Laudato Si: Sunday Reflection #49... Grand Finale, part 1 of 2

Gold Stream Falls, one of my favourite natural places
on our common home

We've reached the end of Pope Francis' letter to the world, Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home. As you know, I think it's a hugely important document -- in the year since it was published, it's been feeling like the world is really starting to pay attention to the problems human beings have created for our planet and its inhabitants. I was hoping that Christianity as a whole would grab onto it and start talking about it every Sunday, but that hasn't come to pass, at least not that I know of. I haven't even heard a homily about it in my own church, and so far, all that's been underlined in our parish bulletin is the idea that we should remember to pray before and after meals. That's a good idea, yes, but...

There's so much more to Laudato Si, and so many possible lessons and practices we can take from what it says. It reminds us that we are just one small but powerful part of creation, and that we can do much better when it comes to protecting our environment and caring for the marginalized. It notes the many challenges our earth is facing and calls us to work together toward potential solutions.  It challenges us to reconsider the consumptive lifestyles we are living in favour of a deeper, more satisfying simplicity. Everything (in creation, including us) is connected, everything is related, everything is interrelated/interconnected is its oft repeated refrain that needs to be considered with every choice we make, every day of our lives.

For my own summary, I choose to underline some of the ideas for helping our sister, Mother Earth, which came to me from out of our weekly readings of the encyclical:

• Pray "for our good and the good of all creation" every Sunday Mass during the Preparation of the Gifts.
• Consider how we are using (or abusing) the soil, water, air, natural resources and lives of other creatures with whom we share our planet.
• Ask: "what is one small thing I can do to make a positive difference for the earth's inhabitants today?"
• Undertake a personal garbage audit and determine how to waste less.
• Use less energy through alternate forms of transportation (walk, bike, take transit, carpool, buy local foods).
• Appreciate water and consider how we can protect and conserve it. Carry refillable drinking bottles.
• Spend some time outdoors, appreciating the natural life where we live.
• Ask: Is this really the quality of life we want? How do we want our society to be? What must we change? How do we go about changing it?
• Drop the complacency of indifference and choose to care about all our human and non-human brothers and sisters with us in the web of creation. Support a just cause, or more than one.
• Consider all that we take for granted, and appreciate it more. Share it more.
• Practice gratitude by using things wisely.
• Ask: where is there a "disordered use of things" in my life? How can I change my life to improve care for all God's creatures?
• Be a sign, a role model, an example of doing the just thing -- no matter who is watching (and even if no one is).
• Let local, national and world leaders know that we want positive, just changes for the sake of our planet's future generations. Speak out for our environment and all its inhabitants. Become an activist in some small (or larger) way.
• Note the places where God's action and goodness are present in creation and in life.
• Give some thought to the needs of creation in its entirety, and remember that our planet's life isn't just about human beings.
• Own less. Travel less. Eat simply. Share. Live in sufficiency, not excess. Appreciate everything.
• Consider: How would Jesus live in our present era -- and change our lives to match his.
• Practice spirituality (connecting with God) and self-restraint.
• Ask: Is technology serving its rightful purpose in our lives, or distracting us from what's really important?
• Slow down to appropriate technology's "positive and sustainable progress that has been made, but also to recover the values and great goals" that have gotten lost along the way.
• Ask; "Are we always the best examples we can be in caring for creation?"
• See the world with its Creator's eyes.

These ideas are just from the first half of Laudato Si -- and I think this last one is key. We have all had the experience of creating something and giving it to someone else in the hope that they will appreciate it. What would it be like to create a world and then watch how human beings are treating it now? If we can imagine the world as our home rather than our playground, and desire only what is best for all living things, we will do things differently, won't we? And that's what God and Pope Francis are calling us to do.

To save this summary from being completely overwhelming, I'll look at the second half next week, and wrap it up, whew! Until then, I will close with the end of the final prayer of Laudato Si. Please pray with me:

God of love, show us our place in this world
as channels of your love
for all the creatures of this earth,
for not one of them is forgotten in your sight.
Enlighten those who possess power and money
that they may avoid the sin of indifference,
that they may love the common good, advance the weak,
and care for this world in which we live.
The poor and the earth are crying out.
O Lord, seize us with your power and light,
help us to protect all life,
to prepare for a better future,
for the coming of your Kingdom
of justice, peace, love and beauty.
Praise be to you!

+AMEN.

Next up: The Grand Finale, period

(A Christian prayer in union with creation and all quotations from Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home © Libreria Editrice Vaticana)

The difference three weeks makes

We're back! We had a wonderful vacation out to Vancouver Island -- great camping, good weather, and some excellent visits with family and friends. And now we're home... and you could say I'm a little overwhelmed by the garden, as usual. Things grew so much in the two weeks we were away. See for yourself -- in the series of photos below, the first was taken July 5th, and the second, July 25th.

The garden, overall...

Herbs and snap peas...

Scarlet runner beans...

The corn is taller than I am now!

We had a fair bit of hail the Friday before last, so my tomatoes aren't looking very happy, but overall, I'm pleased with our garden's progress... and I have a ton of work to do. So the vacation highlights reel will have to wait a bit, but it's coming, I promise. 

For the next few weeks, you can find me in the garden...

Laudato Si: Sunday Reflection #48... Everything will be okay in the end

Being something of an optimist, I've always appreciated the saying that appears above. The Pope is also an optimist, I'm guessing, and his way of saying the same thing appears at the end of this last section of Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home, when he says, "At the end, we will find ourselves face to face with the infinite beauty of God" (you can find this week's reading by clicking here and scrolling down to paragraphs 243-245).

