All posts in The Messy Table

In our house, the  table sits in the window, and the light comes in. Outside, we have a tiny garden space, then a tall and somewhat scraggling hedge,...

This past week, I was hit by love three times. The first happened when I was at the school near our church. I was popping in for a visit,...

The gate in the garden keeps crashing open and slamming shut. Leaves are blowing up the street at full throttle , and then come swirling back the other...

Thinking about performance, I came across Marni Kotak. She is a performance artist who tackles questions about the lines between life and art. Late in October, in an art...

Advent begins. And together we wait. Which sounds a bit tedious and pious, and anyways, it doesn’t always feel like waiting, does it? It can feel like the mad...

Yesterday was Stir Up Sunday. Also known around Presbyterian circles as goodness-is-Advent- really-next-week-Sunday. But for our Anglican neighbours, it’s about pudding. More or less. One of the prayers for the...

We climbed a hill on Saturday. It felt good to stretch the legs. There was no great need to climb it, no real goal in doing so. But...

Will Braun has recently written an opinion piece called Sunday is not a Day for School for Canadian Mennonite. He is a Winnipeg writer and used to work...

Blue is building something. It might be the Eiffel Tower. It often is. We are in the living room together, Beangirl and the Spouse have gone off to school,...

Midway through visitor month chez nous and feeling very blessed with all the people coming through my house. I do like full tables.  It’s so hard to have...

Morning comes, and bedwarm cuddles for all. Then breakfast and the happy rush of places to go. I take Beangirl to school, and she runs to catch up...

October is visitors’ month in our new home. It’s happily inevitable when you move to a new place. Though, come to think of it, our summer was pretty...

My key ring’s getting a bit bashed up. I bought it six years ago, when I had just completed the Camino de Santiago. As you can see, the...

 Lately, I’ve been trying to follow some advice Eugene Peterson gave about giving the Sabbath a proper centrality for the week. He suggests breaking your week into three tasks:...

I couldn’t resist. Yes, the book titles were memorable enough on their own, but put them together and you get something all together inspirational. Somewhere between Agatha Christies...

Ten years ago, I sat by myself on a fourth-hand futon and watched the television. It was a bit strange – to watch history unravel by myself –...

Today, I just want to write about tomatoes. It’s September and the season of proper tomatoes. It’s also the week of our move, and the kitchen’s packed away. We’ve...

A few days spent in a foreign country often wake you up a bit. And by foreign, I mean somewhere you don’t speak the language. I have been...

Tomorrow, I'll be going to Stonehenge. The Spouse and I are tag-teaming host duties for the in-laws: each day one of us sets off in the rental car...