Season of Peace and Non-Violence.... Movie Night and a Great talk.

Just a reminder that the peace-themed movie night is coming up this Friday February 20th at 7pm at UBC-O. This is the second event in the Season of Non-Violence outreach initiative. Come on out and enjoy a movie and support this season.

In the meantime you can watch this talk again on YouTube. This was Reverend Corinne Crockett's talk on the subject of peace entitled - Yes it begins with me. There are some great slides in the video that accompany the talk. Pour yourself a cup of tea and curl up with your (cat/dog/goldfish/partner/friend/favourite blanket) and be inspired to be the peace you want to see in the world.

It's the Month of Love

With Valentine's Day coming up, we really can't help but think about love. The love we have currently in our lives, the love we have lost, the love we would like to have. It all comes up around Valentines Day, doesn't it?

My all-time favourite book about love and relationships is Gary Chapman's The 5 Languages of Love. I learned some very valuable lessons from this book. The great thing is that the tools in this book don't just enhance our
primary love relationship, they are also very useful in our relationships with our friends and family as well. These tools are so universal that I have also used them in my role as a manager.

For instance, did you know that we tend to show love to others in the ways that we want to be loved? That makes sense, doesn't it? Did you also know that people have very different ways of feeling loved? As Chapman says, we each have a language of love that we speak and that speaks to us. Now, what are the chances that all the other people in our lives speak the same love language? If they don't (which many of them, in fact, don't) we could be spending a lot of energy trying to express our love to people in our lives but they are not feeling it. We are not speaking the right language.

Now imagine if you knew the love language of the people in your life. Imagine the harmony you would have in your relationships if the love you expressed could easily be felt by others.

Reverend Gwen Smith is starting a book study on The 5 Love Languages on Valentine's Day. I highly recommend this book and I can't think of a more open and loving person to facilitate some great discussions about the ideas Gary Chapman presents.  

If you are interested in learning more about relationships and love languages, contact Rev. Gwen Smith about this book study.