Outdoor Summer

I don't mean to brag but ...this is the view from my apartment. Only that this wasn't taken by me and there is barely any snow on them there mountains as it is summer!

This post is brought to you by the letter M. M for Mmmm Mountains. And, for those who live by or below these mountains I am offering you a once in a life time offer to come and enjoy them this summer.

Alright, it's not a one time deal and you can enjoy them any time you want with or without me but I have started a little project and I hope it fares well!

My plan was and is to create a group of people who can post on facebook when they are outdoorsing in Canmore and want company (I am clearly not the only one who has thought of this as there are official groups who do this). The "Outdoor Event"'s purpose is to broaden the community of people we live in and to enjoy outside with others (my network of people extended to the network of people I know to the network of the network of the....)

You'll find the event on my facebook page. It's public so anyone can join. Take a peak and "join" then "comment" as to what things you might be interested in doing this summer. No commitment expected, just interest. If you want to get outdoors and have other come along, post in the event the who, what, when, wheres and why and contact those who seemed interested.

I really want to try paddlesurfing this summer. Things Ill be wanting to do are floating down the river, geocaching, hiking, canoeing and scrambling for sure. Summer passes me by to quickly so I gotta plan these things and be super intentional about them. I'm also wanting to be intentional about connecting with those around me.

Come, join me!

The coffee shop calls

I'm a big procrastinator. Lucky for you it provides you with posts.

I don't know what it is but every time I sit down to do work, I end up thinking about blogging and then sometimes blogging. I know what you're thinking: 'you don't work very often'. True.

I'm in a coffee shop though and that just brings about a sense of blog worthy thoughts.

Strange how your atmosphere can change you.

For instance, when I'm at home I'm usually in my bed. I never sit on my couch or outside on the deck. I like to eat in bed, read in bed, watch tv in bed, surf the net (is that still cool to say?) in bed, sleep excessively in bed, craft in bed... it goes on and on.

When I'm at the coffee shop I start thinking.

When I'm at the dance studio I start making plans to abandon life and join a theatre.

When I'm on pinterest I loose all track of time and want to craft my life away.

So, today, I'm at the coffee shop. I get more accomplished here. On the blogging side of life anyways as I've been here for an hour and haven't touched my work.

Ever since we learned about advertising in grade 8, I've been obsessed with pin pointing marketing schemes. Why the Mcdonalds sign is yellow, how different fonts appeal to different people, how changing the way you say something can be received one way or the other. It's fascinating to me.

All of this makes me think about Church and the environment we create for a service.

If we manipulate the visual, emotional, audio and physical surroundings of a building are we in fact manipulating people's experience?

For instance. If you want toddlers to listen to you intently, you might turn off the kiddy music, dim the lights, gather them in a circle and speak clearly and slowly with eye contact.

If you want adults to listen to you, you do the same.

Why do we play music softly in the background during an alter call? Why do we have preacher voices, prayer voices and normal voices?

What would happen if we took the pews out of church and sat on the ground with no sound system? Would we feel the same way? Would we leave the same? Would we even come?

 Don't get me wrong, I love creating space, especially for comfort. Ill be one of the first to say 'dim those lights' or 'put those chairs in a circle'. Either way we have emotions (and rightly so as they are given to us by God) I'm just trying to work out where their place is as a reaction to space.

Thoughts?

In the spirit of summer in Canmore

Hi Loves,

It's been a while. Truth be told, I have blogged but haven't posted. I've written but not shared.

Tucked away in my draft file of my blog are posts.

Today I share.

Did you notice my title? 'In the spirit of summer in Canmore'. That's where I live now. In the spirit. Okay, I meant Canmore. Wouldn't it be lovely though to simply live in the Spirit? I want to.

So the mountains are home and the tourists are my personal hunting 'game'. Only because they drive 20 km all the time. I used to be one of those but mama's holding the bow and arrow now.

It's beautiful here and not just the rocky scenery. When you walk by people on the trails, they are always smiling. Sometimes not even at you. Just smiling as they walk. They are in pure bliss and eventhough they live here, the wide-spread-love-struck mugs tell me nature is new to them each day. I like that and running with the theme of living in the Spirit, I figure that's how I would look if I existed in Jesus all day, everyday. What a thought.

This has not been the case lately. I know because I can feel it and I've been told it. My sunshine is hidden and "hiding it under a bushel" doesn't sound so crazy because it's been my reality. Not on purpose. It's been a sneaky endeavour letting circumstance overshadowing my rays.

I guess the posters in the doctors office really do have purpose because when I read the large print of symptoms of depression while waiting for the doctor, I realized the lack of light.

Stress, confusion, worry. My lack of luster revealed.

How can that be so in the Rocky Mountains of Canada? I pretty much live in the definition of beauty and yet inwardly sadness, sorrow, something else that starts with an s so this thought can be more poetic. I live in a peice of art.

Home.

Funny thing is I don't feel like I have a home. I have lots of wonderful people who welcome me into their homes. I have a house. I dwell but I just can't say I know what "home" feels like. I've been close, I think, once but I'm still in search of it.

Until two weeks ago.

Pouring my heart out to friend I told her how everything these days makes me angry, irritated or hopeless. A road I never wanted to travel down. There is no room on these roads for Christians. At least there shouldn't be.

I told her how even though I desired to move to Canmore, I still haven't found a peace of settlement and that I fear no matter where I go it'll be the treasure I never get my hands on. Discontentment can be really ugly.

