Do this in remembrance of me

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about alcohol recently. This post is an attempt to process those thoughts. Much of the inner pain experienced by folks in communities like The Dale leads to the consumption of alcohol (and other substances). And much of the outer conflict that sometimes erupts from these folks stems from,…

A Future Not Our Own

The following reflection is from Oscar Romero, an archbishop from El Salvador who was assassinated on this day, in 1980, for speaking out against the repression of Salvadorans by their government. I read it this morning before heading off to The Dale, and it was exactly what I needed to hear. May it be an…

Despite what you can see

If you read Erinn’s blog (erinnoxford.wordpress.com), you’ll know that this was a bit of a rough week for us at The Dale, and it seems to have been a particularly tough one for other communities and individuals too. Lots of inner pain and tensions bubbling over, turning into outward conflicts. Many factors and influences contributing…

Beautiful moments II

My friend “Matt”, the person doing battle with addictions who I wrote about in the last “Beautiful moments” post, is continuously astounding me with deep, faith-filled one liners. On Tuesday, he told me that he was at another drop-in where some people were giving him a hard time. So he went into the bathroom, looked…

My friend and teacher

I have a friend who I’ll call Jane. She is in her 80’s, and we first started hanging out last year because she needed help with grocery shopping. We would walk together (very slowly) to No Frills, pick up some food, walk back to her rooming house, and share some tea and cookies (or pop…

Beautiful moments

This afternoon a friend came into the Thrift Store for our coffee/chat drop-in, and excitedly showed me a book he’d taken out of the library about the teachings of Jesus. Tonight he came to our Bible Study at Coffee Time. He’s feeling determined to turn a new page, do battle with his addictions, and has…

As the day rises to meet the sun

I often start my day by reading from a book called “Common Prayer: a liturgy for ordinary radicals”. The first line is always the same: “O Lord, let my soul rise up to meet you as the day rises to meet the sun.” Due to the incredible generosity of some friends who invited me to…

Hope is a big word

Today we had our weekly drop-in at the Salvation Army Thrift Store “Coffee Corner”.. A friend joined us who is often in conversation with herself and/or an unseen other. She is sometimes very clear, and sometimes not. Today she spoke about a lot of things, including the feeling that she doesn’t have anyone in her…

Toronto, the small town

I love outreach. Erinn wrote a great post about outreach yesterday ( http://erinnoxford.wordpress.com/2014/01/23/reason-1001/ ), and last night I had another experience that I’d like to share. I am part of a number of communities in Toronto outside The Dale, and these communities often overlap in a delightfully symbiotic way. One of these communities is Sanctuary,…

The next step! And a story.

Hello again, I hope that 2014 is off to a good start for you! When I started this blog, I told you that I had just lost my job at Alternative Grounds, and that I was taking some time to consider next steps. It is with excitement and some trepidation that I announce… After a…