My spirituality group at church studied Richard Rohr’s Falling Upward two years ago and is currently studying the follow-on book Immortal Diamond. They are both rich repositories of wisdom that I highly recommend. Today, I am pleased to share a wonderful reflection by Susan Cushman on Falling Upward.
http://susancushman.com/faith-on-friday-embracing-the-second-half-of-life-a-bright-sadness/
As some of you know, this fall has been rough, as we deal with myriad health issues with one of the family elders. (In truth, the fall had a bit of a rough run-up as we dealt with both of my parents having their own medical issues, but things are going much better with them now.)
I have been doing much to-ing and fro-ing and have needed to grab little snatches of consolation, comfort, and beauty as I can find them. I was grateful for the unusually vibrant fall foliage this year, beginning early with the first peaks of gold among the green of the hillsides and ending with our neighbors vivid red Japanese maple.
With the cold weather, we started to put out birdseed and suet in our feeders and I delight in catching glimpses of chickadees, jays, finches, woodpeckers, juncos, tufted titmouse, cardinals, and nuthatches enjoying the food.
The best gift of the fall was the visit of both of our daughters and our son-in-law for Thanksgiving. I am still holding in my mind the picture of us around the Thanksgiving table with the three grandparents. We were too busy eating and enjoying each others’ company for photo ops, but here is a photo our older daughter took of her spouse and sister tending to the birdfeeders in the snow. Larry, who grew up in London, was relishing in the eight inches of snow we received. Now living in Hawai’i, he was not used to that much snow at once!
Still, despite my best efforts, I have recently had a bit of a crash. Last Friday, I spent hours working on a letter that I plan to send in lieu of holiday cards this year. I needed to recap the year and finally cried over a lot of the difficulties that I had been powering through because I had to keep going for those who were depending on me.
I thought I had gotten the melancholy out of my system until I was sitting next to my parents in church Sunday morning. The handbell choir and adult choir were both participating, which was emotional for reasons I wrote about here. The First Sunday of Advent, I had been in church with my daughters and son-in-law all singing beside me. On this Second Sunday, the handbell choir was processing and the choir and assembly were singing “Christ, Circle Round Us”, a setting of the “O” antiphons by Dan Schutte, and my daughters weren’t there to join in. I started crying and barely sang the hymn, even though I love it. I had my face turned away from my mom, hoping she wouldn’t see my tears. I found out later, she was also emotional, thinking back to all the years she had heard her granddaughters singing and ringing in church.
Like the autumn leaves, sometimes tears need to fall, too.
Sharing Oscar’s vision of love. Thank you, Oscar, for this hopeful post.
At vigil Mass on Saturday, while we were praying the Nicene Creed, a thought flashed into my head at the second filioque – and the Son – wondering if it will be removed when the Orthodox and Catholic churches are reunited. Its insertion in the creed was one of the reasons given for the schism in 1054 – and one in which the Catholic side was almost assuredly in error. I certainly have no problems with dropping it…
What is more enlightening for me than the thought itself this weekend but that it coincided with Francis’s visit to Turkey. I hadn’t had the chance to keep up with news from the visit over the weekend but was catching up on some of the coverage through NCR today, reading about how Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew had both spoken very strongly in favor of unity in the immediate future. Talks between the two churches have been ongoing for decades and I share in the hope that this unity will come soon.
Francis made very clear that all the various churches that make up the Catholic and Orthodox communions would retain their own identities, that unity is only in profession of faith together. Bartholomew spoke poignantly about how unity among Christians is already evident in the lives of those being persecuted for being Christian, whatever their denomination.
So, I guess the Catholics would not have to drop the second filioque, but I think it would be a nice gesture.
In the United States, today is Thanksgiving Day. There were eight of us today at our home for the traditional turkey dinner – and what I am most thankful for was that there were the eight of us together around our table today.
