Living with Pain and the Messiness of Life

Yesterday I had a tooth extracted.  Pretty painless actually and the dental office did everything possible to make it even less painful.  I was offered general anaesthetic but opted for local – after all it was only a 20 minute procedure and generals can have complications.  That saved me $500.  I even refused the laughing [...]

Solar Lamps, Solar walkways, Solar Cities

I am a huge fan of solar energy though I realize that it too, like all forms of energy has its problems so I am always looking out for new and innovative ways to use it.  So  this morning I thought I would share some that I have come across recently. Kerosene fumes in huts [...]

Soapmaking 101

From the Kitchen to the Catwalk – Is Eating What You Wear the Fashion of the Future?

This morning I came across this fascinating/grotesque/thought provoking slide show in Grist magazine.  A love quirky and creative ideas and this certainly fits that description.  Enjoy! See the entire slide show here So what do you think – are edible clothes the wave of the future or should we focus on materials that are compostible, [...]

Do You Live In A Black and White World?

In the last week I have published several articles that talk about the way we view the world and the dirty devices of the secular work that tend to distort our view of reality.  Today I have been thinking about the fact that it is not just the secular world that distorts our view of [...]

Rats, Rats and More Rats

This weekend has been great except for the fact that I have been battling with rats on the back porch.  I was gathering ingredients to make granola yesterday and discovered that the rats had eaten through the plastic container my oats were in.  Frustration!  Then I saw that they had also gnawed their way into [...]

Planning with Spiritual Formation at the Centre

Today is planning day at Mustard Seed Associates, a day that will hopefully form a foundation for our next five years.  As I was praying about it this morning I realized that because we are in an exciting season of growth and development it is easy for us to set program goals and strategize about [...]

Mobilizing Hope

While we were at Christian Community Development Association conference a couple of weeks ago Tom & I met author Adam Taylor who really inspired us as he talked about his new book Mobilizing Hope.  My copy of the book just arrived but I will not get round to reviewing it until next week.  However I [...]

Educating for Shalom

Yesterday I posted two new entries to this blog – one entitled What are We Educating For which focused on Nicholas Wolterstorff’s book Educating for Shalom and the other entitled Halloween is Coming – Reverse Trick or Treating which talked about using Halloween to educate people about child slavery used to produce chocolate sold on [...]

Halloween is coming – Consider Reverse Trick or Treating

I just came across this cool idea in Green America’s magaine: Greening America As Halloween is still a few weeks away it is something that you might like to think about as you plan your parties. This Halloween, trick-or-treaters across U.S. and Canada will hand chocolate back to the homeowners they visit as part of Global [...]