In these days of doomscrolling and bad news, we all need stories of inspiration. Liz Harvey-Fould’s book Dreams, Prayers and Miracles fits the bill perfectly. It tells the incredible story of MEMO (Medical Equipment Mobilization Opportunity), a Thunder Bay non-profit organization founded by retired doctor Jerome Harvey in 2004. MEMO was initially intended as a…
How do you make decisions? Are you a pros-and-cons list maker, weighing each side like it’s a courtroom debate? Or maybe you like to test-drive your choices (my preference): Pretend you’ve picked one path for a few days just to see how it sits with you, then flip to the other and compare. Making medical…
It’s been a year since our Rachel became an adult and now qualifies as disabled with extensive needs, according to our province’s health care system. We celebrated her 19th birthday with a train trip to Toronto for the day. Visiting the big city offers a unique experience of inclusion, as a wheelchair is less of…
British thinker and podcaster Elizabeth Oldfield has given the English-speaking world a gift via her first book, Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times. This title comes from a quotation by St. Irenaeus, born in Smyrna (now Izmar) in AD 130: “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.” Oldfield explores…
In today’s hyperconnected world, information comes at us fast and furious, from every direction – earthquakes, wars, culture wars. Because we are human and emotionally wired, it’s natural that these things provoke us and inflame our hearts to want to do something. Yet what can we do with this abundance of troublesome information aside from…
“Many Canadian churches are battlegrounds today between camps with opposing views.” So begins a Christian Courier editorial by Robert Vander Vennen published on January 11, 1991. Vander Vennen’s words could accurately describe this present moment in the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) too, as the denomination fractures over differing definitions of sexuality, chastity and sin. In…
I recently heard someone say: “If you’re not anxious, you’re not paying attention.” While political conflict and tension are always present, many believe we are living through a historic moment that will make for some riveting reading in future history books. You may notice yourself feeling more stressed after listening to the radio or scrolling…
I remember where I was when I got the news. It was spring of 2017; my sister Lucy and I were having lunch at the Tomato Pie Café in Lititz, Pennsylvania when she put down her fork and said, “Loretta, I have some sad news to tell you. Glenn has been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia.”…
On February 2, the U.S. President made unfounded allegations that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has “been run by a bunch of radical lunatics,” followed by Elon Musk stating falsely on his social platform ‘X’ that “USAID is a criminal organization.” These statements followed a January 20 Executive Order to pause all…
We were at my sister Elaine’s funeral when I got the text message. The doctors wanted us to leave and come to the hospital immediately and I was expecting to hear that it was the end. My wife Christina had been in the hospital for weeks waiting for a heart transplant and she was doing…
“Good grief!” exclaims Charlie Brown, often when Lucy removes the football from his attempted kick, landing him flat on his back. His exasperation seems oxymoronic. How can grief be good? We all experience grief. Grief is a reaction to any loss, big or small. It can be at the death of a loved one or…
It was not surprising to read a strong, clear case for access to primary health care in Dr. Jane Philpott’s prescription to reform health care in Canada, in her manifesto Health for All: A Doctor’s Prescription for a Healthier Canada. I was surprised by her focus on spiritual health in the second section – as…
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