Ask and Imagine - Days 8-10

Our first day back from our Pilgrimage was spent planning our presentations. The presentations were done by each Pilgrimage group, they were forty minutes long, and were about some theme or a lesson (hospitality, community, ect...). They weren't necessarily about our Pilgrimage experience but about what we learned there about one topic.

My groups topic title was: "Becoming Human - Exploring God's Call Through Community." Communities recognize our gifts and help us to learn those gifts and also our limitations. We used a quote from Jean Vanier for some of our discussion, "Deeper down, it's always to find your desire; what do you want to do with your life?" When we explore call through community we need to allow our heart to be touched, not only touching the hearts of others. We look and see others living out their vocation and experience how it affects and touches our life. We explored Matthew 9:9-13 where Jesus, walking along, saw Matthew who was sitting at the tax booth and called to him, "Follow me." Matthew then got up and followed. What might Matthew had been thinking and feeling? His life changed direction; this choice probably surprised many people around him. Sometimes going to that new place, taking that step and chance, being open to changing directions when we are called is us taking our gifts, gifts that we may not had known we had, to that new place. That place where we are called to be. 

A story which helped spark our topic and discussion. Jean Vanier (one of the founders of L'Arche) was at Daybreak for a retreat and each of the core members was given an opportunity to sit with Jean and ask a question. A woman by the name of Thelus asked him, "Why do people (assistants) leave, Jean? We open our homes and our hearts and then they leave. I don't like it when they leave, why can't they just stay?" Jean's answer was, "Thelus, this is your life. It is your mission to teach them and form them. To teach them to love themselves and go into the world and share that love. You touch their hearts. That was Thelus' calling, that is what she was called to do at that time and in that place. And it wouldn't surprise me if she touched and formed many lives. 

Our presentation went well and it was nice to hear and see everyone else's presentations and experiences. Our time at L'Arche really opened us up to many insights. We learned about them and learned about ourselves. After presentations were over I was able to meet up with Jay Koyle who was at Sorrento Centre last summer and who will be back again this summer. It was great to catch up on life (even just for the short bit of time) and share bits of my Ask and Imagine experience. And it is always great to visit people in their "territory"! :o) 

The next day was our Silent Retreat Day. It was nice to sit, think, pray, and reflect. We started with some intentional silent reflection time. Some did creative art and some of us, myself included, did Spiritual Journalling. Starting with the statement "You are here..." I wrote

many pages and just kept writing. It was a very interesting and reflective activity.

We then ventured to a nearby Labyrinth, it was a great way to end our morning of silent reflection (yeah, it wasn't a full day). The Labyrinth is a place for walking, prayer, meditation and relaxation. It is not a maze, there is one entrance and one path to the center and back again. Each step that is taken within the Labyrinth is an intentional step; a step in our journey. I really enjoyed walking the Labyrinth, there was a nice breeze, wonderful silence, and as much time as we needed to take. We each walked the Labyrinth in our own unique way, in our own pace; stopping when we felt the need and continuing on when it was time. When we all got to the center of the Labyrinth we celebrated the Eucharist together then had a picnic lunch. The plan after that was to head back to the university for some small group discussion but we ended up all laying on the grass. Reflecting together, visiting, sharing stories, laughing, listening and wondering. It truly was great, a moment that could not have been planned or organized. We ended up with the rest of our afternoon and evening moved around but it was all worth it! 

I was able to catch just over an hour of time to myself in the Huron Chapel. It was really nice to sit, reflect, journal and pray. It was time that was a benefit to my experience and probably helped prepare me for leaving and getting back into the routine at camp. There is something about taking that time for myself, to allow my thinking and prayers to go where they truly desire to go. And to be in that place of safety and allow for exploration and reflection to take place. 

Our program director prepared a slide show for us, our evening ended with us all sharing tears as we looked at the pictures of everything we had done together over the week. All the challenges and experiences. After packing and a last night of visiting we all went to bed. 

