my christmas wish - for my brother - come home, come home

come home, come home
please forgive
please let grace abide
no room for bitterness
no room for stubbornness
no room for anger
no room
unconditional love awaits
it never left
even though hearts broke
into a million little pieces
please try to understand
the illness
no one's fault
let the One mend our pain
let the One mend our anger
let the One mend our stubbornness
give the One our past
give the One our bitterness
let it fly far, far away
into the abyss
unconditional love awaits
arms are wide open
let the One heal our family bond
before there are deep regrets
before it's too late
life is precious
it is a gift
a gift to our future generations
please come home
come home
that is my Christmas wish

***Epilogue: I love how the writing process works. This post began very differently. I was to write about my observations at a recent cousin's funeral, where their family was shattered because of unforgiveness. I was deeply moved. I am the peacemaker in my family so, I decided to write to my brother via this blog regarding some of our familial dysfunction. It was somewhat accusatory. However, a still small voice within kept saying these words to me, "come home, come home." So here is how that still small voice directed me! I have no idea if my brother even reads my blog but somewhere out there I hope he is listening with openness. I chose this pic to go along with this post because my dear sweet "S" is the essence of "home" here on earth where unconditional love, forgiveness and grace abide. Peace. May God's peace abide in our lives forever.***

Olympic Torch Run

The air was cold and crisp yet somehow refreshing as I eagerly walked towards the spot where the Olympic Torch would be passing through my community(it was actually right up the street from where I live) on that early winter morning (5:30 am Thursday December 17th to be exact)! I didn't want to miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the Olympic Torch on its trek across Canada in anticipation of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. I was dressed in my finest Canadian winter attire: layers of thermals, wool socks, toque, parka, mitts, gortex boots, pajamas ( well that is not standard wear but I had just jumped out of bed and headed out the door...I would shower later for work)!

I was surprised to see so many people out supporting our athletes this early in the morning. The media were out and about. In fact, my favourite early morning news show, "Breakfast Television" was broadcasting live so I was thrilled. What I didn't know was one of the show's hosts would be the torchbearer for this leg of the run.

Finally, the Olympic entourage arrived at our spot. Equipped with our Canadian flags we began cheering for the athletes and torchbearers. It was exciting. I should have been a journalist because I was able to be the first on scene to capture a snap of CP24's Breakfast Television host Ann Rohmer who had just been passed the torch from the former runner. Unfortunately, I was not able to stay to see it lit because I had to walk home and get ready for work. I actually had to crawl my way out of the crowd that had gathered around Ann. But I could see the Olympic Torch flame flying high in the distance as I walked home. I felt proud to be a Canadian at that moment. I love how the Olympics bring people, communities, and nations together in peace for a brief moment in time. Congratulations to our Canadian Olympic athletes. Go get 'em eh!!

Here I am dressed and ready to go!

Don't laugh at me:)

It had snowed the day before. I love walking in the snow!

Part of the Olympic Torch Run entourage. I still haven't figured out how to take clear pics in darkness with my camera so thus the blurry pics.

Ann Rohmer, one of the Torchbearers

An Encouraging Thought for Today...

"I will sing aloud of Thy steadfast love in the morning. O my Strength, I will sing praises to Thee, for Thou, O God, art my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love."
(Psalm 59: 16a, 17)

(Dunluce Castle Fortress, Northern Ireland, July 2008)

Go into this day with the full assurance of My love. Let no cloud of doubt stand between us, for My heart is open to you. Your faith is small and weak, and your wounds are many. But I am with you to bind up, cheer up, and raise up a soul to My glory.

(Echoes of Eternity: Listening to the Father, Volume Two, Hal M. Helms )

Taking matters into my own hands...Part 2

Lesson learned. My sign worked. YEAH! No one blocked me in all week, even when we had our first snowstorm of the season on Wednesday. I even noticed some of these parents are finding a more appropriate parking spot, not ideal, but at least they are not blocking any cars! Whew!

Taking matters into my own hands...

***update below***

I decided to take matters into my own hands this morning. For 3 months, I have been dealing with parents who decide they want to avoid the "kiss and ride" line when picking up their children from school. Instead, they feel it is better to block staff cars so we cannot leave. ( I should mention here that our school is a "walking" school, which means all our student population live within walking distance. However, for some strange reason, parents who only live across the street, decide it is easier to get in their car and drive their children to school! It makes for a VERY chaotic parking lot. Whatever happened to walking your child to school. Ugh!)

Every day after work in order for me to be able to leave, I have to use my megaphone voice and detective skills to try to locate the parent who has decided to park their car illegally in front of my car thus blocking me in. (phew...that is a mouthful!) Administration has tried to correct this problem but these parents are not getting the message. I was EXTREMELY irate yesterday when I was blocked in for 15 minutes because we could not locate the parent who owned the car. I literally was almost ready to either kick his car so the alarm would sound and he would come running or get in my car and ram my way through! (Ididn't want my collision insurance to go up so I decided against the ramming!)

When my Principal finally located this man, he didn't even apologize. And most importantly, he didn't recognize he was illegally parked. You cannot block other cars so they cannot get out. What if there was an emergency? He was sooo rude to me. I have been more than polite to these parents ( most are the fathers) and am extremely appalled they show such disrespect to me. I understand it is cultural, but we are living in Canada now and women are respected in this country.

To try to remedy this frustrating problem, I came up with a great idea - so I thought. Here is what I did today...




I was eagerly anticipating the end of the day to see if anyone would dare block me in with my bright pink laminated sign taped to my car.

Guess what?

I WAS blocked in, but this time the parent was in the car. I could not believe my eyes. ***deep sigh*** He had the gall to say to me, " you can't post a sign like that on your car." (I can't believe he didn't like my pretty sign!) I angrily replied, " you are illegally parked and blocking me in so I cannot get out. I will call a tow truck next time to remove your vehicle." ***deep sigh***

New plan of attack for tomorrow!

**I had to stay late after work for parent teacher interviews Thursday night. Wouldn't you know when I peeked outside after school to see if anyone was blocking me in, to my amazement , not one car was blocking anyone in! I'll be! Today ( Friday) was a PD Day so no students were at school, just staff. So we'll have to wait and see what happens on Monday!**