Homeless


I walked into the isolation hospital room where a newly admitted patient lay on a bed with high flow oxygen running. He was drenched in sweat and needed his gown and bedding changed. He asked if he could have help getting to the bathroom. My job was to assess his ability to walk safely, so I gowned up, adding an N95 mask, face shield, gloves...

The assessment involves asking where the person lives, who they live with, if they have stairs, and if they have mobility problems.

"Where do you live?" I asked.

"I have been living in the woods for a while", he replied. 

The blue hospital gown, oxygen mask and IV pole hid the look of homelessness. 

As I changed his soaked bedding he told me of his previous life, of the wife and children he had not seen for many years. He held onto hope that his children fared better as adults than he had with his mental health and addiction issues. I didn't delve into his past or explore the traumas that caused his life to go in this direction.

He was a very nice, soft-spoken man, regretful for the loss of important relationships in his life. He was gasping for air after the short walk to the bathroom and later in the afternoon, test results were positive for COVID-19. Our marginalized community members have been hit hard by the virus. 

As I finished my assessment he said, "Everyone in this hospital is so kind."

I know that to be true. I am privileged to work with amazingly kind and caring people who will treat this sick, homeless man no differently than a wealthy benefactor of the organization. 

Maintaining good family relationships can be challenging at the best of times, and even more so when behaviours, differences of opinion and mental illness create wide chasms between members. If my patient recovers, what does life have to offer him? I can only hope that he finds human kindness, acceptance and assistance outside the hospital walls. 

Tiger Lily Confusion

Tiger lily (Lilium lancifolium)

Last spring we visited a small Old Order Mennonite shop in the next county where dry goods and delicious baked goods were sold. A few perennial plants were available and I selected a pot labeled "Tiger Lily". It did not bloom last year and the flowers finally opened this week. I was very confused as this is an Asiatic lily, not the common lily that grows in ditches in Ontario. I always thought that the widespread orange lily was a native plant called a Tiger Lily. 

Not so...

What did we do before information was instantly available on the internet, particularly on Wikipedia?!


The flower in my garden is a Tiger Lily and it is a non-native Asiatic plant. I knew Old Order Mennonites would not deceive me.

The roadside plants we saw in abundance on our trip to  Manitoulin Island are Orange Day Lilies (Hemerocallis fulva), called day lilies as the blooms only last one day. They are non-native plants, also originating in Asia, and are even not even true lilies. They have naturalized widely in North America and have many nicknames including ditch lily and tiger day lily.

Orange Day Lilies (Hemerocallis fulva)
Orange Day Lilies (Hemerocallis fulva)

All parts of the Day Lily are edible, and to quote Wikipedia

"The flowers, leaves, and tubers of the orange daylily are edible. Leaves and shoots can be eaten raw or cooked when very young (or they become too fibrous). The flowers and young tubers can also be eaten raw or cooked. The flowers can be dried and used as a thickener in soup. The cooked flower buds, served with butter, taste like green beans or wax beans.The tubers are a good potato substitute."

There is a native plant called the Canada Lily (Lilium canadense) but I do not recall finding one in the wild. I will have to look for it next year in June and July, but it is most commonly found on the east coast of North America and is threatened in some areas. 



The Tiger Lilies in my garden are lovely, even if they are not what I expected. Time will tell if they will thrive in our soil and if they will attract the dreaded Lily Leaf Beetles. Most of my lilies have succumbed to these imported pests in the past. 



Tea Granny

Abigail's Tea House, St. George Ontario- a favourite of ours!

 The first thing I do in the morning when I come into the kitchen is to put the kettle on for a pot of tea. I cannot imagine starting the day without this routine. I always take my S'well insulated bottle to work, filled with either hibiscus flowers and cinnamon sticks or rooibos mint tea with a dusting of cocoa. The other favourite household beverage is Chai, prepared from scratch with cinnamon sticks, ginger root, cardamom pods, whole cloves and black tea. The kitchen smells wonderful when this is brewing. 

I have never been a fan of green tea even after trying numerous blends. The health benefits of green tea have been widely studied but it has a bitterness that limits me to a few sips at a time. I was intrigued to notice that Tetley had a black/green tea blend available in United States. Black and green tea leaves usually steep best at different temperatures, green tea requiring water that is just under a boil. While looking up more about this tea blend, I came across a very happy discovery... Murchie's Tea!!

Murchie's Fine Tea and Coffee is a Canadian company based in Vancouver and Victoria BC. It was founded by John Murchie, a Scottish immigrant who had blended and delivered tea for Queen Victoria at Balmoral Castle. His brought his passion for good tea to Canada and established Murchie's Tea in 1894. 