The Grand Finale of Pope Francis's letter to the world, Laudato Si, is a little section called Beyond the Sun, and two lovely prayers. The Pope and his writing team begin by trying to express a bit of what heaven will be like: "Eternal life will be a shared experience of awe, in which each creature, resplendently transfigured, will take its rightful place and have something to give those poor men and women who will have been liberated for once and for all."

We are reminded that, until then, we still have work to do to care for this earth and all its creatures as we journey to God. I really love the lines at the end of paragraph 244: "Let us sing as we go. May our struggles and our concern for this planet never take away the joy of our hope."

As a somewhat musical person, I can't help but love the idea of singing as we go, and I had hoped to end these reflections with a song which is not quite ready yet, so please watch this space because I will share it in the near future. And, as promised at the very beginning, there will be fifty reflections -- two more posted on the next two Sundays because I'm seeing the need to pull together what we've been studying for the past year in a way that will hopefully be helpful to my readers.

The final paragraph of Laudato Si (245) reminds us that "In the heart of this world, the Lord of Life, who loves us so much is always present" -- we are not alone, because God is in all that God has made, and God's love will help us find our way. In spite of all the difficulties and trouble our world is facing, there is always hope because God is with us, and that's reason enough for Pope Francis and friends to to end the encyclical as it begins --

Laudato Si!

*******

Instead of ending with "A prayer for our earth" as I have every other, I close today's reflection with the final stanza of "A Christian prayer in union with creation" found at the end of the encyclical:

God of love, show us our place in this world
as channels of your love
for all the creatures of this earth,
for not one of them is forgotten in your sight.
Enlighten those who possess power and money
that they may avoid the sin of indifference,
that they may love the common good, advance the weak,
and care for this world in which we live.
The poor and the earth are crying out.
O Lord, seize us with your power and light,
help us to protect all life,
to prepare for a better future,
for the coming of your Kingdom
of justice, peace, love and beauty.
Praise be to you!

+AMEN.

Up next: Grand Finale, part 1 of 2

(A Christian prayer in union with creation and all quotations from Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home © Libreria Editrice Vaticana)

Where has the time gone?

These fresh-faced youngsters have been through a lot... and are doing pretty well 27 years to the day after they met, and 25 years to the day after they tied the knot. Love is a wonderful thing. So is laughter, friendship, pillow talk, and a daily walk, holding hands. 

Thank you, my love, for choosing me! 

And thanks be to God for everything else -- most especially our kids, family and friends.

It's all GOOD.

Laudato Si: Sunday Reflection #47... And now, a word from our sponsors

We're almost there, my friends, just a few paragraphs from the end of Pope Francis's encyclical, Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home. This week's two sections make me chuckle a bit, because they seem like the advertisements at the end of a TV program -- hence the title of this reflection.

The first section, paragraphs 238-240, is titled The Trinity and the Relationship Between Creatures, and the second, paragraphs 241-242, is Queen of All Creation (they can be accessed by clicking here and scrolling down). To me, it feels like the encyclical writers, good Catholics that they are, decided they had better hurry up and make mention of Mary and the Trinity before closing time. Even so, these two sections contain some good reminders for those of us who aspire to follow the will of the Triune God, and who take Mary as a model of how to do that.

Paragraphs 238-240 remind us that God is the source of everything, that Jesus is God united to creation through his humanity, and that the Holy Spirit, who blew over the waters of creation is the one responsible for "inspiring and bringing new pathways." When we give thanks for creation, we are praising all three persons of our One God. When we are one with God, we will see the deeper inter-connectedness of God's "constant and secretly woven relationships" throughout creation. What a time that will be! The eleventh and final refrain of the "Everything is interconnected" Laudato Si song is heard once again, calling us to relationship and "a spirituality of that global solidarity which flows from the mystery of the Trinity."

The summer I was fourteen, our family took a trip to the West Coast and visited an aquarium where an injured young killer whale was recovering. At some point (I think while the trained seals were doing a show) I wandered by myself back to the young whale's pool. A piece of straggly sea weed floated near its edge, and I was able to grab it and toss it to the middle of the pool. The whale brought it back to me, and waited for me to throw it again, which I did, over and over. I remember feeling sad for the whale, living in a small enclosure instead of with its pod out in the open ocean -- but I was even sadder that we couldn't communicate. A bit of global solidarity inspired by the Trinity? It was a spiritual experience, or I probably wouldn't remember it today. And one day, when the new heaven and the new earth come about, communication with all of creation won't be an issue, of that I am convinced. We will all know how interconnected everything is!

As Mother of God, Mary stands with the crucified Christ once again as she "grieves for the sufferings of the crucified poor and for the creatures of this world laid waste by human power." In paragraph 241 the encyclical writers note that her human life, lived according to God's will, is one part of creation that has "reached the fullness of its beauty.... Hence, we can ask her to enable us to look at this world with eyes of wisdom."

Of course, since St. Joseph is Mary's partner and the patron of the universal Church, it wouldn't do to forget about him. As caregiver of the Holy Family, "he too can teach us how to show care, he can inspire us to work with generosity and tenderness in protecting this world which God has entrusted to us."

In reading these paragraphs this week, I can't help but think that it's a call to humility for those of us who take up the challenge to work for change, for justice, and for the good of all creation. Perhaps you've heard that saying, "We must pray as if it all depends on God, and work as if it all depends on us." But these paragraphs seem to reverse that -- we must pray as if it all depends on us, and work as if it all depends on God. It is God's creation, and it is God who gives the success. Otherwise, our activist egos might get in the way and sabotage the change that is required. Oh heck, everything depends on God, doesn't it?

