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

Tomorrow is Halloween, Happy Halloween!  It is also the 31st Sunday in OT.  No, not Overtime.  Ordinary Time.  A little joke-- I need some levity after last week.  And a change of soul scenery. I love stained glass windows. While looking for jack-o-lantern images for my Halloween blog, I came across this wonderful image of a stained glass pumpkin. I wondered why I was so drawn to this image? Then I remembered a Victorian Guest House I stayed at in the Florida Keys.  I wrote a poem about that guesthouse.  'The Guest House at the End of the World' was the original title I gave to the poem.  Later, I would change the title to the actual name of the Guest House-- The Chelsea House.  Now I'm changing it back. And I've shortened the poem to better reflect where I am in my journey today.  I hope you or someone you love takes this as happy permission to change, reclaim, or re-name something you need to.  The old conch house It welcomes all ...

I am a huge fan of the mystic, Julian of Norwich! For my 80th post, I want to share about this very amazing English hermit who lived, met with people, prayed, and wrote books in the 14th century in troubled times like ours.  Specifically, what I want to share is a 3-part video series I discovered deep in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.  The series is called, "Wisdom In Times of Self-Isolation" , recordings by the contemplative scholar Stefan Reynolds (I think he's endearing!).  So whether you live alone or not, may these recordings be an occasion to reflect on wisdom gained, shared, and maybe sought still in these times of Covid isolation. Next. We are knocking-on-the-door of re-opening post-Covid. I feel both sad and nervous at the prospect of losing the "safety" of Covid lock-down. To be sure it is a good thing this pandemic is coming to an end.  Still, I will miss these times of collective quiet and solitude. I loved how the whole world slowed d...

Today, I plan to send my blog to the Ontario Green Party for review in connection with potentially seeking to become a candidate in the upcoming provincial election.  I suspect my blog will be considered too religious.  But maybe not?  That said, I want to find out before I continue with the application process.  For the past number of years I have been on a journey of hope and healing with the sisters of life.  Then, deep in the midst of the Covid-19 lockdown in Ontario, I started a blog about that journey.  My first blog post was about not renewing my social work registration for the upcoming year (2021).  Physically, emotionally, spiritually, ethically, mentally, and in every other way, I could not support a broken system anymore.   I wouldn't pay $325 to pretend I could for another year.  No. Continuing.  So if the Greens and I do go forward togethe, no doubt I will be faced with pro-life and pro-choice politics.  Not m...

Happy Thanksgiving!  There was a beautiful Impressionist style Monet sunrise over Scarborough this morning.  Lots of pale pinks and gentle light smudged into low clouds.  I could smell the oregano I planted on my balcony this summer still growing strong near my Mary Tree.  "I never stop thanking God for you. I always remember you in my prayers.” Ephesians 1:6.  I want to focus on just one thing I am grateful for this Thanksgiving.  But it's a big one.  It wraps it's arms around a lot of people and places.  I am grateful for the almost eight hours I spent at the ER in Scarborough General Hospital last week.  The highlight involved blankets!  I will explain in a moment.   A few posts ago I shared how I heard a wonderful funny Buddhist monk speak about the importance of "care vs. cure".  Turns out my time at the ER would teach me even more about "Care vs Cure".  Now hospitals are a big trigger for me.  Some of you...

Picture a crowded neighbourhood emergency room at Thanksgiving. Then imagine having a Merton "4th and Walnut experience" in that ER: a mystical moment, not outside on a busy Louisville street, but inside a busy hospital in the diverse neighbourhood where you live. This happened to me. From the moment I stepped into the hospital it was like my heart got plugged into everybody else's there. First I met a young woman, Darsheena. Turns out we would go through the whole ER process sitting together. At some point Darsheena asks me to watch her purse and phone when she has to 'pee in a cup.' It's amazing how trust can grow so quickly on vacations and in an ER. Next. I would have four pretty amazing, what I'm calling, 'blanket encounters,' before my night in the ER was over: My first blanket encounter was also with a woman I wound up going all the way through the ER journey with (except this woman was really "out-of-it" when we met). I learned sh...

Vigils are important in my Catholic Christian faith.   Stay with me, I will explain how they relate to my blog today.  Vigils are solemn, quiet, and very beautiful.  In stark contrast to how media and others often treat political figures. I'm thinking of how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was judged for how he spent the inaugural National Day of Truth and Reconciliation. I also preface my blog today by saying that I would give the same support to any leader of any political party or religious affiliation if they were under fire in this situation.  Trudeau's trouble in Tofino reminds me of the bible verse about the woman caught in adultery.  The man caught on vacation?  "So when they continued asking him , he lifted himself up and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him be the first to cast a stone at her." (John 8:7) I'm also thinking of something St. Ignatius of Loyola might say here:  "We should look for a positive intent n...