It’s A Small World After All
Hustling for the airport—queuing up for the flight check in—winding through the maze of security scanning—only to find out that our flight to Heathrow had been cancelled! Why? A volcano had erupted overnight spewing forth a massive plume of ash and grounding the airways over Great Britain and Europe! Not just for a day but an entire week! (Tomorrow we are scheduled to fly out for real this time—a full ten days after our original booking…barring another volcanic blast from the sneaky Icelandic mountain.)
Amazing! An isolated volcano on an isolated island shuts down a hundred thousand flights at the cost of a billion dollars over the Godfather (Europe!) of the west. Score: Volcanos = 1, Homo sapiens = 0. Okay, we’re definitely impressed. Enough already!
Interdependence. Volcanos, ash, winds, planes, continents, countries, people at airports all over the world (todo el mundo) all connected like a spider’s web spreading out and claiming ownership of all it touches.
Irritating but a healthy reminder. Everything is connected. We are all connected—no person is an island—no matter how hard we try! I impact you and you impact me—for better or worse.
The kid’s ride at Disneyworld is right—’it’s a small world after all.’ We are all sisters and brothers (at some level) and the Earth is our home. Time to listen up, recognize our connections, and embrace our ties while we still have the opportunity.
Earth Day, April 22, 2010.
Early Spring
Toronto is enchanting in the spring! The Canadian winter is long and arduous, and the months of January and February are especially demanding. Long nights, short days and minimal Vitamin D. But suddenly spring—primavera—hits with a massive thud! The trees explode with their buds and overnight the landscape is changed from barren brown to gorgeous greens. The crocuses burst their purple heads and the forsythias joyfully display their yellow leaves throughout the cityscape. It all happens within days.
No casual subtlety here in Toronto spring. Just us crazy Canucks having our way with the metropolis on the northern shore of Lake Ontario.
Miraculously, this year it came a month earlier than normal! Some might say this is an ominous sign, but I will receive it with the open hands of gratitude—the gift of an early spring! Truly, let the ravines of Toronto, led by the Humber and the Don, clap their hands with joy unto their maker!
An ancient poet spoke of spring in these words:
“Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away” (Song of Songs 2:10-13).
Spring is always enjoyed; always magical. Especially when it is an early spring! A gift from Abba to a people needing comfort, encouragement and a divine touch.
So if you live in TO go for a long walk and live it up! If not be glad for what you can and rejoice with those who rejoice because the spring doesn’t last long in the land of the Great Lakes.
Incan Quinoa
Going through some of my trip photos, I came across these…
Do you know that we have the Incas to thank for the marvelous quinoa grain? (My daughter tells me it’s the perfect food—excellent source of protein and carbohydrate!) This remarkable people group experimented with various grains at extreme altitudes to find out which ones would flourish under such conditions.
I spent a number of weeks traveling throughout the Sacred Valley in Peru and came upon an ancient site where they practiced such agrarian explorations. The photo of the descending concentric circles shows controlled growing areas where the temperature drops by 2 degrees Celsius per circle. The Incas discovered that quinoa flourished under these rugged conditions.
In my hand are the quinoa seeds—the fruit of their labour. So the next time you enjoy quinoa for breakfast or with your fancy entrée at an upscale restaurant, remember who did all of the work to satisfy your palate.
Thank you Incan friends for your inquisitive minds and spirit. Also, thank you to our Quechua brothers and sisters who maintain the Incan bloodline, language and connectedness with the earth into our present day. Our Earth would be greatly diminished without your presence!
Looking To Easter
Someone has said ‘that to replace a vision we need a greater vision.’ Easter promises us an incredible vision! So from the good work of Good Friday we look forward to the vision of Easter Sunday morning when Jesus breaks through the death barrier and brings us along—if we agree to make the journey that is.
Farrell crafts a beautiful rendition of the vision of Jesus:
“Realizing Jesus’ vision being dreamed in us is bound to change us. Imagine the dream the Father has for each of us. A dream so real that it becomes creation, a love so immense that it becomes Incarnation, divinization. Imagine Jesus’ love and what he sees in each of us, that He could dream we could be like Himself. In Christ, we are dreamers and co-dreamers. We dream together with Him. He dreams in us, creating a new world” (Beams of Prayer).
This Easter I pray that you may have a fresh vision of what Abba wants for you and that you will have the passion to embrace His dream for you.
Elsie’s Eyes
My granddaughter’s eyes—big, brown, receptive, curious, inviting, inquiring, peaceful! Her eyes make me want to write a book: ‘Everything I Learned From My Grandaughter About Spirituality.’
Lesson number one: Elsie’s keen ability to live in the present moment and express her true self. I have much to learn from her on this point. It is so easy for me to get caught up in expectations, facades, and gamesmanship. Elsie never plays games (or those kinds of games)! She is always in the moment—her true self breaking forth—take it or leave it!
Try this lesson from Elsie today…this week. Be aware of the present moment. Just be. Don’t rush to the next place. Enjoy where you are and receive the grace of that moment. Open up your eyes wide and let all of the light in; let it penetrate deep and enjoy the colours that are revealed.
Hemingway says that a whole life can be lived in three days! I think he’s right. If our eyes are truly open, we will be blown away by the spectacle of living each day. My granddaughter has this kind of living down pat.
Smiling eyes, Irish eyes, open eyes, seeing eyes, Elsie’s eyes.
Lost Time
Last week I had the joy (not!) of being called in as a prospective court juror. I was told that this was a great responsiblity and an important civic duty (or at least that’s what a lawyer friend assured me). Hence, I dutifully went to the court house on University Avenue along with several hundred others to participate in bestowing justice—all of us holding our heads up high as faithful citizens of this great land.