In the week ahead, whenever we run into news about environmental or human disasters, let's pause and put them into the hands of "our sponsors" before we look for possible solutions. Let's pray as if it all depends on us to ask for the Spirit's help and inspiration (because without God we can do nothing), and then let's be God's hands and feet and get to work!

*******

A prayer for our earth

All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe

and in the smallest of your creatures.

You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.

Pour out upon us the power of your love,

that we may protect life and beauty.

Fill us with peace, that we may live

as brothers and sisters, harming no one.

O God of the poor,

help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth,

so precious in your eyes.

Bring healing to our lives,

that we may protect the world and not prey on it,

that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction.

Touch the hearts

of those who look only for gain

at the expense of the poor and the earth.

Teach us to discover the worth of each thing,

to be filled with awe and contemplation,

to recognize that we are profoundly united

with every creature

as we journey towards your infinite light.

We thank you for being with us each day.

Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle

for justice, love and peace.

+AMEN.

Up next: Everthing will be okay in the end

(A prayer for our earth and all quotations from Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home © Libreria Editrice Vaticana)

Simple Suggestion #255... Install a clothesline

It doesn't have to be a fancy double-pullied system like ours -- a simple piece of nylon cord between two trees is what we always use on vacation, and it works just as well. 

Clotheslines are a brilliant thing -- they fill our clothes with sunshine and fresh air, and cut our monthly electricity bill a full fifteen percent. That's right, 15%! So investing in a piece of nylon cord or a folding umbrella clothes stand like my sisters just found, or even a clothes rack that can stand in a corner of a laundry space pays itself off in a hurry -- and helps our environment to boot. Not to mention it's easier on clothes than a hot-air tumble dryer ever could be.

Why not give your clothes a longer life and install a solar, wind, or air powered dryer in the form of a clothesline today?

Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Click here.

Laudato Si: Sunday Reflection #46... The other 3 Rs

Are you old enough to remember when Sundays were Sundays? By that I mean, when churches were open but stores were closed, when most people had the day off to go to church and/or spend with their loved ones, and no one expected anything different.

All that changed in 1985 when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that banning Sunday shopping was unconstitutional. These days, in our multicultural society, some faith traditions observe days other than Sunday as sacred, but from the look of the mall parking lots on most traditional days of worship, many people would rather check out the chapel of consumerism's newest gizmo rather than spend time praying or thinking about the mystical connections between God, ourselves and creation.

This week's reading of Pope Francis' letter to the world, Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home reminds me of the importance of Sabbath time, which in observant Jewish culture is actually from sundown Friday night to sundown Saturday night, a full 24 hours. So many of us don't have Sundays off anymore, but it's a good idea to try to set 24 hours of Sabbath aside for God at some point in the week, simply because our consumption-oriented culture barely takes an hour a week of God time, if any at all.

Paragraphs 233-237 of the Pope's encyclical (which you can access by clicking here and scrolling down) reminds us of the importance of making time each week for R&R&R -- rest, relaxation and reverence. They are just as important as reduce, reuse and recycle, because if we give them proper place in our lives, our faith can lead us to a change of attitude that encompasses deep care for the earth.

Sunday, Sabbath, sacred time on whichever day of the week fits your faith, is super important time -- so important that Pope Francis devotes five paragraphs to it in a section entitled Sacramental Signs and the Celebration of Rest. Celebration of Rest, I like that. The whole section is excellent -- if you have some understanding of Eucharist. (I guess Pope Francis forgot that a lot of people in the world might not know the meaning of that word -- or maybe he wants to inspire curiosity about it.) The basic idea is this: God comes to us through the beautiful and ordinary things of creation, so really everything can be a sacrament -- a sign of God's presence and love. And if we can see everything in our world as sacred, as somehow connected to the Creator, we give thanks (the word Eucharist means thanksgiving) for it, we become more receptive to God's presence in it, and we will want to do our utmost to care for it.

Cameron Lake, in Waterton Park AB

I feel like we've come full circle as I post this picture from the third Laudato Si Sunday Reflection way back when. That's when I asked if my readers ever stood in awe before creation, exultant or speechless, and somehow aware of God in it all. Sabbath time is meant to give us an opportunity to take a break from the usual rat race and find God in everything. Really, that's what this entire section is about, and I would encourage you to read it for yourselves because it holds many beautiful ideas. So this week, I'm just going to quote one piece of paragraph 237, which talks about the importance of making time for the rest that allows us to be reverent and aware of God's presence in everything and everyone around us:

We tend to demean contemplative rest as something unproductive and unnecessary, but this is to do away with the very thing which is most important about work: its meaning. We are called to include in our work a dimension of receptivity and gratuity, which is quite different from mere inactivity. Rather, it is another way of working, which forms part of our very essence. It protects human action from becoming empty activism; it also prevents that unfettered greed and sense of isolation which make us seek personal gain to the detriment of all else.... Rest opens our eyes to the large picture and gives us renewed sensitivity to the rights of others. And so the day of rest, centred on the Eucharist, sheds its light on the whole week, and motivates us to greater concern for nature and the poor. 

In this gorgeous week of summer ahead of us, let's find a place of rest where we can be aware of the beauty with which we are surrounded, the Creator who gives it to us, and the work we need to do so that everyone may enjoy it in simplicity, peace, and freedom.

*******

A prayer for our earth

All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe

and in the smallest of your creatures.

You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.

Pour out upon us the power of your love,

that we may protect life and beauty.

Fill us with peace, that we may live

as brothers and sisters, harming no one.

