Hey friends,

It’s been a while. How are you faring? Me, oh thanks for asking. You might question my answer, but truthfully, I am not just well, I am fully living. I mean, it’s been quite the couple of years eh? Yes, spoken like a true Canadian. I’ve wanted to gather you all and sit you down and have a good old chin wag since the beginning of all of this, well this scary uncertainty. Wouldn’t that be something? Maybe too much of something. Perhaps it would be something not so good. I don’t know, since I got rid of my crystal ball back when I realized it really did me no good whatsoever.

I’ve been quiet of late. Well quiet for me. Even quiet me makes a fair bit of noise and you know that I am not particularly interested in privacy. I figure, if the World is going to spin out of control and my life is going to whirl like a dervish on the edge of a precipice, then you have to come along. I suppose that’s the type A in me. The, hey people, life is nuts and here’s the variety of nuts I’m seeing. However, the quiet has been partially solemn and maybe even introspective.

So let’s jump right in and do some sharing. Or better still, I’ll share and you can listen. That’s my favourite. I’ll keep it concise and fairly gracious and we’ll see how we get on. As I mentioned above, it’s been. A. Year. It’s actually been. Two. Years. Or in my case, it’s been. Sixty two. Years. (And almost sixty three)

I have lived bigger than life for most of the years and I’m not bragging, believe you me. Living, loving, learning, doing the what if thing and sinking into the if only, attitude way too often. Through all of it, the biggest learning and the hardest lesson has been the Walking Humbly part. I don’t really care for the Do Justice part either. The problem is that what I think is Just and what you think is Just are more often than not, two very different Justice(sss). If I’ve told you once, I’m sure I’ve told you a whole lot more often, that if They would let me be in charge of the World, things would be oh so different. But They haven’t done it yet. They haven’t asked. We could talk about loving kindness too. Oh I can be kind, when I want to be. But I am learning the blessing of being interested in Loving kindness. It’s like an awakening happening. A sleeping giant if you will.

So, start with a dash of justice, a sprinkle of kindness and saturate it in humility and boys and girls, you have something that will blow your mind. It’s all a great big challenge and the falling down and clawing back up, is hard and it hurts, a lot. I am going to tell you though, that I am so thankful, Beyond grateful, Immeasurably humbled, that God is journeying, walking, evenly and steadily while I do my crazy whirling and spinning thing.

Thus ends the sermon, for now.

We are all grappling with what to think about the pandemic of 2020/21/22. We have opinions and frustrations and we know that talking politics amongst friends and acquaintances is just not the best idea. So I’m not going to do it. Except for this teeny tiny wee itty bitty thing. Let’s remember what God told Paul to tell us. As far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Jesus loved and spoke truth about His Father and told us to be a sweet aroma. No matter how terrible things might be, we are to behave like Him. Oh yes and remember, They killed Him, bad. Peter said he would NEVER let happen what Jesus said would happen and he would kill them all dead and Jesus likened him to Satan. Don’t tell God what’s going to happen.

That’s it. Except for this part. I like sweet aromas. My birth flower is the sweet pea and it’s just one of my favourite scents. Oh and one more thing and that will be it, I promise. No really. I promise. Pioneer Girls honour. God does not need us to defend Him or the Plan. None of this, not one bit of it, is a surprise to Him. Nor can His plan be thwarted. (I learned that word, thwarted, in Sunday School. I’m pretty sure). He planned all of this because He knew we needed the saviour. We did, we do and we always will. I’m awfully thankful that He isn’t going to let the bad things and the evil people (of which I am chief) win. YAY! God always wins.

Moving along now, you might be interested in how my 2021 unfolded. No? Well sit down and listen because you are going to hear about it.

My father in law died. He died/passed away/left the World. You can say it however you like, but he’s gone. It happened, finally, five days ago and his son and I reminded each other that it is very sad, but not for Gerry Staley. No Sirree. I’ll let you in on a little secret. I have actually prayed in recent months that God would take him. You see, I could pray that without guilt, because I know that where God would take him is just a way better place to be than here.

He is with Jesus and there’s nothing better than walking with Jesus, actually WITH Him. I’m not joking around. It’s real. The faith he had and that we have, is real. Absent from the body is present with the Lord. Amen and Hallelujah. The fall of 2020 Gerry had two knee surgeries, one after the other, In a matter of a couple of months. He was already not well, but consistently insisted he was fine. He never recovered. While he was attempting to convince his body that he was going to get better, his wife of more than sixty years had to be enrolled in a special place that is safe for people who have dementia. That’s a whole lot of sad and broken. What unfolded and unraveled over the course of 2021, was difficult and painful. We watched our father and father in law and grandfather, become a mere shadow of himself and at the age of eighty seven and a half, God freed him and took him home. When Nano 2 went to be with Jesus, the family agreed that we would never ever wish her back. We would miss her. We loved her beyond measure. But her life had been lived and how could we want her to stay here when the alternative was to go, There? That’s how we feel about Grandpa Gerry. We mourn his loss, but would not dare to wish him back.

In the past thirteen months I have travelled to Vancouver no less than six times. I have helped to pack and sort and discard and encourage and wash and carry and cry and laugh and empty and fold and listen, more times than I would have thought possible had you told me it was going to happen. I was part of the transitions and the upheaval and the sickness. On each visit I listened to Gerry talk about how he was getting better. Then as the year wore on he would tell us that he was going to get better and then more recently, he hoped he would get better. Three weeks ago he called me. He was in the hospital and he told me how disappointed he was that he was not healing like he had hoped. It was hard.

I will tell you though, that these months have been rewarding. I have seen the results of a bit of kindness and known abundant peace in yearning after a walk that was humble. I have given physically and emotionally and have reaped the benefits of offering my life to be used for the good of others and for the Glory of God. None of this, not one moment, not one sleepless night, not one antigen test, none of it can be credited to me. This time, these months, in semi quietness, God has taken the meagre offerings I laid before Him and turned them into gifts. In all that has unfolded with Rob and my children and my grandchildren, the frustrations, the heartache and uncertainty, God has reminded me of His steadfastness. He is the faithful one and for some reason He chose me to be the vessel through which He would care for others. I am the blessed one.

Yes, this is a religious one. If religious means that I will share what God has done in me, for me, then yep. I am religious.

Oh and why in the World did I share that photo of clouds with a mountain poking through? I’ll tell you right now. Because I never stop being amazed at the World God made. Every time I fly into Vancouver, I watch to see how Mt. Baker will show up. Just before landing in Vancouver yesterday, we passed by and there she was, just as majestic as ever. God made it and He made the clouds and all of it causes me to pause. Thought I would share it with you. Lots these days to consider and pause over.