Earth Day

As we link divine wholeness to our lives we connect through the ground under our feet.  I am trying to unfold my wings and everyday I am challenged by my own distrust of the world.  I will find myself in Mother Earth and in my grounding to the land.

Today we honour the Earth!  The ground of our being and our home.  As I read the Cosmic Story this morning in worship we will honour the great garden of our lives.  The wonder of nature is amazing and we can see that through this short video.  What does it mean to be in touch with the Earth?  Grounded in the sacred with our feet planted firmly in the dirt.

Take time to find yourself in this day ... smile at the sunshine, watch a bird as it floats in mid-air, watch for the goodness through your child's eye.  Find the blessing in living and share it with those you love!

Heavy rain in the forecast...

There are heavy rains forecast for today... rains that will wash away the bleakness of winter and feed the roots of the spring abundance.  The temperatures are beginning to creep up and a sure sign of spring is the return of the people who migrate south for the winter months.  I was out this morning with my son's dog and I could hear the birds.  It was before the sun was up, very early, 6:00 AM and it was a lovely time of day.  It reminds me that each day we begin again and have a new day with no mistakes in it!  Can I do better today than I did yesterday?  Not that yesterday was not good but each day I want to be a better person, find greater things to do, change people's lives and encourage those who are struggling.  This is my work helping others find the sacred and be the best they can be.

Most recently I found a very good picture on Facebook.  I captured it and kept it in my "good message" folder and shared it with the congregation at Sunday morning worship.  I find it speaks to my heart and keeps me focused on living in the moment:

I try to live in the moment and let the rest fall away.  Taking the time to smell spring in the air this morning was a great way to begin my day.  Even though I had to scoop up after my son's dog (I am not fond of dogs but am helping out right now so it is part of the job) I took the time to listen to nature and smell spring in the air.  CBC radio reminds me there will be great rain in the next 24 hours and I ponder how Mother Earth will be cleansed of the salt and sand, remnants of winter.

I am reading Parker Palmer's "Let your life speak" http://www.amazon.ca/Let-Your-Life-Speak-Listening/dp/0787947350 and am loving his philosophy.  He reminds me to listen to my life and hear my vocation which is my inner voice directing my work.  I am encouraged to listen to my "true self" which for Palmer, "when violated, will always resist us, sometimes at great cost, holding our lives in check until we honour its truth" (pg. 4).  This to me is god.  Our inner voice which calls to us for relationship and beckons us to be the best we can be.  That was the Jesus story.  Come to god and you will find yourself.  Authentic self and trust in what is beyond ourselves.

Sometimes life forecasts heavy rain and we need to welcome it in order to bloom, blossom and grow spiritually.  Rest in yourself to find wholeness and love yourself and your god first ... the rest will fall into place.

Yogyakarta pictures from June 2012.  Taken by C. Breadner.

Food for the moment or for a lifetime?

This morning I am heading out for the day and know I need to prepare supper, the evening meal.  Supper is what my mother and father ate at 5:30 pm everyday.  Dinner was at noon and often consisted of roast beef, potatoes and gravy flanked with vegetables.  A hearty meal to sustain the farmer mid-point in their day.  Milking was a morning chore and the balance of the day was spent working the farm so that the milking task was supported.  All chores centred around a whole.  The kitchen was very much a part of this whole.  Meals were sustain-ance for the hard working folk involved in farm life.  In summer fresh produce was grown, "blanched" and then frozen for future use.  Root cellars were filled with root vegetables and cold rooms were home to preserves and canned items.  What happened?