 
The company has nine different Green/Black tea blends and I have loved every one that I have tried so far. Right now I am using No. 22 Blend in the morning. Murchie's offers many other teas and we have enjoyed a variety of them including Irish Breakfast, Prince Charles, and Murchie's Afternoon Blend. I buy loose tea leaves but the teas are available in bags as well. I was in Victoria BC and few years ago and definitely would have visited this shop had I known about it. They have excellent online service and fast shipping times, even though I would love an excuse to visit Vancouver Island again. 

Tea is something I always pack when going on a trip. In Mexico, the default tea in the area where my parents lived was chamomile tea, which is not on my list of essential brews. 

I took my own tea and used this Mexican pottery teapot when I visited Mom and Dad. When Dad died in 2019, I brought the teapot back to Canada with me.

I do enjoy a good cup of coffee from time to time, particularly cold brew iced coffee served with lots of ice in the summer. We make this at home too, "steeping" the grounds overnight. I made kombucha tea for several years, caring for my SCOBYs diligently. I buy a bottle now and then for a treat or if I feel the need of a good dose of probiotic bacteria. 

But hot, brewed tea is Queen for me.

* I am not being paid to promote any businesses mentioned in this post*


Out of Place



A family of wild foxes continues to share our suburban neighbourhood this summer. They are commonly seen roaming on sidewalks, around houses and malls. This young fox sat and watched me from a church property as I rode my bike last evening. They are not aggressive, unless you are a squirrel, rabbit or rodent, but they do not appear fearful of people. 


I watched this fox "mousing" in a empty lot earlier in the week. It did catch a mole or vole, and trotted over to a side yard of a nearby home to eat its dinner. I took these pictures with my phone, giving an idea of how close I was to the animal. 

On the whole, my neighbours feel sorry for the foxes and express regret about how recent housing developments have pushed wild animals out of their native habitat. Three nights ago, our dog was sprayed by a skunk who was digging for grubs in our city backyard. We are still dealing with a persistent skunk odour in the house and yard!


Last week, our 20 month old grandson was stung several times by wasps outside his home. When we visited a few days later, I looked for a wasp nest in the trees but could not find one. The next door neighbour hired a company to repair their eavetroughs and one of the workers was stung. From their vantage point above the trees, they found a huge bald-faced hornet nest. 



They showed us the well camouflaged paper cone, which was patrolled at each entrance by sentries. A pest control specialist removed the nest the next day. Hornets do prey on other unpleasant insects and are pollinators, but they are definitely out of place close to your home.

I am reading a book by Douglas S. Bursch called The Community of God: A Theology of the Church from a Reluctant Pastor. I had listened to the author's recent podcast called The Actual Reason Churches are Declining and his words resonated with me. He describes preferring to hang out with family and close friends rather than pursuing the more difficult task of belonging to a spiritual community.

For some time I have felt out of place in "seeker-sensitive" church environments, where the interests and desires of the individual are paramount. We need a meaningful spiritual community that includes a diverse group of people. The author also describes how Utopia (Greek=no place) is an imaginary concept and looking for a perfect community is a futile exercise. Community involves getting along with others with different experiences and perspectives than our own, not just trying to build a uniform group of like-minded people.

And so I remain "out of place", hopefully like a wandering fox, not a stinging hornet or stinking skunk! The COVID pause has given me time to grow individually, but I know that spiritual community is important. I am searching for community without celebrity leadership, focused upwards toward Christ, not left or right politically, a place where serving others is more important than personal pampering. In our increasingly individualistic, isolated lifestyles, these kinds of "off-line" communities are still needed. 

Like Little Children...

We spent a few days this week visiting family and enjoyed time with our two young grandchildren. They have an astounding amount of energy and wake up each morning with joy and enthusiasm. Our three year old granddaughter is in the "why?" phase. Every statement and explanation given to her gets the response, "Why?" It is fascinating to see how her grasp of abstract concepts is rapidly evolving along with her need to identify the emotions she is feeling and observing in others. 

Our grandson is a "COVID baby", born just before the pandemic hit. Because of the lockdowns, he has not had the opportunities for socialization that his sister enjoyed. He hasn't been in church, or playgroups, or even in stores and malls. I took him in the elevator to our hotel room and he was very unhappy. But he loved the swimming pool and really is a very sociable, happy little boy.

I was reminded of the words of Jesus in Matthew 18 where he said, 

"Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me."

Children who have been treated well have a strong sense of trust in people around them. They are not judgmental or cynical and do not hold grudges. They are willing to explore and try new things. even though they are powerless over the circumstances in their lives. The world is full of new and exciting discoveries!

