I’ve been thinking recently about what my body can tell me, and the power that can come with paying attention to it.

Since having kids, I’ve been on a journey of working to understand how to help them understand their own bodies and their experience of having a body.  One of the things I didn’t know was the many ways that our feelings affect our bodies.  And in that way, I realise that I have been very out of touch with my body for my whole life.  I didn’t have a developed sense of body awareness, and I didn’t have a wide vocabulary for describing my physical experiences.  I’ve been learning as I work to understand these things for my kids as to the power just having the correct words can bring.  

As I’ve learned to identify muscles and physical experiences more accurately I’ve been able to understand what is happening inside my body.  For example, you can pay attention to how to engage your stomach muscles when you’ve had it all explained carefully in terms of how to feel those different muscles and how to get them to engage. 

As the school year comes to a close, many students are excited about the prospect of heading home for the summer. But how should people prepare themselves to head to their eternal home? To answer this question, we must discuss both the similarities and differences between homes in heaven and on earth; uncover the components of what it means to come home both naturally and spiritually and, finally, explore the means by which a person prepares themselves for heaven and, therefore, prepares themselves for their eternal home.

By viewing the process of finding our eternal home; we will become informed on the importance of life on earth and how to make our natural life productive in preparing us for a life of use in heaven.

We have all had the experience of coming home after a long trip and feeling peace wash over us; or felt the relief of returning home after a long day of work. It is a feeling that we want to last; that sense of belonging, safety, purpose and familiarity is reassuring.

“Because love and wisdom exist and subsist in use, it is use that affects us; and use is to perform faithfully, sincerely, and diligently the work of one’s function.” Conjugial Love 16

As a Senior in the Kempton New Church School, we have the opportunity to choose a Senior Project where we get a chance to personalize our education and pursue something we are interested in. For my Senior Project I chose to organize a Kempton New Church School Senior Service Trip to Tema, Ghana, with much help from Rev. George Dziekpor and his daughter Klenam Dziekpor. 

Our service group consisted of myself and the two other KNCS seniors, Percy Brown and Hayden King, and also Joram Heinrichs, a senior from the Carmel New Church Society in Kitchener, Ontario. My dad, Rev. Brett Buick and Miss Vivienne Riley, both faculty from KNCS, also accompanied us as support and chaperones.

This trip was life changing for me, and I feel so incredibly blessed to have been able to travel to Ghana and meet so many wonderful people.