Practicing Dying in Lent

At the end of every yoga class we practice dying. Our teacher tells us that the corpse pose, or shavasana, is the most difficult of all yoga postures to master, but for those of us whose legs and arms are trembling from an hour’s exertion in warrior pose, downward-facing dog and pigeon, the prospect of relaxing horizontally on one’s yoga mat brings both relief and the obvious question, “How hard can it be?”

Fascinated, I reported to my husband last week, “At the conclusion of every yoga class we practice dying.” “That’s interesting,” he said, trying to share my enthusiasm. “It’s kind of like Lent,” I continued, “except it’s a physical practice, not so much a spiritual one. Lent is when we’re supposed to practice dying, right?”

When I was young and my best friend died of cancer, my pastor told me, “You’ve been given a terrible gift at so young an age, Tuula. A terrible gift.” That two-word phrase, “terrible gift,” functions as a parable for me. New Testament scholar Brandon Scott reminds us that the Greek word parabole can mean to “throw beside.” Most typically a parable throws something beside something else—unexpectedly.

Take the kingdom of God being like a woman, for example. That must have been a real shock to listeners of Jesus. The kingdom of heaven is like a woman? No way. Women are property. Women are impure. The kingdom of God is like a woman? Impossible. Ridiculous. Insulting. 

But this is what a parable does. A parable leaves one feeling emotionally and theologically breathless and disoriented—like “terrible” and “gift.” They aren’t ordinarily thrown down beside each other. But that’s what Lent does. It throws life down with death, and death with life. We practice dying. We learn living.

Many of us have been given the terrible gift of walking alongside those we love who are dying. When my grandmother’s dying began she’d call from her bed, “Girls!” My sister and I would come running. “What, grandma?” “You’ve got to do something about all these children playing under my bed. Give them some lunch, and take them out to play.”

Lent gives us 40 days to practice dying. Paradoxically, Lent’s terrible, life-giving wisdom is simple: each of us dies the way we have lived. I don’t mean that the easiness or difficulty of our dying is determined by our living. Physically speaking, my grandmother’s death was a difficult one. But in her death, my grandmother, who spent her life caring for children, was herself cared for by children. In the last days of her life, grandma talked about “the most darling little boy” who was holding her hand.

As a Chaplain Intern in New York, I was assigned as a reader for a dying Roman Catholic sister Eileen. She spent her last days exactly as she had lived her best ones: with a hunger for God, poetry, and music. She wanted to hear Emily Dickinson’s poems read aloud. She was restless for a note-by-note explanation of Bach’s Saint John Passion so that she might, as she said, “know exactly what Bach is doing right here.”

Lent asks us how we are living our lives, and reminds us that we die the way we live. Lent is the time not for giving up something of little consequence, but for identifying what is most essential in our lives, what it is that we are living for. As Thomas Merton put it, “Ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I think I am living for, in detail, and ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the thing I want to live for” (My Argument with the Gestapo). That is Lent’s terrible gift: an examination of our living.

Recently, in a conversation with a woman whose faith was great, I couldn’t help asking, “What do you think happens when we die?” Without a pause she said, “I think Jesus sends someone to comfort us. Someone particularly special to us that only Jesus would know about.
Wishing desperately to believe such a thing, but unable to get my mind wrapped around it, my mind’s eye went to the final weeks of grandma’s dying and to that darling little boy who held her hand - the one we never saw, but whom we suspect of being the source of her smile every once in a while, even long after she’d lost consciousness.

We die the way we lived. Of course grandma died with a little boy’s hand holding hers and Sister Eileen with Bach’s Saint John’s Passion in her hands. Lent is a perfect time to spend 40 days becoming clear about the lives we are living, and a great time to practice dying so we that can live.

- Pastor Tuula Van Gaasbeek

Youth Retreat 2014 - About the Things We Should Say More Often

On January 24th, 2014, the annual Winter Retreat began at Camp Edgewood. To get there we had to drive roughly 2 hours from Toronto to Eden Mills, near Guelph, Ontario, through blowing snow which definitely made for some treacherous driving, but the weekend was definitely worth it. For all of us youth, it was really just a fun, laid back experience to spend time with our friends that we haven’t seen since the summer camp. But more importantly, we had the opportunity to learn and strengthen our ever growing connection with God.

The theme of the weekend was 20 Things That We Should Say More Often. Through this theme, and during the course of the weekend, there were many opportunities to understand the value of being kind to one another, and learn some of the best ways to do that.

With the guidance of our Pastors, we read Bible verses about love and compassion, and learned the difference between things that we think we love, versus what we really do love like our families. We wrote kind messages to one another on sticky notes that we stuck to each other’s backs, only to rip them off a few seconds later to see what our friends had said about us. In the evenings, we had worship, where we had the opportunity to sing some of our favourite camp songs and learn more about ourselves and one another.

