Paralysed by grief
There is this old poem that brought me a lot of comfort when I was grieving after my 1st husband died in 1995. It speaks of losing things and falling apart. Here is the poem: I seem to be falling apart. My attention span can be measured in seconds, My patience in...
All Will Be Well
Julian of Norwich lived in the 1300’s and has become known for this phrase, this way of thinking: All will be well. I read a biography about this unusual woman some months ago and was taken with her story. She knew great suffering. She lived through the Black Plague...
Preparing without Panic (recipes included!)
It's always good to be prepared. Last week we offered a training session on Advance Care Planning for all our Spiritual Care Volunteers at our hospital. This is often the paperwork we avoid talking about or doing. Because it involves the hard conversations about our...
Following the Splotches
There's been some hard stuff out there lately. I could write about it, and I probably will, but not today. For today, I was following the splotches I had created. Bright happy splotches of yellow, red and blue, creating backgrounds for watercolour pictures. It is...
Roadrunner Lessons
It was a beautiful Arizona day if unusually cold. The sky was a deep blue and the sun was shining. I was excited for we had found a new place to walk and explore the desert in the Usery Mountain State Park near Phoenix. (highly recommended if you are in that area!)....
Messengers with Wings
Last week I found myself sitting in a dental chair after weeks of discomfort, looking for solutions. I was nervous, even though my dentist and his team are kind. I have a sensitive mouth and a challenging history that creates anxiety in that place. As I settled,...
Practicing Peace
I’m aware that peace has been a recurring theme in my blogs lately. It is my word for this year and I keep coming back to it, asking God to show me how to live in peace. I’ve come to see peace as an action word, and this morning thought about how do I practice peace...
A New Dose of Courage
This blog on courage is a favourite one of mine to share and was posted on my other blog page on September 7 2011. It was definitely one I wanted to move to my web page. Because it tells the story of how God gave me the gift of courage in a particularly difficult...
Peace as a Weapon
Peace as a weapon. Now that is an oxymoron. Coming from a pacifist, which I am, it is almost funny. Anxiety is a troublesome neighbour, one I’d like to banish from the corners of my mind. I know I’m not alone, and indeed there is great sadness at recent tragedies in...
My Broken Angel
I wrote the following blog nine years ago, in 2011. It was in the months following my heart attack, a challenging time for me. My mom was still with us, and my dear friend Dene was an inspiration to me. Here are my thoughts which still ring true today There is a...
Peace in Action
We've been experiencing frigid temperatures, as has much of western Canada this week. Cold is the topic of conversations everywhere, and winter blues abound. Unless of course, you are one who loves winter, and doesn't mind the cold, and there are some who embrace...
Living the Word for 2020
The new year dawned. We are almost a week into the new decade. If I were to be honest (and I will be), it has been a hard week. I've had to toss my idealism aside, face my own shortcomings, live with depression that comes from SAD and a combination of heart-ache. ...
Be Thou My Vision
We sang this song on Sunday. The words have always moved me; poetic, prophetic. As we embark on a new year, a new decade, it seems appropriate to end the year with these words: Be Thou my Vision. For I believe that God alone knows our tomorrows, and I am grateful...
The Sigh After Christmas
You’ve seen those announcements bent on annoying or amusing you... 300 days until Christmas, or only 51 more weeks... There is no other celebration I know with so much buildup, anticipation, and expectation. It IS a joyous time where we focus on family and love for...
Receiving Love
It is a question I often ask of those I meet who are sad, or have mental health problems or disease. "Do you love yourself?" It is a question I need to ask myself now and then. Because self-loathing is more common than we would like to think in this age of...
The gift of Joy
I am grateful for Joy. It arrives unexpectedly in the loveliest of moments casting light into the dark shadows. In this season of darkness we look for joy, we look for light. Christmas can bring that gift with feelings of goodwill abounding, and even the news we...
Be at Peace
It was the middle of the night, not that long ago, and I couldn't sleep. My mind, far too active, was thinking about those I care about. I don't like the word worry . . . I'll call it concern! I went over in my mind my to-do lists; long this time of year, and as I...
What do you Hope for this Christmas?
Starting this weekend, my blogs will be posted on Saturday or Sunday to follow the Advent calendar. And if you are reading this on November 30 or December 1st, we are entering the first week. Advent means coming. This morning I read that it is a preparation time. ...
Not so Silent – Silent Night
This weekend, we will enter the Advent Season. In the Christian Calendar, we have just completed the year, and we are entering into a new year as we wait - we wait for the coming of the Messiah. Also this weekend the Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, and it has also...
Falling
I find autumn so beautiful, and somewhat sad. It brings out the melancholy in me. Winter is coming. We read from Henri Nouwen this morning, An optimist says, “The war will be over; your wounds will be healed; the depression will go away; all will be better soon. The...
Encouragement for the Grieving Heart
I am blessed with some amazing friends. As I completed the little book called Encouragement for the Grieving Heart, I asked some of them to help me to edit it. They caught things I had missed. I was grateful to the staff at Wayside Press who listened to my endless...
Balancing Joy and Lament
I've been revisiting old blogs, and found this today. Appropriate because I am speaking on Lament and Grief this coming Sunday, November 10. (First Baptist Vernon, if you are interested! The message will be recorded, for those who want to listen). I wrote the...
Hallowed or Haunted?
Halloween is this week, and it was on my mind exactly eight years ago when I wrote the following post, republished here. I've never enjoyed this holiday, particularly because of the fear factor. While others might disagree with me, I do not enjoy being scared, and...
Putting on the Brave
Some years ago I was with some of my dearest people and we were giving words of affirmation to each other. Isn't that lovely? One of the words spoken of me was "Brave". It startled me, because I didn't think I was brave at all. I've learned, since then, that courage...
Safe
When we moved my blog over to my website, we left about 200 blogs behind. So it is good to return to the old site and revisit what I have written. This blog about feeling safe was written in November of 2011. It still resonates with me. We live in an anxiety...
A Sacrifice of Praise
The following story was written in 2003. But it takes place in 1995, in a particularly painful time in my life. In our humanness, there is the thought that if I have endured much pain, and survived, life should be easier. I'll have learned to cope better. I won't be...
Lord, You KNOW
For those who subscribe to this list, you will have received an e-mail (or two) that was automatically generated when we changed from the blogspot site to my website, gracewulff.com Thank you for your patience! If you don't want to receive these e-mails, you can...
Privileged
I grew up with the identity of a Preacher's Kid. PK's, they are fondly called, or perhaps not so much. My dad explained to me as an eight year old that I might not always find this easy. We had just moved to the town of Harrison Hot Springs, and he was pastoring the...
Over the Top
Some people love playing with numbers.I, like others, like to play with words.My mind went into overdrive thinking about the word over, often overused, in my estimation. It is a prefix to many words; meaning a multitude of different things. It is no wonder...
Eternally Beautiful
I’m not sure if it was the intense thunder storm or the persistent rain of yesterday that brought my dahlia plant down, but there it was, lying on the ground yesterday.I was somewhat dismayed because I have enjoyed these flowers this summer. I have not had success in...
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