sitting in an amsterdam library.... no crazy muffins as of yet... short version of the trip so far is as follows: Frankfurt, Mannheim (4 unintended hours), Paris, St. Malo, Mont St. Michel, Ponterson, Paris, Brussels, Brugge, Brussels, Amsterdam.......clearly there is more to say then that... but i'll wait until i get home...
hasta luega!!!

interesting common ground tonight.
as people arrived they were given a hershey's kiss and told not to eat it... (so were we - just much after we arrived...) as the service is broken up into different parts we all figured these would be part of the service later - and we were right.
the whole service was about serving idols and what exactly could be considered an idol - which of course could be anything. about 3/4 of the way through the service, anita tells us to take out the kisses we had been given and during one of the songs we were praying and reflecting to (over the sound system... we actually got to sit and participate!) if we were ready to give up on one of our "idols" we could symbolize this by taking the kiss and putting it beside the christ candle up at the front. she reminded us that sin is often present in appealing circumstances as this chocolate was. and it was actually a difficult thing to do. we had already spent 30-45 min holding on to the chocolate and by this point everyone was ready to eat them... so giving them up was more then just minorly symblic. over the course of a 4 minute song - everyone brought their kisses up to the front... just a few at a time until you looked up at the front and saw everyones chocolate - chocolate that symbolized something in their life that was holding them back. as this was the first sunday of lent it got me to thinking about things to give up - now normally i don't really give anything up for lent - but i was thinking that if i gave up one of my 'idols' each year i'd probably be in pretty good shape. it was interesting to reflect on it for the next couple of songs and just see the candle surrounded by the candle as we sang about surrender.
i was already thinking this was a very cool excercise, but anita wasn't done yet - at the end of the service she brought our attention back to the chocolates at the front and said that when we give stuff up for God he fills our life with better things - she then brought out a basket of full size chocolate bars...
the whole experience has given me something to think about.

be still and know...

so i did this taize thing. i experienced it - and it was good. it took us 4 hours to get to toronto because the weather was so shitty - but we made it.
i'm not sure that i got out of the weekend what i was "supposed to" but it was still really good...
friday night i enjoyed the chance to just sit and be... it was a chance to be silent and to sing a little bit - or not sing and just sit and listen and pray without a huge focus on anything... i don't think i've just sat in a long time. there was a real sense of God just whispering - be still and know... saturday was more of the same- but i was slowly feeling the need for more stimulation - but still very interesting discussions were happening and it was an interesting dynamic of people that attended the conference - but there were no real moments of revelation or anything. sunday we attended a great little catholic church right next door to the place we were living - it was awesome... we sat next to a nun that had attended the whole taize weekend with us (very cool lady) and the sermon was done by another visiting nun - another very cool lady... the service was also the re-dedication of the "religious" lives to God - so the nuns and the monks etc. re-did their vows... pretty cool. we then returned to the conference for a final talk with brother emile - very interesting.
highlights of the weekend:
- just sitting on friday night
- the AMAZING place we stayed at.... neil, katie and i got to stay at the u of t catholic chaplancy centre --- it's this huge victorian mansion type thing... 7 students live/work there with father pat - the priest of the neighbouring parish... you walked into this place and got lost... there was hallway after hallway - neil got a bedroom and katie and i slept on couches in the living room... they were really hospitable and friday night in particular we stayed up for quite a while talking to one of the guys in the house... saturday night we fell asleep listening to the priests/nuns having a hymn sing at their party till 2 am... father pat called them the jesuits that can't sing or something... but it was fun
- the churches we did workshops in... we were mainly in st. paul's cathedral - but also visited metropolitan united and st. james anglican - all of which are huge and have great accoustics...
- going out with ryan and jasmine- it was nice to be able to catch up - and also take a break from the silence :-)
- the service this morning... great to break some of those preconceived notions...
overall the weekend was a great tool at opening up my mind towards some things that are different and that i don't necessarily consider normal practice...

so there's currently a winter storm warning in effect - everywhere (except western of course) was closed today - and yet, i'm still thinking that i'll be hopping into a car and going to the taize conference in toronto this weekend. i think it will be a good weekend - if we make it there... if not - i'll be in london - doing homework and cleaning my room
wish me luck...