On Saturday, we had some time to play outside in the snow. Despite the frigid temperatures, we had a blast! It was definitely a far cry from the two centimeters of snow that we had back in Toronto. We made snow angels and had snowball fights all afternoon, only to go back into the mess hall to warm up.

The Winter Retreat was an opportunity for us all to make new friends, reunite with old ones, learn about God and just have a wonderful time. It is definitely needless to say that the experiences that we have all gained from that weekend will last a life time.

-Emily W.

Cover Girls Rule

  

This quilt was sewn and designed by the St. Philip's Cover Girls with the help of Madbakh volunteers.   Fay Spark and Arlene Somerville get a special shout out for hard work late into the night.   On October 3rd it was presented to Fowsiyo Yussuf Haji Aadan, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minsiter of Foreign Affairs.   She was in Canada for an official visit which included a meeting in Toronto arranged by Ted Opitz.   The Minister promises the quilt will be proudly displayed in the Foreign Affairs office in Mogadishu.  The quilt has the flags of Somalia and Canada and incorporates quotes from women on the squares below the flags.   The creation and presentation of the quilt is a wonderful example of what it means to live in community.

If you are interested,  there will be a community meeting organized by Madbakh on Tuesday, November 12th at 7:30 at the church.    It will begin just as the after school tutoring wraps up.    

A bird friendly garden

           In this age of personally observable climate change and rapidly deteriorating natural environments it is a reassuring thing to see birds in our gardens.  If we have had observant people around us to point them out, or if we ourselves have been somewhat curious about our surroundings, throughout our lives we will have seen many types of birds and will greet their reappearances with pleasure.  Part of the pleasure that we feel nowadays is no doubt due to experiencing relief that this part of nature, at least, is still familiar and unchanged.

            There are a number of ways that we can encourage birds to visit our yards, although, depending on our location, it may be impractical to expect certain avian visitors.  One of my earliest bird memories is of seeing flocks of red-winged blackbirds along the railway tracks in the bush of northwestern Ontario where I lived as a very young child.  I don’t expect that any red-winged blackbirds will visit me in my city garden in southern Ontario, but apparently they do appreciate feeders near the wetlands of more rural areas.

            Keep in mind that our gardens can provide three elements which birds are seeking:  i.e. cover, food and water.  We can look at our gardens with an eye to seeing if they provide these three things, and then we can add what is missing.

            Cover or shelter is provided by trees and shrubs of various sorts.  Particularly in winter, tall coniferous trees will give protection, eg. pine, fir and spruce, and smaller evergreens might also be fit into the overall garden design and provide nesting places, eg. junipers, cedars and yews.

            It should also be considered that dead trees, or snags, provide habitat for birds.  For example, many bird species nest in the cavities of white pines.  Perhaps we will have to adjust our ideas of what is pleasing to the eye in the garden and come to realize that there is such a thing as being too neat and orderly when gardening.  In other words, we can inadvertently destroy parts of our gardens which would be hospitable to birds.  As one author puts it, unless a dead tree threatens a house or car leave it in place!

            When planting trees for bird habitat we should consider their growth patterns.  Trees which are particularly good for shelter will also provide food.  In this vein, it is useful to know that coniferous trees start producing seeds when they are of a certain age, and will have heavier crops of seeds in some years, and then they will be a direct source of food as well as of shelter.  For example, the eastern hemlock, where growing in the open, starts producing seeds at about twenty years of age, and it will have heavy crops of seed every two or three years. 

            We should plant new trees and shrubs spaced to give them room for mature growth.  In addition to trees, which may be just starting to grow in our yards, birds find shelter in our bird houses, rock walls and brush piles.  Bird houses are good for birds that nest in the cavities of dead trees and it is estimated that some thirty species will use different sorts of bird houses.  There are a number of things to keep in mind when situating bird houses.  Bird houses should be close to a source of food for that particular bird for which that house is designed.  Turn the entrance away from high traffic areas of the yard, place the house near shrub and tree cover, and make sure that is it sheltered from wind and in a sunny location.

            As previously touched on, trees and shrubs that provide shelter may also be an important source of food.  Although we may provide food in feeders, seventy-five per cent or so of birds’ food comes from natural sources.  Snags harbour insect food for woodpeckers, nuthatches, creepers and chickadees, and living trees provide many many insect species for birds.  Counts have been made showing oaks harbouring three hundred insect species, willows, two hundred and fifty species, birches, two hundred and twenty-five species, and so on.

