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I am a Sixties Scoop Survivor and someone who was adopted and then met my biological family later in life. Then there are a number of other pieces of the pie of my life-issues of addiction, rebellion, and the issues of having two sets of families. Then add issues related to health and the health of family members and all the other experiences good and bad that have happened in my life and in most of our lives. Then there are issues that may not happen to us directly, but...
My life changed that day. I had prepared a visual feast for my Sunday school class. I loaded books on mountains and waterfalls, colorful birds and fish, animals from every continent, galaxies and snowflakes into boxes in readiness for the next morning. Just as a funny thought, I asked the Lord if He had anything to add. I did not really expect an answer; I thought I had covered His creation well and I was just doing a lesson. But He did answer me. I heard, "All things were...
Have you ever bumped into someone and asked them, "What's new?" Maybe they replied, "Same old, same old." Maybe you have felt bored with life to the point where you were tired of waking up every morning, doing the same routine and looking at the same face in the mirror every day. If this is your experience, I would love to remind you of some amazing facts. You are living at this moment among seven billion people. Every day, 155000 people young and old die from various causes;...
Una was a beautiful Cherokee girl. Her name meant "Remember," and she did remember the smallest details of not only her own life, but the details of those who lived in the green valley that had been the home of the Cherokee since the beginning of time. Una remembered all the battles and births and deaths. She remembered the best and the worst of times. She remembered everything. Una was smaller than the other girls her age, and she had beautiful hair that hung to her waist....
I love the English language. But if you're trying to learn it, it will confuse the life out of you. A good twist of phrase. A play on words. Here are a few alternative definitions to common English words. See if these make you smile: Selfish: What the owner of a seafood store does. Rubberneck: What you do to relax your wife. Subdued: A dude who works on a submarine. Benign: What you be after you be eight. Primate: Removing your spouse from the front of the TV. Paralyze: Two...
I've been thinking a lot about my home lately. Home should be a place of safety, comfort, rest, and acceptance. Sadly, many homes do not reflect these endearing qualities. Home life can be messy, painful, lonely and loud. Sometimes people don't get along at home, and there is no rest in our homes. Even if we were to stay in the solitude of our bedroom, we know what exists outside our four walls isn't always pleasant. Home life is extra difficult when addictions and abuse are...
Many times, when the world, non-believers in Jesus, talk about the issue of power, they refer to using your inner power to obtain success. The world says you just need to focus on the positive and tap into your inner child and focus on yourself. They say spoil yourself, look after yourself, and treat yourself. These are common catch phrases associated with personal accomplishment and reaching your dreams. In North America we saw the abuse of power with the way some early settl...
Imagine how you would feel if you and your loved one had a harsh disagreement; painful words flew back and forth until you separated into different parts of the house or maybe even different parts of town. The next day you received a beautiful bouquet of flowers; you hurried to open the card, hoping to see words of comfort and unending love. As you tore open the card, unfamiliar handwriting assaulted your hopes; a friendly neighbor just thought you might need some cheer for yo...
OK, Scrooge didn't save the world but it is hard to think of Christmas without thinking about Scrooge. In 1843, Charles Dickens didn't realize when he wrote "A Christmas Carol" that 175 years later people would still love the story. We can sympathize with Scrooge, he had a horrible childhood, he was orphaned, his sister died, he lost the woman he loved . . . we can understand why he turned into a bitter, miser who only loved money. Then comes redemption. He changes, he has a...
When my aging parents lived in our granny suite, they bought a new stereo because they could no longer hear the old one. The old one was an attractive little unit, complete with record player and 8-track. I think Noah used it on the Ark for weather reports. I was showing Mom and Dad how to set the digital clock on their new unit when my son Jeffrey, who had been admiring the 100-watt speakers said, "Um, Grandpa, you should put this thing in your will. I'd like it." My father...
I've been thinking about transitions. We don't think much about the more mundane ones-like halftime in football, lunch time at work, period break at a hockey game (I used to ref hockey 'cuz I got more ice time that way . . . ), or even a simple thing like a semi-colon; we pay more attention to the more significant transitions like graduations, weddings, birthdays and the like. Transitions all have two things in common; they mark an end to one thing and start another. The old...
I've been thinking a lot about forgiveness lately. The kind of forgiveness that feels like, if I extend it, and choose to consider actually forgiving, that I am the one who is losing. You know the kind of forgiveness I'm talking about, right? The kind where you've been hurt so deeply, on such a core level, that you can't possibly consider forgiving the other person? The kind that causes a physical ache in your heart and is accompanied by anger when the ache subsides. The kind...
When I was growing up, I used to see my siblings doing chores, such as mowing the lawn in the summer or shovelling the sidewalks in winter. Like most small children, my turn came when I I matured and was able to physically do those chores. Then as a teenager, two of my chores were to wash the supper dishes Monday to Friday, vacuum the rugs at least once a week and mow the lawn once a week in the summer. When I was in this teenage phase, I usually dragged my heels when it came...
