Whatever He Says

Dear Tiffany-Amber, I'm addressing you by your given name rather than nickname as doing so reminds me of your adulthood. I hope it doesn't sound too formal! Happy Canada Day! You've been in my thoughts ever since your mom left for home and we spent a few enjoyable hours together yesterday afternoon. Yesterday over supper at The Mandarin, you were so engaged in exploring ideas about politics, and at one point you looked at me and said, "What do you have to say, Omie? Any thoughts?" You should probably know that when someone says that to me, I usually feel like a failure, as though I've been handed the conversational ball, but dropped it. I know that you love a meaty debate and long for substantial conversations with people. I hope you meet people to fulfill that hunger and respond to the challenge of your thoughts better than I did. Don't think that I'm hard on myself because I had nothing really thoughtful to add; well, maybe when it comes to ...

I noticed signs recently when I was in downtown Toronto, for the Mesopotamia exhibition at the  ROM . I wanted to go!  So that week I  said to Tori when she came upstairs to help me prepare for dinner guests,  "I would love to take a day off work and take you and Tippy somewhere during the holidays; would you like that?" Excited eyes, and a big smile answered louder than words. "But where?"  "Well," I said casually, "There is the ROM. They have an exhibit on Mesopotamia, which is known as "the cradle of civilization," at the moment--or," I added;  because part of me felt that I was offering them a frog on a plate for lunch;  "we could go anywhere else, if you prefer;" . I suggested that she and her sister Tippy, Google, "Places to go in Ontario," and said that I would take them anywhere they wanted--the main thing was to go somewhere together. To my delight and surprise, a few days later they sa...

"From the Archives" will be tomorrow instead of today. God birthed a different post for Tuesday, and "just in case" someone else out there needs to hear it, here it is--and I hope it makes sense. :) A sobering thought just struck me: We don't just live our lives "with" our children and grandchildren; we live them "before" them. With every response we teach them more powerfully than words ever could, how to be, and what is important. Is what I want to teach them being adequately represented by my words and actions? Not really. Oh, don't get me wrong, I think that much good is lived out before them, but there is something I need to be better at, and that is demonstrating how much I love them by the time and focused attention I give them, individually and as a group. I have, in my busyness, fallen into the trap of "being with" them often, cooking wonderfully hospitable meals and creating a place of welcome, but not so often "d...