This morning, while walking down the street a smile was put on my face by a little girl. She was walking down the street with her mom when they walked past a homeless woman peddling on the street. The girl had some coins, so she looked up at her mom, got approval, and the gave them to the homeless woman. No hesitation, no wondering what she would spend it on, no nothing. Just pure human joy in giving to something that they need. I love living in cities, but I hate having to see homeless people. The reason I hate it is because, especially over here, I don't feel comfortable stopping to chat with homeless people or buying them a coffee like I sometimes do in Peterborough, just because of the language barrier and, I'll be honest, the appearance of some of them. Anyways, in order to not get heckled, you basically have to walk past them and ignore them. Which I think is just wrong, because they are people too, just like me. So I always struggle with what to do. In Peterborough, sometimes I'll buy an extra coffee or I helped out at a Sunday breakfast last year, but I still wish I could do more.
So I was really inspired by the kindness that this little girl showed to a stranger. Maybe that’s what Jesus meant when he said that we should be like children...
Anyways... pancakes!
On Sunday evenings, four other girls in my group and I usually get together for our own little Bible study. It has been such a huge blessing this year and it has inspired my faith and kept me accountable. This past Sunday, however, three of them were gone (Iceland, England, Nice/Monaco... oh the joys of living in Europe!) so we didn’t meet. Instead, we decided to get together after our class tonight and make dinner. We chose the wonderfully Canadian meal of pancakes, but with a twist. My family makes peanut butter pancakes; you basically put peanut butter in the batter and it’s AMAZING. It’s all we make now, pancake-wise. I also saw a recipe for banana bread pancakes on my favourite food blog, and really wanted to try them. So we decided to take my mom’s peanut butter pancake recipe and add bananas to it. And dark chocolate chips. Best idea ever!!! They were so delicious and we were very satisfied.
We had a fun time cooking together, and then hung out afterwards to chat about life and faith. We chatted a lot about relationships tonight which was really interesting. If you want to be inspired and moved, I recommend watching the youtube video called “What are words”. It’s a song by an American Idol contestant about his wife, who got in a really bad car accident and lost a lot of her abilities, but he stuck by her. Anyways, it was beautiful!
And because it’s Tuesday, “Being Erica” was on CBC last night... so I’ll leave you with a quote from the show that I really connected with... "sometimes reality can be not as exciting as our fantasies, but in the end it is reality that we have and we have the chance to make something beautiful out of it." I’m feeling kind of philosophical today... Being Erica + Bible study will do that to you, haha. Anyways, here it is and have a great day!
“Trading fantasy for reality and you might feel like Alice back from Wonderland. The world may not sparkle and shine, but the ground will be solid beneath your feet. And your eyes will be open to all the adventures that lie waiting for you in the real world.”
great post, and thoughts, and pancake goodness (we often make banana chocolate chip pancakes and put peanut butter on them).
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