Category: update

I think today’s challenge is related to yesterday’s — today the only challenge is to smile! To smile as much as possible. First you need to see others and then you can brighten their day with a smile. I know that sometimes I can be so buried in my own thoughts that I don’t see others. I find it interesting, when I walk the dog, how many people will smile or say hello. I need to initiate more often.

 

Today’s challenge is to support fair trade wherever possible. Too often the big corporations that supply items for large retail chains care more about their profits than about the product or the people that produce that product. Fair trade seeks to rectify that by ensuring the producers are getting a fair price and that the production practices are sustainable.

There are many products that are fair trade, from coffee and cocoa to clothing and accessories. Organizations like Ten Thousand Villages base their operations on fair trade.

I used to buy fair trade coffee from Baden Coffee Company, but then found out that my own brother buys green coffee beans and roasts them himself. Now I buy half a pound, ensuring freshness, at a time from Don. This is what he had to say about the beans:

“The coffee beans I buy are fair trade organic certified. FTO as it is known is better than not although it is not perfect. Fair Trade means farmers are guaranteed a certain price ahead of time for their beans so they have some basis for deciding and planning. If the price of coffee is lower than their guaranteed price they are paid on the contracted price. Two  things are not so good, one is that if the price increases by the time the crop comes off they do not benefit from this increase in value and the other fact is they are still paying quite a few “middle men” in the process.

A better way yet to buy beans is “Direct Trade” as it’s often called which is generally some kind of cooperative of farmers selling directly to importers who then roast the beans or maybe sell to other roasters. The cooperative shares the risk with everyone but also the benefits if markets go up.

Non Fair Trade likely means the buyer has simply offered the lowest price he can for various reasons and then marks it up as high as he can.

That’s a condensed version of the ways to get coffee.

The decaf coffee I roast for you is almost always Nicaraguan and the regular coffee is Ethiopian or Kenyan most of the time.”

“Adoption is a central concept in the Christian faith.” The basic challenge today is to make a friend across an age divide, or to find a new way to show care for others, or to find a long-term way to become a catalyst for something that changes your life and the lives you touch.

I like the “adopt” idea, but think we need to broaden it from the “other people” stance. We need to adopt roads, adopt animals, care about creation as we care about our families. We need to recognize that we are all family. Not just all people, but all creation!

In this regard Canada’s First Nations have a lot to teach us. I was so happy to take part in the “Dancing Toward Reconciliation” event last night, and look forward to more today.

Today we are challenged to go the second mile, to give more than we are asked for.

I have an extremely busy day coming up – starting with a chiro appointment, then work at First Mennonite Church, followed by work at Pioneer Park Christian Fellowship, home briefly for some supper then visit Mom in St Jacobs and to end the day a program, “Dancing toward Reconciliation,” at Bloomingdale Mennonite Church. I think this whole day will be pushing me beyond my usual limits.

P.S. I had a really good day! So often such a day would end with a migraine. Not today. Thanks, God!

Today’s challenge asks us to acknowledge in some way those people who had significant impact on your life by returning the favour.

When I think of people who had a big impact on my life, I think of those without whom I might not have survived the first years of widowhood. Doris Siebel, who took my kids after school when I went to work and gave us all supper. Don & Elinor who also offered so much support. Bertha Lander, pastor at Bloomingdale Mennonite Church, who listened to me for many hours. Marie Snyder, who held me that night I was told Volker was going to die, and who, with her family took our family out for dinner many Sunday afternoons after Volker was gone. This is not an exhaustive list, but these people were critical. The least I can do is say “Thank you!” again.