O God of the poor,

help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth,

so precious in your eyes.

Bring healing to our lives,

that we may protect the world and not prey on it,

that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction.

Touch the hearts

of those who look only for gain

at the expense of the poor and the earth.

Teach us to discover the worth of each thing,

to be filled with awe and contemplation,

to recognize that we are profoundly united

with every creature

as we journey towards your infinite light.

We thank you for being with us each day.

Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle

for justice, love and peace.

+AMEN.

Up next: And now, a word from our sponsors

(A prayer for our earth and all quotations from Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home © Libreria Editrice Vaticana)

Working hard

I've been as busy as a bee lately, almost. There's so much to do out in the yard... weeding, staking, sifting compost, moving things around... The good thing about spending so much time outdoors is how easy it is to fall asleep after all that fresh air and exercise, and the difference it makes to the yard. Things are growing at an amazing pace, and there's never a shortage of things to do.

The back yard is almost as weed free as I can make it, but the front yard can always use work. The lupins have finished blooming, and the delphiniums, gaillardia and lilies are starting. I love to see the garden change as different plants bloom... every morning I wander around just to notice "what's different today?" That's the real joy of being a gardener, in my books. Makes all the work worthwhile!



But I'm still not working as hard as these guys in the video below. The Energizer Bunny should have been a bee, I'm convinced. Not enough to have one working a flower, they both have to get in there! If only my kids were as anxious to participate in the yard work! Enjoy your day!

Laudato Si: Sunday Reflection #45... Rebuilding a culture of care

This week's Laudato Si reflection comes at a good time, because a lot of what's said in paragraphs 228-232 has been on my mind lately. Our world seems to have taken the low road rather than the high on too many occasions in the last few months. This is what I feel like saying every single time:

Especially to a certain presidential candidate south of the border! He gets wayyyy too much media attention for his nasty comments, and doesn't seem very interested in creating positive change. And he's not the only one -- there are all sorts of public figures in the news whose personae are built on tearing down the good. But Pope Francis takes exception -- this week's section of his letter to the world, Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home, encourages us toward a culture of care. Section V is entitled Civic and Political Love, and it can be accessed by clicking here and scrolling down.

Even if the non-inclusive language in this section could use some improvement, Pope Francis says some very important things:

We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and the world, and that being good and decent are worth it. We have had enough of immorality and the mockery of ethics, goodness, faith and honesty. It is time to acknowledge that light-hearted superficiality has done us no good (paragraph 229).

AMEN, brother. Sing it loud and clear! There are two problems here, as I see it -- 1) the public figures who grab headlines with their outrageous mean-spiritedness, and 2) the media who give them coverage. The solution? A small step -- protesting, boycotting those networks, "unfollowing" those public figures or otherwise letting them and their agents/networks know that they must work for a culture of care, not nasty negativity. Clearly, if we are to re-establish a culture that values our planet and its life, supporting people with small and narrow minds won't help. We need more people with wide and loving hearts to lead us.

That's why I love that the Pope holds up St. Therese of Lisieux's "little way of love" as an alternative in paragraph 230 -- and encourages everyone on the planet "not to miss out on a kind word, a smile or any small gesture which sows peace and friendship." St. Therese was a young woman who lived a short and hidden life in a small convent, focusing on the little things she could do to show love. Her autobiography, Story of a Soul, had a deep impact on me in my teen years, teaching that something as simple as acknowledging people with a smile is a tiny but important step toward defeating the negativity that can seem overwhelming in our world -- a tiny but important step worth taking.

"An integral ecology is also made up of simple daily gestures which break with the logic of violence, exploitation and selfishness," the Pope says. I suspect that, like St. Therese, he does many such things about which we'll never know. He knows and reminds us that it's these "random acts of kindness" and the "paying forward" of goodness that stops misery in its tracks. And every time he's caught doing one of these simple things, love for him fills the cyber sphere. That kind of "good press" blows me away.

Pope Paul VI might have been the first to use the words "Civilization of Love" for the World Day of Peace in 1977, but the phrase has been echoed ever since as something we need to create -- or there may be no civilization at all. Paragraph 231 emphasizes the importance of love in all spheres of human social activity -- cultural, economic and political. Encouraging "a culture of care" which permeates all of society is a good thing, but let's take it a step further and ensure that we also care for everything that God has made.

Paragraph 232 reminds us that even if we aren't the kinds of people who feel we can engage directly in political life, people like us can connect through organizations that "work to promote the common good and to defend the environment, whether natural or urban." When I became a Voluntary Simplicity practitioner, I wanted to save the world, but soon realized that, as an introvert, I'm not built to deliver impassioned speeches that can move people to change. God gave us all different gifts, and mine lead me to share what I know via these moodlings, encouraging change with my little suggestions and the sharing of the work of good people around me. I could never be a politician, or a TV host! I'm not crazy about leading workshops; I'm much happier working in my garden.

That doesn't mean that I don't support other organisations that can do more. Attending rallies, donating to an environmental cause, signing petitions and sharing information are all important because even the smallest of our actions can help to

cultivate a shared identity, with a story which can be remembered and handed on. In this way, the world, and the quality of life of the poorest, are cared for, with a sense of solidarity, which is at the same time aware that we live in a common home which God has entrusted to us. These community actions, when they express self-giving love, can also become intense spiritual expriences" (paragraph 232). 

I'm thinking of yesterday's moodling about Supersu's party boxes, and all the conversations about reducing waste that result because of them. Not quite "intense spiritual experiences," but people realize that they hold the same value of caring about our planet in those moments, and that they can make a difference, too.