Monday morning we got up and started cleaning up our living spaces. After a closing liturgy (yep, some more tears!) most of us got in the "taxi van" to head to Toronto to catch our planes home. It was hard to leave the group, hard to say goodbye. We all shared ten days of our life together; ten days of lots of learning, conversation, fun and exploration. We contemplated the option of all just not leaving and staying there for the rest of the summer, but life at home and work called us back. I had two and a half hours from the time I got to the airport to when I needed to be at the airport to get through security and board the plane. And in that time I was able to meet up with +Gordon and Barbara who generously took me on a tour of part of Toronto. I was able to see different parts of the city; the church Barbara is at (it's beautiful!), some of the universities, the lake, and lots more. And most importantly I was able to have a great visit, to catch up and share. 

I learned lots at Ask and Imagine, I think I will be processing the experience for a fair bit longer. It was a lot to take in, experience, and reflect on in what was really a short period of time; and it was amazing. I learned things about myself, community, choices, vocation, journey, taking chances, learning, taking time, and just being myself. 

Below is a picture of a quote from Frederick Buechner, this quote was on my way to my room. Every time I ventured to my room I walked by this quote. 

Ask and Imagine Pilgrimage Days 5-7

The Pilgrimage was amazing, absolutely amazing! We left early Wednesday morning for Canterbury Hills where we spent the day doing high ropes. I am not a huge fan of being up in the air or up amongst the trees for that matter, so when I started thinking about not having my feet on the ground (as gravity would like to have it) it was a period of fear and excitement all at the same time. Our first task was learning how to tie the knots, and what a task that was. Primate Fred Hiltz and I seemed to have the same issue, tying that knot correctly seemed not to be as easy as it was supposed to be. After much repeating, much coaching, and re-doing it a few times, it was tied - and mine wasn't coming off until the day was done!!

The courses started with the task of climbing the tree, they had put what looked like large staples into in the trunk of the tree. I climbed up a ladder then started my way up the 

trunk, then I just went higher and higher and higher. The first course I did had three wires, one for my feet and two for my hands. It wasn't terribly difficult and I was able to make it a

cross, and that was when I decided that I really liked being up in the air, up amongst the trees. A new view, a new challenge, a new experience - it was amazing, tons of fun! The hardest part I think was getting down, leaning back and allowing myself to let go, trusting that those below weren't going to let me drop down at an excessive speed. 

The second course I did was much higher and much more difficult then the first one. 

When I got up the tree I got myself on to a wooden plank, which I assumed would

not be slanted, but I soon found that it was slanted and I all of a sudden had to work to keep myself on it. The course consisted of wooden planks that were held up by rope, which I had to walk on to get to the other tree. Getting from the wooden plank on the tree to the "floating" wooden plank involved a bit of a leap. And since the wooden plank was slanted I didn't have a long 

time to prepare myself for the leap. Eventually it was a "just leap" moment, that or I would end up falling. Getting across the course was tons of fun, also very scary and there were moments of wondering whether I would complete the course or if I would end up throwing up from the tops of the trees. The course also required a lot of upper body strength, something that I don't seem to have a lot of. But, there was a huge sense of achievement when I finished the course and slowly began my way down to the dirt of the earth where gravity tried its best to keep me firmly on the ground. 

After High Ropes we had a wonderful dinner together and then took off for our 

Pilgrimage destination. I spent the next two days at the L'Arche Daybreak community and I don't think that words can even explain the experience I had. It truly was amazing, filled with learning, wonder, joy, experience, and so much more. 

L'Arche is an intentional community of people with developmental disabilities and assistants who live and work with them, creating home together. Being part of the community for the short period of time I was there opened my eyes to a way of learning and living that amazed me. I love being part of community and being at L'Arche showed me what community can really be. It was a community where everyone supports one another, where the achievements are celebrated (big and small), and where everyone is always ready to lend a helping hand; it was really touching.  I started my journey to L'Arche totally not knowing what to expect, not knowing what I would be doing, who I would meeting and not prepared for the extent that it would affect me. 

