Sometimes a camera does the talking for me. Here are a handful of images from Newfoundland that hopefully do a better job of showcasing its beauty than my feeble words ever could. I only wish I could help you smell the salt water air.

We held two memorial services this week. Needless to say, it’s a heavy time. It’s difficult enough to figure out how to grieve, let alone when there is so little space between deaths. There is definitely something healing about remembering, and so I’m grateful that we gathered to mourn. Comfort does linger when we sing, pray and share stories together.

Truthfully, I’m weary. Earlier this week, while folding bulletins for the services and editing eulogies, I was overcome with sadness. My eyes got hot with tears as the reality of loss sunk in. As difficult as the wave of emotion was, I also felt relieved that it came. I am far more fearful of feeling nothing. I often say to people, should I become cold to death, that’s when you should really start to worry about me. For me, the way through grief is by embracing it.

As of today I am on holidays. It is difficult to leave when so much is going on. I also know it is important for me to rest, and so this too I embrace. I hope to sleep (a lot), strum the ukulele and sing, do a little photography, float in a lake, sit around a few campfires, journal, and allow my brain and heart to slow down while being alongside friends and family.

I invite you to pray for Joanna and Meagan who are not on holidays right now. We have many friends who need significant support right now and it is not easy. I am so proud of these two women and count it a privilege to work alongside them. Pray for The Dale as a whole, that a peace that passes all understanding would permeate the community. And pray that we all might have moments of rejuvenating rest, the kind that fills us up and enables us to keep going.