brass tacks and the written word

Writing is one of the few areas of my life in which I have never lacked confidence. It is something I feel I am good at, and given the time, something I enjoy. That said, I have written very little over the last few years. My great skill (in my humble opinion) has lain dormant; hibernating through a blustery stretch of life in which creative opportunity felt all but squeezed out. Good reader, let me tell you why.

Time management, forward thinking, planning for the future are a constellation of practices that have alluded me most my life. So, although my heart’s desire has always focused on creating, my inability to schedule appropriately has consistently left me with little time and energy to do so. I have barely been able to produce the minimum requirements of my role – sermons, emails, outlines for future series. Sure I cranked them out, but often at the last minute and less than my best. Flying by the seat of one’s pants is definitely a valuable skill, but after a while take offs and landings get rather choppy, painful even. My habits have been hard on me.

Something changed for me this fall. I began to practice the discipline of looking ahead with more intention and resolve. And, low and behold, I discovered that simple exercises, like keeping a solid agenda, are  liberating. Creative energy begins to flow.

Here are some very practical disciplines I am engaging in 2012 to allow for more creativity – in my work, my writing and within my relationships with family and friends:

1. Protect my mornings for study, thinking, dreaming, writing
2. Boundary email and internet surfing.
3. Everything makes it to a calendar and a to do list – all events, meetings, tasks, responsibilities – personal and professional.
4. Allot time for these things and respect the times (+/- 5-10mins)

That’s some of what I have been doing and resolve to continue in this New Year. I already feel the potential packed in a day, a week, a year. This is how I hope to make my first blog post ever (about creativity, no less) a reality in 2012.

I’ll let you know if and when I develop concrete goals for getting some writing done… but this little piece is a start.

thanks for reading.

sucked in…

a comment i wrote after reading far too many ill conceived arguments in response to an article denouncing rob bell…

i find it troublesome when christians create caricatures of others – exaggerating some aspects of a persons character or work while minimizing other features. this trend to grossly oversimplify another is a denial of the God-given complexity of our humanity. the degree of agreement on some issue or another shouldn’t determine the degree of grace and thoughtfulness one brings to bear on the argument. speak with candor and illuminate truth for certain, but for the love of God, love your neighbour! allow that others may be as complex and nuanced and intricate and sinful and redeemed as you are.

why is it that internet debates get ridiculous so quickly? this is not just within religious spheres – political discussions go south pretty quick, too.

that is all.

week in review – november 14-18

anykind. anytime. anyplace.

monday
day off. worked out at ungodly hour. got kids to school. groceries. some other stuff i can’t remember. tried to take care of sick wife. scored 2 goals at hockey. ice cream. bed. 8/10

tuesday
got up at an ungodly hour to read. got a kid to school. back to work. meetings times a lot. forgot about sick wife. sanded built in shelves. cleaned office fish tank. bed. coughed up sawdust. 8/10

wednesday
up at an ungodly hour to workout. family walk to schools. reading and writing at the library. took home useful books. tried to pay better attention to sick wife. weekly confession. dishes. board meeting. good falling asleep talk with sick wife. 7/10

i wish it was that easy

thursday
didn’t intend to get up at ungodly hour. boy up at ungodly hour. no kids to school. sick wife to blood test. back at library. returned mediocre books. arrived late to move stuff onto a truck. moved stuff off truck into storage unit. wrestled surprise piano off truck with another skinny guy and older gentleman with a bad back. home with bad knees no worse and back still in tact. killer mexican potluck. sat in friends living room. stole great expectations. to bed late. there’s a kid in my bed! solid 9/10

just like 1998

friday
slept through workout. felt only sort of bad about it. oldest to school. library then meeting with adminner then retrieved oldest from school. forgot lunch. ate popcorn. wrestled with googledocs version of ppt. sick wife to work. odd leftover combo for supper. wrestled two pint sized people and totally dominated. frittered on internet. 6/10 for most than up to 8/10 to finish off.

that about sums up the last 5.

tomorrow
up early? drive shan to work. hang with kids. dig a trench. to camp for AGM. reunite with shan! kids to bed. watch leafs. bed. projected: 9/10 if leafs win, a little less if they lose.

sunday
up early. breakfast with fam. to next. sing. preach. enjoy the peops. potluck. probably go home hungry. maybe play road hockey. do some marriage prep. projected: between 0/10 and 10/10. who knows…

a slice of my life in all it’s beautiful regularity.

the princess can swim!

my oldest wrapped up a round of swimmin’ lessons this morning. having your daughter pass her whale level with flying colours and being told to skip a level next session certainly does a dad proud.

this about sums it up.

beaming.

all fatherly ego inflation aside, the thing that makes my heart glow is how her  mother and i watched her confidence grow. water is scary place for

the ill equipped and ela’s relationship with the stuff has been rather tenuous. nerves were palpable. not anymore! although my darling still holds a healthy respect for the deeps, she knows she can kept her head above water regardless of the distance between her toes and the bottom, if only for a short time it is longer than she thinks. geesh, she’s even jumping off diving boards for nemo’s sake! this wasn’t the case just two short months ago.

