Author: Tom Kelly

The Gift of a Second Chance

Posted on by Tom Kelly

My father was starting end-of-life care at an Ottawa hospital and I had just arrived for what had become my daily visit. He was growing less aware and my time with him was becoming more solitary, although it was still nice to be in his company and share this way.

Today I was lucky and able to park closer to the hospital. It was a gloomy, grey day in November with a lick of wind to enhance the understanding of the coming transition into winter.

I pulled my coat together and hunched to maintain warmth as I walked to the crosswalk, and then along the path to the main entrance.

I noticed a man walking in the opposite direction, along the driveway with parked cars between us. He had a cane and was moving slowly and with poor balance. My first thought was “Where could he possibly be going without help as he looked that frail?

By now I was almost stopped, worried, yet excited for every new step this man took. Others were watching too and as he approached the crosswalk I assumed someone closer would assist him. This was not the case. He staggered across the road and up a cut in the sidewalk, gathering himself for the remainder of the journey to his vehicle.

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Depth

Posted on by Tom Kelly

We were having a dinner party recently and steak was on the menu. As the day closer I looked up cooking instructions as we don’t have steak often and I wanted to ensure I remembered all the tips. This was also a chance to see if anyone was doing anything new and exciting with meat!

I read through a couple of articles and found a lot of common ground. Something that everyone insisted was important was to let the cooked meat sit before eating, 10 minutes seemed the guideline. This allows the meat to finish cooking, which is difficult when people are hungry. But we waited and the meal and steaks were a big success!

Fast forward a few days. I’m doing something completely unrelated, rushing along when my guides tap me on the shoulder and say “What’s the rush? Do you remember the steaks? They had to sit for 10 minutes. There was a reason for the wait and the outcome was enhanced greatly.”

I recall stopping immediately and knowing this was the absolute truth. The guides were not scolding me for anything in particular. This was just another tap like many they have shared lately.

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Connections

Posted on by Tom Kelly

A strong message came through recently about connection (or) our “Disconnections”.

So here it is.

Don’t take any of this personally. We’ve all been disconnected at some point, myself included. What’s great is that we can recover and to a place so positive and healing we wonder what took us so long!

Here’s the thing, if we don’t do this now and get this right we run the risk of truly loosing ourselves.

If we lose our connection to nature, our connection to ourselves, our connection to each, we will be completely lost!

Our Connection to Nature

Nature is meant to be part of us and part of our daily life. If we live in cities we run the risk of never knowing nature. We may never know how or food is grown or understand how the meats we purchase in grocery stores comes to be, how these animals live and die.  We may never walk on the earth barefoot or witness a night sky free of light pollution.

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