugh out of that! Then Norma got us re-started and we got it right the next time.

It is fun on “special” days too! At Christmas and Easter, Valentines and St. Patrick’s Days Norma does special music for us. She finds theme-based songs that fit the patterns that we know. It can be challenging though! I know that I associate certain patterns with certain songs and without the song, I can struggle to remember which steps come next. She says that changing it up like that is good for our brains! We have to think more when dancing!

All the songs are different, but sometimes the pattern is similar from one song to the next. So when we turn, do we do a couple of shuffles, or do we walk? Do we start with a rock-step, or a toe-heel? Then there are the times when the “music tells us” that we have to do change things a little, taking out a part of the pattern and starting it over early, or a couple of filler steps until it starts again. Maybe the music is “talking” to Norma, but for me I’m often concentrating on the steps so hard that I’m not really listening to it!

We also have to concentrate. It is too easy to get involved in the song and lose track of where we are in the dance. We get lost in our “happy place” only to discover that we’re facing the opposite direction to everyone else. That can even happen when we know the song really, really well. In fact, sometimes that is when it shows up most often!

It is going to be a lot of fun to try to remember the dances over the next three months until we start again in September. I can try to practice, but sometimes I remember the steps incorrectly and then find out when I return that I’ve been carefully remembering it wrong. But right, or wrong, it’s all good exercise, and now I can look forward to our return next September!

A View from my Window  ~ April 27 2023

         One of the readings for this coming Sunday is about the Christian community that formed in Jerusalem right after Jesus’ Resurrection. It is described as everyone living and working in harmony, each one contributing to the common good so that everyone had enough. It is a wonderful story of how life could be.

But the story doesn’t end there. Someone named Joseph, or Barnabas, sold a field and donated the price of it to the apostles. Everyone was really excited about his generosity. So, another couple named Ananias and his wife Sapphira decided to also sell a field, but they decided to only give part of the money to the apostles. That wasn’t a problem! The field was theirs, and the money they received was also theirs to use as they saw fit. The problem arose when they decided to lie about how much they got. Peter said that they weren’t lying to the apostles, they were lying to God. When Peter said that, Ananias died.  The young men took him out and buried him.  A couple of hours later, his wife Sapphira, not having heard what had happened, came to the apostles and Peter asked how much they had received for the field. She confirmed the lie, so Peter told her what had happened to her husband. She then died too!

In 2 Corinthians 9: 6 Paul writes that “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”  It’s not about how much people give, but how they do it.  Are they giving reluctantly or because they were “guilted” into it? Or are they giving of their time, energy and treasure because that is what they want to do?

The people of the church I serve are working on a take-out dinner today. The planning and ordering of supplies took place months ago. Then there was a meeting to make sure we had all the helpers we needed. There were folks here over the last few days setting up the church for the supper and folks to receive the deliveries and to get the food ready. Today there were people cooking and mixing and filling paper bags with buns and tarts. Everyone is working together, cheerfully giving of their time and energy to feed the people of our community. That is the kind of energy that we hope to have in our churches! Positive and helpful! That is how Jesus wants us to get along with each other, and that is what the Holy Spirit inspires us to be!

So don’t be like Ananias and Sapphira, lying about what we are willing to do, or doing it begrudgingly. Be a cheerful giver, with whatever you have decided, of your time, energy, talents and, yes, your treasure!

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A View from my Window ~ April 13, 2023

        This Sunday is known as Bright Sunday, or Holy Humour Sunday. After all the services and busy-ness of Holy Week, this Sunday is supposed to be a little bit more light-hearted. So this week I get to tell jokes!

         Sometimes it can be a challenge to find ones that are acceptable to tell in church. At times I only have to sanitize them a bit to make them okay, and other times I just have to file them away. Some of them, as a minister, I’m not supposed to “get”, so those go in the “not at this time file”.