The moral of this week's story is that it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the negativity in our world, but we all have the capacity to be agents of change. So in the week ahead, let's give some thought to the little things we can do to rebuild a culture of care for our Sister, Mother Earth, and for all her creatures.

I shared the video below in another moodling a few years back, but it's an inspiration that's too good to forget. We all need to care as much as the hummingbird, and do the best we can, as Wangari Maathai did. Have a good week, and don't forget your little acts of kindness for the earth and each other...

*******

A prayer for our earth

All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe

and in the smallest of your creatures.

You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.

Pour out upon us the power of your love,

that we may protect life and beauty.

Fill us with peace, that we may live

as brothers and sisters, harming no one.

O God of the poor,

help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth,

so precious in your eyes.

Bring healing to our lives,

that we may protect the world and not prey on it,

that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction.

Touch the hearts

of those who look only for gain

at the expense of the poor and the earth.

Teach us to discover the worth of each thing,

to be filled with awe and contemplation,

to recognize that we are profoundly united

with every creature

as we journey towards your infinite light.

We thank you for being with us each day.

Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle

for justice, love and peace.

+AMEN.

Next up: The other 3 Rs

(A prayer for our earth and all quotations from Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home © Libreria Editrice Vaticana)

Simple Suggestion #254... Have waste-less dinner parties

One of the things that drives me crazy about large family gatherings is the tendency to pull out the paper plates, plastic utensils and disposable cups. Garbage bags full of them end up in the landfill every year, and though it's convenient, it's just not necessary -- besides, that kind of waste of resources in single-use items is not good for our planet.

SuperSu to the rescue! She's one of my Simplicity Sisters (@redworm_mama for you tweeters) and she's brilliant. She came up with the Party Box -- well, two of them, actually, and she lent them to me for our Canada Day party tomorrow.

Here's what you get when you borrow Supersu's party box:

Everything in the box was either purchased at a thrift store/garage sale, or made/donated by Su herself. Much of it may have ended up in the trash, but she rescued it from ignominy and now it's keeping all those other single-use party items from even being purchased and used only once before the long drive to the landfill. And it's a very festive looking collection, as you can see by the pictures below.

The cloth napkins (mostly made by Su) say "Use Su's", and don't you love the host/hostess' apron? There's a cute little apron for a child host/hostess, too. The utensils are sturdy plastic or good old-fashioned metal silverware/flatware of different kinds, and you'd be hard pressed to set a matching table for more than six people... but the variety makes for a very festive looking gathering, don't you agree? (The reusable cups are mine -- it would be hard to fit them into the boxes.) This is only fourteen place settings -- you could easily feed fifty or more with the dishes/utensils in these two boxes.

As a Master Composter/Recycler, Sue is into reducing, reusing and recycling in a big way, and she's a strong supporter of the sharing economy. Her party boxes are available for loan if you live in the Edmonton area and can pick up/return them on your own steam. She can be reached at supersu @shaw.ca. And if you don't live nearby, maybe you'd consider starting a party box for the sharing economy where you are. 

Wasteless parties are the new black, so there!

July 2nd, the morning after the party...

A good time was had by all at our Canada Day party. 23 people came, we sang our anthem in both official languages, the food was delish, and there was no big black garbage bag of single-use so-called disposable items going out the back door at the end of the night. Not even one paper napkin! I told everyone about the party boxes during our "Fun Facts" icebreaker, and one of my friends said that "Supersu deserves an award."

But knowing my humble friend, she's feeling the love just by knowing that she's making a difference and planting the seeds for future wasteless parties. Some of my friends are now planning to dig out those plastic dishes and unmatching utensils and make party boxes to be shared around their clans for larger family gatherings, too.

Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Click here.

Simple Suggestion #253... Go back in time

A tradesman and his family lived in a space
much like this in Fort Edmonton in 1846

Yesterday we took a little family field trip to Fort Edmonton. It's a lovely historic park in the crook of the North Saskatchewan River's arm. The park highlights different eras in the life of Edmonton, beginning with the fort that was established by the Hudson's Bay Company in the mid 1800's. In the history of humanity, 170 years ago isn't such a long time.

What always strikes me when visiting the fort is how simple and uncluttered everything is. Furniture was built for function more than comfort. Almost everything was made of wood, plant and animal fibres of some kind -- totally biodegradable materials. Beds and doorways were short because people who sometimes went hungry didn't grow so tall. Gardens were necessary, hunting essential, and the spring supply boats were anticipated more than Christmas.

I wouldn't want to live the way they did. I like my comforts, but the spareness of those homes helps me realise that I would probably be just as happy without so many books on my desk and pictures on my walls. I wouldn't want to live without a refrigerator or hot water tank, but there are many other things in my home that are unnecessary. In the mid 1800s, no one needed exercise machines. Or patio furniture. Or tablet computers. Or clock radios. They worked hard, played hard, entertained each other and slept from dark til dawn.

Going back in time offers us the opportunity to think about the craziness of consumer culture and the hectic lifestyle it seems to engender. If you have a museum or historical place in your neighbourhood, why not pay a visit for a reminder that life can be lived more simply?

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Laudato Si: Sunday Reflection #44... Simplicity and prayer

Did you grow up with Grace and Gratitude? My years of working in our family church supplies business ensured that I did. Grace (circa 1918 by Eric Enstrom/Rhoda Nyberg) is a portrait of a man praying before his meal, and Gratitude (by Jack Garren in the 1960s) is the companion picture of a woman in a similar posture.

What I always liked about these two was the simplicity of the images. They seem to say that if you can live in gratitude and try to be aware of God's grace -- even if you don't have many possessions -- you have enough.