Suddenly, out of my mouth, a thought probably not my own. "You know where I feel like home is? When I sing. When I worship. That's home and I want to live there."

I'm going to try to. To allow wherever I am to be home through the connection I know to be music to something bigger than myself. To something bigger than my world. To something bigger and better than my selfish endeavour to create my own perfect circumstance. I can't describe how right it feels even just to sing nothing along to music. It looks like a big sigh, a little glow and a wide-spread-love-struck mug.

No other way to say it

Dear God,

I need a pick me up.

Meaghan

Post a song on youtube. Check!

Hi Friends!

I have posted a song I wrote on youtube as part of my 25 things in my 25th year. I'm happy to post the link or you can go to youtube and search "alberta grown" which is always exciting as it comes up currently as the first video.

Check it out and if you wish, "share" it on your facebook or "like it" or just love it. Here she is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl538W902IM

Thanks for the song love.

Meaghan Ellen

The day I said good-bye to bread.

Wheat. Something I used to enjoy that I can no longer put in my mouth. It's now added to the list of other things I've been told not to eat. Paste, play dough and yellow snow.

About a month and a half ago I learned I was Celiac. I have an autoimmune disorder that acts like an allergy and destroys my small intestine. The small intestine is where your body absorbs its nutrients. It's kind of important.

Finding out I had a wheat allergy was a relief. Mostly because my doctor told me nothing about it. I asked him for information and he told me to google it. "google?" I said, "do you not have a trusted site or a pamphlet?" no. He didn't. I did what I knew I had to do. Chapters. And after looking like I was a five year old lost in a grocery store a book genius came along, held my hand and directed me to the right section reassuring me that some sausages didn't have fillers and that at least I would feel better.

My happy "hey guess what! I'm Celiac and that's why I feel like crap" texts turned into"yeah, it's not just wheat, it's all gluten and I have to throw out my toaster" texts. Being gluten free is so much more than just avoiding wheat. It's avoiding:

wheat-bread crumbs-coating mixes-panko-barley-barley malt-bulgar-couscous-dunum-einkorn-enimer-farina-farro-graham flour-kamut-kashi-malt-matzo-modified food starch made from wheat-orzo-pastina-rye-seitan-semolina-spelt-triticale

so most of these things I wouldn't eat on a day to day basis but did you know that smarties have gluten in them? soy sauce? some chocolate? and if it doesn't have a label, I can't eat it. If it wasn't prepared in a place where I know it wasn't cross contaminated with gluten, I can't eat it.

The good thing is I am learning so much about what is actually in our food and how many fillers (often containing gluten) are put into what we eat to cut costs.

It's been a hard transition. It's easier to think of all the things I cannot eat instead of all the great things I can eat (which there is a lot). There are a lot of meals I already used to eat that are gluten free but like the forbidden fruit, when you know you can't have something, you want it.

Another great thing is that there are a lot of gluten free items available most places than there used to be. Yes, some of them taste like cardboard but not all of them and while I've squandered my life savings on finding the perfect gluten free cookie, it's worth it to know I'll someday find it.

So there it is. The new and improved Meaghan should complain less about feeling after eating, you might just have to put up with more pouting about the food she orders at a restaurant and the inconvenience of making her a meal at home.

The best thing about being Celiac is that I can reverse the damage that's been done to my body by simply being gluten free forever. It isn't out of my hands. There are also "support groups" to help Celiacs become accustomed with their new life change and while I wanted to introduce myself like this"Hi, my name is Meaghan and I've been gluten free for 3 weeks" in attempt to make fun of the idea of a support group, I actually found it quite comforting.

So, if you have any questions, feel ill after you eat or want to high-five me because you too have an allergy, leave me a comment or get together with me for coffee. I'd love to chat.

En-light-ened!

So, this little lady shares a one bedroom apartment with the lovely Marissa and so in the mornings when I get ready before the crack of dawn I turn the hall light on so I can see into our room to gather my clothes to get changed.

If you know me you know that it is rare that my clothes hang in a closet or folded anywhere let alone the dresser drawers. I keep my clothes in a laundry basket (or beside it depending on my mood) at the end of my bed.

The laundry basket is wonderful because when I go home to Sherwood Park or to Canmore I simply pick it up and put it in my Jeep.

Though some light is shed into the room it is difficult to tell what shirt is which, if my clothes are dirty or where the heck that belt went to. The bottom of the hamper is churned up like I was mixing flour into butter. The bottom of the contents are scooped under my hands and brought to the top or perhaps just dumped onto the bed (though this is not my preference).

Every time I have to send a search party for my basic black tee and a pair of clean knickers I think to my self:

"Lord, this is what life is like when I don't invest into our relationship. I know you're here, I can even feel you but if I just had a little more light, a little more perspective, a little more understanding I would be able to see what I have my hands into and execute this plan with a little more stealth and grace"

Sometimes I live life the difficult way but not on purpose and then I'm angry when it doesn't make sense.

I clearly can't turn the bedroom light on when Marissa is sleeping but I do have access to more knowledge when it come to Christ.

My friend Chantelle recently posted this on her facebook as her status:

I liked this query.

I'm not sure why groping a full laundry basket in the dark reminds me to read my Bible and to sit with God but it does.

When I open those scriptures the light turns on.

Speaking of my roommate and open flames. Way to go on lighting your hair on fire today. Sad I missed it.

Love to y'all,

Meaghan Ellen

XOXO