         It is brightening up outside too!  I have snowdrops up, as well as crocuses and daffodils. Their bright colours and the grass starting to get green, help to get rid of the browns and greys of the yard once the snow has melted. This weekend is supposed to be quite warm so I’m hoping to get out and do some work in my gardens. I like to leave the “winter interest” from the fall. The seedheads are good for the birds and small animals over the winter, but it means my first task of the spring is to take them down and out to the compost. I’ve already picked up the bits and pieces of garbage that have either blown into my yard, or were hidden in the foliage and are only now easily seen.

         Spring cleaning inside is also on the agenda! Soon it will be time to switch to the lighter bedding, and perhaps to change out some of the winter decorations for ones more suitable for spring and summer. It’s a good time to clean things as well. We have some painting to do but we want to wait for the warmer weather when we can open the windows and let the paint fumes get carried away on the wind.

         Our lives sometimes need some work too! We can take a look around in our heads and see what needs to be cleaned out and wiped away with the cleanser of forgiveness, used judiciously on both ourselves and others. Sometimes we carry old grudges and hurts when we really need to do some spring cleaning and get rid of what we no longer need. We can clean up some of our habits too. As well as getting out to garden, we can start to walk more in the warmer spring weather. It’s interesting to see all the kids starting to ride their bikes, and more people are walking, sometimes as family groups.

         Now that we are into the brightness and colour of spring, we have longer and sunnier days to enjoy. Let’s rejoice with the birds in the morning as they wake us with their cheerful songs!

Hallelujah! Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen indeed!

A View from my Window ~ March 23, 2023

        We are coming closer to the end of Lent. In Latin the word for Lent is Quadragesima, which means Fortieth, a reference to the number of days in Lent. The word Lent comes from an Old English, or Old German word meaning lengthening. It refers to the days in the northern hemisphere becoming longer.

         I’ve definitely noticed that! The first few days after the time change I was getting up in the dark. I don’t mind being woken by the sun, even if it is rather early, but I really dislike having to get up when it is still dark. But now the sun is wakening me even before my alarm goes off. I’m starting to hear a few birds as well. Someone told me the other day that someone they knew had seen a robin. I’m looking forward to seeing my first robin of the year, and not just hearing about it third or fourth hand. I think that poor robin would be finding it pretty slim pickings this early. Most of my lawn is still covered in snow!

         But I have been able to see parts of a few gardens and am pleased to see that the tulips and daffodils are poking their heads up. It will be quite a while before the flowers appear, but the leaves are up several inches. It’s a sign! The snow will eventually go away and the flowers will be here soon. It may feel like a long time since we planted the bulbs last fall, but they were waiting for the snow to disappear and the warmer spring rains to trigger their growth.

         In the northern hemisphere we use such signs of spring as symbols for Easter. Bulbs such as daffodils and tulips, baby chicks and bunnies remind us of new life coming after the cold of winter. But in the southern hemisphere, Easter comes in the fall. The leaves are falling and it is harvest, not planting time. That must make for very different symbols!

         Some fun facts! Did you ever wonder how they figure out when Easter falls? It is always on the first Sunday after the full moon, after the Equinox (Vernal or Spring in the north, and Autumnal Equinox in the south). That means it falls between March 22nd and April 25th.

The day it falls on least is March 22nd, averaging only once every 210 years! It last fell there in 1818 and won’t fall there again until 2285!

The second least used day is April 25th, however, that is only every133 years, on average. It last fell there in 1943 and will be there again in 2038.

Third least used date for Easter goes to March 23rd which is every 106 years on average. It last fell on the 23rd in 2008 and will be there again in 2160.

         Whenever Easter falls, where I live here in Canada it always feels like it should be spring! I know, we do get snow in April, and even in May sometimes, but we know it isn’t going to stay, and the spring flowers are on their way!

A View from my Window ~ March 9 2023

Yesterday was the International Women’s Day. It’s a time to celebrate the achievements of the women of the past, and to see how far we have come. It is also a time to look at what else could still be accomplished.

