Do you have any idea how powerless I feel in many pastoral situations? So often, all I can do is sit and listen and hold a hand and lend a shoulder to cry on. Yet often God invites me to … Read more

A man discovered a roach in his food while he was travelling on a dinner flight. He was so angry that he wrote a letter of protest to the president of the company. The president wrote back and said, We've … Read more

"You do not have to be your mother unless she is who you want to be. You do not have to be your mother's mother, or your mother's mother's mother, or even your grandmother's mother on your father's side. You … Read more

There goes one now – a tourist. All year they waited for this moment to simply relax and get away from it all. Oops, there goes another one. Holidays are a time to get away from the busyness and hecticness … Read more

OK, so I was stupid. I can be forgiven for a bit of stupidity. I sailed over to Pictou Island to spend the night in the safety of the Western Wharf with my family. The next morning I planned to … Read more

You have no idea how much work goes in to preparing for the sailing season. Hours and hours are spent on the hard stuff – scraping and sanding and smoothing and then painting and polishing. Making the boat look good … Read more

When you sail, everyone thinks they have instant gifts for you. All they need to find is something with the word in it and 'presto', an instant gift. Take the new mug in my office. It contains a picture of … Read more

It's the race of the year. Every bit of gear has been checked and rechecked, every piece of rigging gone over again and again. We are ready for anything. The starter's horn sounds and we're off! And there we sit, … Read more

OK. Why is the Church like a sailboat? Give up? Because so much energy goes in to keeping the thing repaired and so little time is left to do the activity it was made for. When I talk about sailing, … Read more

As Ghandi stepped aboard a train one day, one of his shoes slipped off and landed on the track. He was unable to retrieve it as the train was moving. To the amazement of his companions, Ghandi calmly took off … Read more