            Of course in addition to hosting insects, trees and shrubs provide fruits and seeds that are particularly relished by certain birds.  Pine grosbeaks like ash keys and many birds such as thrushes and finches enjoy the berries of yews, although the berries are harmful to humans and domestic animals.  Crabapples are a favourite of various birds and it is of interest that ivy growing on trees does little harm to these trees and provides cover and nest sites for house finches and cardinals, as well as a late winter supply of berries for these birds.  Robins, cardinals and cedar waxwings like mountain ash berries, and service berries are appealing to catbirds, bluebirds and wood thrushes.  Another choice berry sought after by birds is holly, but it must be kept in mind that both a male and female plant are required for the production of berries.  Near the end of summer you may stop cutting roses and allow the rose hips to develop for a food supply going on into the fall and winter.  Many reference books are available to get detailed information about which shrubs and trees are attractive to which birds, if you have particular birds which you would wish to see in your garden.

            In summer there are many flowers and herbs which provide food.  Buddleia, known as butterfly bush, not only attracts butterflies, but it hosts masses of insects which in turn attract birds.  Good all-round flowers for birds are forget-me-nots, cornflowers, cosmos, asters, scabious, evening primroses and snapdragons.  For example, finches feast on the seeds of forget-me-nots and snapdragons, as well as on weed seeds.  A favourite bird of many people, the tiny hummingbird, needs the nectar from flowers such as trumpet vine, impatiens and fuschias, which have orange or red flowers with tubular blooms, and hummingbird feeders can be kept filled with sugar water to supplement the nectar sources.

There are many other worthwhile plants, but it has been observed that flowerbeds with a mix of wildflowers and garden plants are best for birds.  Again, the idea is that birds will be attracted by more natural conditions over highly regimented, artificially organized gardens.  When foods are no longer available naturally due to weather we can supply various sorts of food at feeders.

The third element required by birds, water, is generally the most challenging to provide if we are not located on a natural body of water.  However, the importance of water to birds cannot be over stated and it is worthwhile giving the subject some thought.  Birds need water to aid their digestion, to cool them down in hot weather because they don’t have sweat glands, and to keep their feathers fit for flying.  The sounds of moving water, such as drips, hisses and splashes, attract migratory birds, and some birds, such as hummingbirds and sparrows, can be observed enjoying splashing in the spray of fountains.

If we decide to provide a bird bath we will need a steady supply of water for filling the bird bath and we will need to clean it regularly to prevent the spread of avian diseases.  The bird bath should be situated above low growing flowers, not in the midst of undergrowth where cats can hide, but close to some cover.  Ideally there should be a means of heating it in winter so that ice will not form.  Also to be noted is that it is a good thing to leave some mud puddles when watering our plants.  Scientists observe that birds rely on a roll in the mud to remove parasites.  There is more than one way to provide a bird bath!

In taking part in the adventure of making a garden for birds we will no doubt feel more connected with the natural world.  We will have aesthetic pleasures additional to those that our plantings provide.  Last, but not least, a practical aspect about gardening for the birds - we may benefit from birds feeding on “harmful” insects in various stages of their life cycles in our gardens.   [Written by Aline]

REFERENCE WORKS:  Almost Eden, Kim Burgsma, Word Alive Press:  Winnipeg, Man. (2011); Better Home and Gardens Bird Gardens, Meredith Publishing Corp.:  Des Moines, Iowa (2003); Bird Gardens: Welcoming Wild Birds to Your Yard, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Inc.:  Brooklyn, N.Y. (1998);  Garden Birds: How to Attract Birds to Your Garden (Canadian Edition), Dr. Noble Proctor, Quarto Publishing Ltd.: London (1985);  Garden Birds of America: A Gallery of Garden Birds and How to Attract Them, George H. Harrison, Willow Creek Press: Minocqua, Wisc. (1996). 

A summer movie recommendation

There is a movie I recommend to you for your summer viewing. It's called Love! Valor! Compassion!   It's about eight men who meet over the length of one summer.  One of them is sick.  He has one fear which is even bigger than the fear of dying.   He does not want to face death alone.   He and his longtime best friend meet together on the steps of the old house late at night.   In the deep quiet of a late summer night,  the two old friends have a conversation about friendship, the wasting away of our bodies, and the renewal of our spirits by the power of love and the gift of compassion.   Buzz tells Arthur he is not afraid of pain, or even of the dying of the physical body.   He wants to know only that he is loved and that he will not die alone.  His friend Arthur promises to be there.   It is a great moment, because Buzz's spirit is renewed for more life through the promise of the presence of love. 

It is summertime.   It is time for some relaxation and resettling of life's priorities.  And time to reclaim for ourselves God's purpose for our living.   Let us spend our summer well!   

See you at church,  Pastor Tuula