The reality: we were herded into a rather unfortunate room with awful neon lighting where we sat and sat and sat some more…for hours with no explanation or information, let alone a drop of coffee! Hours of waiting until we were ready to pull out our hair (or the hair of the person sitting next to us…in my case the man talking to me as if we were long lost friends and making it impossible to read!), at which point we were finally called into a court room where charges were read out against a frightened young man. I didn’t feel much like I was in the service of some great cause.
Ultimately, I wasn’t chosen. But a week was lost and I can’t really say that my participation engendered any satisfying level of justice. I’m sorry for the young man and sorry for whatever transpired, landing him in such a place—details I will never know. But my presence on University Avenue didn’t seem to make much of a difference no matter what they tell me!
Time. Lost time. Make the most of your time. I hear the apostle Paul saying, ‘Make the most of your time , because the days are evil’—and related passages like, ’Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord’ and ‘Understand what the will of the Lord is.’ Such sayings speak to the importance…the preciousness of time. Much needs to be done but the hours keep slipping away!
Not a drop of time should be lost let alone a week. If I can lay hold of my day with greater purpose and focus because of my lost week…then perhaps it wasn’t in vain. (If not it was a waste—a bloody awful week I would wish on no one!) Seize the moment. Carpe Diem. Enjoy the gift of your time and use it well. Unlike the Widow of Zarephath, our jar of resources/time does run out so let us hear St. Paul anew and ‘make the most of our time!’
Diving In Cuba
My last week of blog silence was due to a week of scuba diving in the Cuban archipelago. The specific location was Santa Lucia on the north east coast of Cuba just south of the Bahamas and other famous dive destinations such as the Turks and Caicos Islands. My good friend Rob and I shared in some exquisite wall dives replete with purple, red, orange and green sponges, and myriads of different corals such as brain, elkhorn, lettuce and fire corals.
We were also strangely received by hundreds of deadly lionfish that proliferated after being released from an aquarium in Florida! Unsettling as these fish belong in the South Pacific and not in the Caribbean and have a bad record of killing unsuspecting fish as well as injuring unfocused divers! They are gorgeous to see but dangerous and terribly painful to the touch.
We also stumbled across a sleeping nurse shark (6 feet in size) nestled under a rock shelf catching a few winks during the daylight hours before its night hunting prowels. He didn’t really appreciate our curious peers and excited “gaahs” seeping through our regulators and took off rather abruptly. A short but still satisfying encounter…from a diver’s perspective.
All in all I was reminded once again of the Psalmist’s refrain, “Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who live in it” (Ps. 98:4). The underwater world quite naturally gives praise to God. Simply by existing…the fish, coral, sponges, sharks all give praise to their Creator. It is us two legged humans that are so slow to praise!
We either need to spend a lot more time under water to learn how to praise or pay closer attention to Abba’s presence on the surface. Cuba can’t always come to our aid! Perhaps we landlubbers can slow our pace a bit and join with our water friends in ‘making a joyful noise to the Lord’?
Dare To Believe
I have been musing on some words of Farrell:
“Jesus has drawn you. He’s been waiting for you all of your life and he wants to pour Himself into you. “If you but knew the gift of God…” If you but knew the gift of yourself. If you but knew the gift of each person. If you could see the glory of God, His presence, His waiting. If we could only believe the truth. “I will give you that water of life. I will give you that love that it may be poured into you and overflow into the life of each person to whom I send you this week”. Dare to believe that Jesus is waiting for you. Recognize how much in you is waiting for Him”.
Lent is about receiving Jesus. It is about waiting and being replenished in love, patience, kindness, joy. It is saying yes to the overtures of Christ and being drawn into his desert of love.
So often we resist. We say no to what will lead us deeper into God. During this Lenten season may we open our hearts to the God of all compassion who only desires what is truly good for us.
May we dare to believe that Jesus is waiting for us and that at our deepest core we are also waiting for Him.
Lent and Prayer
As we move through Lent in prayer, read the words of Thomas Greene as a place to begin:
“Hearing or listening is a good metaphor for prayer. The good pray-er is above all a good listener. Prayer is dialogue; it is a personal encounter in love. When we communicate with someone we care about, we speak and we listen. But even our speaking is responsive: What we say depends upon what the other person has said to us. Otherwise we don’t have real dialogue, but rather two monologues running along side by side” (Opening To God).
During the season of Lent we want to be listening for the voice of God. It is a time to consider the self-giving of Jesus and to open ourselves up to his humble way. When we do this we are encouraged to open ourselves up to our neighbour and his or her pain so that the other is brought into our compassionate circle.
True prayer invites us to reflect and desire the well-being of others. It is not simply a focusing on our own needs, wishes, convenience or comfort. It is a conversation which resonates with God’s purposes as we become instruments in His divine currents of love.
Prayer helps us to get our eyes off of our egos. It is a dialogue of listening and speaking: a communication linking God, the pray-er, and the one for whom we pray. When we engage in prayer we become a healing force in our broken world.
May this be our desire—to move prayerfully though this Lenten season—emanating peace, compassion and love.
Bones
Plutarch tells the story of how Alexander the Great came upon Diogenes looking attentively at a heap of human bones.
“What are you looking for?” asked Alexander.
“Something that I cannot find,” said the philosopher.
“And what is that?”
“The difference between your father’s bones and those of his slaves.”
I remember travelling through Turkey and Greece and coming to the place where the father of Alexander the Great was buried. A great tomb—ornate, covered in gold—it was considered a great find to locate the tomb of King Philip II and his Queen.
But bones are bones. Dry, white, fractured bones. Crumbling, exhausted, remnants of life—no matter if they belong to king or peasant.
It reminds us to live the moment but also know that the moment ends.
It is an invitation to live both vibrantly and compassionately so that each person can enjoy their time under the sun.