Which fits with the theme of this week's section from Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home, which is entitled Joy and Peace (paragraphs 222 to 227. It can be accessed by clicking here and scrolling down). This section of Pope Francis' letter to the world is all about choosing to live more simply, which is, of course, my favourite topic.

Less really is more these days. Choosing simplicity is downright subversive and counter-cultural in a society that has been brainwashed into believing that if we don't buy, buy, buy, the economy will die, die, die. What our brainwashers have failed to notice is that excessive consumption has brought our world to its present ecological problems... the overemphasis on buy, buy, buy leads directly to die, die, die for too many of our ecosystems. In paragraph 222, Pope Francis and his writing team remind us that

Christian spirituality proposes an alternative understanding of the quality of life, and encourages a prophetic and contemplative lifestyle, one capable of deep enjoyment free of the obsession with consumption. We need to take up an ancient lesson, found in different religious traditions and also in the Bible. It is the conviction that "less is more". A constant flood of new consumer goods can baffle the heart and prevent us from cherishing each thing and each moment.

This makes me think of Christmas, the big consumer holiday of the year. When our children were little, we quickly learned that if they received too many gifts, things got lost in the shuffle and were under-appreciated. So we cut back on the gifts, and our little ones were just as happy. More stuff does not equal more happiness. As noted later in paragraph 222, choosing a simpler existence "allows us to stop and appreciate the small things, to be grateful for the opportunities which life affords us, to be spiritually detached from what we possess, and not to succumb to sadness for what we lack."

"In reality, those who enjoy more and live better each moment are those who have given up dipping here and there, always on the look-out for what they do not have," say Pope Francis and friends in paragraph 223 of Laudato Si. The entire paragraph is just excellent (read it for yourself!!), and seems to echo wise teachers from the past... I'm thinking in particular of Richard Gregg, a follower of Mahatma Ghandi, who summed up Ghandi's practice of Voluntary Simplicity (in 1936) as follows:

Voluntary simplicity involves both inner and outer condition. It means singleness of purpose, sincerity and honesty within, as well as avoidance of exterior clutter, of many possessions irrelevant to the chief purpose of life. It means an ordering and guiding of our energy and our desires, a partial restraint in some directions in order to secure greater abundance of life in other directions. It involves a deliberate organization of life for a purpose. (Quoted in Mark A. Burch's book, Stepping Lightly: Simplicity for people and the planet. (2000, ISBN 0-86571-423-1) pp. 9-10.

I love the line about restraint in some directions which can lead to a greater abundance of life in others. Isn't that what our consumer-driven society is really looking for -- abundance of life? But we mistakenly think our possessions are what brings us joy. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I invite you to consider three high points in your life -- the times you felt most joyful and fulfilled. Then note who you were with, what you were doing, why you were so happy, and what, if any material items were required for the experience. We do this exercise in Simplicity Study Circles all the time, and it's always interesting to note how few consumer items are actually required for the happiest moments of our lives.

"Even living on little, they can live a lot," says Pope Francis in paragraph 223, and of course he is talking about all of us when we find joy and satisfaction

• in relationships,
• in serving others,
• in using our talents,
• in enjoying or creating music or art,
• in relating to nature,
• in prayer.

This brings to mind another old song on YouTube, which kind of says the same things using a musical format...

Paragraph 224 reminds us of the personal, societal and environmental imbalances created by 1) consumerism, 2) an overemphasis on autonomy, 3) a lack of faith in our Creator, and 4) the belief that our feelings are the best indicator of "what is right and what is wrong."

Instead, we need to find inner peace, says paragraph 225, the kind that is connected to simplicity, to care for the environment and to working for the common good. Because so many of us fill our lives with so much noise and frenzied activity in our pursuit of being good people who are doing good things, we forget that less is more when it comes to spirituality. We can't enjoy God's gifts to us if we don't make the time to appreciate them. We really won't find peace if our possessions and activities are doing violence to God's creation somewhere behind the scenes.

"We are speaking of an attitude of the heart," Pope Francis says, "one which approaches life with serene attentiveness, which is capable of being fully present to someone [or to creation, I would add] without thinking of what comes next, which accepts each moment as a gift from God to be lived to the full." Our culture is too much like the rich young man in the tenth chapter of Mark's gospel, worried about our possessions while Jesus is looking at us with love -- but are we too tied up in our stuff to notice?

In an attempt to encourage this "attitude of the heart", Pope Francis has recently begun something of a campaign to remind people to pray in thanksgiving before and after meals -- paragraph 227 has been appearing in church bulletins lately. Yes, maybe some of us need to get back to the basics of simple mealtime graces before we can attempt more serious ecological reforms, but I was hoping for a more challenging campaign -- like perhaps encouraging us to try a year of living really simply -- buying only what we need, or finding ways to cut our use of energy by 20 or 30 percent, churches included. (Note to Pope Francis and all the other bishops out there: I'm also still waiting for places of worship to have regular sermons about saving our environment...) But maybe eventually those mealtime graces will lead us to a more respectful "attitude of gratitude" -- and remind us of the importance of prayer and meditation for keeping in touch with the Source of all life as we work toward the more difficult challenge of seriously reducing consumption for the sake of creation.

I know I haven't moodled much about the importance of prayer in these Laudato Si reflections, probably because I feel the urgency for action to return our sister, Mother Earth, back to health before it's too late. But the very first Sunday reflection was about the encyclical's A Prayer for the Earth, which I've posted at the end of every reflection since in the hopes that my readers pray it with me every weekend. Prayer is also necessary in the work Pope Francis is calling us to do -- it helps us to live in hope, to keep our eyes fixed on God's love for the great web of creation, and inspires us to work for the common good of all of creation.

