Thoughts from Chickadee Lane

                                                                Roof top solar panels on Chickadee Lane These are exciting days at Chickadee Lane!   Last week twelve solar panels were installed on our roof. On Tuesday, the final inspection took place and with all systems go, the switch was flipped. The solar system produced power! For me, this is a miracle on many levels. First that we live in Creation, amid a solar system, circling a star we call the sun, 150 million km from earth.   It is a miracle how, on this far away star, atoms merge and produce light and heat that make life possible here on Earth. It is a miracle that travelling at 300,000 km/sec, it takes eight minutes and 20 seconds for that sunlight to reach Earth and strike the solar panels on a roof on Chickadee Lane.   It ...

                                                  Full moon over Kingston Creek It was yesterday September 7 when I settled into writing you. I was just home from eating cake while gathering to celebrate a momentous occasion - Charlie, my youngest grandson’s 10th birthday.   Amid the usual gifts of socks and cash, there were gifts cards for Xbox games. “What’s an Xbox?” I asked. “A video game, Grandma,” came the reply; accompanied with an eye roll. Coincidentally, the first X box games were released ten years ago.   Remembering the excitement of Charlie’s birth caused me to think about how the world has evolved these past ten years. Facebook memories pop up with photos of Charlies’ first day. It was   with awe and wonder we first stared into the red raisin face of this adorable newborn. It seems the ten years have flown by a...

  Hello All, One of the gifts of summer is the opportunity to step out of routines. For me summer meant weeks on PEI with family, friends, sun and sand… and trying to build a gazebo. Now that’s a story for another day. All this to say it has been a few weeks since I took the opportunity to share Thoughts from Chickadee Lane.   As August comes to a close, and we say goodbye to the long, hot days of summer and embrace a season of new beginnings,  it is time for me to settle into routines. To write and share these few thoughts has become an essential part of my week. I love putting these reflections and pictures into the world. In addition, keeping up this practice provides structure to my week. It calls me to pay attention. It helps me feel connected to you and the world beyond my doors. As part of the transition from summer wanderings, today I though I would share a few vignettes of the season.     Old and New meet… As a sign of the times, this summer at the cott...

One of the precious gifts of summer in the Maritimes is to reconnect with friends and family.   And to have the gift from my parents, of a cottage on PEI offers the opportunity to do just that.   Some of you will know that 28 years ago, in 1995-96, I lived in The Philippines to serve as an intern with the Metro Manila Health Program of the United Church of Christ of the Philippines, partners of the United Church of Canada. There I met and became dear friends with another Canadian, also from the United Church of Canada, Marcia Keeler from Manitoba. A twenty plus year age difference, Marcia in her early twenties and I in mid forties, did not keep us from becoming friends.   There is something about living in a foreign land that draws people together as we seek something familiar, someone who understands home. Someone who gets the joke. For living overseas, I quickly came to understand that ‘to get’ humour is a challenge across cultures. Marcia got the joke.   Marcia an...

Photo from our front garden This week has been a time of living out Dolly Parton’s words, “Back through the years I go wandering once again.” On Sunday June 25, I was delighted to celebrate with the congregation of Winsloe United Church, PEI; to offer a reflection on the occasion of their 25th Anniversary of being one congregation in a new building. It is a remarkable story. In the mid 1990s, after many, many conversations, five small congregations agreed to amalgamate and become one congregation. They let go of the five buildings and constructed a new accessible church building which was officially dedicated in June, 1998.   Personally, the day was a bit of a home coming as my childhood church home was one of the five. Friends I have not seen for many years joined the celebration sharing stories I had long forgotten, recalling the season of our youth. Tales of teenage years. Parenting years. Working at the lab bench years. Funny how none of us aged! When the new church building wa...