We spent our first day at L'Arche in the woodworking building. The core members we worked with were setting pieces of wood together then I would put an elastic band around them and stacked them up. It was a simple task and because we were in the woodworking shop we had to have earphones on so we couldn't have conversation. But the smiles I received and gave each told a story. They told a story of wonder, enjoyment, thankfulness for the company, and excitement. I have never received so many smiles that were so deeply filled with love and beauty. The work was also very meditative, repeating the same motion so many times allowed, at times, for my thinking to take over. The motions became continuous, and it was wonderful. 

After a full day working in the woodworking building I went to one of the homes for the remainder of the afternoon and for dinner. It was in that home, the "red house" that I began to understand what took place. The assistants and core members all worked together. They shared the work, the joy and the pain. We colored, prayed, ate, enjoyed company, conversed, and learned from each other. When it was time for me to leave one of the older core members said to me, "this is your home - you are welcome here. And you can call me your big brother." He then grabbed my hand, kissed it, and told me never to wash it. It amazed me how quickly trust had been gained, from such a short period of time. It was truly touching and rather overwhelming, being accepted into a home so quickly. 

Our last day at L'Arche was spent cleaning out a garage for one of the houses, it was one of the tasks that the assistants had just not had the time to get to. And we had

a huge amount of fun with it, it was filled with excitement and lots of laughter. Never, has cleaning out a garage been so much fun. We found a bag of pictures which to us symbolized someone's life, and it turned out that it was pictures of our program director's children and different parts of her life. She had spent six years in the L'Arche community. It was great! We then had lunch, where the same guy from the Red House was, he remembered me saying, "I know you!" then calling me Blue Girl for the rest of the day. (I had a blue sweater on.) After lunch we helped clean the craft center out, the work they do there in painting, claymaking and candling amazed me.

Far too soon it was time to leave the L'Arche community and begin our journey back to Huron. It was hard to leave, I felt that I could have stayed there for a few more days, experiencing and being a part of the amazing community. It is a place that I could see myself spending time at for and extended period of time, but also something I don't really see myself doing when it comes to reality at this time. Nevertheless, the short period of time I was there has affected my life greatly. 

Ask and Imagine Traveling and Days 1 - 4

The Ask and Imagine Pilgrimage is a ten day course at Huron University College in London Ontario for university students. It is a course on leadership, ministry and theology - and it was amazing! (Or as we said while there: "It's Fricken Awesome!)

I was there from May 8th to May 18th and would have been happy staying even longer. We were a group of sixteen in total, ten of us were participants and the rest were a part of the leadership team. Two of us participants were from British Columbia, one from Ontario, and the rest were from the East Coast - PEI, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. They were each awesome in their own way, bringing their own questions and knowledge to the group. 

Our time together was broken up into three different sections, we spent our first four days doing a lot of "academic" work, sessions and getting to know each other, three days on pilgrimage, then three days summing it up and reflecting. I will break up my comments and reflections on the experience in those groups. 

So, our first few days together were filled with getting to know where we were and who we would be spending our time with. I got to Huron University late on Friday evening, a day before the rest of the participants (this is what happens when you come from British Columbia's not so large towns)! I stayed in the Cronyn House, an older house with the creakiest floors I had ever experienced in my life. Almost every single step one took resulted in a loud creak! My first evening there (I was in the house alone for a few hours) a large thunder and lightning storm came though. As a child I was terrified of large storms, but not having been part of a thunder and lightning storm for almost a year I loved it. I sat at the top of the stairs and looked out the window, it was a great way to start Ask and Imagine. 