This morning I am heading out for the day and know I need to prepare for supper, the evening meal.  I have people depending on me as part of my partnership to prepare food.  It is the team effort I am living right now.  A team effort that is spiritual, physical, mental and emotional.  All important parts of the whole.  I was on Facebook and saw this picture:

Looks good but is not practical for supper for a growing family and I don't have the time or the ingredients.  Instead, I took an onion and cut it up.  Then out of the freezer I pulled a lovely roast loin of pork that I bought on sale for $8.23 which is lean and low fat.  I placed the frozen piece of meat on the cut up onion in the bottom of the crock pot which was once my mothers.  I cut up two potatoes, half of a sweet potato, one third of a turnip and two carrots.  I added two cups of chicken juice (broth) and two cups of water, a little salt and pepper and put on the lid.  I turned on the crock pot to high to get a start while I shower and prepare to leave for the day.  Before I go I will reduce to low this less than $10 collection of food which is ready to cook for the day and know when my family comes home in my absence tonight there will be a hot, healthy meal ready to serve.  All in all this preparation took me less than 15 minutes.  A divine meal full of love in less than 15 minutes.  A sacred time for my family to know I love them even when I am not here.  A low cost and low fat meal taught to me by my farm wife mother.

Often we seek the decadence of the chocolate lasagna only to find emptiness and a sugar high.  Often we seek love in the foods that are not a healthy choice.  Our soul needs food for a lifetime not just to satisfy our momentary cravings.  Family is where we grow and learn to be present to our spirit.  In our fast paced, fast food world we loose touch with the person who takes the time to work part of the puzzle which is so important.  The role of love through food preparation and feeding ourselves the love of supporting partners and family members.  The chores of our mothers and grandmothers were of the utmost importance to family life.  On the farm everyone worked together to survive.  Start your own farm .... support your family and be in relationship with the divine role of food for the soul.   Get back to basics and find more than you realize you have lost!

  

Are we Easter people?

As Holy week unfolds and life's challenges face us do we really understand what it was that Jesus faced?  He paraded into Jerusalem to shouts of praise and accolades.  He was on top of the world.  But something was amiss.  He understood that this could turn on a dime and, because we read the book, we know it does.  He is on top one day and the next, crucified for the same reason.  Crucified because he spoke the truth.   Have you lived through anything like this?  Have you been the chosen one at work, given a gold watch only to be downsized right out of a job?  Have you been the apple of someone's eye, only to be served with divorce papers?  Have you spoken up against injustice only to find your friends cross the street when they see you coming?  Are you an Easter person?  Do you realize that in order to stand for what is right, something has to die?

Jesus died that day a long time ago.  The gospels are each writer's account of what transpired after his death.  He was critical to the people as they picked up the pieces and moved on.  Some denied knowing him, some ran and locked themselves in a room, others simply went back to being oppressed by the Romans and their law.  People mourned his death because he was a great man.  But he was also divine.  He was the essence of God in the flesh.  He was the speaker of the house of God and love prevailed through him with passion.  When we talk about the passion of the Christ it is with it we can move mountains and stand forever.

Our world is a broken place.  A place where CBC radio repeats over and over how the Toronto mayor was ejected from a party for poor behaviour when the important news, how hundreds are hungry and homeless in that same city, is never mentioned.  Shootings of young men make headlines regularly while the mothers cry out in pain.  Jesus was the voice trying to bring people back to what is sacred.  Jesus is the voice reminding us of what we are to do.  Jesus may have died that day but he lives on in the hearts of all Christians and is calling for justice.  Stand in peace with our brothers and sisters; in faith and trust hold hands with Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, Hindus, and all faithful because Jesus wants us to.  Be a Christian and welcome all faiths to your table.

The great and powerful................. OZ?

Last night I went to see the new 3D movie, OZ the Great and Powerful and was totally amazed at the overt and blatant biblical symbolism.  There is Pilot, Jesus, Satan, Jerusalem and, of course, God.  All with different names but the same story.  Good versus Evil and the people faithfully waiting for the saviour to come.  How many times can we re-invent the story before it gets tired?

I do not want to shatter anyone's vision of what it means to be faithful but until one is to dig into the understanding of our Christian history and look at it with new and refreshed eyes it has no substance.  The bible, a human construction, is a story of people who encounter God and most live to tell about it.  Some don't, so others tell their story.  We are a people who is living in the wake of these writings.  Empire has changed over the millennial years but is still present. We still face the war between good and evil while some are crucified and others choose to live on the dark side.  Mythology is the way we can learn from the past in a colourful way.

