Tuesday, July 4, 2023

Hello everyone

I hope everyone had a good long weekend and an opportunity to relax and enjoy yourselves – maybe some of you were able to get together with family or friends.  Barb and I were able to spend a couple of days at the cottage, returning Saturday night. 

 On Sunday we had more people in church than I had anticipated and it was wonderful.  It was good to worship together.  There were a few challenges with the new software set up.  Much thanks to Dave Mitchell and Lauren Wasyluk for trying to address them.   They will be working on it during this week as well.   It appears the new software is creating some glitches in the existing hardware that we have, specifically the sound components.  We ask for your patience as we try to sort all of this out. 

 Barb and I had a conversation about our cottage earlier.  It is a place we find restful and deeply nourishing and we asked ourselves why?  Certainly part of it is the quiet.  During the week especially there are few people around and the quiet is so very welcome.  Just the sounds of the birds and the animals in the trees – hardly anything else.  The darkness of the night is also powerfully enriching.  The black sky dotted with thousands and thousands of stars making it look like streaks of light across the sky – it is mesmerizing and beautiful.  But the thing that draws us the most is the water.  In years gone by, the water was something to play in – to swim, to float upon, to ride upon in a canoe or a boat, it was something that elicited whoops of laughter and shouts of joy.  Now it is different.  Sometimes the water just calls to us.  It speaks to us.  It calms us.

Indigenous friends often talk about ‘water time’.  They say it is important to spend time by the water, to soak in the experience – to let the water touch your spirit within.  Barb and I are coming to a point in our lives where we understand that more deeply.   Water time is crucial.  It is the time of rest and relaxation, yes, but it is more than that.  Water time is nourishing.  It builds us back up.  It is restorative.  It is healing.

My hope and prayer is that you will find water time in your daily activity.  Maybe it is just stopping to sit beside a body of water, however big or small.  Maybe it is just listening to the rain.  Maybe it is watching children play in a sprinkler.  Maybe it is in drinking a glass of water.

Water time is deeply spiritual.  Today I give thanks to the Creator for water

Marty