HELLO!

Today I worked from the office. Some Mondays, when I have no appointments, I take my faith study and sermon preparation materials home with me on Sunday and read in a room that Kim and I originally designated as a guest bedroom but over time it has become my “other office”. The Public Good Society was always after me to spend some of my office budget (I had no office) on chairs and bookshelves, etc…So 18 years later, the room does now look like an office. If you are from Nova Scotia, like Kim and I, you are likely aware that when you move “away” you have so much company coming to visit you there is a need for a special room for your guests. BUT, when you move back “home” almost no one visits you, and the guest room becomes something else entirely.

I had a hospital visit and a visit to a long-term care facility today. Otherwise, I was in the office. The office is closed on Mondays. The only walking traffic are the BINGO group who come in the afternoon. I sometimes wonder if this is a sign from God, that my limited skill set of being loud will lead me to become a BINGO caller. We shall see…

There were people who stopped by with clothing donations for the dun-gen. I received their offerings with thanksgiving and then walked them over to the volunteers in the dun-gen who are sorting the donations for their Thursday sales. One man asked me if I was the “pastor”. He asked me if I had time to talk. Unless I am headed to an appointment/visit, the answer is always yes. I find unexpected conversations stimulating. On Sundays, I enjoy them too, but there are times when someone is sharing a very heartfelt experience and three people are waiting behind them. In those moments I wish the person had scheduled a time to talk or had dropped in when I was working alone in my office. Somethings we need to share are emergencies, so there is no helping the person pouring out their feelings in the Hall as others wait their turn. I try my best to respond to every request. I am certainly accessible, and I get back to people asap.

After our conversation the man who spoke to me left with these words, “I appreciate you don’t offer advice, and when I ask for it you share with me a wide range of people you have experienced in a similar situation and how they coped, how they found support.” I am not typically emotive, but I treat every person as the unique creation they are. I never assume what works for me, would work for you. I receive a lot of unsolicited advice, some of it is helpful but most of it reflects more on the person offering it than it does on me. When we don’t know the other, there is a temptation to assume they are “just like us”. The man looked to be a similar age to me, he was even dressed like me (brown), but I still never assumed my sources and strategies for healing would be his too. Only listening to others reveals who you are with. Peace, Kevin

PS Tonight, my friend Brian sent me this photo from our last service at Brunswick Street United, a place where you never knew who would be joining us in the circle (the Metro Turning Point, the largest shelter in Atlantic Canada was a stairway from our sanctuary. Hedley, one of our regulars, who has joined us at Woodlawn, surprised me with this gift.