Canada Saga 2011 - August 28

"As the breath of light awakens color,
May the dawn anoint your eyes with wonder." (John O'Donohue)

 

"The opposite of the "Real" World is not the Unreal World- it's the Kingdom of God." (Father Gregory Boyle)

 

Last Tuesday, I had the opportunity to be an audience of one at Grace's music lesson for piano and voice. I had just picked her up from school, and we were seeing each other for the first time since May.  Children have that lovely whisper of spontaneous grace and presence that many of us ignore, or have hidden so deeply that we don't even realize it's there. In seeming response to one of those moments, she sat down unexpectedly and played Ode To Joy, surprising both her teacher and her Aunt, who was feeling the fullness of that emotion even before the first chords were struck.

 

On the way to her lesson, she had asked me all about Alaska, and I wondered how I could share with her the intensity of Nature's beauty, and the immensity of awe, connection and humility we experience in such Presence.  So my eyes filled with tears of surprise and joy as she sang what she has been practicing for her concert, Colors of the Wind, with the beautiful words that said it all: "I know every rock and tree and creature has a life, has a spirit, has a name." My sister and her mother are doing everything in their power to 'anoint her eyes with wonder,' and to keep her connected to this special 'real' world that escapes us too quickly.

At our last supper aboard-ship, Michael asked each of us at the table how long we thought the 'glow' from Brother David's sessions and our time together would last after the cruise, when we rejoined the 'real' world. This brought immediate responses of laughing and wincing at the prospect of these special moments coming to an end. One of our companions suggested, however, that where we had been over the last seven days was indeed the 'real' world.

 

The challenge now is the same that Christ offers us: to be IN, and not OF, the world that we see unfolding through media and gossip and politics and fear, the boring business of blame, and the busy-ness of everyday trivia. Ultimately we learn that there is no separation between the 'real world,' and the Kingdom of God, if we embrace with compassion and love all that is: the suffering of watching a loved one through a final illness, the anxiety of the hurricane bearing down on my brother and son, the aging of my precious mother, the state of our fragile and beautiful world and country, the joy and tears of listening to Grace sing "You can own the Earth and still, all you'll own is Earth until, you can paint with all the colors of the wind."

Brother David was asked, both on Cortes island and on the cruise, about suffering and violence and evil in the world.  After a poignant moment of silence, he spoke, choosing his words carefully, sharing with us that his reflections on this subject have changed over the years, With a twinkle in his 85 year old eyes, he said that he hoped he would have many more years to grow in his views. He began by saying that we are a very young species, relatively speaking. We are growing and evolving all the time, finding ways to resolve conflicts and be in relationship with each other and our world. We are slowly, painfully, over the millenia, finding what doesn't work - war doesn't work, violence doesn't work, greed and selfishness, exclusivity and separateness do not work. "Evil," he concluded, "is the opportunity for that which is not yet good to emerge, like a mother who looks at her little child, full of mischief, with loving eyes for what will be."

 

"Evil is the opportunity for that which is not yet good to emerge:" said with such assurance, such hope and confidence in the goodness yet in our hearts, to be slowly revealed in the passage of time and experience.

 

I think of his gentle faith-filled words as I speak with my friend, who is loving her husband of 53 years through what may be his final illness. He has told her that God has a plan for everyone; that if this is God's plan in his life, he is ready.  She is deeply touched by the offers from so many: to help, to pray, to be with them.  That common chord that is stroked within each of us in response to the suffering and struggles of others, that place in our heart that cries and feels pain and compassion in the face of evil and violence, that warms to the smile of a child or a loving kindness offered - THAT is the flow of our evolution, and our saving grace as a species. This is our evolution towards the Kingdom of God lived here on earth, through love, the first ingredient, Padre Pio said, in the relief of suffering.

 

The natural response moving in the hearts of those who offer support and assistance to my friend and her husband, that moves in all of us touched by the struggles of others in the face of evil and disaster and pain, is the good that is emerging from our original blessing. Those who experience the suffering allow us to be conduits for the grace that dwells within, and bring us into the circle of compassion and communion. We owe them all a deep and sacred gratitude for unmasking, even for the brief moment of our offers to help, the blessing that we carry so naturally in our hearts and souls.

 

Our trip home has been a strange mixture of illness and enforced quiet, from Michael's post-cruise virus to my Northshore 'crud,' as the triage nurse so professionally called it in the E.R. Thursday night. They were seeing many cases of high fever and sinus symptoms, and while mine lasted only 2 days, between our illnesses, we managed only a very few of the visits we thought we would make. Now the focus is on packing again for our return to Vancouver Island and the final four weeks of the summer.

 

The weather forecast on Tuesday in Qualicum Beach currently calls for a high of 63.  When we leave New Orleans, it will be in the 90's. As we fly through the extremes, we no doubt will be flying over babies being born, love being shared, laughter beginning new friendships, patients being given terminal diagnoses, faith being shattered and spirits soaring in wonder. Through it all, and unbeknownst to them, they will be held in our silent prayers, touched by an unseen grace, as we are held in lovingkindess and the prayers of those we will never meet. The 'real' world is here; the 'real' world is there. Light dawns colors in the heart everywhere. How can our eyes not be anointed with wonder?

YAY GOD