As I struggle in between the Christian world, where I still claim to be a follower of Jesus the Christ, and his work 2000 years ago and the humanist perspective it is with faith I watch for good in my life.  A Faith which lends itself to my thinking there is more to what I can see.  Faith that the universe was not created by accident but a divine plan of which I cannot begin to understand or put into words.  A divine plan that is not a direct link to me but a divine plan that asks me to be in relationship with the world.

It would be easy to take the bible literally and simply believe what I am told to believe but I want more from my faith journey.  I am asking the hard questions and find what I call God all around me alive and well.  As I face yet another crossroads in my life it is with confidence I step out knowing something is there guiding, beckoning and welcoming my inquisitive nature.

Come with me, on your own journey.  Go out and find your faith and you will live more fully and love with intensity.

This piece of art is the mindchild of my neice Shannon Breadner of British Columbia.  She is the oldest daughter of my late brother Brian who died at 56 of a sudden heart attack.  I loved my brother but I think he was blessed to die quickly and not suffer.  He also would have made one ornery old man in an old folks home.  I worked with the family and presented a celebration of life.  There were about 160 people there to honour and say goodbye to Brian.  It was heart warming and he was loved by so many.  He was not the type of person who was in church on Sunday.  Actually I think once he left home I am unsure if you would need two hands to count the times he was in a church, aside from weddings and funerals.   So as I celebrated his life I related him to God though the adult baptism of Jesus.  Jesus was baptized when he was about 30 and when John layed Jesus back into the Jordon the skies opened and there was a voices saying, "This is my son whom I love and am proud of."  Was it God?  I don't know, but I choose to think it was the spirit talking to the writer (Matthew) as he tells the story.   Jesus returned to life filled with the spirit after this experience only to be tempted over and over again.

It was his choice to remain faithful to the sacred.  He kept telling the tempter ... again and again how he would remain faithful to what he believed and so then the tempter backed away to await a more opportune time.  The temptations don't go away they simply fade sometimes until we get comfortable only to come at us yet another way.  

One of the temptations Brian struggled with was the desire to run away from life.  He was a truck driver and this was conducive to his need to be "on the road" and not have to face day to day decisions.  He was a ramlin' man and lived his life restless.  That is why this painting by his first born gives me hope that Shannon sees there is room for communal love between spirits.  This beautiful painting represents closeness and the need we have to be in communion with others.  Thank you Shannon!  You have had your own challenges but I know you will be fine.  As you are tempted to give up, throw in the towel, call it a day you can look at your own work and find hope. 

Today is Lent 1 a time of 40 days when we read that Jesus was tempted.  He didn't give in ... don't you give in either.  No matter what faces you down in life there is always hope and tomorrow the sun will rise once again and when you are in communion (connected) in spirit with hope, love, joy and peace the divine is with you guiding you along.  Place your trust here in this place.  Blessings!

Feeling the pulse...

As I ponder this beautiful picture it makes my heart soar.  I want to dance like this.  Yesterday with the younger generation I asked them to be seeds in the ground and grow as the sun warmed the ground.  At first I asked them to grow on one foot and pushed them over.  I wanted to point out we are better grounded on our two feet and it is our roots that keep us centred and anchored.  Mother Earth has a pulse from which we draw energy and life.  Most recently as temps have been up and down and it reminds me of a pulse.  Mother Earth is reminding us she is alive and taking good care of herself.  We, as humankind, should take notice.   Attention is focused inward and onto our technology forgetting the beauty around us. 

The frosted window gives way to a beautiful map reminding me that I can't look out but need to look at what Mother Nature creates.  Beautiful creations. I like being poked into awareness and creation does this daily.  Pokes me and reminds me to pay attention.

A wonderful woman I love died this week.  The end of January I had a wonderful visit with her and she was poking me reminding me to be present in the moment.  She will live on in the hearts of all. 

I am genuinely happy and I hope you are too.  I have work to do and will continue to search for work that feeds my passions.  I have learned to wait.  I have learned to ponder.  I have learned to watch.  Heading into the Lenten season (a church season) it is a time to evaluate the wilderness of our lives and see where we need to improve and purge.  As something in our life ends there are always new beginnings.