IT WILL MAKE YOU STRONG

I stumbled across this quote recently:

"I will make you happy, said Life, but first, I will make you strong."

I wasn't able to discover its origins, but it immediately struck a chord.

This week, I attended a municipal public meeting for the purpose of exploring the pros and cons of a development proposal for land adjacent to my home at Kingston Beach.  I was there with many of my neighbours.  Oddly enough, it was the biggest gathering of neighbours in our small community for several years.  We live closely together, and most of the time we are friendly with each other; but on balance, we all value our privacy. 

Watching each of my neighbours go to the podium and listening to them share their thoughts and concerns, I was struck by how little I really know them.  We greet each other when we meet at the garbage shed every Monday morning.  We sometimes work together to fill a pot hole in the road or to repair a mailbox.  We wave to each other when we pass or stop briefly to chat when we meet each other out on a stroll.  I could go next door to borrow a cup of sugar or a measure of flour - but we're not close...we're "neighbourly".

And yet, in the council chambers where we met to listen and speak, we all sat closely together.  I saw glances of support exchanged and whispered encouragements offered.  There was a web of connection between us, a combination of common interest and enough shared sentiment to allow us to have empathy.  It drew us together and, for a short while, we were united. 

The odd thing was, it was a challenge - a crisis of sorts - that brought us into that circle.  I don't think for a moment that collectively, we all have the same opinion about the development proposal - some will favour it, some will resist it, and others likely won't care one way or the other. 

It reminded me of how at First United we are going through a period of unsettled wondering, knowing that things are changing but not yet recognizing the Way ahead and being deeply uncertain about what sort of faith community we will become.  I'm not good at sitting patiently while this sort of tension works on me; my discomfort is often on display as frustration and anger.   

Perhaps, I can apply the lessons I learned this week: be present, be supportive, be honest, have empathy.

I will pray for strength too.

Pat

Take This Away With You

Our capacity to make peace

with another person and with the world,

depends very much on our capacity to

make peace with ourselves.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh~

A Week's Worth of Gratitude

Saturday ~ a good meal and great music

Sunday ~ Coffee by the Choir, my bowling buddies

Monday ~ Sheila Clark's cake mixes

Tuesday ~ the lady who delivers my mail

Wednesday ~ important work done well

Thursday ~ neighbours with a common cause

Friday ~ sausages

SOMETHING TO CURE YOUR ILLS

Last summer, I was hiking the Bruce Trail with some old friends from my army days.  They live on Salt Spring Island in BC and had never been to our part of Ontario.  The hike was a short one around the loop at Skinner's Bluff...a trek that would be sure to show them the great vista views of our islands and shoreline.  We were packing our day-packs for the hike and I noticed one of my friends tuck a yellow and red plastic box into his pack.  I asked him what it was and he said, "rattle snake anti-venom".  He told me that he had read that there were snakes on the Bruce Trail and he wanted to be prepared with an antidote.  I had to chuckle.

Many of us go through life seeking antidotes for the dangers and challenges that everyday life presents us.  Most of what we count on to protect us is largely ineffective, a placebo rather than real medicine we need to make it through daily life.

I have discovered a sure-fire "anti-venom" for frustration, resentment, anger and fear.  It's called gratitude.  Yup.  Plain, old, every-day garden-variety gratitude.  I try to take it daily, at least three doses.  It doesn't cost a penny and it never goes stale on the shelf.  It tastes great and it works!

Researchers have concluded that the benefits of gratitude to human health include:

* better long-term emotional and physical health.

* more restorative sleep.

* greater resistance to depression and fatigue.

* increased confidence and self-awareness.

* lower risk of inflammation and greater resistance to common illnesses.

* reduced stress and lower risk of heart disease.

* reduced risk of alcoholism and substance abuse.

* longevity (grateful people live longer!).

* greater contentment, boosted creativity, enhanced willpower, stronger relationships.

Feeling down about your life?  Have a sense of things not being right?  Want to get things back on track?

Take three doses of gratitude - one in the morning, one at noon and one when you go to bed and call me in the morning.

