Oct

2023

Look away so you can see

Thursday April 27, 2023

A neighbour and I go for a walk most mornings. These days, the sun has risen already, but it hasn’t risen high enough to shine on our side of a high ridge.
As we walk, we can watch the sunlight creep down the slopes on the far side of the lake. And then across the lake, to reach us.
We can almost see the edge of the light moving downwards.
Almost.

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14

Oct

2023

Earth Day celebrates our favourite planet

Author: Jim Taylor

Earth Day, April 22, 2023

Where would you live, if you had unlimited choice?
Perhaps you’ve thought, “Paris. Or the Italian Riviera. Or Bali…”
Driving through picturesque small towns in rural Ontario, I used to think, “I could live here.”
And every time I drove west into the mountains, I felt myself exulting, “I want to live here…”
But the question involves something more than that: On what other PLANET would you want to live?

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14

Oct

2023

Celebrating Easter with Canada geese

Author: Jim Taylor

Thursday April 13, 2023

We had a Sunrise Service on Easter morning. In a park, on the edges of a lake. A couple of Canada Geese wandered up from the water. As our minister talked about the significance of Easter, the two geese stood a safe distance behind her in rapt attention, heads cocked to one side.

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14

Oct

2023

Giving away the secrets

Author: Jim Taylor

Thursday April 6, 2023

“How do you guard an idea?” Donald Schmidt asked in his book, Easter for Progressive Christians.
The question had never occurred to me before. I know how to defend a place. Obviously, with security cameras. Fences. Armed sentries.
Medieval rulers surrounded their castles with moats.
The U.S. builds barriers along its border with Mexico, and mutters about doing the same with Canada.
But you can’t do those things with an idea.

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14

Oct

2023

The sexiest time of the year

Author: Jim Taylor

Thursday March 30, 2023

Less than ten days into official spring, and the daphne bush by my front door has purple blossoms opening like lips awaiting a kiss.
Last year’s peonies are poking green fingers through the soil.
The buds on my neighbour’s magnolia tree swell as if pregnant with possibilities.
And that reliable harbinger of spring, the rhubarb plant from my mother-in-law’s garden 30 years ago, has thrust a dozen dark red erections through the debris of last year’s rotting leaves.
Sorry, I can’t help using sexual imagery to describe spring.

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Categories: Soft Edges

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Jim Taylor's Columns - 'Soft Edges' and 'Sharp Edges'

Look away so you can see

Earth Day celebrates our favourite planet

Celebrating Easter with Canada geese

Giving away the secrets

The sexiest time of the year

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