Then he (Jesus) said to them, ‘Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions’ (Luke 12:15). A handful of years ago I heard about Swedish Döstädning when I read Marareta Magnusson’s book The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning. I…
Most of the inland lakes I fish contain stocked trout: coastal cutthroats in Helen Lake, Blackwater rainbow trout in Irrigation Lake and eastern brook trout in Klinger Lake. Often this is because there is no spawning stream available for fish to be able to reproduce their ilk. As far as I know, none of these…
Two months ago, our daughter Theresa married Paul in a downtown church here in Hamilton. Four days later Nancy and I celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary. Then, a week and a half after that, we attended the wedding of Nancy’s niece in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I’ve not written about marriage very often in this space,…
Who doesn’t love July – summer in all its youthful exuberance? Happy childhood memories waft into my mind on the warm breeze. I remember days floating on my back in Lake Erie’s waves, gazing into a sky so deeply blue I imagined it might swallow me whole. Or afternoons spent pumping hard on my bicycle,…
Palestinian American author Safa Suleiman’s debut children’s picture book offers a heartwarming glimpse into Palestinian traditions and daily life. Based on her experience of participating for the first time in an olive harvest on her family’s ancestral grove, Suleiman relates the fictional story of young Ali, who has flown to Palestine with his Palestinian American…
“Check it out,” says Jack. His cellphone screen displays a 1966 Massey Ferguson 165, exactly like the tractor we had when we started farming. “Gas?” I say, “Multi-power?” Jack nods vigorously. “Wow,” I say, duly impressed. “Yeah, and it’s a pretty good price compared to the others.” “Others?” Aha! There’s more to this conversation than…
One of our favourite places is the Niagara Parks Butterfly Conservatory. It’s close to home and fairly accessible for wheelchairs. We love the outdoor gardens and the indoor greenhouse with all its greenery and colourful butterflies. It’s a great inspiration for our own home garden. Need to pause We have a routine: roll the wheels…
When I moved to B.C., I was amazed at the number of people who travelled from the Prairies, Central and Atlantic Canada to fish. I presumed that I would become a chinook, coho and steelhead fisherman. It didn’t happen. I did continue fishing in streams for the first year or two. Then I was introduced…
It’s still dark when I wake up. A thought pierces my heart: today is the funeral. Four days ago, on February 22, 1944, an American bombardment tore the heart out of Nijmegen, our city, and shattered our family by killing my eight-year-old brother, Jos. Jos is short for Josef, meaning “God adds.” Yes, God adds,…
Back in the days of Gestetner machines and electric typewriters, I literally cranked out the bulletin for our small-town church. Many announcements, especially those on the weekly calendar, were punctuated by the letters DV. As a new Christian, I had no idea what that meant. The pastor kindly pointed me to James 4. We shouldn’t…
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.”…
I have an empty maple syrup can on my desk to keep spare pencils in, but in the local grocery store maple syrup comes in small glass bottles with weird little round handles near the top. My friend wanted to know what the handles were for, so of course I told her that in Ontario…
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