Home is wherever you see yourself as you really are;

a stranger and a sojourner on this walk

so then home is where you come to know that you have no home here

in this thought we can see the smoke gently rising from the chimney in the distance;

we can see the sunrise ahead of us

"Strangers and Sojourners" by Michael O'Brien

This book is taking my whole being by storm!

It's an existential version of Anne of Green Gables mixed with Stephen Leacock's ' Sunshine sketches of a Small Town", and a less jaded Anne-Marie Macdonald . It is a unique creation and it is re-creating my wordy heart!

Michael O'Brien, the man who wrote this book, has written several other equally lethargy-friendly books. He lives in the deep woods of Combermere, Ontario. Where he and his wife raise their six children on paintings and the written word. Several members of my community and I had the privilege of meeting Mr. O'Brien and his family during our flurry of a sojourn across Ontario. What a gift of a man!!!

Enjoy....

" What is a human life ? Is it designed? Is it accidental? The latter, I think, but I do sometimes wonder if we are subsumed in something much larger than our senses perceive. What if we are to greater beings what the fish in the river is to us? When it is hooked on the lure and hauled up through the upper limits of its worls into a higher realm, does it wonder at the naivete of its brief sojourn in the water?" (99)

" Are submission and control the only alternatives? There is another, but it is entirely theoretical: let us suppose that a man and a woman, understanding their own limitations and their greatness , were to choose to give life to each other by giving away their very selves. Then both would be defeated, and both would win. In the process, both in the end would become a new kind of being, something they could not understand in the beginning and would never choose if they could foresee the struggle involved.If they were to persist, however, both would eventually become free, because neither would be dominated by the will to power. Only by the will to love. Yes, I see it. I might even be willing to engage upon such an experiment. " (103)

"'If there had been no poets or storytellers in Ireland, wouldn't the people have died long ago fron giving up? It's a powerful way to do battle, more lasting than a sword.' He paused, reflecting, 'and remember, lad, those who live by the sword, shall die by it.'
'And when will the English start perishing? Them and all the tyants in the world?' The priest sighed loudly in a lament too deep for words. He only regarded the boy more closely, praying that he might not have to mourn for him one day.
'If there is murder in the heart,Stiofan, and blood on the hands, we must cleanse it with prayer and music and poems. If we do not....'" (124)

It seems that when it is nice out, I am anxious! I don't know if this is common or not, but whenever the sun is shining my mind is flooded! I am struck with the immense number of possibilities for that day and for lack of a better description I feel like I will die of potential joy!

I am so thankful for every smell... for the way the trees look in the supper-time sun;their leaves lit from behind, revealing that bright green that I absolutely adore and tried to capture on my bedroom walls...
Maybe I will sit on the veranda and read...
Maybe I will climb to the top of the cow hill at the cottage where I can see the whole lake including the brave swimmers, and from there I can listen for the excited cries of children and observe the majesty of the ocean surrounding us...
or maybe I will walk through the canopied trails where the old trains used to run... or maybe I will let supper burn- as I just did. Oops.

On Devotion

I am reflecting on the word 'devoted'-- it is such a beautiful word but it is never used anymore..! Do you notice that ? No one is devoted to anything anymore in secular society, not faith, not family... there is only 'devotion' where there is immediate, tangible gratification...


In the same way that our culture no longer finds it sane to construct a place of worship over the span of 100 years, so it is the same mindset with devotion in general.
We have somehow become a devotion-less society, we are led to believe that there is no time to practice devotion to a single cause. This phenomenon not only applies to fervency in practicing a religion but also in conscientiousness within the family unit; that is, the willingness to ‘stick it out’ and see one’s family through the thick and the thin. The fear is that in investing too much time into building something intangible we are expending time and energies that could be used in other areas of our lives that will produce money or instant gratification of some kind.

But we do not want to be this way!

If you speak to a new friend, most get to know you conversations will include a fond recall of stories about their families and/or passions that they have yet to pursue. All of these things are known to take time and sometimes more effort than anyone feels capable of expending. It’s as if we have all admitted our defeat as we are held captive in routines that we only initially submitted to following, only now to find ourselves irreversible prisoners. We are all in a permanent state of wistfulness, each carrying more baggage than ever before in history. Never before have children lived with several other children sharing a mother and each child boasting of a different father. Never before have children been sedentary in front of a machine for hours on end while their parents work overtime to afford their next Nintendo accessory. I know that I am speaking in generalities, here. I know that not everyone out there is working for the frills. I am the first to agree that poverty is very real. In most cases, however, the self-proclaimed ‘poor’ are just trapped in a painful reality that they have created themselves. Maybe at first their desire was to provide better lives for their children, but how does one define a ‘better life’? Which is ‘better’ a life of camping trips and family suppers or a life of iPods and TV dinners alone while mom and dad are at work..?

Somewhere along the way we in the first world have managed to create the worst possible breed of captivity: the kind of captivity that we build for ourselves. This breed initially appears ideal but quickly reveals itself to be a prison.

This would be a sad story if it ended here, but it does not….there is freedom and it begins now with a single decision. A mere consent to be set free…

In the same way that the driving rain is needed to allow for growth and the health of the earth, so it is with a good rain in the soul every now and then. We need to water down all that has become hardened and stale, and rejuvenate what life's knocks have rendered withered and forgotten.
And a rainy day is far from ugly....

" So much sacred in the month of June..."

Ah, June.
It seems that I hold back from blogging because I find out more and more that this is less and less for me! The more I hear of visitors, the more I hesitate in writing. SO: from here on in you, dear reader, do not exist!
I am feeling quite temporary lately. That is the only word to describe it. I know that I am here for such a short time so I am acting like a tourist. I find myself locking every ocean scene and picturesque experience in my mind's eye so as to preserve the image for the more bleak days that I anticipate will come. Sometimes there is too much beauty in the moment...I feel that I become smaller with everyday.
I was recently in Toronto for a retreat with the Catholic Register and it was my first time really travelling completely on my own. What a humbling experience! I actually had to figure out the subway system on my own, ask strangers for directions and find my own rides to and from airports. It was a really chance to rely on God...and boy, does He take care of His children. When we are small and incompetent only then can we experience God's omnipotence. The night before I left, I was fretting momentarily over a drive to the airport at the end of mass in Halifax. Then directly following the final blessing I turned around to find a friend whom I hadn't seen for while and I mentioned I was leaving the next morning. Without missing a beat he offered me a ride to the airport saying that he passes there every morning on his way to work (thanks again, Simon)!

Providence is as powerful as we allow it to be. This is not to say that we should wait until the last moment to iron out the details, but I think the world could stand to rely a little less on themselves and to abandon themselves a little more to their God. In St. Faustina's diary the Lord says in so many words that He loves souls who ' humble themselves' before Him. Only when we are as tiny inconspicuous wild flowers do we truly get to marvel at the Lord's greatness as he reaches down to us (St. Therese of Lisieux).

I asked God for strength that I might achieve...
I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health, that I might do greater things...
I was given infirmity that I might do better things.
I asked for riches that I might be happy...
I was given poverty that I might be wise...
I asked for power that I might have the praise of men...
I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things.
I got nothing I asked for, but everything I had hoped for...
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am, among all people,
most richly blessed.

- St Teresa of Avila