As a holiday, it began in about 1908 with women seeking the right to vote. Women gained the right to vote in Canada in 1918, after a decade long struggle, but they still couldn’t run for office, because they were not considered to be a person under the law. In 1927 the Supreme Court of Canada deliberated for five weeks, and handed down their verdict that women were not persons under the law. When the Famous Five, women from Alberta, got that verdict, they didn’t stop fighting. They took it to the next Court of Appeal at the time, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Great Britain. Two years later that body ruled that women were indeed persons under the law. In 1930 the first female senator was named in Canada, Cairine Wilson from Quebec. She paved the way for other women to hold various high offices in our society and in the leadership of our country. 

The first female minister in the United Church, Lydia Gruchy, was ordained in 1936, ten years after she had graduated with her Masters of Divinity degree. She applied then to the Presbyterian Church in Canada and was denied because she was a woman. After the United Church was formed in 1925 she applied again and was denied again. Her presbytery persisted and asked for approval for her ordination every two years when the General Council met until they finally agreed that she could be ordained in 1936. I remember going to a special service in Truro, Nova Scotia, when I was a student minister near there in 1986 to celebrate 50 years of ordaining women. Two times in my career I have been the first female minister in the charge I was serving. One gentleman came to see me a few years after I started and told me that he had not believed that women could be ministers, but that he had changed his mind. I was certainly glad to hear that! Lydia and the women like her paved the way for people like me.

There are many stories in the Bible of women who made a difference. Jochebed was the mother of Moses. Shiprah and Puah were the midwives that defied Pharoah’s orders to kill all the boy babies. Paul named many women in his letters that held worship in their homes. There are many women named in the Gospels who were around Jesus during his ministry. Even Pilate’s wife sent word to him during Jesus’ trial asking him to leave Jesus alone. 

We’ve come a long way in our country and we can be proud of that. Other countries have other customs and laws and the rights that we take for granted don’t exist there. We give thanks to God for what we have, and support others in their fight to be considered persons, and to be able to worship in freedom and peace

A View from my Window ~ February 23, 2023

         This week marks the beginning of the church season of Lent. For many of us, we celebrated Pancake Tuesday. Other names for Pancake Tuesday are Mardi Gras, which literally means Fat Tuesday in French and is a time for a big party in some parts of the world.  It is also called Shrove Tuesday which comes from the word “shrive” which means to confess our sins, do penance and to be forgiven.  We might think of it as a spiritual spring cleaning before beginning Lent. 

People sometimes give up something for Lent, and in the past, that something often included baked goods. Pancakes are a great way to get rid of the oil, rising agent, and sweets (in Canada usually maple syrup 😉). In other parts of the world they eat paczkis instead. Both are lovely treats!      

The more solemn beginning to Lent is on Ash Wednesday. The palm branches which were kept from last year’s Palm Sunday (which are very dried out by now) are burnt and combined with olive oil to create a black paste which is used to mark either our hand or our forehead with the sign of the cross. The words that usually accompany the imposition of the ashes are “you are dust, and to dust you shall return”. It is a reminder of our mortality. It is also a reminder of the creation story where Adam was formed from the dust of the earth. It is a sign of penitence and a reminder of our need for salvation. We’re not supposed to wash the ashes off, but are to allow them to wear off. If you ever need to get rid of the ashes I suggest not water, but wiping them with a dry cloth and maybe using some oil or lotion to get the rest off. Ashes and water combine to make lye, which can be very hard on our skin!

Lent itself is 40 days long. If you actually count the days you’ll find that doesn’t get you all the way to Easter. Some people think that Holy Week (the week between Palm Sunday and Easter) doesn’t count but it does! What isn’t counted as a part of Lent are the Sundays, because each one is a “little Easter”. So if you are giving up chocolates, or other sweets for Lent, then you could indulge in them on the Sundays 😋.

Lent is intended as a time of spiritual reflection and preparation for the events of Palm Sunday and Holy Week. On Palm Sunday Jesus entered Jerusalem for the last time to great applause and a cheering crowd. Later that week He was betrayed by one of his friends and killed by the Roman authorities. Three days later, on what we now call Easter Sunday, we believe He was raised from the dead. That is the cornerstone of our Christian faith and why we worship every Sunday as a reminder of our joy in His Resurrection.

