Stranded on the Mainland: Inner Pilgrimage and Living Alone as a Spiritual Path:

Yesterday was the Memorial of St. Augustine.  "Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you!"  (St. Augustine).   That said, I want to celebrate, balance, and build on the wonderful masculine energy of St. Augustine by sharing a deeply feminine dream I had on the vigil of his Feast Day.   Here is the dream:  I am at a convent.  I am coming to the end of a long session with the woman who is in charge.  She has to leave.  Then I am laying on the lap of another woman, like a child would.  This woman is also a nun. I do not know her but she is so familiar to me.  I feel a baby bump.  I realize she is pregnant.  But how can that be?  She is a nun!  She seems very happy and unconcerned.  I am so relaxed leaning against her.  Then I'm doing the dishes and wondering if I'll be asked to stay for supper.  (End of Dream). When analyzing this dream something interesti...

I love the TV show Sue Thomas F.B.Eye. Unfortunately it was cancelled a number of years ago.  When I was a kid I wanted to be Nancy Drew and solve mysteries and crimes.  I think that's why Sue Thomas appeals to me so much as an adult.  If I had it to do over again, I think I would have applied to work at the FBI!  It would have combined my sacred and secular love of solving mysteries. “One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day. —"Old Man's Advice to Youth: 'Never Lose a Holy Curiosity.'" LIFE Magazine (2 May 1955) p. 64” ― Albert Einstein. (goodreads.com). Last weekend I watched a Sue Thomas re-run that resonated deeply.  What struck me in this particular episode was how the parent of a clever, independent, 12-year-old deaf girl, resisted coming into their kid's world.  Instead,...

Fr. Doug McCarthy, S.J. (my old spiritual director) once told me it was a great struggle for him to write something others would read.  So I was surprised to come across these two articles written by him below.  I found them while researching for this post to mark the third anniversary of his death.  One article is on the environment, the other is about an Indigenous elder who died.  I thought both worth sharing. I also want to share a personal memory from my spiritual direction days with Fr. Doug on the anniversary of his passing. It was at the end of a spiritual direction session on a hot summer day, a lot like this one today.  We had talked about my work.  I was suffering from stress hives.  Fr. Doug was a man of few words.  It was not my experience that he "babied" people.  So I was surprised that as Fr. Doug got up to leave at the end of our session, he stopped at the door and gently said, "try some calamine lotion."  He cared....

Today, after the City of Toronto and Environment Canada have both issued heat warnings for the next several days, Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation on Art As Service reminded me why I started blogging this year.  Because blogging is an art form that allows me freedom to speak (and serve) without the constraint and burden of trauma and a professional social work designation. https://cac.org/art-as-service-2021-08-20/   In today's Meditation artist and writer Julia Cameron is quoted referencing one of my favourite poets, Rainer Maria Rilke, who says (among other things), "The only journey is the one within." That said, it strikes me that my blog (Stranded on the Mainland) is sort of like following-in-the-footsteps of Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet.  Maybe I am also, "tapping my own inner reservoirs," to process trauma through blogging about it?    Next. As I sit staring at the desktop picture set on my computer, I know exactly what I want to share in my pos...

Happy World Humanitarian Day 2021. Since I posted late, I'm extending (for me) World Humanitarian Day celebrations through the upcoming weekend. The messages and wishes below are too beautiful not to, and evening is drawing near:  “They urged him strongly, saying, 'Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.'  (Luke 24:29). Continuing. Messages and wishes for World Humanitarian Day 2021: On World Humanitarian Day 2021, let us follow Mahatma Gandhi's words, “Be the change you want to see in the world”. Wishing you a fruitful World Humanitarian Day 2021. Mark this day by doing some good for the world. Happy World Humanitarian Day 2021. On this day, do whatever you can to support and help the people around you. Little efforts can leave great impressions. On this World Humanitarian Day, help someone in whatever little way you can. Mother Teresa said, "If you can't feed a hundred people, feed just one." On World Humanitarian Day 2...

This month two male giants who loomed large in my young adulthood have fallen. Former Ontario premier Bill Davis died. Then NHL goalie Tony Esposito died. Now, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has resigned as a result of credible sexual harassment and assault charges made by 11 women. These two deaths and a resignation  bring back painful and traumatic memories of my experience in government. I cried when a journalist at a Cuomo press conference asked: " Who do you think other people would say should have known better-- the young woman staffer or her 62-year-old boss?" I'll leave it there. Cb Amen

This week I received an email from the Sisters of Life with a link to watch a group of sisters make their Final Profession vows in the United States. Happily, I know one of the sisters making her final vows, Sr. Jordan Rose. I am excited and grateful to be able to watch on-line, from Toronto. I will tell you in a moment how I came to connect with this remarkable and caring sister, Sister Jordan Rose. But first, I want to tell you what I will be doing o n the SAME day she is making final vows in New York:  I will be having my first meeting with the Ontario Green Party. The purpose being to discuss my next steps in the nomination process for the provincial election in June 2022. So, while Sister Jordan Rose is getting married to God, I will be going on a first date with the Green Party. You can't see me but I'm smiling. Pause. Now I said I would tell you how I came to connect with Sister Jordan Rose in the first place: I t was a providential connection having to do with a ...