Dougie

It’s taken me a while to feel ready to sit down and write about our Doug, who died on March 23rd, 2024. We saw Doug 3-5 times per week for over a decade, so I still find myself expecting him to walk through the door of whatever space The Dale is inhabiting on a given…

Nanny Darling

A little less than a month ago my maternal grandmother, Shirley Gleeson, passed away. She was known to us, her grandkids, as Nanny. These past weeks have been a mixed bag of emotions, but the overarching feeling I have when I consider my Nanny is gratitude. I’m grateful for the example that Nanny set, in…

an intern returns

This past week The Dale was treated to a rare occurrence– a visit from one of our beloved German interns, David! Each January we meet a new set of interns who are placed with us through an organization called Liebenzell. They become part of the life of The Dale for 6 months, building relationships, supporting…

a dog blog

I have a complicated history with dogs. By nature a “cat person”, I also had a negative canine experience as a kid, being chased down by a dog while trying to protect a litter of kittens. While I came to appreciate a handful of dogs over the years, and developed an allergy to cats, I…

hospitality on Queen St.

Have you ever had an experience that felt too meaningful to describe? That’s how I’ve been feeling about a recent outreach walk in Parkdale. While I know that I won’t be able to paint an adequate picture of the evening, I’d like to try and share what I can. While we saw and chatted with…

Around tables again!

As you may have seen on social media, The Dale is VERY excited to have found a new space in which to host our Monday lunches!!! For 3.5 years we served all of our meals to-go outside 201 Cowan Ave, which required that people form a line-up. While we as staff sought to make this…

Sidewalk Aerobics

The month of August has come and (almost) gone, and it has been good! My prayer for this month, which Erinn takes as an annual holiday, is always that “nothing happens” in her absence. Ie. Nothing terrible. And while nothing terrible happened, a number of sweet things did 🙂 Some of the sweetest were impromptu…

Just to be

Last week I stayed four nights at Rivendell… Not the home of the elves from Lord of the Rings, but another quite mystical and beautifully restful place 🙂 Rivendell sits atop Cates Hill on Bowen Island, just off the coast of British Columbia. It is a retreat centre that was dreamt of, financed, designed and…

An ode to our interns

I’m finding it hard to believe that another season of having interns at The Dale is drawing to a close. We have been very lucky, over the last number of years, to have had a steady flow of lovely German students from the Liebenzell Mission come and spend a few months with us in Parkdale.…

Working on Life

One of the things that I love most about the Dale community is the authenticity that is so often modelled by our friends. In many spheres of life, we humans tend to wear elaborate masks and avoid vulnerability. When asked how we’re doing, the typical/acceptable answer is a quick “fine thanks; how are you?” However,…