Month: December 2017

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Bringing in the New Year

My Joyous Feature

The new year will arrive pretty soon. We’d now going to enjoy these final days for the year. Looking back that year has some good and bad times. In the meantime, it doesn’t matter. There will always be those moments of the year to cherish most.

The new year is like opening up a book. A book that will take that genuine journey all the way through. The remainder of the year is like closing the book. The book has ended and there will be a new book to open up. The new book will have plenty of chapters to look forward to. The old book will have some memories and these goodness of life.

There’s so many things to look forward to the new year. One of them are goals. Everyone have goals for the new year. It’s called New Year’s Resolutions. New Year’s Resolutions will give you every…

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Getting to know yourself – Interoception and autism 

YennPurkis

Yesterday I had an epiphany. I seem to have quite a few epiphanies lately and it was Christmas I suppose.… Epiphanies are nice because I can share them with people. The epiphany I had was I understood what being tired felt like and so I went to bed because I felt tired. In the past I would have worked myself to the point of collapse and then realised I was tired. The skill or ability needed in this case is one called interoception. It means being aware of the sensations in your body – hot or cold, hunger or satiety, illness and pain and the need to use the toilet. Autistic people are very frequently unaware of those sensations in the body.

Being aware of interoception is a very useful life skill. Many autistic people do not know if it is hot or cold out or wether they feel hot…

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Did I find the raccoon or did the raccoon find me?

Hello, I am a bear

Sudden and unexpected forest encounters are… well… actually quite expected. As a forest dweller, I have become accustomed to random encounters in the forest and all the confusing and sometimes upsetting effects of them. Even though they happen often, I still get taken aback by these encounters. Even when I happen upon a sort of creature I have seen time and time again, I still find myself jumping and running and losing my composure.

The last time I saw such a common creature, I had a realization. I found a raccoon. I was going through a wonderful dumpster when I decided to check under it. Sometimes I find interesting sauces and bugs under dumpsters that sit on blocks on mutilated trees, so I was excited to look around.

My snout was met with a tiny vicious paw.

The culprit was a tiny raccoon who was scared and angry and hissing…

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An Advent Christmas Message from Shepherding All God’s Creatures

Shepherding All God's Creatures

Christ/Advent Slides
by Amy Beth
Compliments of CreationSwap

I stumbled across this article recently and found the message of a “Missional Christmas” a worthwhile one as well as a much needed one.  Quote from the article:

“Valuing people is the simplest form of missional living.”
Adding “valuing all life” instead of “people” ushers in the fullness of
the Gospel message!

At this time of year, I find it easy to get discouraged. As I go about the daily trek to and fro from work or around the neighborhood, it is difficult to see anything in the lights people decorate with or the trees displayed in windows; in the stores crowded with holiday decorations and shoppers buying gifts for people who often just don’t need more stuff; or in the faces of these same people and many others that put on display the stress of the hustle and bustle to “get the…

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“Judgement” isn’t what you think it is, and neither is God (part 2)

Shepherding All God's Creatures

As we lift up scriptures about Jesus the Messiah as prayers to be fulfilled, let’s pray that the church will see God clearly: not as the angry, judgmental God the way religion has portrayed, but as a perfectly loving God who is angry at suffering and injustice, and whose judgement is good news for the hurting and oppressed! It’s like a judge who hears a horrible abuse case in court, and rules in favor of the victim to provide safety and justice for her by ensuring that the perpetrator will not be allowed to keep hurting others… This judgement is GOOD NEWS for the victim! God’s judgement is good news for all creation, out of love for he created! This is the only kind of judgement we are to reflect. God invited us to be partners with Him in loving others (and all creation), which includes defending others from…

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My donations to the forest.

Hello, I am a bear

I recently decided that an unfortunate-accidental-sleepover-incident involving a raccoon and the fur on my back had a wonderful silver lining: I was able to donate a few tufts of fur from my back that were ripped asunder by an alarmed raccoon to the forest. I left the little balls of hair on the forest floor with the hopes of some fur-needing creature wandering by and happening upon them.

It was a nice feeling. Not only did it distract me from the pain of my back, but it also led me to thinking of different ways I could donate things to the forest and creatures who were in need. In that spirit, I started to leave little things around the forest I no longer had any need for. My claw tips. My left over leaves. Some acorns I found in my cave. One of my rabbit skeletons (an old one I…

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