Zeballos, BC

My bed the previous week was a dusty floor in an end-of-the-road town named Zeballos. We planted ourselves for 5 days at this 1st Nations reserve. We were continually running and playing with the children, visiting shut-ins, and connecting with the teens of the community. It was our fourth visit.

We go to connect. There has never been a big plan or project with these folks. It has simply been to form relationship with people who are hungry for what we take for granted. We don’t seek to change or fix, just be. We with them, they with us.

If there has been any goal it has been this. About two years ago a beautiful teenage girl was brutally killed. About the same time, their school principal died. We were told, “This is a community in loss, and try to connect with that.” My goodness, how? I’ve never felt our visits came to the point of touching on this deep family and community injury.

This time was different. The parents, who lost that young girl to the hands of some devil on earth, were often with us at our meals, events, and hang times. They talked and opened up, “I’ve not discussed this before, and it’s good to do so, finally.”

Ah, the one other thing I have taken for granted, the opportunity I have to talk to so many people and my culture that allows, even promotes it. Oh, but there is still one other I neglect. Time. Time to allow things to unfold, take their course, and occur when fully ripened.

The clouds hung heavy every day on this journey of faith. The rain so constant, we were no longer being rained upon but were standing in it. The water-clogged air we breathed reminded us of the lives many live in this town. Bored, hopeless, and static. Yet, sun broke through the clouds as we drove away that day, and it was the metaphor we needed. There was a ray of light that burned deep within our Zeballos friends and us. I think we all felt it.



daily...

...daily

and we left...

stream shots of the day

leaves of the day

tree of the day

all fog but a peak of sun a day's end

Footprints

It's lent, a time to anticipate the resurrection. This easter day came following death. Between the two, darkness and waiting.

You experience death. Often. Death to something that brought you comfort, a relationship that is no longer the same, your hopes, expectations, something familiar or an importance. And life rarely happens following these little and large deaths. There is always the wait, the unkown darkness before new life comes to you.

In this limbo, there are questions. Why did you have to experience this death? What waits ahead on this new and winding path you now travel? You want life. And now.

But this is a time to draw near to God. In the moment of death there is too much brokeness to cry out. In the newness that will eventually come, there is too much contentment, and God becomes forgotten.

There is only one action. Seek. Not the clarity at the end of the path but the one who guides you on a seemingly unknown way. Just one step at a time.

Weather

I felt a personal storm last week, and it still lasts to a degree.

Just one moment.

Epiphany.

I went for a run on the trails during a battle of fierce wind and rain . I came to the top of a high point and onto a rock outcropping. I could see all of Victoria, the Olympics and Coastal Mtns. Actually, I had to visualize them given the poor visibility. I stood facing the wind-driven rain and saw the stately firs and twisted arbutus bent and heaving to the roar of the wind. I thought of how strong they become in these storms and how they grip the rock beneath them more firmly.

I trust for a similar result.

Sky of the Day

the god of environmentalism - a response

In the Times Colonist, a pastor wrote a letter to the editor regarding the recent climate change buzz. He wrote:

I agree with the analysis that "it may even be that the new environmentalism evolves into a secular religion."

The rapid shift to the protection of our Earth and its climate arising out of the present climate change "crisis" is the shifting of our worship of the God who created us to worhip of the creation which God made.

This is not surprising since this process has repeated itself throughout history. The Earth and its climate has become our god.

I wrote him the following.

It’s true. The secular world will work on climate issues without God. It’s the secular world. Pointing the finger back at ourselves, our call is to step forward and speak to matters regarding creation to include God.

In the process, we have to start with some hard questions. What are we doing regarding God’s natural, created world? Do we not work for the good of the natural world believing that Creation reflects God's glory (Ps 19) and is made by God (Gen 1)? Is our only response to judge? "Look at the secular world! They are making a god out of nature." Will this present the world a path to know God and see the Earth as God’s?

I wonder if many of us Christians have lost touch with, respect for and appreciation of God's created world. He made it for us to inhabit, and it is a gift to us. Just as we are stewards of all God-given gifts, we are to exercise stewardship of this land. Worshipping God does not mean avoidance of responsibility to the Earth, present crisis or not.

