A Family Day that lasts for weeks

My inbox at work lately has been inundated with greetings from L'Arche communities around the world: Belgium, Cleveland OH, Brazil, Saint John NB and Wolfville NS, New Zealand, Tacoma WA, France, and the Philippines (who sent us the adjacent Ark picture). The reason? October 1st each year, L'Arche communities celebrate Family Day. And by the fact that emails are still arriving, our Family Day lasts more than 24 hours. In fact, we're actually celebrating this week.

L'Arche (French for "The Ark) was founded in 1964 in Trosly-Breuil, France, so that people with disabilities could live in a family setting rather than institutions. It didn't take long for his ideas to spread, and within two years, similar homes began in India, England and Canada, homes where it is understood that people who are often rejected and despised by the world have much to teach us about life and love.

Today, there are 137 L'Arche communities all over the globe, and we celebrate Family Day each October because, as our Charter says,

Home life is at the heart of a L'Arche Community. The different members of a community are called to be one body. They live, work, pray and celebrate together, sharing their joys and their suffering and forgiving each other, as in a family. They have a simple life-style, which gives priority to relationships. 

The same sense of communion unites the various communities throughout the world. Bound together by solidarity and mutual commitment, they form a world-wide family.

On Friday evening, our L'Arche family in Edmonton is gathering to celebrate our world-wide family by holding a Solidarity Fundraiser for our sister communities in Central and South America. The evening features a cornucopia of international dishes prepared by our assistants, who come from all over. There will be entertainment (I'm hearing rumours of a Psy ("dress classy, dance cheesy") performance from our Koreans, which will undoubtedly be a big hit as our community loves to dance!) and the food can't be beat. So if you would like to meet our L'Arche family, join us at St. Thomas D'Aquin Church (8410 89 St) at 7 p.m. on Friday, October 19th. Tickets are $10, with all proceeds going to L'Arche in Central and South America.

Please join us if you're in the neighbourhood!

Eating together on Family Day

Today fast-food services and TV dinners have made common meals less and less central. But what will there be to remember when we no longer come together around the table to share a meal? Maybe we will have fewer painful memories, but will we have any joyful ones? Can we make the table a hospitable place, inviting us to kindness, gentleness, joy, and peace and creating beautiful memories? 

--Henri Nouwen

Yesterday we celebrated "Family Day," our annual February winter long weekend in Alberta. We're still pretty good about doing things as a family most weekends... but it was nice to see other families out and about together. Lee and I got quite a charge out of the folks gathered at the petting zoo at Bonnie Doon Mall. One poor little tot put her fingers through the wire fence, and a Shetland pony must have thought they were little carrots... nibble nibble, followed by toddler scream. Skin wasn't broken, thank heavens! But the child will think twice about approaching large furry creatures fingers-first in the future.

Our usual Family Day activity up until now has been skating at the Victoria Oval. Unfortunately, with my dizzy head, skating is not doable as a complete family unit. After all the excitement of the Canadian Improv Games on Sunday, my girls needed the day to get homework done anyway. So my hubby decided that this Family Day, we would have a reverse supper instead... you know, dessert before the main course, etc.

So at five o'clock, we headed to Whyte Avenue's Marble Slab Creamery, and spent an outrageous amount of money on some delicious icecream. Then we went home and had supper at seven o'clock... roast beef, mashed potatoes, and tossed garden salad. Our table was a hospitable place, in two places. And it's a Family Day memory that I don't think we'll soon forget. I suspect our youngest will want reverse Family Day dinner every year from here on!