Who knew that all these benefits could come from being thankful.

Pat

Take This Away With You

Let us rise up and be thankful,

for if we didn't learn a lot today,

at least we learned a little,

and if we didn't learn a little,

at least we didn't get sick,

and if we got sick,

at least we didn't die;

so, let us all be thankful.

~ The Buddha ~

IN PRAISE OF PERSEVERANCE

Today, I am writing in praise of perseverance.  Perseverance is a trait that humans share with other animals, but it is humankind that has elevated it to a virtue.  It is one of the characteristics that I most admire in people.  When I was asked at the annual congregational meeting why I had a picture of Sir Winston Churchill on my computer desktop, I gave a long-winded, indefinite answer.  I should have just said, "perseverance".

All my life, I have observed the rewards of perseverance.  My Dad was a man who persevered in the face of many obstacles.  Looking back, I wonder how my Dad managed to harness his impatience to become so tenacious; I don't remember him ever giving up on anything he thought was important.  This was a lesson he passed on to all of his children.

When I joined the army at the age of 18, I quickly learned that determination was an important quality of leadership; we called it "selection and maintenance of the aim".  The idea was that, once a particular objective was decided upon, we maintained our focus on that goal until it was achieved.  On countless occasions during training exercises and on operational duty, I have experienced the morale-boosting, confidence-building effect of perseverance.  Determined people tend to carry others on their backs...figuratively and literally.

The actor John Wayne portrayed that quality of "grit".  In the wild, wild West, a person with "sand" was someone who didn't quit, who stuck by friends and honoured their word.  That was a long time ago - but I sometimes wonder if our daily lives and modern society might be better if more of us demonstrated steadfastness in the face of doubt, fear or adversity.

Like most things human, there is a shadow side to perseverance.  When it is unbalanced or un-tempered by reason and vision, it turns into obstinacy and inflexibility.  There is a fine line between a person of dogged determination and a stubborn fool.

There are many other words that convey the same quality of perseverance: resoluteness, persistence, diligence...you may have others in mind.  However you call it, in whatever measure it comes to you, may it be a blessing in your life. 

Peace and joy to all.

Pat

A NEW PERSPECTIVE

The morning sun rises over the ridge behind our home, its wintry angle providing not a lot of warmth until well overhead, if at all because clouds move in.  The sunrise never fails to awaken in me a sense of awe and hope.  I don't think I'll ever cease being amazed by what I see in nature.

What Something More set in motion, billions of years ago now, has not grown out of fashion or faded in its deep effect on me.

I know that our home is built upon one of several sea shores that once enclosed a lake far greater than the body of water I now look out upon.  Go up over the ridges and I can see that a hundred feet of water might have once covered  were we live.  What must the sunrises have looked like in those times?  Might the sun have set then over an endless expanse of water rather than slipping below the Bruce Peninsula?

Trees and plants have lived here before and after the glaciers scraped the land clean in their advance and then, in their retreat, deposited the rocks and stones that made the land so hard to farm.  The trees, grasses and shrubs continue to reclaim lands that have long been abandoned to farming.  Nature, the creative spirit of Something More,  is relentless and will always find a way to take back; to renew.

Buildings; sprawling cities with competing towers seeking the title of tallest, do little for me anymore, other than make me wonder how sustainable all this is.  Give me the walk down to the shore to listen to the waves break against the ice.  Give me the whispered sound of the wind in pines and spruces that sleep in winters cold.

Give me the sight and sound of a new born child, Creation's gift, not yet spoiled or soiled by our self-proclaimed electronic enlightenment.  Give me the quiet night of sitting with a loved one where nothing is said because nothing need be said.

Give me the hand offered to another to lift up and support.  Give me the compassion of loving presence in the life of the elderly, in the life of the hungry or thirsty stranger, in the life of those who grieve.

For such things, we were made.

Give me the touch of the luminous web that yearns for all life to be as one; the touch that births awe and hope.

Peace and be well, friends.

