I love these words from Annie Dillard from her book The Writing Life. “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order—willed, faked, and so brought into being; it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living. Each day is the same, so you remember the series afterward as a blurred and powerful pattern.”
I wonder if for some folks the last 18 months have felt like a waste of time. Holiday plans scuttled, visits with friends put on hold, and live music, hockey games, plays, events struck off the calendar. Opportunities lost. I remain hopeful that in some quiet way it has been a time that we will look upon as the birthing of something new. Might we not look back and say, that was the beginning of this new thing? May it be the start of a new way of being in the world?
I love these words from Annie Dillard from her book The Writing Life. “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order—willed, faked, and so brought into being; it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living. Each day is the same, so you remember the series afterward as a blurred and powerful pattern.”
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I was looking for a new pair of work boots at WWW and the best deal and feel was a pair of Geronimos. When we were kids playing cowboys and Indians and we were headed into a heated battle, we would shout “Geronimo.” Turns out that this has its origins in the Apache Chief’s fearlessness in battle, of which he fought many. As colonization was sweeping the US, the army was pushing the First Peoples into reservations. Geronimo had other ideas about that and fought to resist. In a final battle in the late 1800’s it took 5,000 soldiers to capture him. World War II paratroopers screamed “Geronimo” when jumping from planes into battle. Geronimo was imprisoned in Florida and later moved to Fort Sil where he joined the Dutch Reformed Church and was later baptized there. Apparently he was quite enthusiastic about this although he also liked alcohol and gambling which did present a bit of a problem for the leadership of the church. I was wondering why I was drawn to these boots. It was a family thing. It was really encouraging to hear that US President Biden has increased the number of refugees that the will be able to settle from a Trump era 15,000 to 62,000. We can celebrate that at the same time encourage the Canadian government to increase our numbers. We can do more to welcome the refugee. This inspiring story, Border Church, shows both the absurdity and the persistence of the Good News to bring about change. If only we can move from fear to curiosity and knowing of the other and from there to hospitality. This is what it looks like to be Church. A very encouraging article in Al Jazeera We Are All The Same tells the sweet story of a Catholic Church in Barcelona making it open air Cloister available for dinners to Muslims who are fasting for the day and break for these hosted dinners during this year’s Ramadan. The breezy corridors make for a Covid safe place to gather and eat the simple meal provided by the Church of Santa Anna. Iftar is the breaking of the fast that happens each evening after sun down and a long day of fasting. Covid has made these celebrative gathering more difficult. “Faouzia Chati, president of the Catalan Association of Moroccan Women, used to organize Iftar gatherings in the city, but limits on indoor dining forced her to seek an alternative space with good ventilation and space for distancing. She found a receptive ear in Father Peio Sanchez, Santa Anna’s rector, who sees the meeting of different faiths as emblematic of civic coexistence. “People are very happy that Muslims can do Iftar in a Catholic church, because religions serve to unite us, not to separate us,” said Chati. Even with different cultures, different languages, different religions, we are more capable of sitting down and talking than some politicians,” said the rector.” |
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