Our first task as a group was to look at "What is Community?" We shared experiences and stories and went into small groups to look at the different parts of community:

Safety, Commitment, Intimacy and Vulnerability, Inclusion, Shared Wisdom, A Spirit, Fight with Grace, and Contemplation Self-evaluation. We would, as a group, engage in community and commit to being a part of our community in everything that we did.

Our second day together, Sunday May 10th, we had a short Introduction to Theology and then the Theology of Song. It made for a busy morning with lots of laughter. My group explored expressions of theology according to the words of the song, "Lord, the Light of Your Love Is Shining" - mainly because one of the people in our group really disliked the song. Each group chose a song and answered the questions: 

- Who is God in relation to us?

- Who are we (or, what are we to do?) in relationship to God? 

- Who are we (or what are we to do?) in relationship to the world around us?

- Where is the consolation/good news?

- Where is the desolation/conflict? 

It was an interesting task, and lots of fun. 

Sunday afternoon we did a Learning Styles Challenge. Our first task was to complete the challenge in groups, we couldn't talk, had to work as a team, and get through a grid taking one step at a time and remembering what squares we could step on and which ones we couldn't step on. It was definitely a challenge, but we had a lot of fun completing it - a few moments of frustrations, but many more moments of joy and learning. We then summed it up with doing the Kolb Learning Style Inventory, a short test that in the end led to us knowing what our learning style was. The quote on the cover said, "We all learn in different ways. We all have preferences for how we tackle new experiences. Understanding the learning cycle, and how you go through it, can help explain how you deal with problems, people and new situations. And understanding the differences between yourself and others can give insights into your personal and professional relationships." My outcome from the test was that I am a "muser" or "diverging". Supposedly meaning that I view concrete situations from different points of view, am imaginative, understand people, recognize problems, brainstorm, and am open-minded. It was a very interesting task. 

Sunday evening our discussion topic was "Vocation: Let Your Life Speak".  After a short introduction and hearing one of the mentor's life story, discernment, and path of vocation, we then broke up into our small groups and shared our story. "All life can be a pilgrimage - a sacred journey within ourselves, all the time." My small group walked around the campus of the University of Western Ontario while we chatted. We learned a lot about one another, provided some feedback and recognized some similarities between our stories. 

Monday and Tuesday both began with 9AM Biblical Studies with the New Testament Professor from Huron. We spent both mornings looking at the Gospel of Mark, we had all read Mark straight through prior to getting to Ask and Imagine so discussion began out of that. We also talked about the different approaches to reading the Bible, where the Bible came from, important characters in Mark, the ending of Mark and discipleship in the Gospel of Mark.

We learned about the Four G's of Teaching (Grab my attention, Give me something new, Get something out of me, and Go make a difference). And heard from Elizabeth May (Green Party) and David Salisbury about their life and vocation. Monday night we had Church History in the chapel, it was interesting but a lot in a very short period of time. Tuesday evening we had a Pilgrimage Liturgy in preparation for our pilgrimage that would start the next morning.  The first few days were definitely full; but the learning, conversations and lessons were amazing. 

Marley and Me

Well, late tonight I decided to put on the movie Marley and Me, I had been told that it was really good but had yet to see it. It was amazing, I laughed and I cried and I felt at times to be fully a part of what was happening. It showed the dilemmas in life, family, career, and having a dog and also the many, many joys.

The story starts off with a couple getting a dog, what I think is one of the cutest dogs out there. Marley loves to chew and eat everything, and really does have a mind of his own. But as things come up and tears are shed Marley becomes the love and support that at times is needed. He is a major part of the family, and it is evident right to the last scene. 

So, my suggestion: watch it. Cuddle up on the couch with a blanket on an evening where you feel like watching a good movie and having a good laugh and cry and just let it be. Maybe have a box of tissues near by, drink a nice hot cup of tea and enjoy. I loved it. Other than the fact that it is now very, very late and all my crying has caused a headache (maybe I've shed so many tears that I've now caused myself to become dehydrated...) it was amazing. So just watch it if you haven't already and let me know what you think!!