house for sale

There is this house on the market and nary an offer, so we pulled upon our resources and purchased a medal of Saint Joseph, and to help the cause we threw in a Saint Joseph prayer card. Then Saint Joseph was properly buried head first in the garden of the house along with the card. Then to honour all faiths we wrote a wish and placed it in a Chinese wish jar - that the house be sold by the end of June. Then things got busy, and an offer has been placed on the house. So here's to Saint Joseph, wishes and the power of intentional prayer!

Merton

Thomas Merton: Thoughts in Solitude

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean I am actually doing so. But I believe the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

This was sent to me in response to my earlier Catfish Moon post. Thank you.

Catfish Moon

The mug came from a pottery, Catfish Moon, in Annapolis Royal in Ova Scotia. It was a parting gift to remind me to return. Now I am reaching the end of my time here and there are feelers from Bermuda to Alberta. I know that Nova Scotia is my home, that I shall return there, but in the meantime I must work, but where? This is a time of descernment and I would ask for your prayers.

go and get

“Go and get.” – I was quieting my mind and beginning my mediation this morning and these words kept going through my head like some sort of continuous tape – “Go and buy a tent. Go and buy camping gear. Go to Canada Tire and buy camping equipment.” Now I’m sixty-three. I haven’t camped for at least ten years. I tried to pray. I kept thinking about it. I did some morning chores and then went to the store at the other end of town. In the end, after looking at all the equipment, I made the following purchases: a 2 person tent, a self inflatable mattress, a sleeping bag, a stove, a chair, a gas bottle and a lighter - $153.68. So if I take a dishpan, a pot and a can opener, I’m set. Camp sites are always more interesting than motels and the cost of travelling with restaurants for all meals as well as dreary motels one of which looks just like the other, I should begin to realise savings after a pretty short period. Now if my body can get used to sleeping on the ground, this could be an adventure. So I’m heading off in three days to spend a week the family cottage. It’s going to be very crowded as the clan is gathering, so I think that I might just try out the gear in the woods and see how it goes.

selling property

Yesterday I was at a barbeque by a lake. Even though the weather was very changeable, I did not miss the opportunity to go for a swim. However, it was in conversation that I found my strength. I was asked why I was in Nova Scotia, and without a thought I heard my reply. “I am here to sell some property.” Perhaps only two weeks ago I would have hedged and said that I had some legal work to attend to, but now I am really only still here to sell property and waiting to sign some of the documentation before I head back north. What I heard was not the truth in the statement, but the strength in my voice.
I woke this morning to the sight of sunlight in the leaves. I found myself praying, in gratitude, for my family, my family here in Halifax and my other son trekking in Mongolia with his wife and son. I found myself praying for my almost former partner—I am hard-wired to pray. I have been created to pray—thought communication with the “Other Which Is”. And whether or not these prayers have been “answered”, they have changed me—and for the better.

I have tried to put up photos and it says that they are posted successfully, but I can't see anything!