The Blizzard of the World

This is from a workshop I attended earlier this year.

The Blizzard of the World
from: A Hidden Wholeness: the journey toward the Undivided Life
Dr. Palmer Parker

The blizzard of the world
has crossed the threshold
and it has overturned
the order of the soul.
-Leonard Cohen

There was a time when farmers on the Great Plains, at the first sign of a blizzard, would run a rope from the back door out to the barn. They all knew stories of people who had wandered off and been frozen to death, having lost sight of home in a whiteout while still in their own backyards.
Today we live in a blizzard of another sort. It swirls around us as economic injustice, ecological ruin, political and spiritual violence, and their inevitable outcome, war. It swirls within us as fear and frenzy, greed and deceit, and indifference to the suffering of others. We all know stories of people who have wandered off into this madness and have been separated from their own souls, losing their moral bearings and even their mortal lives: they make headlines because they take so many innocents down with them.

The lost ones come from every walk of life: clergy and corporate executives, politicians and people on the street, celebrities and schoolchildren. Some of us fear that we, or those we love will become lost in the storm. Some are lost at this moment and are trying to find the way home. Some are lost withour knowing it. And some are using the blizzard as cover while cycnically exploiting its chaos for private gain.

So it is easy to believe that the "blizzard of the the world" has overturned "the order of the soul", easy to believe that that the soul -- that life-giving core of human self, with its hunger for truth and justice, love and forgiveness-- has lost all power to guide our lives.

But my own experience of the blizzard, which includes getting lost in it more often than I like to admit, tells me that it is not so. The soul's order can never be destroyed. It imay be obscured by the whiteout. We may forget, or deny, that its guidance is close at hand. And yet we are still in the soul's backyard, which chance after chance to regain our bearings.

What is your blizzard?
What forms does it take when you lose sight of your home in your own backyard?
How would you name the strands of your rope?
What is it about your rope that helps you find your way back home?

Wierd News... items from print

I have a colleague who found some wierd items and passed them on to me.

A blessing for hospitality

Yesterday I was asked to provide the blessing for the reopening of a wing in my hospital. I didn't realize it was going to a big event until I read the itinerary that said I was to be introduced by the CEO and there was a government rep as well. Talk about nervous. I stressed over what to wear.. in the end it was fine. Despite the TV camera pointed at me.

This is the blessing that I gave.. interestingly enough, most of the speakers had this theme.. about hospitality and acceptance that they found from the team there. The blessing is from Henri Nouwen's book "Reaching Out".

Words of Henri Nouwen
"Hospitality means primarily the creation of a free space where strangers can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. Hospitality is not to change people but to offer them space where change can take place. Hospitality wants to offer friendship without binding the guest and freedom without leaving the guests alone."

In this place we seek to offer hospitality to those who enter these doors.

I offer this blessing

Bless this place and those who provide and receive medical services here,
For the lives that are touched and shared in this place.

Bless those who enter these doors.
May they find healing and renewal,
May they find comfort and know peace.
May they find an inviting space where hospitality reigns.

Commentary on Newspaper articles

This is an article from today's paper. And people wonder why we aren't more friendly in today's society.

Man stabbed after saying friendly hello on Toronto bus

Linda Nguyen
Canwest News Service
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
A 30-year-old man who was stabbed three times Monday did nothing wrong but say hello to his attacker on a public transit bus, Toronto police say.
"This attack was unprovoked. It was a very weird thing," Toronto police Det. Jim Brons said Tuesday. "There's nothing that the victim could have done. It was a very isolated incident."
Brons, who has been with the force for 20 years, said it's the first case of its kind he's worked on in the city.
Investigators say the man and the suspect were passengers on a transit bus in the city's north end Monday.
The two were sitting side by side when they made eye contact.
"The victim was going to work and the suspect got on the bus afterwards," he said. "The suspect looked at the victim and the victim decided to say hi to him. He didn't respond. Ten minutes later, the suspect blew up at him and asked him why he said hi when they didn't know each other."
Brons said the victim apologized while the two men were still on the bus. He apologized again, telling the suspect that he meant nothing by the greeting when he got off the bus around 12:30 p.m.
"He apologized to him on the bus and looked straight forward, hoping the guy didn't get off with him," he said. "But when they both got on the sidewalk, the suspect took out a knife and stabbed him three times. Then he didn't even run away. He just walked off like nothing happened."
The man fell to the ground after he was stabbed on the side of his body. He was taken to hospital and received numerous stitches.
"He's doing relatively well," Brons said. "But he's absolutely shocked at what happened. Who would expect something like this to happen when you're riding the bus to work?"
Brons said not much could have been done to prevent the incident. "Who would think that you would say hi to someone and that someone would react in this way?" Police are looking for a six-foot, two-inch black male, aged 18 to 20.