I have heard comments such as "tree-hugger" or "earth worshipper" directed toward those seeking to bring change of how we live on Earth. Yes, there is always a caution that we place nothing above God. No, we don’t need to panic because we realize that God is sovereign, has a plan and is in control. Maybe, we have used these as excuses to sit back and offer a critique of the world as our only response.

At least…at the very least…there is a concerted effort on the world’s part to promote stewardship of this home where we dwell, and that is commendable.

Do we need to take the speck out of our own eye and confess our lack of care for something God has entrusted us?

To myself, I have a caution. May I not judge Christians for lack of care. Many are doing their part. I will be content with my own knees on the floor.

lichen and old nail

Mist and Fog

Animal's Point of View

"The land is so long and the people traveling in it so few, the curious animals barely notice them from one lifetime to the next. The human beings whose name is Tetsot'ine live here with great care, their feet travelling year after year those paths where the animals can easily avoid them if they want to, or follow, or circle back ahead to watch them with little danger. Therefore, when the first one or two Whites appeared in this country.... "the animals did begin to hear strange noises, bits of shriek and hammer above the wavering roar of river rapids or the steady winds. These were strangers, so different, so blatantly loud the caribou could not help hearing them long before they needed to be smelled, and some animals drifted around to see what made the trees in one place scream and smash that way, the rocks clang. They noticed creatures...standing motionless here and there, abruptly pointing and shrieking, pounding! pounding! scuttling about all day and sometimes into the night as well, when tendrils of bush along the river might spring up suddenly into terrifying flame. And the animals understood then that such brutal hiss and clangour must bring on a winter even colder than usual." A Discovery of Stangers, Rudy Wiebe A story based on true events of the settling of the arctic landscape in the early 19th century.

Reflected Arbutus

Three Angles

Sabbath

Long ago, Israelites were instructed to keep the Sabbath. One day a week they were asked to rest and remember God as Creator. God created for six days and rested on the seventh. Although it became a legalized, burdened and restricted day for many, this was never the intention. It was to remember: God was the one who created.

For Christians, Jesus said the Sabbath was given to people. It wasn’t a day to do or not do certain things. Like the Hebrews, it was a gift. Take one day to remember God and creation and to experience rest.

Now, many don't believe in God and may think there is no reason to give this a second thought. Some might believe the earth just came to be for God-knows why.

Yet, whatever belief we profess, what would happen if all of us stopped once a week, rested and noticed? I mean, really noticed. From the frosted alder leaf to the drifting clouds in the sky. From the warming sun to the covering rain. From the mist-hung night air to the dew-risen morning. The moon as it silks the firs, the wind as it waves the water.

Rest, recognition. Sabbath.

Leave It Behind

The afternoon air was damp as the clouds filled the trees and rested on the ferns below. I stopped on my way home from work to go for a quick run in Goldstream Park. Parking just outside the boundary to avoid fees, I began my run but quickly heard loud, desperate banging. I ran by two guys in a secluded turn-off. I couldn't help but stop and ask what they were doing. They were taking turns with crowbar and hammer to break open a safe having lost the key. "Good luck," I said and meant it. I couldn't imagine how they would get the thing open given the obvious amount of energy they had already expended. I thought I was going for a workout.

I wondered what would happen to the safe once it was finally opened.

They were doing their work in a location where many people come. It's a hidden turn-around off a seldom-used road. People confuse this spot with the dump. Refuse scatters the ground. I've seen couches, mattresses, spent paint cans and pot plants. (Regarding these plants, only the containers with a few stems were left. They might have been worth something otherwise.) I guess it’s an easy place for people to come when they haven’t been taught what to do with their garbage.

Everywhere you go inside the park, the ground is immaculate save for the natural growth. This one spot is immediately outside the park boundary and is seldom cleaned. Park-facility personnel don’t venture beyond the border.

Each time I breathe in this scene of waste in the middle of this unfounded beauty, I am anguished to see trash ornamenting God’s artwork. I come to this particular spot less and less for this reason alone.

