And now it begins....

I loved the first part of my sabbatical - living in Erickson, Manitoba and doing small town things with Art and other friends of mine.  However, yesterday I hopped on a jet plane and headed East!  It was great flying weather, with lots of interesting cloud formations - funny how watching clouds seems to be a "thing" for me these days.  Anyways, here are some shots from the plane:

As I sat there looking down I was kind of amazed at the sights below.  Doesn't it seem strange that our own lives are so full and so busy with a wide variety of things - but in other places in the country there are whole communities of people who are also very busy with their own activities?  And we know nothing about one another!  One of the books I was reading as I flew over these sights is "Tribe" by Sebastian Junger.  It's a fascinating look at what he names as "homecoming and belonging" - what is it that makes us feel connected to a particular tribe?  Or - as I often speak about on a Sunday morning - how is it that we connect in to a community - and what is it that keeps us connected, one to the other?  So, as I looked down at these landscapes, often with long ribbons of highway, I wondered who lives there and what is it that gives their life meaning?

I arrived in Halifax about supper time on Wednesday.  I spent the evening with two friends of mine.  I have often been asked why it is that I chose Halifax.  It is one of those long winding roads with surprising twists and turns.  Scott Thompson sings in the choir at Sunset.  He grew up in Halifax and went to school with Paul Ingram.  Scott sang at Paul's wedding - Paul married a woman named Sarah Reaburn, who is a United Church minister.  Scott asked me one day, out of the blue, if I had ever met a minister named Sarah Reaburn.  I couldn't believe it!  When Art and I first moved to Neepawa in 1992, we lived across the street from Paul and Sarah - she was the minister at Neepawa United Church, and was there when I first made the decision to go into ministry.  We spent a lot of time together in the two years they lived near us.  They left Neepawa later in 1994, and we have only seen each other once since then.  It is ever so good to be getting re-connected with them after all these years!  I expect to be helping out here and there with Sarah's church - Stairs United Church - so you will be hearing more about it in the weeks to come.

But today, I followed the wisdom of my son, Brian, who believes that the best way to get to know a new city is by walking the streets.  I am staying in a lovely condo - a real treat for me - and today I walked from there down to the harbour front - about 2 hours one way.  Before I left, I pulled an angel card so that I would have a word to walk with today:

With that in mind, I watched for what sights I would see that spoke to me of being in a "new land" - so to speak.  The buildings here often are painted in much brighter colors than we would see in Regina.  And clearly, some of them are much older than our typical prairie buildings.

I saw some beautiful flowers along the way as well:

I passed 3 United Churches on my journey towards the harbour - but only have pictures of two of them:

After a very long walk, I finally arrived at the Harbour Front.  What a treat to see the water and the birds and the boats!  I had a delicious bowl of seafood chowder at this restaurant - nothing says "Halifax" to me more than seafood chowder!

 And this was my view as I ate lunch - can't get much better than that:

After an incredibly relaxing stroll along the boardwalk, it was time to turn around and head back to the Condo.  Have I mentioned that Halifax is incredibly hilly, and that the walk was 2 hours one way, and that the humidity pushed the temperature up to about +32 today?!?  I actually got quite a sunburn which I was not expecting to have to deal with in September!  So to treat myself, I found an ice cream store along the route home - Heavenly Hash.  Seemed like an appropriate choice of ice cream flavor for my sabbatical walk!  It is very good to be here.  I will slowly find my rhythm.  Even though I was walking alone today, I felt like I had my "Sunset tribe" with me as I thought about how to capture a bit of what I was seeing for this blog.  As we all move our way towards this second weekend in September, may we be remain open to what the Spirit may be saying to us along the way....