This week begins our Lenten journey. It is a solemn time of prayer and preparation so that we more fully appreciate the celebration of Christ’s Resurrection.

A View from my Window February 9 2023

        Last Friday I was driving from Clinton to Kitchener. The weather was really not very nice. Choir had been cancelled due to the falling, drifting and blowing snow the night before, and it wasn’t much better that morning. I drove to the office and got about three to four inches of snow on my vehicle in the three hours I was there. I actually called my Dad and told him I didn’t know if I would be able to get there for supper or not. He was a little surprised, because they had a beautiful sunny day and the roads were dry and clear. Not quite what I was looking at out my window!

         But the snow stopped falling so much and the sun was coming out in the early afternoon so I thought I would give it a try. As I waited to turn onto Highway 8 I watched a big, beautiful brown and tan plow drive in front of me heading east. I very happily tucked in behind it! I wasn’t in any hurry, and that felt like a very safe place to be. I followed him until we got to St. Columban when he pulled off to the side to let us all past him. By then the driving conditions were better and they improved greatly once I got to Stratford.

         I saw a couple of vehicles in the ditch on the way. One was a semi with an open trailer behind him, jackknifed into the ditch. Another vehicle was a pick-up. It didn’t look like it slid, more like it mis-took where the road was and it made a left turn into the ditch. A white SUV went whipping past all of us, including the plow. I half-expected to find them in an accident but I guess they were lucky.

         I found myself thinking about how my trip was kind of like our journey of faith. We don’t always know exactly where we are going. We can follow someone that we hope knows where they are and where they are going, like the plow driver. Maybe that person is Jesus, in which case He certainly does know! Or maybe that person is a more experienced Christian that we trust will help to guide us in the right paths.

         Sometimes we see other people who have landed in the ditches. At times we can look and see what mistakes they have made, which helps us to avoid those errors. But sometimes even the most veteran drivers end up in unexpected places. That can help us to have compassion as we remember that even the most experienced of us can make mistakes.

         I enjoyed the evening with my folks, and then the birthday trip to Ripley’s Aquarium with my family. But I was glad to get safely home again on Saturday evening. Adventures can be fun! But I’m very glad I found that plow to follow in our Huron County winter weather! Here’s praying that we may always find someone for us to follow and to guide us as we go through our life’s journey!

A View from my Window ~ January 19, 2023

        As the new year begins January is a busy month! January is named after the Roman god Janus, who has two faces. One is looking into the past and the other into the future. It is a good time to reflect on what has happened in the past, and to make plans for the upcoming year. Appropriately this is also the time for us to prepare for our Annual Meeting. Many people have been writing reports so that we can have a clear picture of what we did last year. Sometimes it is surprising! We don’t always realize how much we have done until we sit down to add it all up. As we think about what the committees have written it looks like we are almost as busy as we were pre-covid. The church is certainly being well used every day.

         When we balance at the cusp of the year we also need to look into the future. It is a time for planning what we want to accomplish in the upcoming year. Every now and then it is good to step back and take the long view. All too often we are so focussed on what is happening in our present and immediate future that we aren’t looking further than that. That concentration gets us through our days, but can sometimes lead us down paths we would not have followed if we had known where they ultimately led. January is a good time to look further into the future than this week or even this month.

         Sometimes that means that we need to make changes in our daily or weekly routines. At the beginning of Covid, almost three years ago, I began writing A View from my Window as a way of keeping in touch electronically. Since that time it has been shared to both the church’s web and Facebook pages, and has been taken to folks in the nursing homes for their enjoyment as well. It has been a lot of fun writing each week and finding an appropriate picture to go with it. But as the church becomes busier and I have more meetings, it has become harder to find the time to figure out what to write about and then to create it. I have decided to move to writing on the second and fourth weeks of the month, rather than every week. Those weeks tend to have a little more flexibility in my schedule. Of course, if something comes up that I need to write about more urgently, then I will do so.

         I wish everyone all the best in the New Year! Take your Janus time to evaluate your life and to look at how your Christian journey is progressing. Remember to look with hope into your future as you walk with Christ!