B and I had our younger daughter T on break from her master’s program at ESF in Syracuse and our elder daughter and son-in-law all the way from Honolulu, Hawai’i, where they are both graduate students. The last time the five of us were together in our home was at Christmastime almost three years ago, when a Christmas morning marriage proposal set the stage for the happy addition of L to the family.
Rounding out the party were three members of our elder generation, my parents – Nana and Paco – and B’s mom – Grandma. They have each had their share of health issues over the last few months, so it was a true blessing that they were all able to be there, especially Grandma. This was her first extended sojourn anywhere other than for medical appointments this fall. We were grateful that the lovely eight inches of snow we got yesterday didn’t derail the transport plans.
A special feature of the celebration this year was that T was doing an extended entry in her journal for an ethnobotany course she is taking. They have been writing about their personal and cultural relationship with plants and they had a bonus assignment to write about their family traditions in celebrating Thanksgiving. T filled several pages with stories about how our apple pie techniques have evolved over time, how the bread stuffing with sausage came from my side of the family while the baked onions came from B’s side, and how B learned to flatten a turkey to help it cook more quickly. T got to ask Grandma about where her Aunt Gert had acquired the Indian pudding recipe that we make and L got to experience eating it for the first time. As a British-Filipino, American Thanksgiving is a relatively new phenomenon, much less a New England dessert like Indian pudding. For the record, he enjoyed it!
This was definitely a Thanksgiving to savor. As our children proceed with their adult lives and establish their own households, they may be able to travel to our home less and less frequently. While we hope to have all of our elder generation with us for more years, the recent health scares remind us that they may not be able to be out and about as they were today.
All the more reason to be especially thankful this year.
Today is the day before Thanksgiving in the United States. My daughter and son-in-law have traveled 5,000 miles to be here to celebrate with us, their first trip back to our home in almost three years. As a special bonus, we are having a snowstorm. Snow is not a featured weather form at their home in Honolulu!
We have been doing some of the prep work for feasting tomorrow. Beth and Larry have the dough for chocolate babka rising in the refrigerator. They wanted to make it for a festive breakfast to fuel the rest of the kitchen work tomorrow morning. The Indian pudding is baked, ready to re-heat tomorrow. The flavors blend and deepen overnight, so we always prepare it a day ahead. Ditto for the spiced cranberry orange relish.
One unexpected aspect of the day, besides the earlier than expected arrival of the snow, was my attendance at a funeral this morning. Wednesday morning is usually the meeting of the spirituality study group I facilitate at church, but I cancelled today so that we could participate in the funeral liturgy for Virginia, who was one of our former members.
Virginia was a fascinating woman. After serving in the W.A.V.E.S. during WWII, she had married a firefighter. When she was 36, he was killed in the line of duty and she raised eight children on her own. She was a librarian and an insightful thinker. She was in her 80s when I met her and I loved to hear her perspective on life and spirituality. She had served with the Catholic Worker movement with Dorothy Day and was one of the most joyful, insightful, service-oriented women I have ever met. She was 91 when she died on Sunday. Rest in peace, Virginia.
I thank God for the privilege of having experienced your witness of true service to God and neighbor.
This is a comment that I just posted to a lovely blog posting here: http://suchpoeticjustice.wordpress.com/2014/11/23/it-seems-i-am-a-writer/ which ends with the invitation to answer “What do you write? Why do you write it? How does it get from your heart to the page?” Please feel free to respond to these questions, too, if you are so moved, either here at Top of JC’s Mind, at her blog Such Poetic Justice, by posting a link to your own blog entry, or some combination thereof!
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I am so excited to read your post! In the way that the blogging world seems to unfold, my path here was from Jason Cushman, who blogs as Opinionated Man, to his mom Susan Cushman to her writer/friend/Memphis-resident Ellen to you! I will try to answer your questions and enter the conversation without going on too long….
I do several types of writing – none of which I actually get paid to do. I blog at https://topofjcsmind.wordpress.com, an eclectic mix of commentary on current events, personal reflections, poetry, and whatever else is at the top of my mind.
