revheatherfraser's blog

30 01 08 - 00:36

I Follow a Teacher

I had the privilege this past weekend to facilitate a marvelous little course on Religion in Life, offered by Scouts and Guides.  This course was for the leaders, who would be leading by example, and who also could expect to get some of those, um, interesting questions that kids ask unsuspecting grown-ups, like, "Who is God's mother and father?" and , "Why did my cat have to die?"  It's been a little while since I did any educational ministry, and as nervous and unprepared as I felt, I realized when I got in there that my first calling to ministry really came from the field of education.  I kept asking those interesting questions to the people who ran the church of my childhood, and I couldn't find anyone who could answer to my satisfaction.  After a while, I realized that they weren't just being difficult, they really didn't know, because no one had ever taught them.  Somewhere right about there, without even realizing it, I dedicated my life to ... (more)

18 01 08 - 12:18

Finding the Creative Spirit

Here I am, surrounded by the busy activity of Annual Report season, discovering yet again how difficult it is to get creative things done when in the presence of deadlines.  I was reading in Maclean's Magazine the other day that creative output in the workplace goes down nearly fifty percent when everyone's under time stress.  Go figure!  That article reported that some software houses were declaring no interruption days, where no one could read their email, visit other people in their offices, or do anything else that distracted them from getting several solid hours of programming or science done.

I can relate to that.  I got into the office late this morning because I read a whole chapter of my current book at the breakfast table, knowing full well that if I took it into the office, I'd never get it read.  Of course, it's a slow Friday morning, and I probably could have gotten some reading in. ... (more)