So for the week ahead, let's do like our Grace and Gratitude people at the top of this moodling and give some attention to our spiritual practices. Do we remember to give thanks for our food? Do we offer some time and attention to Christ, who looks at us with love even when we are too busy? Let's simplify some spaces in our lives to make room for the richness of life Christ promised in my favourite verse of scripture, John 10: 10b -- "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."

*******

A prayer for our earth

All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe

and in the smallest of your creatures.

You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.

Pour out upon us the power of your love,

that we may protect life and beauty.

Fill us with peace, that we may live

as brothers and sisters, harming no one.

O God of the poor,

help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth,

so precious in your eyes.

Bring healing to our lives,

that we may protect the world and not prey on it,

that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction.

Touch the hearts

of those who look only for gain

at the expense of the poor and the earth.

Teach us to discover the worth of each thing,

to be filled with awe and contemplation,

to recognize that we are profoundly united

with every creature

as we journey towards your infinite light.

We thank you for being with us each day.

Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle

for justice, love and peace.

+AMEN.

(A prayer for our earth and all quotations from Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home © Libreria Editrice Vaticana)

Next up: Rebuilding a culture of care

And now for a message from our sponsors

It's Aboriginal Awareness Week here in Canada -- Aboriginal Day is tied to Summer Solstice. And here's a great little video from Wab Kinew, who is one smart guy. I am celebrating my Aboriginal friends this week, and sharing this video with you.

The title of this moodling might seem a little off the wall, but if you think about it according to Wab's fifth point below, First Nations people have supported our lifestyles a lot more than we have supported theirs... It's time to learn more about their history and work for reconciliation in a serious way, Canada.

A perfect day for a walk

A special project

"Do I Need It?", also known as The Reducing Song, is nine years old already... and getting rather glitchy on YouTube. So when my daughter and her boyfriend gave me the Christmas gift of remaking it, I was excited. It needs serious updating -- as you can see below.

For my readers who have yet to run into my secret career as a songwriter, this tune came out of my Master Composter/Recycler Course in 2007. The day I went for my interview to join the program, I was very excited because I wanted to learn more about reducing my impact on the planet, and composting and recycling fit with my ideals as a Voluntary Simplicity practitioner. The interview went well, and on my way home, the refrain to this song popped into my head -- from the Source of all inspiration, I guess. 

I didn't know what to do with it, so I walked around for the first weeks of my course, singing and humming it to myself so I wouldn't forget it. It wasn't until the course instructors announced that everyone in the class had to come up with a final project about waste reduction that I knew what I had to do -- write some verses about reducing waste, of course. I wrote too many -- and I'm such a nervous solo performer, I couldn't imagine standing up and singing it in front of the group.

Thankfully, my sister suggested I make a video -- so I recorded the sound track in the peace and quiet of my kitchen using a cheap microphone and my laptop. My mom and I visited the local Salvation Army Thrift Store (that has since closed, unfortunately), we ran around taking a few more pictures, and it all came together quite nicely thanks to Jeanine's patience as video editor. The version above isn't the original -- I re-recorded and added more images before posting this version to YouTube.

It's been a lot of fun receiving feedback about my song from folks all over the world over the last nine years. Musicians detest it because, hey, I never thought about varying the melody to make a "bridge," and honestly, I can't stand the sound of my own voice, either. But school teachers, environmentalists, recycling enthusiasts, and students from Australia to Taiwan have shared my funny little video with their circles. It even ended up in the Taiwan English School Curriculum as part of a lesson on Senseless Consumption. It hasn't gone viral by any means, but seems to have a fairly steady viewership (most of the hits are from my Uncle Mark, I think, who is the King of Recycling in his small town). What really makes me happy is when it gets quoted on the Master Composter Recycler Facebook page, or by someone I know. That means it might be having an impact on peoples' consumption patterns. (My family really hate it because it's an earworm!)

I had a chance to visit this year's graduating class of Master Composter/Recyclers in April, and we watched it as a group. Its outdatedness and glitchiness made me immediately ask the group for their assistance in the remake, and a few of them were quite excited about participating. So on Saturday, a group of us gathered in our basement "makeshift sound studio." My daughter and her boyfriend set up recording equipment and took pictures. We made plenty of mistakes, had a lot of fun, practised our percussion, and eventually the basic sound track was laid down, ready for editing. Over the next weeks Landon and Christina will work on audio and video and hopefully the finished product will be ready around the time that I finish my final Laudato Si Sunday Reflection.

So watch this space for the World Premiere of The Reducing Song -- Do I Need It, take three, by the Marvelous MCRs and Honourary Guests. I promise, it will be the best one yet!

Laudato Si: Sunday Reflection #43... Talkin' 'bout ecological conversion

Not sure why I'm droppin' consonants and vowels in the title of this week's moodling, except maybe that I've been listenin' to Tracy Chapman's Talkin' 'bout a Revolution. Actually, the two are kinda connected, now that I think about it -- conversion and revolution are both about making change -- one internally, and the other, externally.  This week, we're looking at both kinds of changes -- in us, and in our world.

Here's the link to access Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home -- scroll down to paragraphs 216-221 to have a look at this week's chunk of Pope Francis' encyclical, which was given to the world one year ago today. Has it made a difference? I really believe it has helped the cause of our planet even though you don't hear the words Laudato Si dropped very often -- but the media seems to be taking a greater interest in news stories related to the environment, more than pre-Laudato Si. I've listened in on more conversations about environmental issues, and I'm hoping that Pope Francis' work is waking everyone up to the changes we need to make. What do you think? I guess sometimes it helps to have a global figure come down on the side of creation -- I just wish it had happened several papacies ago.

