An Interesting Retreat

Years ago, in Israel, I first heard of the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, group of German nuns who had a "branch" house in Jerusalem. I never did visit their Jerusalem house, but I did become friends with a young American woman who spent a lot of time there. In fact, she was thinking of going to Germany and becoming a nun... Eventually she left... I never heard from her again, but over the years I thought about her from time to time and wondered if she ever did go through with her plan.

Then last spring, one of my friends here in Ottawa told me that she annually attended retreats of the Sisters of Mary right here in our city. Intrigued, I signed up to attend.

The retreat happened earlier this month.

Held in a convent I know quite well from other retreats, Maison de Notre Dame de la Providence, the weekend was a joyful time of renewal.

The two sisters who spoke were very low-key... In fact, I was surprised to discover that one of them now heads the sisterhood in Germany. (Prior to that, she had lived in the branch house in New Brunswick.)

Over the course of the weekend, talking to them, I was able to discover that my friend actually did become a nun! Now known as Sister Agape, she lives in a branch house in Paraguay...

I even found a book telling of how this branch house came to be established!

I was so glad to hear about her life!

Colors Changing

This is the prettiest time of the year in many ways, with the colors of leaves changing...

As I stop to photograph the beauty around me...













 

...it's easy to forget that these lovely bright leaves are a sign...

















... that winter isn't too far away!

"If You Want To Get Specific..."

Canada has very few post offices. In the 1980s, Canada Post became a business... (a Crown Corporation)...not a government service.

To save money, most small post offices were shut down, replaced with postal kiosks in drug stores. The employees in these kiosks work for the kiosk owner, not for the post office.

I was recently in a shopping mall, hunting for a post office. Eventually I found it - not in the drugstore, where I expected to find it - but in the back of the Hallmark card shop. A postal clerk was nowhere to be found, and soon several of us were standing in line waiting.

Eventually a young man in jeans and a sweatshirt wandered over from across the store, where he had been chatting.

I need to add postage to this letter to the USA, I told him. I need a stamp for 80 cents. I already have a 40-cent stamp on it. 

You need to add a dollar, he said, slapping a stamp onto my envelope.

No, I replied. I checked online and letters to the US cost $1.20.

Well, if you want to get specific... he retorted.

I came here to get specific, I answered.

What to do?! The dollar-stamp was already affixed to my envelope... The line of customers behind me was growing. Did I really want to hold everyone up, arguing over 20 cents?

Reluctantly I gave him $1.15 - the cost of the stamp plus sales tax, 20 cents more than I should have paid. I was fuming... It wasn't the money, but the principle of the matter that angered me...

A few years ago, Canada stopped using pennies as currency... (Too small to be bothered with...)

Now I couldn't help but wonder:  Have we actually reached a point when nickels and dimes have also gone out of style?

Community Mailboxes... Coming Soon!

I'm not looking forward to the community mailboxes where we will soon be collecting our mail - especially with winter's ice and snow.

But our new way of receiving mail is inevitably coming - soon!

Communal mailboxes are being set up every few blocks - sometimes a single unit, sometimes in groups of two or three.

They do have one helpful feature - a slot for mailing letters. I suppose our old postboxes will no longer be needed...

I do have a few questions: Each communal box has two parcel compartments where parcels will be put. Will only two parcels will be delivered on any given day? Or could several parcels be put into one box?

What happens if there are more parcels than the box can hold? Will they be delivered to our doors? Or will the letter carrier wait until the parcel box is empty before putting another in, causing delay?
 

What if I don't pick up my mail in the parcel box for a few days... Will they remove my parcel and take it to the post office for me to pick up?

The instructions say to drop off the parcel box key in the mail slot - I presume the slot for mailing letters. What if someone forgets to do that? Does that mean the parcel box is unusable? Or will they simply use another key - even though there is a spare key out there? Or, for added security, will they change the lock and use a new key?


I hope they have given thought to potential problems like these!

More Downtown Statues...

I have come to appreciate stone and marble statues more since I trying my hand at creating pottery "statues."

On my recent visit to Parliament Hill, I admired this large statue of Queen Elizabeth II on a horse...

And, of course, Ottawa's War Memorial.

However much progress I make in art, there is so much more to strive for!

More About "Persons"

A recent blog post (about Canada's Famous Five women who succeeded in having the law changed to  have women legally considered "persons" in Canada reminded me that there are some places where women - or other demographic groups - are still not considered "persons" for some reason or another.

A young woman from Iran once told me: You probably wonder why I have immigrated to Canada. In Iran, the country where I was born, because my religion is Bahai, I am not considered a person... That means that I can't go to university. We have our own schools for basic education, but that is as far as we can go.

She then added: In Iran, someone could even kill me and they wouldn't be punished... because I'm not considered a person.

That's what it means to be a non-person?! Her story was a real eye-opener for me!

Thankful...

Today is Canadian Thanksgiving... I'm glad we have this holiday to remind us to be thankful...

Recently going through a box of school assignments I had saved from my children's childhood days, I came across this Thanksgiving assignment - with illustrations! Here is what an 8-year-old boy was thankful for:

I'm thankful for all my hands can hold: apple green, money, t.v. controler, gum, toys, Nintendo controler. [Apple green? Oh, yes... he always did love Granny Smith apples!]

I'm thankful for all my eyes can see: A baseball game, cats, dogs, t.v., cars, baseball bats.

I'm thankful for all my ears can hear: music, t.v., noise, sea.

What am I thankful that I can hold, see and hear today?!