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As many of you will know, much of Ontario just experienced a deeply cold snap. Temperatures in Toronto dropped last Thursday night to around minus 30, and stayed very cold until Saturday night. While this kind of weather is uncomfortable for everyone, it can be deadly for others. On that Thursday morning, a relatively new…

Monday moments

This past Monday, during our staff check-in before drop-in, we as a team acknowledged that we were feeling tired. There are a number of folks at The Dale whose lives are particularly tumultuous at the moment, a trend that we often see during the hot summer months. Between intense mental health struggles, housing (or lack…

What we all need

The Dale’s Tuesday night Bible study is always an adventure. We are currently reading through the book of Acts, which tells the story of the early church. This week we read about the way that the members of the early church shared everything in common; those who had resources shared with those who had less,…

Choosing Joy

One of my favourite songs, which we sing at both Sanctuary and The Dale, is called “Choosing Joy.” It starts like this: This journey down here has pain and fear Lord you understand see the wounds in your hand   Choosing joy, to you I run Choosing joy for what’s to come Choosing joy, this…

Love and pride

I’ve had a line from a song by Sara Groves running through my brain recently: “love and pride can’t occupy the same spaces, baby, and only one makes you free.” As this line runs laps around my brain I keep noticing different aspects of it, as I view it through the lenses of various experiences.…

Showing up

I realized anew last week that a big element of being in community is simply being willing to show up for each other. Showing up at the hospital when a friend is facing a scary health crisis. Showing up to a musical friend’s gig. Showing up every week to help cook a big meal with…

Camp

This past weekend about thirty of us from The Dale went up to Camp Koinonia. It was an adventure, from start to finish! This year we had a number of strong personalities on the trip, and a couple of folks with significant mental health struggles. The combination of these factors led to some tension on…

Super not

At The Dale we talk a lot about being a community where everyone is acknowledged as being a person with gifts to give as well as areas of struggle. When explaining this to people who are just learning about the Dale, we are very clear that this applies to those of us who hold positions…

The spice of life

If variety is the spice of life, yesterday was a flavourful day! We met in the morning to do some admin work at our new “office”, the kitchen of a baptist church in Chinatown that has graciously offered us space, access to wifi, and a coffee maker 🙂 We talked through some logistics, answered emails,…

The word of the day…and of life

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted here, as there’s been rather a lot going on within my life outside The Dale; housing changes, family changes, community and individual relationship changes. Most of these changes have been good, and also tiring… as change often is. But I have a story that I’ve been meaning…