Child-like awe and joy is often lost as we get older. We become more self-absorbed and compare ourselves to others in either a prideful, or loathing, insecure manner. Fear snuffs out our optimism and joy.

We all need intergenerational contact. I dislike the way people are segregated by age in so many places. Elders have knowledge and life experiences that need to be shared with younger generations. And children have innocence and trust that transcends the cynicism and bitterness that old age can bring. I must share their optimism for the future and not be that unpleasant person who sees everything in life and society going downhill. 


I came across this Instagram post from Beth Moore this week and appreciate the wisdom in her words. Being "like little children" does not mean that we avoid becoming physically, emotionally and spiritually mature. Caring for small children is tiring and parents look forward to them becoming more capable, independent, and emotionally stable. But the child-like traits of joy, discovery, trust, optimism, creativity, acceptance, and forgiveness, must not be lost in the process.


Pilgrimage


“Faith is not the clinging to a shrine,
but an endless pilgrimage of the heart.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel


We took the cog railway to the summit of Mount Washington in New Hampshire a few years ago. Travelling up the steep incline in a safe, protected cab, we passed the tree line, a huge boulder field and arrived at the top in an unwelcoming mixture of wind, driving rain, cold temperatures and fog. Our temporary discomfort and risk was nothing compared to that taken by adventurers who hiked the distance, frequently passing markers with names of people who had perished on the same journey in the past. They had a more intimate knowledge of the mountain and its moods and gained strength and wisdom during the challenging trek.

Hikers on Mount Washington NH

It is easy to give advice to others about where they should go and how to get there. It is harder to allow them to take their own pilgrimage, perhaps on an alternate path with different experiences, making mistakes and learning their own lessons. It is especially difficult to free our grown children to forge their own way in life.

There comes a time when we need to walk away from our shrines and become a pilgrim. Shrines can feel safe with someone there telling you what to think or do, saying this is the best or only destination. We may receive rote answers to hard questions, and acceptance from the group who hangs out there with us. We tend to unfairly judge those who are in different places, but in time we will see cracks and weaknesses in our own shrines as well. Shrines come in many forms and may be religious, political, career based or even family oriented. 

Jesus called a group of disciples to join him in a pilgrimage. They travelled with their teacher but never envisioned where the journey would ultimately lead them. He taught hard truths in parables leaving his followers with more questions than answers. He encouraged them to walk away from the rigid rules and expectations of religion to seek righteousness, truth, justice and reconciliation with God and man. 

Toll road along the Devil's Spine, Durango-Mazatlan Highway, Mexico

The chaplain at a hospital where I worked was a Kenyan lady, gracious, wise, and from an evangelical Christian denomination. She supervised chaplaincy students from different faiths, and worked with a diverse group of patients. When I asked her how she reconciled her own beliefs with her work at the hospital where proselytization is discouraged she said,

“Everyone is on a spiritual journey. My job is to find out where they are and to walk beside them.”

We will cross paths with other pilgrims. We may share a table briefly or stay with them for a longer season, and we may journey alone at times.

I once had a patient who told me, 

“I have gone through life with a pickaxe, pulling myself up a rock face,”

Above average intelligence, education, and good looks did not smooth the scarring from abusive relationships, years of mental and physical illness, job loss and community disconnection. Life was a struggle but she was still fighting to make it to the summit. She talked about life “outside the village” and her “misfit” faith which was not understood in any church she had attended. She had not found acceptance in shrines and had travelled alone much of her life. I marvelled at her insight and her inability to find an easier route on her pilgrimage. Surely there was a paved road somewhere on her journey. 

In my much easier path, I have had spiritual mentors from every walk of life. I have grown in strength in times of uncertainty and in times of favour. I want to continue my travels in wide open spaces, not in walled rooms. 

Blessed are those whose strength is in you (Yahweh);
    who have set their hearts on a pilgrimage.
Passing through the valley of Weeping, 
they make it a place of springs.
    Yes, the autumn rain covers it with blessings.
They go from strength to strength.
    Everyone of them appears before God in Zion.

Psalm 84: 5-7 (World English Bible)


I am currently reading Three Mile an Hour God by Kosuke Koyama. It is interesting to read a book about our spiritual journey written from an Asian perspective rather than with a North American bias. I may write more about the book later, but, in keeping with the theme of this post, the author illustrates how God moves with us at a walking speed in our journey through life. The pace is not hurried and the destination is always ahead of us. 

Labyrinth, Picton Ontario

Edited and updated from a post originally published on Body Soul and Spirit August 6, 2016