I write a lot of comments on news articles about shale oil/gas, renewable energy, climate change, and other environmental issues. I am part of the fracktivist community in NY, where I live along the PA border with a front row seat to the problems our PA neighbors are having. Some of this writing shows up in my blog, too.
In recent years, I have returned to my childhood love of writing poetry. I am just beginning to publish a bit, mostly in local venues, although my first appearance in an anthology in Great Britain is upcoming. Some of my poetry goes up on my blog, too, although I have to be careful not to put too much out there if I intend to submit it to journals, who generally won’t accept anything that has been published in any form, including on my tiny blog.
I was very interested to read in your post about writing sermons, which I do not do, but I have written various prayers over the years for use by my local Roman Catholic parishes. I also sometimes write on spiritual topics on my blog.
The question of how my writing gets from my heart to the page is an interesting one. Although we tend to think of writing as coming from our heads, it is really the heart source that gives writing its passion and meaning. I realized from your question that most of the things about which I write are really energized by my heart, however much all those words need to get processed through my brain. I generally reflect, mull, and, especially with poetry, draft my writing in my head before I write or type it. I do then usually go back and re-read and edit. With poetry, the writing process tends to take days/weeks/months and I am pleased to have recently been able to join a group of local poets for feedback on our work.
Now that I have been going on about this here in your comments, I think I will copy to my blog with a pingback here and see if we can get some more people sharing about their writing. Thanks so much for the opportunity!
The link below leads to a few paragraphs and a short video clip. Even if you want to ignore the text – and the rest of this post, for that matter – watch the clip. It is part of a documentary nearing completion on the life of Dr. Barbara Chaffee, Binghamton physician, mom, and community member, by her son filmmaker Tim Chaffee. Barbara was at the forefront of treating AIDS patients in Binghamton back before HIV was well understood. She was a compassionate and caring person in whatever situation presented itself and her story should be preserved and shared with the world.
Yes, this is related to fundraising and I have made a small contribution myself, but, no, you don’t have to give money to support the film. If you like the link, please do share it via your blog, twitter, facebook, ello, email, or whatever mechanism you use to get the word out.
With thanks,
JC
http://wildgeesefilms.net/news-timeline/34-just-infrastructure
On my newsfeed, I just saw a story about one of the First Nations equating the US House vote to approve Keystone XL as an act of war. So, I am thinking of the four elements in that context, which includes unconventional fossil fuel extraction side effects..
Water is at risk because of methane migration, the permanent removal of water from the water system, toxicity from the chemicals that are mixed into it and that enter it from underground, and pipeline leaks that damage groundwater and surface waters. Unconventional fossil fuels are very water-intensive at a time when many places are facing water shortages.
Air pollution is caused by both the extraction processes of bitumen aka tar sands oil and by the refining/processing and use of this fossil fuel. The carbon-intensity of the extraction process compounds the problems of the burning of the final product to have an outsized climate change impact.
Earth is disturbed to build the pipeline and that land needs to be kept clear of trees, buildings etc. in perpetuity. The larger earth disturbance is the tar sands area itself, which involves felling old growth forests and massive surface disruption.
Fire represents the burning of the fuel but also one of the greatest dangers of dealing with fossil fuels, the threat of explosion.
The First Nations have been leading the fight against tar sands extraction and transport, both in Canada and the US. Their spiritual connection to Mother Earth and the four elements are an example to all of us who are their allies.
This post is part of Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturdays. Join us: http://lindaghill.com/2014/11/14/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-november-1514/
Badge by Doobster @MindfulDigressions
“Love … is the honoring of others in a way that grants them the grace of their own autonomy and allows mutual discovery.”
– Anne Truitt
Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays: http://lindaghill.com/2014/11/05/one-liner-wednesday-grammar-is-funny-like-that/
Joanne Corey 