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!!

Easter

Well, I know Easter was a few weeks ago, but only now am I finding a few minutes to write about it. As I'm sure you can imagine Easter in my house is very exciting and maybe even a bit crazy. The young ones still like getting up early but this year I didn't hear them wander into the living room until around 6AM and they amazingly enough were content until 7AM when they finally got me out of bed. So, I wander to go get ready and they go to wake up the rest of the kids, the next thing I heard were the pots and pans being banged on, what a wonderful wake-up call! Very glad I was already up!

After everyone was up and functioning for the most part the Easter egg hunt was on! Even after six years in this house the Easter Bunny is still finding some very good hiding spots for the colorful eggs filled with chocolate and candy! The taller of us in the house (no, not me!) 

assisted in lifting the young ones up to get at the eggs, or even just look in the possible hid

ing spots. After a fair bit of searching the kids decided that all the eggs were found (although for the next few days they continued to pop up in the most random of places!) and I started the breakfast preparations. 

The morning went very well, and before we new it was time to get ready 

to go for an afternoon dinner. We had Easter dinner at one of my mom's friends houses. It was nice to be with them all and was great to get to know everyone who was there. And the kids had lots of fun with all 

the other kids who were around. 

Eventually dinner was over and it was time for me to head to the church. We had a great Easter service in the evening,

a wonderful way to end a wonderful day!

PWRDF Meeting and Winnipeg!

Well, it was cold, very cold in Winnipeg and there is snow... at the end of March; Kamloops has flowers growing but I guess the rest of the country hasn't got that message. I've been in Winnipeg since Friday afternoon and it's been wonderful, and the weather has really not been as bad as it could have been. Currently I am sitting in the Calgary airport awaiting my flight to Kamloops. My adventure began on Friday at 4:30AM when I got up to depart to the airport, I was all organized and all ready to go and got there perfectly on time, no issues at all (this is always a very good thing) and my mom came into Kamloops to drive me there, which is always wonderful, especially since it meant that she had to leave Savona at 4:30AM to get me there for 5AM. Got to love mothers!! So, I get on the plane and we are flying along and I realize that the folder with all the stuff that the Youth Leadership Team was going to need for youth group and a bunch of stuff that had to go to church on Sunday is still in my room in residence, I forgot to give it to my mom. And it's not like my mom can just walk into my residence room and get it, so I went into planning mode as I tried to figure out how she was going to get this file. And me with my brilliant 6AM brain decided that I'd email my roommate (way too early to phone) while waiting for my next flight in the Vancouver airport, text her so she knew I emailed her, and see if she can take it to the front desk for my mom to pick up. Then I phoned my mom to tell her my crazy but organized plan, and it all worked out in the end, thank goodness for my amazing roommate and mom!! I successfully made it to Winnipeg in one piece with all my stuff and I didn't get lost, my pick-up at the airport found me and the rest of us without any issue at all, I love smaller airports!

It was amazing catching up with the PWRDF Youth Council once again, having not seen each other since November. They are an amazing group of young adults from all across Canada and we always enjoy one another's company. Great stories, wonderful planning, exchange of experiences, and really just a whole lot of fun. It's quite a shame that we only get to see each other about twice a year. (No significance with the picture of the church, it was just really pretty!)

We met together all day Saturday and then Sunday until just after lunch. It was a productive meeting with lots discussed and achieved, everything from the recent Burundi delegation trip to the diversity of our council. I acted as secretary for the meeting, and wow, what a lot of typing that was... now the task of reading over and fixing it up comes! We celebrated Earth Hour with a worship service and discussion about our carbon usage and such; and all by candle light, which made it that much better. Oddly enough though, Winnipeg saw a gain in energy usage during that time, we all decided that it was directly caused by the Beyoncie concert, but who knows. 

We were privileged enough to get to meet in the Canadian Food Grains Bank's office space, and had a presentation from them, so we got to learn about their

program and what they do. The CFGB is an organization that I didn't know too much about until this weekend but I definitely am excited to learn lots more, their presentation intrigued me!

Winnipeg is quite nice, really, the buildings were built forever ago so they are beautiful structures with lots of bricks. I got lots of opportunities to walk around with different people and see a bit of the city which was exciting, it doesn't always happen when I am somewhere for a meeting just for the weekend, after all, it's just for a weekend which turns out to be a rather short period of time filled with lots of meetings. Because I'm from Kamloops which has an incredibly small airport compared to most others the flights coming in and out are few and far, and never when you really want them. So, even though our meeting ended Sunday after lunch I couldn't fly out until Monday morning. (Don't worry, I will still be making it for the afternoons class, as long as getting out of Calgary goes well.) But the extra night meant that I got to go to Matt and Jenn's place and visit some more, which was very nice.

The buildings in Winnipeg are very tall and very, very flat. Some had odd angles that made it look like there wasn't even another side to it.  At one point we were walking around looking for a place to have lunch and there was this sign that said, "Caution falling ice" I was then 

informed that large amounts of ice fall off the top of these building and it can be very dangerous, which totally makes sense. But really, what am I supposed to do?? Walk with my head faced towards the roof of the buildings watching for ice? I think not!

The metal detectors you walk through while going through security seem to pick up everything this last trip, normally I get through with no issues but now my watch, necklace, button on my jeans, underwire in my bra, and zipper on my sweater all set it off, crazy! I guess it means that it will be a very safe flight! This whole time change thing never easily allows me to figure anything out. I thought I had an hour wait in the Calgary airport but it's a three hour wait... I just don't understand how I can't wrap my head around this time change stuff. 