i’ll be the first to say that confidence is a slippery fish. when it’s there it’s there and when it’s not, well even the easiest things feel out one’s depth. i hope it’s not a stretch to say that we’ve all had times when sureness in ourselves has all but sunk. but every once in a while, we come across something that comes easy, and life is good.

life is good here.

unloading stuff

between the rust-hole, the curb and the kijiji i am steadily regaining a functional basement.

just another sunday morning

the wolfe islander

here i sit in the bakery on the corner, a stones through from my back door. pick it up and give it another toss and you’ll find the church where i work. i have spent many a morning here over breakfast, across the table from someone i care about and who cares for me. i have consumed my fair share of afternoon coffee here as well with the same such folk. i am glad to have an employment which encourages me to connect with folk in a personal way, be it over eggs, cinnamon buns or coffee. i might add that the coffee has definitely improved since tim convinced the owner to go freshly roasted and fairly traded over the mother parkers packaged stuff they were passing off a few months ago. i wish i could say the breakfasts are on the rise, but they tend towards the wrong side of hit and miss. al has vowed never to return as two eggs scrambled seems an impossible task.

today i am here solo. have been swinging by on my own from time to time in the last few weeks. sometimes to work on my course, but more often to think and pray. i have been finding this silly little spot a sacred space. i didn’t know that God decided to meet folks at 275 queen street, but i know we’ve had a few rendezvous recently.

today i couldn’t wrap my mind around another day in the big empty building, cold and dark. i jotted a note to tim to say where i was in case he came by and headed over. i nestled into a sunny booth with a familiar royal blue mug of bitter brew. the cups are small, but the refills are steady so i really don’t mind. today i felt a sense of expectation, like i was waiting for a familiar face to show up. i thought maybe i was waiting for tim, or brett, a bell worker who takes coffee breaks here over the best toast in town. but as i opended my buechner book, i looked across the table to the empty seat and realized that i was not alone. with grattitude, comfort and some tears, i read. the words i heard were how we all long to be saints, which is what being human really means, and that such an endeavour is not nearly so hard as it may feel. that in the midst of it all we come across a pearl for which all others pale in comparison. that as much as we pursue the kingdom of joy and life, it pursues us.

i’m not sure why God has chosen this author as a voice to speak with me, but he has and he does. a thin place is what the celts called such moments. you know, those times and spaces where the spiritual seems to be so close to the firm reality of things. where tables and benchseats, mellow waitresses and coffee, black type on white pages convey the very presence of God.

thanks Dad, i needed this…

elf

cotton headed ninny muggins
son of nutcracker
i feel warm when i’m around you
i forgot to give you a hug

these and many more, every year on channel eleven. every year it cracks me up. will ferrell knows how to milk the awkward shtick.

sometimes i wish i was a human raised by elves…

a man, his moustache, and his cat

so here’s the mo and it’s looking pretty sweet if you ask me. shan hasn’t seen it yet, but she will in the early light of dawn when she wakes up beside this thing of beauty. get a load of these handle bars honey! abbey the tabby didn’t seem to mind…

sponsor me here! it’s all for a good cause – raising awareness and funds for prostate cancer research.

word.

movember

tiss the season. not for jingle bells or greeting cards or evergreens laden with tacky ornemants and bright lights. tiss the season for… moustaches. that’s right, movember is here! the month formerly known as november is now dedicated to growing facial hair on the upper lip. moustache november. be it a ned flanders-esque push broom, a curly waxed gunslinger, or the classic sleaze attributed to salesmen of the traveling or used car variety, all manner of lip hair welcome. why, you ask? what is the reason for this scruffy season? movember is a moustache growing charity event held during november each year that raises funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer. changing the face of men’s health you could say. all monies raised support the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation of Canada.

if you want to support my efforts you can (1) donate online using your credit card or PayPal account, or kick it old school and (2) write a cheque payable to the ‘Prostate Cancer Research Foundation of Canada’, referencing my Registration Number 1895961 and mailing it to:

Prostate Cancer Research Foundation of Canada
Attn: Movember
145 Front Street East
Suite 306
Toronto Ontario M5A 1E3

Did you know:

– every year around 24,700 canadian men are diagnosed with prostate cancer and about 4,300 die of the disease, making it the number one cancer threat to canadian men.
– 1 in 7 men will develop prostate cancer in their lifetime.
– all men over the age of 40 are potentially at risk and should talk to their doctor about the disease and early detection. Prostate cancer is 95% curable if detected and treated early

grampa wiebe, clean shaven in his later years... but you should have seen his chops!

on a personal note, my very own grampa wiebe died from cancer that originated in his prostate. he was a vibrant man with enviable facial hair (most of the time). my son’s middle name was his first. arthur.

i’ll keep you, good readers, up to speed on my moustache growing endeavour and the response of my good wife to the whole ordeal.

peace.