Thom

WAKING UP TO LIFE

Two weeks ago, my friend the farmer suffered a heart attack.  I didn't hear about it until about four days afterwards when his wife called.  Earlier this week, I visited him at his home and spent about an hour with him as he retold the tale.

He told me that the episode itself wasn't that bad; he didn't experience a lot of pain and he didn't lose consciousness.  He was out in the shop making an adjustment to a new overhead door opener and not feeling well - a constant but minor discomfort and a feeling that things weren't right.  He walked back to the house and his wife called an ambulance.  Two hours later, he was in a helicopter on his way to Kitchener.  After tests, the cardio-vascular surgeon told him that he had four major blockages and that rather than being able to repair them with stents, he would need more extensive surgery...a quadruple by-pass.

The surgery went well and my friend was at home in his own bed just five days later.  He has a nurse visiting every so often to change dressings and he tells me it hurts to laugh - he holds a cushion to his chest and stomach to ease the pain.  He'll get staples out in about another week or so, if all goes well.  All that to say, he's recovering well and is eager to get back to normal, whatever that is.  His doctor says he cannot drive for about four weeks - that loss of independence and mobility is perhaps the hardest thing for him to bear.

My friend is, by all external evidence, a fit man.  He's in his early 70's, slim and strong, he's active and eats well, has never had a serious medical condition in his life.  I asked him what he was thinking in the hours leading up to his surgery.  He was silent for a while and then he told me that for a short while, his thoughts were mostly to do with "why me?".  He said that when the doctor told him he needed a quadruple by-pass he could hardly believe it and he felt a mixture of self-pity and anger.  After a few hours, those thoughts changed to a kind of numbness.  When his family visited him before going into surgery, he said he was close to tears with a mixture of gratitude and love for them, and fear that he would not see them again.

My friend told me that when he saw his wife and son post-op, he was filled with joy and thanks giving.  He realized the precious gift they were to him - and then he did shed some tears.  He told me he feels like he's been given a second chance, but he's still not sure what for.  I suggested that perhaps it isn't a second chance but an extension - an extension to keep living the good life every day, without being brought to the brink of losing everyone and everything that is important to him.

As I drove away that afternoon, I thought to myself of the times I have been awakened through grief or fear or doubt - just like my friend the farmer.  That's the good that comes to us from the shadow side of life.

May we all see the light that shines for us in times of darkness.

Pat

Take This Away with You

In ordinary life we hardly realize

that we receive a great deal more than we give.

And, it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.

~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer ~

THE KISS PRINCIPLE

In my early days as a soldier, while undergoing basic training, my life was governed by two principles.  The first had to do with communications; it went something along the lines that any order that might be misunderstood, will be misunderstood.  The purpose of that principle was to encourage clarity and brevity when issuing instructions and orders to others.  The KISS principle was the second fundamental for success in the army: keep it simple.  Here I am now in my 60's and the KISS principle is once again emerging in my life.

Over the holiday season, I took the opportunity provided by a lull in work to rest, recover and replenish.  From Christmas Day until after New Years, I stayed close to home and limited my activities to walking, reading, eating and sleeping.  I kept it simple.  It turned out to be one of the best holidays I have had in many years.  Not only did my body respond positively to lots of fresh air and plenty of rest, but my soul did too.

The positive effects I gained from the KISS principle were brought home to me one afternoon as I was coming back from a walk down Side Road 23.  Coming down the lane, I could hear the familiar sounds of the two boys who live beside me, out on their back deck playing hockey.  They live for the sport and every spare moment is spent in the game.  By their excited voices, I know that they are immersed, heart and mind, in the back and forth scramble of shinny hockey with a tennis ball and dreams of greater things.    Those kids instinctively know how to keep it simple.

A game of shinny hockey might not be your thing, but consider how simple it is to live simply. 

Slow down.

Pay attention to your body and soul - give it fresh air and exercise.

Be with people you love.

Feed and stimulate your mind with stories and new ideas.

Be grateful for who and what you have.

May we all find some of the simplicity of childhood.

Pat

A Simple Quote

The real things haven't changed.

