2023 Word of the Year

Those who follow these moodlings know that I like to choose a word at the beginning of every year as something of a theme on which to focus as the months hurry past. 

In rereading last year's moodling about my Word of the Year, I had to chuckle. I lost that thread of inspiration at about the time the dark days moved back into the light, and my friend Garth returned not long after. I did enjoy most of my Partylite candles, however!

Having reached the end of 2022 and having to go back through my moodlings to remember the word I chose last January, I had to ask myself: is there really any point to choosing a Word of the Year? 

Answer: of course there is -- I just need to be more intentional about actually remembering it (though I sometimes find it challenging to remember what happened the day before yesterday, already!) And 2023's Word of the Year is one I'm determined to remember.

Ready?

APPRECIATION. That's what I want to focus on this year.

Why?

Well, because in the past year, as I've gotten more and more involved in the ministry of presence for folks in the inner city, I've seen a lot of dark stuff. It's become too easy to feel sad and angry about the fact that there are humanitarian crises across the river or down our local ravine, never mind hidden in some of the poorly-maintained rental units within walking distance of my own comfy home. 

I bumped into a neighbour this morning and we got to talking about the 49,000 people struggling with core housing need in Edmonton, and when I mentioned how we need all levels of government to step up and work together to build a lot more affordable housing, she laughed and said, "yeah, right."

Housing is only one issue. I'm sure you can think of a dozen others. The problem is that it's just too easy to get cynical when faced with so many challenges and the seeming lack of political will to solve problems. I feel that cynicism in myself, too. So that's why I decided to focus on Appreciation (many thanks to my friend Jim for his New Year's reflection). 

And just in the nick of time, too. This morning when we arrived downtown to hand out socks, gloves and other winterwear, this is what greeted us.

They had come to dismantle the tarp/tent homes of people in the neighbourhood. Quinn (standing on the corner, shaking his head) captured it well when he said, "This is too crazy. They take it down now, and tonight it will be back because these people have nowhere else to go." People were dragging their belongings out of their shelters and piling them up wherever they could, just waiting for the cops and workers to "clean up" and leave. 

There's nothing like destabilizing the only stability people have had for the last couple of weeks in this chilly winter weather.

But we've seen this many times, and because we couldn't do anything about the inhumanity of the situation (other than being active members of the Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness and standing witness as the team from Inner City Pastoral Ministry), we focused on the people who came to our little table for the winterwear donations given to us by kind and generous people -- and we also witnessed the kindness and generosity of community members to each other even as their homes were being taken apart.

One fellow sat amid his pile of belongings on an ancient blanket-covered chair, cracking jokes (to lift peoples' spirits?) He pulled a rubber band out of a garbage bag and announced that he'd found ten thousand dollars in it, then asked a passer-by, "Would you like this rubber band that held all that money?" He was non-stop with his wisecracks.

One young woman came to our necessities table and asked for ladies' briefs, quietly telling me that she was having her "lady time." I dug around under the mens' socks and found the last two for her. She was tucking them into her pocket as another girl arrived, saying, "I'd really like a fresh pair of underwear if you have it." I told her she'd just missed the last two, but of course, the young woman who had just received them dug into her pocket and gave one to the girl who'd asked. Just like that.

People look out for each other all the time, and I appreciate that. Sometimes I even remember to say so.

But not as often as I should.

So my 2023 Word of the Year is chosen to remind me to voice my appreciation in situations where I find myself marveling at the beauty, goodness and truth of this world, and the kindness and goodness of human beings. Especially those who receive more complaints than pats on the back, those who are often overlooked. 

And I need not only to voice appreciation, but to properly appreciate. To really look at, listen to, smell, taste, touch and reflect upon life rather than just letting it pass me by. And to do things to show my appreciation, to make others aware of things, creation, and people worth appreciating whenever possible.

What's your word or focus for 2023?

Forget POTUS. Remember Musa?

It's interesting to see and hear peoples' reactions to the latest outrage caused by the US President. Here's my reaction. Instead of going on about POTUS, I want to remind you about Musa.

Remember Musa? He's a beautiful man who happens to have cerebral palsy and who went from his BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY of Kenya to France some time ago, where a lovely #AsIAm video was made about his experience.

https://youtu.be/4ST39z3tCvM

Musa's reactions to our world are dead on. He knows what's really important and what's fluff.

And now there's another lovely video about Musa, who brings people together, and helps them to see beauty and goodness. 

https://youtu.be/kL75g7fAJ80

Forget about that other guy. The pundits are saying enough. 

Instead, spread Musa's message of positivity around!

Everything's a miracle

As you may have guessed from the changes in the look of my moodlings, we're back from our summer vacation... a trip to Waterton Lakes National Park, a visit to Lee's parents in Lethbridge, and a week at Radium Hot Springs. The weather was great, if a bit too hot, and we enjoyed a lot of outdoor time, appreciating our beautiful environments. The smoke from the terrible forest fires a couple of valleys over in BC wafted across occasionally, reminding us that not all is well everywhere in God's gardens.

On our way home, driving past some of the most beautiful places in the Rocky Mountains, we listened to my favourite tune by Peter Mayer, Holy Now (if you haven't heard it, click here) that reminds us that really, everything's a miracle.

Here are some miracles from the past few weeks...

Lundbreck falls near Pincher Creek...