But I'll give Pope Francis full credit for finally taking environmental issues in hand through his letter to the world, and through offering his "suggestions for an ecological spirituality" in paragraph 216 of this section on Ecological Conversion. He reminds us that "the life of the spirit is not dissociated from the body of nature or from worldly realities, but lived in and with them, in communion with all that surrounds us." I know that for too many centuries, churches have focused almost entirely on the eternal salvation of the people in the pews, forgetting that salvation is supposed bring everyone and everything God made into the fullness of God's love. Praying with and for the people in the pews doesn't go far enough -- action is required to help creation toward abundant life, too!

Pope Francis and his encyclical writing team start paragraph 217 by noting something Pope Benedict called attention to in one of his homilies: the external destruction of our environments is increasing in proportion to our own spiritual emptiness, which we try to fill with possessions, I would say, or experiences -- that can't satisfy us spiritually. Jesus talked about this in one of my favourite passages of Matthew's gospel -- chapter 6, verses 25-33. Consider the lilies, he says. Seek first God's reign, he says. And with our hearts focused less on our possessions and more on what is really most important and valuable in our lives (our relationships with one another and creation), we don't have to rely on materialism and waste the earth's resources to fill up our souls with God's goodness. Pope Francis knows this when he says

the ecological crisis is also a summons to profound interior conversion... whereby the effects of [our] encounter with Jesus Christ become evident in [our] relationship with the world around [us]. Living our vocation to be protectors of God's handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience.

In paragraph 218, we revisit the example of St Francis. He was born into a life of wealth and luxury, but his experiences as a prisoner of war and his illness following gave him a lot of time to reflect on his playboy lifestyle and the people living in poverty all around him. He woke up to the emptiness that his status and possessions couldn't alleviate, and his personal conversion brought him into harmony with God and creation. I think sometimes we forget that God can change our hearts, too, and bring us to that same harmony.

Coral reef bleaching -- image from World Wildlife Fund

Personal conversion is necessary -- and so is the conversion of all the systems that create pollution, violence and injustice. In paragraph 219 we find that "Social problems must be addressed by community networks and not simply by the sum of individual good deeds." Our solitary actions can change the world a little, but communal, world conversion is what will really make a difference. United, we succeed in a hurry; divided, it takes a lot longer... and we are running short of time. Yesterday I read a story about how 90% of the Great Barrier Reef is experiencing coral bleaching because of warming oceans. The corals can rejuvenate, but not if our oceans keep warming.

Our ecological conversion requires "gratitude and gratuitousness, a recognition that the world is God's loving gift and that we are called to quietly imitate [God's] generosity in self-sacrifice and good
works," says paragraph 220. I can't imagine that there's an environmentalist to be found who isn't in awe of nature and the way it works. Gratitude to our Creator springs from that kind of awe, and what follows is an awareness that we have received our world from a Benevolence that asks nothing in return. We are called to be just as generous to all living beings with whom we share our planet.

We must also hold onto the convictions of our faith, including "the awareness that each creature reflects something of God and has a message to convey to us, and the security that Christ has taken unto himself this material world and now, risen, is intimately present to each being, surrounding it with his affection and penetrating it with his light." If our faith helps us to see creation in this way, we also see that "God created the world, writing into it an order and a dynamism that human beings have no right to ignore"(paragraph 221).

Yet humanity has unfortunately ignored so much of creation -- at our own peril -- and it's not always easy to get the attention of those people who haven't yet awakened to creation's intricacies, and teach them the kind of self-sacrifice that it will take to save our planet from further destruction. We have started with ourselves, with reading this encyclical, with working on our own ecological conversion. What comes next?

If we go back to paragraph 219, we see that communal conversion is the next step. We need to move out of our comfort zone and call others to join us in our respect for and protection of God's creation. Perhaps we can share our knowledge when it comes to a particular environmental concern. Maybe we can show someone something about nature's intricacy that inspires awe in us. Perhaps we could get involved with an environmental organization that is working to save bees, butterflies, bears, belugas, or any other creatures we care about.

There are so many possibilities. Wikipedia has a page of environmental organizations listed by country and title. There are over 20 just in Canada, and many of them offer free resources to help us become more aware of the issues our planet is facing, information that can be shared with those who are less aware of our sister, Mother Earth and her struggles to support us all. I'm hoping you already have your own favourite ecological causes.

So this week's challenge is to talk up some of the possibilities for environmental education and activism with the people around us. If we can start with one conversation that helps raise a friend's awareness of an environmental issue, it can be like a stone in a pond that ripples out to touch others. And that's where communal conversion -- or environmental revolution -- can begin.

*******

A prayer for our earth

All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe

and in the smallest of your creatures.

You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.

Pour out upon us the power of your love,

that we may protect life and beauty.

Fill us with peace, that we may live

as brothers and sisters, harming no one.

O God of the poor,

help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth,

so precious in your eyes.

Bring healing to our lives,

that we may protect the world and not prey on it,

that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction.

Touch the hearts

of those who look only for gain

at the expense of the poor and the earth.

Teach us to discover the worth of each thing,

to be filled with awe and contemplation,

to recognize that we are profoundly united

with every creature

as we journey towards your infinite light.

We thank you for being with us each day.

Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle

for justice, love and peace.

+AMEN.

(A prayer for our earth and all quotations from Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home © Libreria Editrice Vaticana)

Next up: Simplicity and prayer