When I was a child, I loved chocolate pudding. We’d put a little milk, just the right amount, on top and then use our spoon to create reservoirs, mountains, creeks and rivers. And then eat the geographic world we’d created. When I was a child, I loved rainstorms so we could take popsicle sticks, sharpen…
A retired farmer helped me better understand the importance of “core values” for a Christian organization. In a church workshop some years ago, I had finished demonstrating how the congregation’s core values were uniquely relevant for pursuing fruitful ministry. Then, during coffee break, the farmer told me that there were different soil types in his…
When my childhood friend Inge de Beus landed at Pearson International Airport three decades ago for a visit, she sheepishly carried with her a Canon EOS 1000. Neither of us had a clue how to operate it. “No worries,” her partner had said at home in the Netherlands. “It’s foolproof.” And indeed, he was right….
August brings the Perseids: the nights of shooting stars. We lie on our backs and look up, point and count, drinking in the warm summer light to remember later when the skies get colder and the nights are long. Of course, shooting stars aren’t stars at all but meteor showers made of space dust and…
A friend’s son recently wanted to know if a watermelon was alive, so he took out a stethoscope and listened for a heartbeat. You can see the logic. The melon grew on a vine, and the vine was alive. It put down reaching roots, its leaves responded to the sun, and it needed water to…
My daughter Jessica showed up one day with a couple of plant stalks in her hands. “Do you want these, Mom?” she asked, “A woman at church gave them to me.” I examined the pieces – healthy green stems, two inches in diameter and cut about 18 inches long. “What kind of plant are they…
My wasteland was overgrown. Fifteen years ago, we moved into a new house in downtown Ottawa because we thought our growing family couldn’t possibly fit in our charming two bed-room apartment. Our eldest was turning two, and I was six months pregnant. The new house was surrounded by apartment towers, but it had plenty of…
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