A Smile

I love to smile, and I think that it’s an amazing part of who we are, and I feel is one of the most wonderful gifts of expression God has given us. Before L’Arche I never really thought much about the significance of a simple smile. In my time here I have begun to appreciate much more fully the beauty of a smile. 

I think one of the most beautiful smiles of mankind belong to Terrie. I have gotten to spend lots of time with her in the last nine months, and her smile has made a big impression on me. Not to say that she smiles all the time, no not at all. But when she does, it’s as powerful as the sunlight when it pierces through the darkest clouds. She has blessed me with such a simple gift, yet you could never put a price on it. It’s immeasurable. 

I am learning to see life’s goodness in the little things. Each breath, each smile, each laugh, each hug, and each kind word is just another blessing and reason to be thankful to be alive.

Frank D. Reimer 1923-2011

Grandpa

He worked in the wintery forests, his skin hardened by the cold

A man of many mysteries and stories left untold

He drained the Mennville wetlands and plowed its rocky fields

Of hay and grain and other crops little did they yield

How I wish I had loved him more, and how I wish I’d cared

To go out of my way back then, and with him good times share

A man so weary and bent with age no longer able to stand

I wish I’d been at his bedside to firmly hold his hand

I’m sorry my dear Grandpa, I’m sorry with all my heart

I long to have you back again and loving words impart

Life is to short to hold to these feelings of regret

For I know one day I’ll see you again, and we'll sing a sweet duet. 

The Five Day Escapade

Simply put, I like adventure. Not knowing what’s around the next bend. Perhaps these time don’t come frequently enough for me.

A couple weeks ago My friend/co-worker Piramila and I set out on a hitch hiking trip. First destination, Yarmouth. Liquid sunshine was abundant for the majority of the time. I came prepared with a clear garbage bag, and donned it when wet turned to wetter. We had difficulty getting rides, which was not anything new for us hitch hiking together. It seems like people don’t really care for hitch hikers in the twos or more. When we were not in a vehicle, (which was often) I kept my self entertained by playing Piramila’s harmonica. I was having a ball of a time with it until I forgot it on the seat of one of our rides. Life continues. Around 8:30 we got picked up for the last 60 km of the journey. Quite a life saver, because I’m not to keen on spending nights in ditches.

We were quite relieved to make it to our couch surfing hosts place in Yarmouth. Once there, we we given a brief tour of Carla’s lovely home and treated to generous pieces of carrot cake and hot blueberry tea. Once settled down for the night I watched the second period of game seven. It didn’t seem like Canucks could pull off a win plus I was dang tired, so I hit the hay.

Come morning, I felt refreshed and very ready to live another day! After a quick breaky, we went down town and hit up Salvation Army, and bought a bunch of clothes for future costume parties at Eden House. Pretty rad! After that we went to the Old World Bakery and Deli, for lunch before hitting the road again. All in all I was not really drawn to a whole lot in Yarmouth. 

We got to the highway 103 at 2:00 after a lot of walking to get to the outskirts of town.  

We had a nice variety of people pick us up on the way to Crescent beach. Probably the most interesting was a lobster fisherman who was driving to Liverpool for a meeting. I learned a lot about lobster fishing. He gave us a tour off the beaten path through an old Loyalist town called Shelburne. Lots of history that they are doing there best to preserve, to the point of burying the power lines. The movie “The Scarlet Letter” was filmed there.

Arrived at my sister Rebekah’s place at 8:30. We joined her and her friend for a sensational supper.

The following days were spent taking it easy and enjoying life on the south shore. I think it's my most fav place in

Piramila went back to Wolfville on Saturday while I stayed with Rebekah one more day and went back on Sunday. We had a race to see who would have the fastest time hitch hiking back to Wolfville. We had agreed before hand that whoever would win would get a tub of gelato from Fox Hill Cheese. It was a lot closer than I had anticipated it would be. Her time was 2:10 and mine was 2:22. Girl wins!

                               

 Salvation Army shopping spree.

                                                        Where to now

Piramila, Anna, Rebekah and myself at Theresa's place

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

5:30 on the Lehave river.

Heading back to Wolfville on Sunday. 

Words

I was invited to a birthday party a couple of weeks ago for one of the newest core members in our community. After the table was cleared and the gifts had been opened, we had a time of going around the table sharing words of encouragement with Cam. Tony was the last one to share. It was simple, and it went something like this. “Cam, I have grown to love you as a friend since you came to our house last year. But not only are you my friend, you are my brother. My little brother.” This really touched me. All of a sudden, my many words that I had said, seemed so minuscule in comparison to his. Tony meant every single word that he said, and will never look back wondering if he actually meant those words or not.

In these last couple weeks I have taken a step back, and have started to realize how prone I have been to just talk. We so often want to say the words that we know people want to hear.  But what if our hearts are not fully in our words? Words are to be treated with care. They have the power to build or to tear down. All of our “good” words are as good a crap if we don’t follow through on them and actually mean them.

A song that always uplifts me

What a friend we have in Jesus,

All our sins and griefs to bear!

What a privilege to carry

Everything to God in prayer!

Oh, what peace we often forfeit,

Oh, what needless pain we bear,

All because we do not carry

Everything to God in prayer

Patience

Take the example of road rage. The driver in front of your vehicle has hit the brakes and you have to follow suit. What is your initial reaction to this inconvenience? I could bet you that the majority of people, would have words come to mind like, idiot, stupid, moron, half wit, jerk etc. etc. etc. No seeking to understand, no compassion, and no love for the perpetrator. Just harsh judgemental words and thoughts. Sadly these sort of reactions are often first nature to us/me. What we say and how we (re)act is the overflow of whats in the heart. 

I think that patience and compassion go hand in hand, and that the root of both of these is love. To be patient is to look beyond the inconvenience that the persons seems to be in the moment, and just love them for who they are. One dearly love by God. Something so easily said, at times can feel like nothing less than a chore. Patience does not just happen, its the labour of love. And love always perseveres. 

Love is patient

Jason

Dodgeball to Dance party!

Derek, me, and Blaine, at Blaine's 17th Anniversary party earlier this month

Saturday morning some of us from Eden house and a few outsiders, made up a team, and took part in a dodgeball tournament hosted at the Acadia gym. It was a fundraiser for the Wolfville farmers market, put on by the Katimavik group. We came in 3rd place! Yup 3rd place is pretty good................even if there were just 4 teams. Hopefully the next tourney will have way more teams!

After Derek and I got back home from dodgeball and getting some party food, we worked on decorating and reorganizing our living room. Derek helped me string up paper airplanes attached by strings, to the ceiling fan. Lucky we have a step ladder, because its a pretty tall vaulted ceiling. The airplanes flew great once the fan was turned on! So much better than I had anticipated!

One of Derek's numerous passions is flying. He talks about it very often. This summer we will (Lord willing) be heading to Disney World for his vacation. We got the hotel already. But we still need to do lots of fundraising for the flights and park passes. Anybody have some helpful advice for either fundraising or Disney World its self?

In the evening Eden house, (my house) hosted a flying themed fund-raiser dance party for Derek. Thanks to Blaine's sound system and Derek's music we had the dance floor shaking! Not very many people showed up, but still we raised 66 dollars. Great fun!

While dancing tonight I thought of how David danced before the Lord, and what it might have looked like. Scandalous! 

  "Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the LORD with all his might, 15 while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets.

 16 As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart.

2 Samuel 6:15-16

I love to dance! I don't know many steps. I just dance! I know I will really miss this part of life when I move on from here. 

Stay in the LIGHT

Jason