The Shredder is one of my best friends ...

When we lived in Bella Coola, one of my stress relievers was to go over to the Federal Nursing station and sit in their supply room feeding papers through their shredder ... There was something wonderfully relaxing shredding reams and reams of paper ... the noise ... the crunching ... the outcome ... whatever it was - it was a good stress reliever ...

Yesterday and Today in the office I rediscovered that joyful experience ... while sorting through the dozens of boxes that have been lying on the floor of our new office space on Main St, we accumulated quite a pile of stuff that needed to be shredded (there was a BIG box of stuff then went out to a farm yard and was burned too !!! - sorry I missed that!!!???). So, I stood by the shredder and fed reams of paper through it (two BIG recycle bags so far !!). It was a wonderfully relaxing experience ... it helped me gel some thoughts about Sunday's service and it helped get me ready for the Holy Week Journey that will begin in a few short hours as we wave our palms (figuratively in our case - my palms went up in flames) ... and shout our hosannas.

The formation of a Building Committee, the holding of debriefing sessions and the time to sort, pitch and put away the vast pile of stuff from the offices has been positive developments this past week. They may not be earth shattering, but they are steps in the right directions.

In the coming days, we will name the darkness and the hurt and the isolation that is around us, and we will move intentionally and with care towards the resurrection that is promised at Easter ... for the folks of Minnedosa, this year Easter will be about speaking of resurrection - the experience of Resurrection will be delayed, but it WILL come ...

Being able to relax and shred a few dozen reams of paper have helped me remember that, now I will help the people I share this journey with to remember that too.

dayenu,