Northern Lights Southern Cross

23 July 2010

Snail mail

One of my favourite treats in all the world: a handwritten note.

Especially when it has crossed the Pond to reach me.

When it's from my childhood companion and best friend of 30 years,
it's even better.

And when it arrives on the sender's birthday--collected from the
mailbox moments after we spoke on the phone--it's special beyond
words.

{Thanks, Bron.}

One of the Botswana stamps on Bron's postcard features my favourite
butterfly: the pretty Southern Sapphire (Iolaus silas), a butterfly of
the Lycaenidae family. It is found in South Africa (and I assume, from
the stamp, in Botswana).

A gift from Bronwyn in Botswana

This arrived in my mailbox today: a postcard from my best friend,
currently living in Botswana.

Great timing, eh?

It's her birthday and we'd just spoken on the phone when I went to
collect the mail. I was really missing her and thinkiing fondly of the
time we'd spent together in Africa in June ... and there she was.

What an unexpected gift!

Photo credit: "Confrontation between two hippos" was taken by Colin Mead.

Cheers!

Raising a glass in my best friend's honour!

Just after I spoke to Bronwyn in Botswana on her 40th birthday earlier today, I went to the mailbox to collect the day's offerings ... and ...

Watch this space.

22 July 2010

Sweet Ellen

My friend Ellen celebrated her birthday today. {Sweet dreams, dear girl.}

21 July 2010

Birthdays

Happy birthday, Carl and Amy in Cochrane, and Breanne in Calgary.

Inception

Just got home from seeing a movie with dear friends who surprised us with tickets during supper. Three words of advice: Go see Inception!

20 July 2010

Three-day-bug

Ugh. It’s been 3 nights since Saturday, and I’m still shaky and unable to keep food down. Must definitely be a bug.

Sunday’s sermon on the Trinity came and went—I trust I did no doctrinal damage to anyone who showed up as a guest at DCC! My friend and former Phoenician neighbour came, but left before I exited the sanctuary. Sometimes folk stay behind to talk to me, or ask me to send them my manuscript. By the time I got out into the foyer my friend had left (although I didn’t know she was there, so her e-mail came as a nice surprise).

I then went home (via Staples and Claire’s) and had a four-hour nap! Even for me that’s excessive.

On Monday I stayed close to home, and today I went out and did some work. Tonight’s one of the highlights of my week: “Tuesdays with Tammy”—a tradition of many years. More on the morrow.

18 July 2010

Post-sermon stillness on a Sunday afternoon

When I got home from church, I had a longer-than-usual Sunday afternoon nap (I'm physically under the weather today but emotionally well). Then I posted the following snippets on Face book:

Relief. I am home, and I made it through another sermon without being struck by lightning. Sometimes I am quite terrified as I take the few steps from pew to pulpit. Speaking God's Word has never felt "light" like teaching; and so I came home and had a very long Sunday afternoon nap. ...

My previous post sounds a tad negative, and it's not meant to (I really do take my occasional preaching very seriously). I also absolutely LOVE it--the prep, the prayer, the reading and research, the calm that comes once I've started speaking...the joy at the end.

In writing these words, I was reminded again what a privilege it is to get to stand up and say what God says in His Word; the Bible message of grace and joy and outward-focused love never ceases to amaze me.

Coming, ready or not

Last night I finished working on my sermon for today ... I'm always relieved once it's printed and I'm ready to roll ... and then I got really sick during the night. I'm glad I had started preparing my manuscript mid-week and wasn't still writing in between hasty trips to the WC.

Not nerves-kind-of-sick (I know what that feels like, and this ain't it). No, I mean, get-up-and-run kind of sick. Must've been something I ate. Eek. I hope my still sleeping spouse is okay!

I'm terribly sensitive to oil--have been since I was a child--and recently I've had a surplus of rich food. Since coming home, I haven't quite got back into the habit of our usual plain and simple eating style: viz. fruit, veg, few additives, plain proteins. Too many kind friends and neighbours have popped over with treats of late, and methinks my system is finally rebelling. Back to basics from this afternoon.

Oh well, if I have to sit on a chair and read my notes instead of offering my usual scintillating style, that's what I'll do--I doubt it will come to that, though. Hopefully I'll be less blurry around the edges in a couple of hours.

EP,
off to shower (and allowing myself a tiny moment of self-pity before I get on with my day)

17 July 2010

Neil, my mom's hairdresser

Having my hair cut on my way home from the airport.

(Despite preferring my hair long, it takes so little to make my mom happy.)

Wal & Mientjie

Barry & Quinette Leach

My (older) brother and sister-in-law

Leach family

Barry (18), Barry, Quinette, Bronwyn (10) Leach

Leach sisters

Mari, Elaine (Phillips), Chantal, Quinette

Siblings

Mari, Elaine, Wallace, Barry

16 July 2010

Procrastination!

Okay, in addition to praying (like a zealous Desert Mother) since hearing my pastors would be away and realising I'd be in the pulpit this week, I've done all my research for Sunday's sermon: I've gathered 50 pages of info, read prolifically, listened to other preachers, sought out relevant illustrations; that's my usual MO.

Now comes the hard part of sifting through the layers of rich material and distilling a (relatively) short, memorable, life-changing message.

I hasten to say, only God can change lives--this I know from experience--but His Spirit is present in the study as well as in the pulpit. Despite frequent advice to "wing it" and not try and "control the process," I personally believe I can only truly let go and trust God to speak through me once I've carried my share of the load.

Once I've refined the manuscript to a dozen pages or so (in large type!) I then go through it several times, so that my delivery sounds natural (and on good days folk actually think I'm speaking without notes, which I seldom do ... far too many rabbit trails to chase).

And so what have I been doing, while all this material is percolating in my brain?!

Let me see:
1. Going out with a couple of special friends for lunch to celebrate a birthday.
2. Heading up to school after lunch to use the library.
3. Wandering around my workplace in awe of all the renovations.
4. Returning home with my friend and hunting for a book for her to read on her birthday.
5. Writing about going out with a couple of special friends for lunch to celebrate a birthday.
6. Popping over to see my neighbours' basement renovations.
7. Pulling up dandelions (before Robin mowed the lawn).
8. Making supper and cleaning up.
9. Chatting to my friend Michael on his 40th birthday.
10. Sorting through the first wave of my RSA photos for some family pics to post here.
11. Replying to personal e-mails.
12. Listening to Laurika Rauch (my favourite South African singer).

Sounds like a whole lot of procrastination, even for me!!

Back to work...