I am an extremely young grandpa. I'm still able to outrun and outjump the grandkids. It helps that they are five and under. When they're worn out from trying to catch me, they say, "Read to me." Sweeter words were seldom spoken. My second grandchild, Eowyn, snuggles up on my lap and listens, wide-eyed as three little oinkers set out to seek their fortune. She loves pigs. Loves it when the first little porker buys a load of straw. Loves it when the sweet little swine builds a...
I felt a little weary and discouraged this morning. We just returned from a road trip where I discovered that travelling is harder on my joints than it used to be. We visited my brother who is now in hospice at home. We had a treasured visit for a few days, and I am grateful for that. We had not been to the United States for a couple of years, and people in malls and restaurants seemed wary and stressed. It is not surprising with the gun violence, the southern border crisis,...
Recently I was very encouraged by a single line of scripture that was expounded in a devotional calendar I read from every day. The verse was from Revelation 1:9: "I, John . . . was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the Word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ." This sounds pretty dismal! Can you imagine being exiled to die on a lonely island in complete isolation with no friends or family and only a big body of water surrounding you? This sounds unbearable, it...
Una was a beautiful Cherokee girl. Her name meant "Remember," and she did remember the smallest details of not only her own life, but the details of those who lived in the green valley that had been the home of the Cherokee since the beginning of time. Una remembered all the battles and births and deaths; she remembered the best and the worst of times. She remembered everything. Una was smaller than the other girls her age and she had beautiful hair that hung to her waist....
The late Ed Wood, a former Indian Life Board Member, was one who believed in realizing potential. I'll tell the story as it was told to me, some details may be a little murky but most of it's intact and unstretched! Yup . . . read on! Ed had a teenage daughter who had just graduated from high school and wanted to go to college in Phoenix, Arizona-a long ways from their Winnipeg home. Ed believed in encouraging people to stretch their wings to reach their potential, so he gave...
A kid of nine or ten came up to me and told me a joke: "I went to buy some camouflage clothing. But I couldn't find any." It took me a second or two, but finally I laughed. Here's another joke you may want to tell to absolutely no one: "Last week I bought some camouflage clothing, but nobody seemed to notice." All right, let's move on. Here are five of the most expensive clothes ever sold at auction. • In 2008, Queen Victoria's Bloomers sold for $9,000. According to the LA T...
One of the things we have accepted today in our world is that we live in a pluralistic society. This is more noticeable in the larger cities where you see a multiple of people everywhere with different cultural backgrounds, different religious beliefs and who keep their own traditions. In a pluralistic society there is racism by the mainstream society towards a minority or marginalized people. Native people in the past, and even today, have been marginalized along with immigra...
I've always been in love with the moon. I couldn't count the hours I've spent looking at the moon, it could be tens of thousands. I've watched the moon all my life. When I was a young girl and saw the New Moon, I would say, "New Moon, New Moon, pray tell me, who my own true love will be. The color of his hair, the clothes he will wear and the happy day he'll wed me." Before going to bed, I'd "dip" my pillow in the moonlight shining through the window so I would have sweet...
I once heard a man wiser than me say that looking at someone's worldview is like looking at an iceberg. There is what you initially see on the surface of the water and then most of the iceberg is under water. The same is true with an Indigenous person's worldview. You see the behaviors on the surface of someone's life, but there are the reasons for these behaviors that the average person does not know about unless they understand that person's worldview, such as the unseen...
I'm saying good-bye to a Gospel Musician friend of mine today. We're singing a few songs at his wake and then the funeral is tomorrow. I'm really going to miss the guy! I'll remember him as one who lived his life victoriously! Attending a funeral brings to mind our own mortality-something that most of us try to avoid thinking about till the harsh reality of it slaps us in the face! Like the milk carton in your fridge, you and I have an expiry date. The biggest difference is...
I love life. Allow me to be more specific. I love to look around me and see the lush trees, bushes, leaves and plants, teeming with life. It amazes me to see the variety of places the 'life' grows from. Sometimes it is planted in rich dirt, and sometimes the roots are forced to push through rocky soil. Often times, when I see something growing where I can't imagine how it does, I need to stop and ponder. Lately, I have been reminded of a passage in Deuteronomy that says:...
Being thankful is a powerful emotion. It keeps our focus on that which is positive, and allows us to think about things that are lovely, admirable, pure and worthy of praise. But let's be honest, it seems to be a lot easier to focus on those things that are challenging and difficult. So, it takes intention, and a ton of practice. Someone once told me that faith is like a muscle. The more you work and train it, the easier it becomes to use. The same principle can be applied to...
