I see by my last posting that I have not written here for nearly a month. It has been a month of intense turmoil and losses, both personal and planet-wide, and both are important and disturbing. A new and very hopeful young prime minister for
Canada weeks before the Paris bombing. Ongoing arguments about an effective approach to ISIS. Syrian refugees challenging the so-called "Christian" values of Western countries.
At home in NL, the sudden deaths of at least four people people in their
sixties, whom I personally knew. Then the death of Ron Hynes, Newfoundland's iconic and suffering folk composer and singer for decades.
And right in the midst of it all, the sudden passing of my heart-cat of twelve years, MaChree, suffering from lymphoma
along with diabetes. The ground at my feet, and the interior of my heart, is opened, unwillingly but obediently to deep suffering.
There is nothing to say in the face of all this during one darkening month except the brief teaching from the Desert Fathers
offered by Cynthia Bourgeault on this first day of advent:
Abba Moses asked Abba Sylvanus, "can a man lay a new foundation every day?" The old man replied, "If he works hard, he can lay a new foundation at every moment."
And so can I.
And so must we.