dreaming over the ocean

recently, you may have read in our family christmas newsletter a bit about our family story with depression.  One of the amazing things that came out of that was the amount of people who reached out and said things like "I never knew" and "thanks for saying something" and "i'd be glad to talk."  The moment you say something is the moment you take away shame and secrecy.   The most touching gift was one from Ontario.   A small book. As you know, we have two dogs: the lovely distinguished big dog (ilala) and the crazy wild little dog (arrow). However, this book reminded me of the third dog we live with... A black dog.  You can see the story in the following video.   I had a black dog, his name was depression. on Vimeo .  It's a World Health Organization illustration, and it does a good job with the metaphor. One of the problems though, is that i really recognize, now, more than ever, some of my concepts and beliefs about recovery from mental ...

Warning: potentially controversial topic ahead… Today, on Facebook, a friend of mine posted a link to THIS ARTICLE .  Its about a year old, and there is much discourse on the internet about it.  So, i'm late to the bandwagon.   However, it really got me thinking today outside of my “west coast-Canadian world view” & I am thankful for that.  I actually was quite surprised as to how much my emotions reacted to reading the article & found it difficult not to reply; even though I know that Facebook is not the best forum for complicated conversations.  I am thankful that I have friends who are not within the same socio-cultural standpoint that I am, who have different convictions than I do.  ‘Cause I need to be reminded of other perspectives, sometimes.  I would also like to hear yours, in my comment space! (though, if it gets rude, i will moderate comments!) I think that modesty and purity is a topic that frequently comes up in Christian c...

It has obviously been quite quiet in the blog-o-sphere around here recently.  And, I'm ok with that.  But, I do love blogging.  I just think that the blog has become a little different for me in the past 6 months.  I think that in school, my blog tends to be a time that I can get away from the stress, vent a bit, reflect a bit, and keep people updated.  Now that i am not in school, the stress of academia has decreased, and I find that blogging about things like... my triathlon training... can be a bit bland.  so, let's talk about the major amazing lovely love fest that happened a few weeks ago. getting married is awesome. what a week of crazy emotions.   I felt the saddest that I have maybe ever experienced, with the loss of my sister.  I'm still very sad about that, and I know that I will never stop missing her.  here are some photos of her and i together, then some shots of her a few years ago, while working at Pioneer camps. ...

Wow oh wow oh wow oh wow. Where do I start?  Well, maybe by saying that I do not want to not post about the 2 nd and 3 rd days of hiking mt mulanje.  They may not be as fresh in my head when I write about them, but, I am about to explode with the past couple days. Last night, I came home, and I could not stop smiling.  In the morning, I had said it outloud: this week, I have hiked a mountain , helped deliver close to 10 babies, done school work (which also included some not-so-great news about the ethics approval from University of Malawi about my project… but, at least it is something which provides at least some direction.) and have gotten to meet the archbishop of Canterbury . What the!??!?