Trees

I often wonder how aware many of us are of our surroundings - especially when those surroundings are ones that we pass every day. I think the Buddhists would want to say to us that we need to be really mindful as we walk to wherever we are going. Do we feel the ground under us? do we see the faces of the people we pass? do we notice the gardens with their flowers and their weeds? Or are we just looking at our phone or head - down rushing to work or to an appointment or ... 

You might wonder where this is leading. Lately I have been noticing trees. Do you? Those of us who live in cities maybe don't see trees but I would guess that if you look around, you will see they are there. In a city like Toronto we are, I think, very fortunate. We have many beautiful parks and lots of trees along the sidewalks. We need trees. We need them both for the survival of our breathable air and also for their beauty.

  It also strikes me that trees have a kind of metaphorical 'value'. We can see for instance, in the life cycle of its leaves something of our own: fresh tender leaves in Spring; hardened, darkened slightly nibbled leaves in summer; dying leaves in autumn and dead leaves in winter. 

 

 
Then there are the trees that are deeply rooted and can survive almost any storm or drought and the trees that are more fragile which will suffer and perhaps die if they don't receive special care.

You can no doubt think of other ways that trees teach us. They also of course, protect us.

So, I reckon we need to protect them.

Have a lovely week.

Thanksgiving

Last weekend was Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. It really is a time, a bit like Christmas, when family becomes a focus. Many people who can, share a festive meal with family and maybe others who have none or are alone. It seems to be a time for sharing a meal and giving thanks for all that we have. 

But several days after, I was on the subway on my way to my volunteer work and I was standing beside a woman who looked utterly miserable. She looked incredibly tired and sad and almost, I would say, hopeless. Her nose at one time had obviously been broken and I wondered how or perhaps, who? At that moment I thought how easy it is for me to be thankful for family and sharing and the joy of friendship but what was it like for her - and for so many others? 

I have said before how challenging I find it to recognize the injustice of birth in this world. I can take no credit for being born with all I need. She did nothing to deserve being born into a life that was, perhaps, all struggle and even brutality. It is at the very least for me, a reminder that because we did nothing to deserve our birth gifts we do have to recognize our responsibility to work to make this a world in which everyone has all that enables them to flourish...We don't have to be rich in money or things, but I think everyone needs, indeed deserves, to be rich in love and peace and care. It is perhaps something we can help one another to achieve.

Finally, I just wanted to share another gift for which I do not know how to speak enough of my gratitude. For, during the month of September I was visiting the United Kingdom. That is to say, I was mostly visiting friends and most especially, the Sisters with whom I had shared some or most of my 30 years there - and several other friends associated with that life. It was an absolutely wonderful visit, indeed it was perfect. Two things struck me as most wonderful: the abundant hospitality that people offered and the gracious gift of friendship. I am so thankful. And thankful too...

For beauty

For family

And more beauty

For tranquility

For each one's beautiful humanity

Are we really enemies?(revisited)

We were at a bible study group one morning and one of the readings we read is  from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians and among other things it says, basically, ' you have a responsibility to and for one another'. He suggests for instance, that even when we may have a right to do something, we may have a responsibility not to do it if it will harm or scandalize others. At very least, I think he is suggesting that we think about the implications of what we say or do before we act, out of respect for our brothers and sisters.


This took my mind to something that I have noticed since I have come back to Canada from my life in the monastery; something I think is becoming more evident to us all. That is, it seems to me that our civic and political life is becoming so confrontational that there is less and less will to compromise or listen or love. So for instance: I am certain I am right, you do not agree with me, therefore you are wrong and I will destroy you. Or, at very least,  I will shout you down when you try to speak, I will cast all sorts of doubts on your truthfulness and credibility, I will be certain that you don't 'win'. Because if you win then I must lose. That is certainly evident in American politics just now but it may be increasingly true here in Canada too. 

But it is not just in political life that this happens. I hear more and more often  people speaking about entitlement for instance. 'I am entitled to...' and follows a whole list of perks. With that goes the sense that if I don't fight for myself and my rights, no one else will and if I fight for mine I can't fight for yours. In feeling that way, may we not be losing sight of that humanity that Paul speaks of?

.

There is a kind of beautiful interdependence here that perhaps we could learn from- it creates beauty.

If we only think in terms of 'us' and 'them', if our neighbor becomes somehow an enemy, what chance do we have to become full, loving, whole human beings and a society of care? If we look around us at the people we admire I should imagine that they are people who are in fact, the opposite of those of whom I have been speaking. They will be people who are caring, self-less, truth-full people. I should imagine that we admire their courage in doing the loving thing. How will our world be one in which future generations can live in peace if we go on building a society and a polity that cannot live compassionately?

I have mentioned before that Karen Armstrong and others have have taken up the 'cause' for compassion with the Charter for Compassion. The purpose of the Charter states that it 'is a document that transcends religious, ideological and national differences...The Charter activates the Golden Rule around the world'. The Golden Rule states, in one of its forms ' do not do to others what you would not want done to you'. What a way to begin!

Here is their website. www.charterforcompassion.org

Forgiveness and some beauty.

This is another blog which is mostly going to be a sharing of some photos but maybe it is possible to make a connection between them and this quote from Jean Vanier*:

Likes and dislikes are motivated by our own natural needs and fears. We are attracted to those who seem to affirm and encourage us, who love and admire us. We reject those who do not affirm or encourage us but who judge and condemn. We may not be imprisoned in anything as strong as hate, but our likes and dislikes create equally high walls of prejudice. Behind them we can act as if others do not exist, or as if they do not belong to our common humanity.

To be truly liberated, we have to make an effort to communicate with those we dislike, to try to understand and accept them as they are, and to experience our mutual humanity. This is forgiveness.

* Jean Vanier: Becoming Human, Paulist Press/House of Anansi Press, 1998