a collection of moments.

I am sat at my kitchen table over my computer thinking of what to write about today to share with you all. As usual, my posed hands have sunken and I am leaning on my elbow with my face on my hand, daydreaming about the possibilities. Coming to mind are a couple of happy, sweet moments that I want to remember and share with you. As the weather remains bleak and cold, and the winter blues continue to linger, here are a collection of happy moments. I know I will be holding them close as little glimpses of light. I invite you to write a collection of moments today too, and hold them close to your heart.

• we’ve had a little baby bless us with his smiles around the Dale for the past couple of months. he visits us with his mom at many of our drop-ins during the week and has become a delight to all of us. he takes after his mom, with his ease and mild temperament, he is a friend to most everyone he meets. i have the pleasure of carting him around on my hip a couple days a week, and he warms my heart with his little smiles. somehow babies seem to calm a room well too, and we are grateful for our little baby friend who brings joy and light to us these days.
• the end of drop-in today turned quiet, as people trickled out after eating breakfast with us. we sat with a few friends, and suddenly a fun game started. it was one of those games where you say, “I’m going on a vacation and in my suitcase I will bring a ______”. We sat happily laughing and shouting answers across the table at each other and helping one another remember the list of things we had decided to bring on “vacation”. The quiet moments near the end of a drop-in are usually my favourite, as some of the best memories are made with a couple people sitting around a table.
• on tuesday at our thrift store coffee hour, we sat around the back table eating pizza out of the box, using coffee filters as plates, and drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows while sitting in teams of two or three to play scrabble, and passing our cute baby friend along. it was peace and beautiful chaos.

In an effort to remember the good times amongst what is often chaos, pain, and brokenness, I am hoping to write more of these kinds of posts. I hope it finds you well, and helps you remember to collect moments of peace and joy in this busy life.

Wishing you a peace-filled week, friends.

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It would mean so much to me if you were able to partner financially with The Dale to support my role within this ministry. There are a number of ways to do this, including CanadaHelps, PAR, or cheque. Please reach out to me if you would like more information on partnering with me in this way. Thanks for your support!

treasures.

I was at the Dollarama the other night and ran into one of our friends from the Dale. He was shopping around and when he saw me I greeted him, and in his normal fashion he stopped and looked at me and said in his loudest possible voice, “Hey, Barfy!”

Our friend has many nicknames, and in turn he hands them out to other people as well. Where Barfy came from, I do not know. However, I take comfort in the fact that he uses that name often for others as well!

We talked for a couple seconds as he asked me what I was looking for and asked how Ian was doing. As we chatted he saw something out of the corner of his eye. It was a sparkling circle in the shape of a ring on the floor that obviously had fallen from someone’s pocket or bag and had been discarded without a care in the world. My friend picked it up, inspected it, and proudly put it on his finger. Someone else’s discarded nothingness was now a new ring. When I saw him today for drop-in, he was still wearing it on his finger.

Our friend often finds treasures. Last week he came to drop-in with a box full of discarded electronics and spent the majority of the time picking through the box, plugging in old palm pilots from the 90’s and seeing what still worked. Today he found a broken bracelet in a box of donations and helped me use a twist tie to secure it to my wrist. He thought it looked beautiful. “It’s not perfect,” he said, “but it looks cool!”

My friend has a wonderful talent for picking out imperfect things and making them great. He likes rings and hats, electronics and guitars. He likes giving nicknames to people he treasures, and making people laugh till their stomachs are aching. He sees beauty in simple things, and that is a lovely trait to possess.

I have heard grand stories of my friend’s transformation from the time he first walked into the Dale till now. Sometimes I wish I had been there to see it. While he hates to admit it sometimes, most times, he knows his softly changing heart is from the Lord. And he is changing mine, like many of my new friends have been over the past nine months.

I aspire to see the beauty in simple things, and to make people laugh. I aspire to greet people with charm and excitement, even in the middle of the Dollarama. And I aspire to see the treasures of the world, no matter how small.

From one Barfy to another, Happy New Year. Let’s look for beauty this year.