It's been a great weekend though but it seems that a lot has happened in APCI and in my family since I left on Friday morning super early, so I'm a bit frazzled and not too sure about much of anything. Not sure about what to think or what exactly is going on... all that great stuff. I guess I will find out soon enough, then it's back to the books for a two week stretch of classes bef

ore the semester is over, exams, then finally summer!

Fear Factor!

Yep, it was Fear Factor week at youth group on Friday, all I can say is gross and ew! Did I participate, nope; did I leave the room at times in fear of vomiting, yep! I still can't believe what some of them ate, it amazed me. There were the ones who ate nothing, or who smelled it and ran away, and in the end it was lots of fun. We had spam, roasted eel (I'm told it tastes like smoked salmon...), raw eggs, clams, escargot, liver sausage, curry paste on crackers, curried mustard leaves (looks like runny green stuff...), and a blended up Happy Meal from McDonalds.  I think there were at least two people who got it all down, personally it all scared me. I don't think we'll need to do this event for a few more years, after all, too much of a good thing is never good! :o)

We had a youth service on Sunday evening, it also happened to be my first service as a Lay Minister of Word and Sacrament. It went really well, the youth did the readings, prayers of the people, part of the sermon, the songs, and helped with communion. It was so nice to have so many young people with us for the evening, and since I'm still young... us young people

did it all! I didn't freak out like I anticipated I would, we let it be what it was, and had a joyous time together. Being the one leading the service and standing behind the altar triggered a feeling of fascination within me, it was being a part of the service in a different way. (Picture of the Fear Factor survivors ----->)

The sun has been shinning over the last few days, I think spring might actually be on its way, I'm so excited! Although I'm starting to see grey clouds and some wind once again, I can only hope that it blow right over. Well, rain is nice for a short period of time... 

I am entering the last three weeks of school and then exams, I can't wait to be done, but at the same time realize how many assignments there still is to finish, including a ten page research paper on "teens and sex" that must be finished before I leave for the weekend. I'm off to Winnipeg for the Primates World Relief and Development Funds Youth Council meeting this weekend, hopefully it's not too cold, and hopefully I don't get lost. (If you don't hear from me for awhile please come find me!)

I wish I was still in silence... at Sorrento Centre

I have attended my first silent retreat, it was only for a weekend and I could have continued for a few more days of silence, but nevertheless it was amazing. Don't be surprised if I one day take off for a longer silent retreat; I was definitely not ready to go out of silence when Sunday worship ended, I could have continued in mediation, thought and prayer for a few more days. There was just something about it, something about the silence, something about the yearning of my heart and this need that had just began to feel like it was being filled. I really resonated with the idea that when we wonder where we are going in life we need to ask ourselves "what is my deep desire?" The desire that is deep within our heart, below the surface, what is it that I need to listen to?

We gathered together on Friday for dinner and shortly after started our first session which was all about the practice of the Awareness Examen. The Awareness Examen is an exercise where you look at the last twenty-four hours and how it was filled and what feelings you felt during each of those activities. Then we ask ourselves what gave us joy in the day and what gave us anxiety or disturbed us. As a secondary question, after doing this exercise for a fair bit of time, one might ask "where is God in my life" but as a starting point it was recommended just looking at the joys and anxiety. By naming our feelings we can own them, and then we can offer them to God. We sat for a fifteen minute block of silence taking part in the Awareness Examen, had night prayer and took off to bed. 

I woke up with a cold nose... no one told me that I had to turn up the heat in my room - I thought it was all controlled in the building as a whole!! (Yes, I worked at the Centre for four months and did not know this!) We had two sessions on Saturday, one on the use 

of imagination, Ignatius, where you become "personally present through the imagination to an event in the life of Christ" and one on "Word into Silence" where you choose a word and keep reciting it in silence. We looked at a piece of scripture from John for the Ignatius exercise, the story of the nativity. I couldn't get the image of the stable with Mary holding the newborn baby Jesus with the smell of straw and joy out of my head. Even though I knew that it should be a not so pleasant smell my imagination was never able to reach that... it was a stable after all! We did the "Word into Silence" for thirty minutes, reciting (in our heads) 'maranatha' which means 'Come Lord, Come Lord Jesus', when thoughts or images enter into your mind you are suppose to acknowledge them but quickly go back to reciting your word. This was probably the hardest for me, I had a really hard time getting thoughts to stay away and I think to reach the point of having the maranatha recite from my heart rather than my head is going to take many days and many weeks of this practice. I particularly enjoyed this method, so we'll see what happens. Our final session of the day combined all three practices for a total of forty minutes in communal silence. Doesn't sound like a lot when you look at the whole time spent in silence, but sitting in one spot, in one position, for that long can make a knee sore! 

We had morning, evening, and night prayers throughout Saturday and I spent a fair amount of time outside enjoying the sunshine and beautiful world. The Centre was filled with snow, it was beautiful and gorgeous, and I took the chances of walking on top of the three feet or so of snow to stand in awe of the view and wonder of our world and our God. I also did a lot of journalling and took a well needed nap. I had individual time with the retreat director, Bishop John, which gave me not only some direction and assurance but also some of my thinking. 

We concluded on Sunday with a session that provided some direction on how to continue of the the practices in 'regular life', and also on the importance of scheduling that time with God each and every day, and to keep it like we would keep any other appointment. After worship ended our period of silence also ended, we engaged in conversation before departing on our ways. 

When I first stared working at Sorrento Centre Bishop John was doing a silent retreat with the clergy from his diocese, I was amazed at the extent of the silence and was in awe of the peacefulness I felt just being in the presence of them all. So, when I saw this opportunity to take part in the weekend retreat I decided to attend. And my excitement just continued to grow as the time grew closer, and now I'm excited to see where my next silent adventure will have me!