It is still best to be honest and truthful;

to make the most of what we have;

to be happy with simple pleasures;

and have courage when things go wrong.

~ Laura Ingalls Wilder ~

A Week's Worth of Gratitude

Saturday ~ Chris & Agnes, the budget team

Sunday ~ Ruth, Lloyd & Laurel

Monday ~ a night at the movies

Tuesday ~ turkeys gobbling in the corn field

Wednesday ~ sunlight & patches of blue sky

Thursday ~ continuous learning

Friday ~ return to crisp & cold

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

If a large group of starlings is called a "murmur",

and a gathering of crows is called a "murder",

what do you call a flock of turkeys?

Pass your answer to Pat.

The first correct answer received

will win a Tim Horton's gift card.

psmcd@gbtel.ca

WISDOM AND ELDERSHIP

~art by Shiloh Sophia McCloud ~

Last Sunday, in her reflection, Kristal talked about the wisdom of elders.  She differentiated between being old and being an elder, between having intelligence and possessing wisdom.  Kristal's reflection  made me think about my own pursuit of wisdom.  I can hear my doubting inner-self scoffing a bit at that.  I'm a long way from being an elder.  But, before I scoff too loudly, I want you to know I'm really trying hard.

I'm at a bit of a disadvantage I think, because I do a lot of my travelling towards eldership by reading.  And, I'm 99.9% certain that wisdom is not found in a book.  Wisdom, if it ever finds me, will come through life and living.  I won't learn wisdom, I will do wisdom.  Don't get me wrong: I think certain books can point me in the right direction (like a good compass), but I still have to go the distance before wisdom will find me out and I'm able to recognize it for what it is.

The First Editions Book Club read a book* earlier this week that had some signposts for the pathway to wisdom.  One of the characters received a gift from his boss years ago; and now, as a boss himself, with many people looking to him for guidance, leadership and wisdom, he shares that gift with others.  His gift is four sentences that lead to wisdom:  I'm sorry.  I was wrong.  I need help.  I don't know. 

If I can live in the state of humility, self-knowledge and vulnerability embodied in those four sentences, I have a chance of becoming an elder.

I want to share some other gleanings about wisdom that I've collected over the past 30 years, from various sources...writers, philosophers, imaginers and dreamers:

Wisdom and belief have been the mainspring of human development.  Wisdom and belief produce purpose, the purpose of living a good life.  Wisdom begins with good manners in all its forms, and includes honour, for there can be no fair dealing between humans, and no splendour of existence without wisdom; and, humans cannot live long without some splendour. ~ Robertson Davies.

Wisdom is the pilot of the soul, the divine intelligence, knowledge absolute. ~ Thomas Cahill.

Wisdom could be defined as knowing what you have to accept. ~ Wallace Stegner.

The point of it all is to awaken from the dream...the illusion that what we see is all there is.  That this physical world is the real one.  The higher dream is the one of unity over aloneness, blessings over fear, freedom over blame, unlimited spiritual possibility over limited material gain.  I'm telling you to choo

se to awaken.  It's all possible once you do that. ~ Richard Wagamese.

I really don't know if wisdom will come with hard work or whether it will just fall on my shoulders like a light mantle of new snow flakes.  I think perhaps, what will keep me in going on the right path are things like spiritual discipline...mindfulness, meditation, reflection and some centering practices that start with what is divine and holy in life.  I will remember, it's not a recipe...it's a way of living.

May your pathway be rich with sparkles of wisdom.

Pat

* Bury Your Dead, Louise Penny, 2010.

A Week's Worth of Gratitude

Saturday ~ hockey game with friends

Sunday ~ Rob Tite

Monday ~ heart-break hill

Tuesday ~ a new year ahead

Wednesday ~ book club buddies

Thursday ~ Allen Walker

Friday ~ good music selected by Stephen

A Friday Blessing

So my wish for you is that

you learn to see the world as altar,

where everything you need to pray and sing

 and hope and dream and become

is laid out there for your use

 when you chose to pick it up.

~ Richard Wagamese, Runaway Dreams, Ronsdale Press, 2011 ~