A Fellow Traveller

I take the frozen bananas out of the freezer and compare the number to my recipe that calls for 2 mashed. It looks like I'll be quadrupling the recipe if I want to use them all up.   Will my biggest mixing bowls be big enough to do the job? Will I have enough of all the other ingredients needed? It looks like I'm good to go.  As I get my giant wooden spoon into the mixture, I remember my Grandma Wideman making pies and butter tarts. She did nothing in a small way, being used to baking for market days. In her later years, she would take over our kitchen while my mom would "gopher" this and that, washing the dishes and cleaning up the flour which ended up being everywhere. Those days are long past, but I feel closer to my Grandma as the warm memories come flooding back. Before long my bowls are literally overflowing. When thinking that my biggest mixing bowls would do the job, I didn't take into account the total sum of adding wet to dry ingredients. How...

I've been thinking of the little boy with a lunch of five loaves and two fish. In a crowd of thousands, he's the only one with a lunch. Everyone ran so quickly to follow Jesus that they didn't think to pack any food. This boy's mom probably admonished him to make sure to eat when he felt hungry.   What kept him from snacking and eating it before? Had he been so engrossed in the storytelling that he forgot to eat? When the disciples were looking for food, did he try to hide it? Or did he suddenly remember that his mom had tucked it in his bag? Did he wonder what his mom would say if he didn't eat it? Or maybe he was supposed to deliver it to someone else and had gotten sidetracked by following Jesus. By now, his stomach was probably growling along with everyone else. He now had a decision to make; one that would determine history.   If that were me, I'm afraid I would have hung on to it. I would not have wanted to go hungry. Being concerned about pleasing...

Each of us is in a boat of life, maintaining it and doing our best to steer around obstacles. When we see our need, we choose to invite Jesus to join us. He comes and takes up residence in our boat, ready to do life with us. When things are calm, we have time to talk and we can learn to listen to his words of truth. But when a storm whips up, we suddenly forget he is even in the boat with us.   We paddle furiously, trying to keep our boat afloat. The huge waves lift and toss us about, bringing fear into our throats as the spray stings our eyes. When the water starts leaking in, we grab a bucket and start bailing, wondering how much time we have before we're going down. All the while, we've forgotten who is sleeping in our boat.   Resting calmly is the creator of the universe. Sleeping with his head on a pillow is the One who spoke the water into existence, separating it to form moisture above and liquid below. We have one in our boat who created the natural world and a...

It's so interesting to watch students as they handle their moment in the limelight at a graduation ceremony. Whether it's the achievement of finishing elementary, high school or college/university, they all walk across the stage alone to receive their diploma. Some walk with confidence, others with trepidation, yet all are proud of their achievements up to that moment. There is such optimism in the air for the unknown future. Little attention is given to all the effort and support that has gone into getting them to this particular moment of time. Yet for some, each minute of each day takes supreme effort and support from others. Last week a Grade eight girl received her diploma from a wheelchair. Born with multiple disabilities, I have never seen her without the constant support and assistance from EA's at our school. On Graduation night, she was lifted onto the stage and sat in her wheelchair ready for the processional. When her name was called and her chair was pushed to...

When is anger a good thing? I've seen a mom angry when an injustice is done to her child and she rushes in to protect and make things right. She's not ready to ask what really happened, only to solve things for her child. Anger pushes her to action. I've felt anger rushing over me as I hear words being used that hurt and damage someone else. It pushes me to take action and it fuels me to not back away until I see results. Recently, I saw a girl so angry she said she wanted to kill someone and she wasn't backing away for anything. Anger seems to be an emotion that can take over to the point that we are out of control. This little girl would not listen to reason, as I tried to discern what had happened. She had accidentally taken the full force of a kicked soccer ball to the stomach, which really hurt. Yet by piling on blame and saying the boy did it "on purpose", she couldn't let go of her anger. She was not being open to seeing another point of view and t...

Three years is a long time when you're in grade three. When you're having trouble getting along with someone, one day is a very long time. Put it all together, and you have a very big problem. These girls said they had been bullied by each other since grade one and now had enough. They were getting tired of it all. As their teacher, I was tired of being in the middle and was hoping for lasting change. Maybe they'd be willing to do the hard work of forgiving. Although I didn't always hear the words, I could see the body language; the rolling of the eyes, the turning of the head or the glaring of the eyes. Parents and teachers alike had tried to get these girls to stop but nothing would last. Specific conflicts had been resolved and apologized for, but within days, they were back at it again. When would it end? I had a mental picture of two grandmothers walking in the mall, turning away when they saw the other, trying not to make eye contact so they wouldn't h...

I'm at a birthday party for two siblings. Miley is one and Zak is three. There's lots of activity and conversation. One of their cousins is in Grade Three. We talk about the EQAO test and make connections between us. I'm a teacher and she's a student who didn't realize that all Ontario students write the exact same test. It's nice to find a point of connection; something to talk about at a deeper level than the others around us. Then the birthday cake is displayed; half for Miley with a 1 and half for Zak with a 3. Immediately I connect to a math problem I gave my students for homework. They (and their parents) struggled to find the answer. I had struggled to even know which strategies to try. Here was a "real life" situation that connected for me........and instantly I am forming a word problem in my mind, before the candles are even blown out. If Zak is three and Miley is one, in how many years will Zak be twice as old as his sister? In the origin...