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…

Some post-Christmas and New Years thoughts

Christmas and New Years can be complicated times. Christmas, especially, is an emotionally-charged time, and I have a lot of conflicting feelings about it. I had a bit of a breakthrough this December, which I’d like to share with you. I accidentally went to the Dufferin Mall on Black Friday. I should say, I went…

A bit of background

Hello again! I realize that I sort of dove into this blog to let you know about the loss of my job at Alternative Grounds, and to invite you to join me on this new stage of the journey as I figure out what’s next. So I thought that it might be a good idea…

A new stage on the journey…

Hello there! As you may know, I’ve been working part time at The Dale (previously Parkdale Neighbourhood Church) for about 16 months now, as a Community Worker. The Dale is a community in Parkdale, where we work to create a safe and welcoming space in which all people, particularly the vulnerable and broken, are encouraged…