Monthly Archives: August 2013

The Labyrinth by Candle and Moonlight

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We took the scholars up to the labyrinth and invited them to walk through it contemplating some of the questions of the Examen.

What we didn’t take into account was that small tapers inside of paper bags don’t actually stay lit for very long. Instead of walking the labyrinth with the scholars and the leadership team, I ended up darting here and there throughout the labyrinth relighting candles that had blown out and replacing candles that had burned out.

What I encountered was a very different experience than those who took the winding path through the labyrinth. Upon reflection, it was as though I was a small part of everyone’s journeys: by hunkering down at this corner or that, I ensured that the path was lit for the return home.

 

Rewind and Fastforward

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It has been a long time since I paddled a canoe across a still Ontario lake.

Yes, I’ve canoed in the intervening time, but BC shorelines are not the same as Ontario ones. Ontario ones, in comparison, look so “quaint” and miniature: the trees are smaller here, the rocks less jagged and imposing. As some of our youth scholars reminded me, however, they are no less dramatic, no less beautiful, and no less dangerous.

I found myself reflecting back to weeks spent at the cottage in the lakes of Ontario as a child. We would take early morning paddles around the lake looking for turtles and loon nests and listening for the call of the loon. I relished the stillness and the silence of the moment and would try and paddle as silently as possible.

Like birdwatching, canoeing is one of those things that I associate with my mum.

I was paddling home across Cameron Lake, enjoying silence in the companionship of my fellow-paddlers, when I began to reflect a little more on what I was doing. Mum used to lead canoe trips with young people on Ontario lakes. Here I was, some odd 40 years later, canoeing on Ontario lakes with young people for the first time as a leader. Its the closest I’ve felt to mum in a long time.

Ask & Imagine

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Glory to God whose power working in us can do infinitely more than we can Ask or Imagine

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I’ve been here for nearly a week but “getting settled in London” still hits me as a bit of a misnomer. I spent two lovely days with my godparents, have seen and dropped a few things off at the place where I will be living come the end of the month, and now am living at Huron University College residences for the program Ask & Imagine.

As of yesterday, we’ve all met, we’ve played games together, we’ve cooked and eaten together, and we’ve worshiped together. Today begins our first full day. It is as much a new experience for all of our young scholars as it is for me. And it is fantastic.

Leaving

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IMG_0793The last few weeks have felt, as I’ve joked with friends, like my “farewell tour” of the West Coast. I spent a solid week of visiting with friends before leaving Victoria, often two-three coffee/meal dates in a day. While tiring in some ways – it was a lot of here and there – it was so much more rewarding and life-giving than a big goodbye party would have been. I cherish the chance to actually speak with people and have good conversations, and that just doesn’t happen in large settings at restaurants. Its been hard to say goodbye to the people I love and the place I have lived for so long, even though I know it is not goodbye and is more of a “see you soon”.IMG_0383 My house and belongings were packed well in advance of move day and, as I had no furniture remaining save a couple of pillows and a camping mattress, I spent much of my time at other people’s houses and in coffee shops.

I have lived in Victoria since August of 2004. Sure, there was a two year period in there where I travelled extensively around China, Europe, and then on a ship in the Pacific, but Victoria has been my home. In fact, it is the longest I have lived anywhere since my first 13 years in the small Ontario town where I was born.

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Christ Church Cathedral has been my church home and the centre of my spiritual community and the beginning of the my more recent, formal journey towards ordination, for the last five years. We said farewell last Sunday and it was tough to not know when I would be back inside that gorgeous building with all of the familiar and supportive faces of friends.

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I have spent the last five days in Vancouver, continuing the “Farewell Tour” with saying goodbye to family and to friends here before I head to Ontario tomorrow.

Today I worshipped in another Christ Church Cathedral, in Vancouver. Again, some familiar faces and familiar spaces were there to greet me.

It is bittersweet, leaving the West Coast. I love it here. I love my friends, I love my way of life. Yet I am so very excited about what the next three years in London will hold and what things I will learn and the people I will meet and, perhaps, the places I will fall in love with there. And, BC, as I have said, it is not a goodbye. It is a See You Again Soon.

(And in the meantime, I’m going to head off and eat some more fresh sushi. Again. Because you never can have enough of that on the West Coast before moving inland!)