A different take on "Favorite Things"

According to various web sources, Julie Andrews supposedly sang this version on her 69fh birthday. This is considered an urban legend, but I enjoyed the lyrics nonetheless. I found them posted on a wall in one of my clinical areas at work. (I found myself singing the tune as I read the "new" lyrics.

Taking the tune from the legendary movie Sound Of Music the lyrics of the song
were deliberately changed for the entertainment of her blue hair audience.

Maalox and nose drops and needles for knitting,
Walkers and handrails and new dental fittings,
Bundles of magazines tied up in string,
These are a few of my favorite things.

Cadillacs and cataracts and hearing aids and glasses,
Polident and Fixodent and false teeth in glasses,
Pacemakers, golf carts and porches with swings,
These are a few of my favorite things.

When the pipes leak,
When the bones creak,
When the knees go bad,
I simply remember my favorite things,
And then I don't feel so bad.

Hot tea and crumpets, and corn pads for bunions,
No spicy hot food or food cooked with onions,
Bathrobes and heat pads and hot meals they bring,
These are a few of my favorite things.

Back pains, confused brains, and no fear of sinnin',
Thin bones and fractures and hair that is thinnin',
And we won't mention our short shrunken frames,
When we remember our favorite things.

When the joints ache, when the hips break, When the eyes grow dim, Then I remember the great life I've had, And then I don't feel so bad.

Book review

One of many books that I have purchased with intent to read is "Pastoral Care Under the Cross: God in the Midst of Suffering" written by Richard C. Eyer. So far, I love what I am reading as it is written from the theological context of chaplaincy. I have found it a rare publication that is written specifically from the pastoral care/chaplaincy perspective.

In the first paragraph of this book, I defined pastoral care as the "uninvited spiritual nurturing" that a pastor provides. It is uninvited in the sense that the person needing pastoral care often does not request it. ... need to understand in the context of 'helplessness or loss of control over one's life'. Someone has said that the willingness to live with our own helpless may well turn out to be called faith. That does not make living with helplessness any easier, but it does put helplessness into holy perspective, a useful beginning for both pastor and parishioner. ... the challenge for pastoral care is to move the sufferer from feelings of helplessness to a holy perspective. Holy perspective is that interpretation arrive at by pastor and suffering parishioner which is both sensitive to feelings and looks beyond feelings to Truth. Truth is not merely what pastor or parishioner feels personally but what God says to us in Jesus Christ, the meaning of which is revealed in the written Word. "
"Pastoral care consists not in removing some one's suffering but in helping the sufferer understand his or her suffering in the light of the cross. Apart from the cross, the sufferer experiences a meaningless and out-of-control world that offers no hope.. " Basically, Eyer differentiates the message of the cross as rooted in self-exploration with the purpose of the individual to define the weakness within and to confess and grow from learning of one's weakness, to root it out, whereas pop psychology elevates the self-exploration with the propose of celebrating our weaknesses. Eyer goes on to distinguish the difference of what he calls "theology of the cross" and "theology of glory" using the Lord's prayer as example. One line of the Lord's Prayer is "thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven". Eyer argues that many people hold to the thinking of "theology of glory"
when it comes to this line, stating that while "thy will be done" refers to our acknowledgement of our individual weakness and acknowledging that God walks with us in our suffering, versus trying to bend God's will to our desires.
" The theology of the cross says that God comes to us through our weakness and suffering, on the cross and in our own sufferings. The theology of the cross says, 'My grace is sufficient for you,..' the theology of glory on the other hand says that God is to be found, not in the weakness but in power and strength, and therefore we should look for him in signs of health, success, and outward victory over life's ills. .. If we do not understand the distinction, we will gravitate towards a theology of glory in which our culture believes God works through the self-affirmation of pop psychology and instant gratification. We will begin to demand that God justify himself to us in our sufferings by giving us healing and success."

That is quite the statement and it rings true. How often have I had patients tell me that God will fix it because "I told him to". I do agree that God does heal and that miracles occur, but sometimes people hold too rigid to the "theology of glory" stance and aren't willing to see that sometimes, God is saying "I'm here , walking with you." or that the answer to their demand is "no, there will be healing, just not that way".

I look forward to seeing how this book continues and what other challenges to perspective will arise.