My run was nearly over. Running past the turn-off on my way back to the car, I noticed the two guys had driven off. I didn’t stop to look whether or not the safe had been left behind.

I didn’t want to know.

I was cold and wet enough.

Global Warming

Global warming. It's here. Even if it's not an accurate description of what's happening to our environment, it's upon us in the media on a frequent basis. Everyday folks are urged to make personal changes by driving less, recycling, and living more simply. Many leaders in the world are rallying to make changes on a larger scale by reducing carbon gasses. For example, British Columbia recently declared it intends to reduce emissions 20% by 2020.

If the science of environment is accurate, then drastic changes need to occur. Yet, I wonder if we are really going about this in the best way. It seems that the primary force of motivation for change is fear of what is to come. Will this be enough to change people? Will the guy driving the Escalade wake up one day and say, "You know, maybe I shouldn't drive this thing" because he believes the planet is at risk?

I've never found fear alone to be a good motivator.

I bike to work at times, and if my only reason is fear of environmental disaster, it wouldn't be enough to get me on my bike on a rainy day. When I do bike it’s for a number of reasons. Yes, I do think of the environment and my participation in some small way of keeping it clean. I also think of saving money since I'm not using gas. Most importantly, I think of how much I love to be outside. I feel the wind on my face, the rain or sun falling on my back. I hear the stream as it flows through the firs, and I catch glimpses of deer bounding into the alders. This is the stuff that gets me on my bike.

Love and respect of nature is the piece we need to promote more in this effort to stem climate change. Since the industrial revolution, many of us have abandoned sitting by a peaceful river, listening to the birds, or seeing the sunrise over the hills. Things and busyness have taken first place priority. These are matters of the heart, and fear won’t change hearts that have lost touch with the natural world. When more of us recapture what we have lost in the love, deep respect and admiration for the natural world, the beginnings of environmental consciousness have begun.

Early Morning Sun

Moonrise

Sunset

Mt Washington

Murder We Write

"To be convinced of the sanctity of the world, and to be mindful of a human vocation to responsible membership in such a world, must always have been a burden. But it is a burdern that falls with the greatest weight on us humans of the industrial age who have been and are, by any measure, the humans most guilty of desecrating the world and of destroying creation. And we ought to be a little terrified to realize that, for the most part and at least for the time being, we are helplessly guilty. It seems as though industrial humanity has brought about phase two of original sin. We all are now guilty in the murder of creation.

"To Jesus' offer of more abundant life, we have chosen to respond with the economics of extintion.

"How must we live and work so as not to be estranged from God's presence in His work and in all His creatures?"

Wendell Berry, The Way of Ignorance


and I feel the murder for... every plastic-packaged container I open and discard, every unnecessary (and necessary) mile I drive, every piece of overabundance I have and want, each moment of my silence and complacency, each time I fail to notice the beauty around me and my thoughts of thinking our present day Abel is someone else's fault.

Full Moons

Sundog

Psalm 13

How long will I wrestle with my thoughts and everyday have sorrow in my heart?

How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Look on me and aswer, O Lord my God.

Give light to my eyes or I will sleep in death;
my enemy will say I have overcome him, and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.

I will sing to the Lord for he has been good to me.

Moon over Thetis lake

Tread Lightly

Pike House - Frosty Morning

Early Morning Ferns

Early Morning....Lone Tree Hill

Finally...some sun

Dallas Road Moon

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Edward Abbey

"May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view.
May your mountains rise into and above the clouds."

Lost Lake Ice Melt

Henry David Thoreau

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the life will be simpler."

Winter Waters

Edward Abbey

"Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit."

McKenzie Bite - More Yukon

Environment

It's too bad that such a poor word has come to refer to something so rich. The forests, the rivers, the mountains, the oceans, the deserts, the beaches, the fields, the flowers, the rain, the sky, the air. To speak of them collectively as the environment is to suggest that they are somehow antiseptic, lifeless. It makes it almost possible to forget that what we are in danger of ruining through our folly is the... green grave that awaits us. Is our heart's delight. Is home.

Frederick Buechner from Wishful Thinking