Thinking Backwards: Thoughts on Luke 6
By May Thiessen I volunteer with a children’s program each week. Lately we’ve been looking at the teachings of Jesus, and specifically, we’ve been working at memorizing the Beatitudes. I was telling the children that in many ways, Jesus says things that seem to be backward compared to the way we’d normally do or say things. After all, the Beatitudes start, “Happy are the poor (Blessed are the poor in spirit)… Happy are the sad (Blessed are those that mourn)… Happy are you when people pick on you because you want to do what is right (Blessed are those who are persecuted…
Read MoreSisterhood
By Lisa Gillies Sisterhood, what a beautiful word: connecting, bonding, sharing, encouraging, and so much more. This past February was my first time at the Sister Triangle Retreat; what an honour it was. We learned or were reminded that we might not be okay, and that is, okay. We are enough. To be a light wherever we go, and we may never know what others may be going through, but we can stand together. I was amazed when listening to others share, yes, I understood, I have been there. And the songs that were chosen, how they ministered to so…
Read MoreClimbing
By Katelyn Pippus When I was little, one of my favourite ways to spend an afternoon was playing on the sandstone rock formations outside of Roche Percee, Saskatchewan. The rocks had been weathered and worn over time presenting the perfect spot for a prairie girl to pretend she was a mountain climber. I remember the first time mom and dad took me to the rocks and I got to clamber through the caves. Climbing at the rocks became a fall tradition for my family. Every time we went climbing, dad would show off how he could climb and jump between the…
Read MoreMy Uncle’s Passing
By Sheena Koops I remember Christmas, must have been 1987. My Uncle Jelsing and Auntie Sheena, their three boys, and a tag-along-friend-of-the-family came to the farm for Christmas. The young man, like a brother to my cousins, was Michael Koops from Victoria, BC. This young guy, my cousin, and I walked over the prairie into the Souris Valley, sometimes knee deep in snow, pretending we were on a quest. We watched movies; we sang carols, we played games: my cousins and this tall, dark and handsome friend-of-the-family. In August of 1989, I married that guy. Three daughters later, my Uncle and Auntie consider our girls their granddaughters, because they…
Read MoreSufficient Unto the Day
By Mary Muirhead Caller: (cheerfully penitent) I’m sorry I haven’t called to arrange this sooner, but things have been kinda crazy around here. . . . Receiver: (with acceptance) We can still get it done. I’ll have to make some adjustments to the schedule, move things around, but I’m sure Overheard on My Phone or “She hasn’t got back to me.” Caller: (cheerfully penitent) I’m sorry I haven’t called to arrange this sooner, but things have been kinda crazy around here . . . . Receiver: (with acceptance) We can still get it done. I’ll have to make some changes, move things around, but I’m sure we can still make…
Read MorePerfect
By Sara Pippus An empty canvas sits in my closet. It’s wrapped in clear plastic, as pristine as the day I bought it several months ago. The canvas is blank and white. It is standing next to several others- let’s not talk about how many. I have brushes, oils and acrylics, a travel easel, and some great antique jars that will hold the water for washing up. A ladder with years of patina is stashed in the shed in my yard that reminds me, each time I open the door, of my good intentions for some day. The plan is…
Read MoreIn Training
By Jen Wallace For the past year, I have been working towards getting my black belt in judo; I am not quite there. I have had my brown belt for 14 years and I thought it was time. I needed to start training with a black belt goal as my focus. I have to schedule my practicing and I cannot do it alone. My head sensei, the club instructor, also needs to see that I am ready. One of our instructors quotes Bobby Robson, an athlete who said, “Practice makes permanent.” Being in training is not easy and neither is…
Read MoreThere’s Always a Tree
By Janelle Ross I love Genesis; I really do. Honestly, I could preach a thousand sermons from those in the beginning pages. I mean, that first verse… In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Wow. Like, wow. So, first He made time because all of a sudden there is a beginning where before there had only been… timelessness… and then He made stuff where there had not been any stuff before. Time where there hadn’t been time, and stuff where there hadn’t been stuff. Followed by the details, redefining and refining the expanse into diverse spaces, then…
Read MoreRefocus
By Trinda Jocelyn I find myself at a time in my life when things are really good. I mean it. I have a husband who loves me, and not the bare minimum kind of love. We live in a beautiful home and we are surrounded by loads of fabulous family and friends who are there for us and we are there for them. I have a good job and freelancing has picked up, showing promise as a full-time gig working from home; a dream I hold onto as I brave up to take the leap into the entrepreneurial unknown. My…
Read MoreFor Every Season
by Rachel Husband I’m not sure if I have a favourite season. There is something special about each of the seasons for me. In spring, I love the first time you open the windows and a breeze blows that ‘spring’ smell through the house. Summer brings those super hot days where a great day involves golfing nine holes and eating a piece of watermelon …or two! In fall, true to my farm girl roots, a long day combining wheat that is blowing in the breeze. And those crispy, winter days where the sky is so blue and the puff of…
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