Hanging out with my gang at Waterton Lakes National Park...

This "living lawn ornament" in the town of Waterton...

Wildflowers and a newly engaged couple...

The view from the heights...

Wildflowers as the sun sets...

The strength of the wind...

Natural hot springs...

Roads (extremely bumpy!) into the wilderness...

Emerald green lakes... (White Swan Provincial Park)

How nature rejuvenates itself after a wildfire (2003)... (Marble Canyon)

And the love of a good man for 26 years (today's our wedding anniversary).

I've never quite understood people who don't believe in a Higher Power of some sort. Yes, there's a lot of trouble and pain in our world, but there's also so much beauty, goodness and truth, and not everything can be rationally explained by science. Miracles abound. As Peter Mayer sings, "the challenging thing becomes not to look for miracles but finding where there isn't one."

I hope you're finding many miracles around you in these summer days...

Sunday Remoodling: Old Turtle and the Broken Truth

I was recently reminded of this moodling from two years ago because of all my present moodling (musing and doodling) about truth during these days of "alternative facts." I think it deserves to be revisited:

December 2014 -- This week I paid a visit to my local library. It's been a few years since our family's weekly routine of hauling home a bag filled with children's books went by the wayside due to the onset of adolescence, but I'm still a sucker for great children's picture books! I brought one home called Old Turtle and the Broken Truth (2003, Scholastic, ISBN 0-439-32109-3), written by Douglas Wood, and illustrated with beautiful water colour images by Jon J. Muth (I'm a sucker for water colour art, too!) 

Old Turtle is a beautiful story about a truth (like a meteorite) shooting through the sky and breaking up before it hits the earth. Animals find the truth, but realize that it is too sharp, with a piece missing that prevents it from "working properly." Then people find it, and declare it to be the most beautiful truth ever, enshrining it in a special place and fighting to keep it from others, causing all sorts of bloodshed, hatred, anguish and pain.

But a young girl with an open heart and mind goes to talk to grandmotherly Old Turtle, who gives the girl the missing piece of the truth. Gratefully receiving it, the girl takes it back to her people, who discover that the two pieces fit together perfectly, revealing the whole truth: "You are loved / and so are they." Discovering the whole truth, the people begin to be able to look at others... and see themselves, too.

Since reading the book, which I recommend to anyone with children, and even to adults(!), I've been reflecting on places where love of the 'other' has gone missing -- in relationships between nations and races, in our abuse of creation, in our refusal to accept difference.

I am realizing how much God is needed in our world in the form of justice, mercy, peace, and love. There are so many places where the darkness is calling out for light. So, we can't just sit on our hands while we wait -- we need to let our hands be God's hands, our words be God's words, our actions be God's actions in love, peace, mercy and justice.

Come, O God,
light our darkness,
heal our lovelessness,
make us into your justice
and thus,
bring us peace.
Let us always remember that,
as we are loved,
so are all the others you have created.

+AMEN.

How to avoid cruel and unusual punishment

It was bad enough getting my teeth cleaned by a less-than-gentle dental hygienist, ouch. What made it worse was the television on the ceiling of the room that was playing the U.S. President's press secretary speaking to the media while my teeth were scraped and scaled. When I told a friend about this morning's experience of being a captive audience in a dentist's chair, she laughed and said, "double cruel and unusual punishment, for sure!"

Like many people, I'm trying my best to find some good in Donald Trump -- or at least trying not to get into rants about him. I grew up hearing Thumper the Rabbit's voice (in Bambi) saying, "If you can't say somethin' nice, don't say nuthin' at all," though I now temper that phrase with Edmund Burke's "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing." My best theory about this whole situation is that perhaps the Holy Spirit is allowing the present president to teach the world that we can't wait for presidents to make the world a better place; we also have to engage in improving ourselves and the situations where we can make a difference, and speak up for those without a voice.

So far I've managed to avoid signing the many on-line petitions of complaint against the man (what will they prove, really?) and I'm watching what I say about him because I believe that all the nasty badmouthing of both sides in the last year or so seems to be what got us here in the first place. But with all the negative and fear-based things happening in the first few weeks of this presidency, it's really difficult not to continually assume that the worst will happen, especially when so many lies are flying around (and so many refugees who have already gone through "extreme vetting" and have valid visas are waiting for the U.S. borders to reopen).

When I first saw the video below, I was put off by the negative and mocking tone of the speaker -- but a few days further on, I'm thinking he makes some valid points, especially after seeing this morning's press conference. If the President continues to use the media to market and push some of the lies he's using to support his agenda the way he has been, it's definitely within the media's rights to push back -- to "pause the tape" and do some fact-checking so that the truth may be heard (more than) twice as often as the lies. Some of the world's present problems lie in the fact that so many people accept whatever the loudest or most "official" voice says. We can't even hear the truth any more.

But truth, if it is true, doesn't have to be loud and pushy. It is clearly "official" because it manifests itself in beauty, goodness, generosity, kindness, and understanding. If we don't want to live with at least four more years of this "cruel and unusual punishment," of lies and the backlash they create, we need to move into a more positive place. So how do we convince each other of the truth? Not with the angry voices of the President or Keith Olberman in the video, but maybe with some honest facts coupled with a lot of compassion -- and plenty of action to reveal lies for what they are.

What do you think?