Wednesday 30 September 2015

Autumn's Doors

Blow gentle breeze,
warm and delightful.

Your presence
is a fading gift

as the leaves that you rustle
begin to die and crumble.

Autumn's doors
are opening,

inviting
a different wind.

Air that promises to be
cool and sharp,

forcing the earth
to withdraw into itself,

creation's sabbath,

letting go of a passing season,
while longing for a new time,

a new gift
with a new breath,
resurrection,
warm and delightful.

Saturday 26 September 2015

Pope Francais

Holy
and deeply open,

Francais
knows who he is
in God.

A man of prayer,
wise and rooted
in the Spirit of Love.

No one
is outside
the love of this Pope.

No one
is outside
the love of God.

Sinner
Saint
Gay
Divorced
Impoverished
Refugee

He commands
the worlds attention
as he speaks out

for God
who is
in all.

Tuesday 22 September 2015

Back to Church: A Poem

Back to church,
it is the call,
an invitation to all.

You've been away.
You've been busy.
You've forgotten.
You've had no interest.
You have not known

something
in your life
is missing,
you know it.

Back to church
is an invitation
to discover what is missing,
or to find it again.

The something
is not
morals and rules.
The something
is not
a list of do's and don'ts.

The something
is an invitation
to go deeper,

deeper into love,
deeper into friendship,
deeper into God.

You are invited
to come to church
and discover more of life.

GW

Tuesday 15 September 2015

Meditation is a Dance

Meditation
is a dance

that all are invited

to simply give
themselves to.

It is a dance
of surrender

letting go
of all
that diminishes life,

while stepping into
the spaciousness
of love.

With each new step
the false self
is striped away,

and the way
to a new self
opens up before you.

Dance for more joy.
Dance for more freedom.
Dance for more love.

Step deeper
into your inner life,

into the calm and peace
that is your truest self.

Wednesday 9 September 2015

Refugees: You Belong to this Land!

I belong to this land.

My forefathers and mothers came,
brought their language and customs,
and made the land theirs.

Yet there were those here
before them
with different languages and customs.

The land is theirs
Too.

And there are others
who came
and are coming,

with different languages and customs.

The land is theirs
Too.

I belong to this land.
You belong to this land.

Tuesday 1 September 2015

Backpacking with the Saints



Newfoundland and Labrador has some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world. So this past summer I was more intentional in getting out on our trails and enjoying our wilderness. My daughter and I hiked along the East Coast Trail from Flat Rock to Torbay (arriving just in time for Sunday service at St.Nicholas). My son and I backpacked from the Goulds to Bay Bulls, and spent the night near the famous “Spout”. He and I also backpacked from Trepassey to St.Mary’s through the Avalon Wilderness Area, spending the night at the beginning of Peter’s River. These were wonderful experiences of being present to my family, exercising my body, and soaking in phenomenal Newfoundland scenery. I did two more significant wilderness excursions this summer, but with an added objective: to backpack in solitude with a saint! I was inspired to try this after reading Belden Lane’s “Backpacking with the Saints: Wilderness Hiking as Spiritual Practice.” My first solo hike with a spiritual master was into Dunphy’s Pond in Terra Nova Park. The bear pole to hang food from and the clawed up bear box at the site were somewhat unsettling. After getting my camp set up, I took my journal and Thich Nhat Hanh’s book “The Miracle of Mindfulness,” and made my way to the side of the pond. The deep silence of the forest was incredible. It was only interrupted by the occasional song from a loon. Hanh’s book is a simple instruction on how to watch our breath as a form of meditation. So I’m watching my breath, surrounded in deep silence and thick forest, not a soul around for miles…and I can’t get the thought of a bear stumbling across me in my little tent out of my mind. So much for mindfulness! I packed up and left! My next attempt at solo backpacking was from Brigus South (on the Southern Shore) to Roaring Cove. This was a beautiful experience of being alone with God in the wilderness. I brought Thomas Merton with me and his book “Thoughts in Solitude.” After the sun went down, and I settled into my sleeping bag, Merton was a great companion for my meditation into the night. With the sounds of the sea roaring, the river rushing, the cool and expansive night air on my face, Merton, and the creation around me, reminded me of my own smallness in God, yet my absolute oneness with God and all of creation. Backpacking with the saints has opened new doors for me to experience God in creation.

The wilderness
is calling

my soul

out of 
the noise
and routine
of the city,

into 
the silence
and uncertainty 
of the wild.

Spirit
calls on 
spirit

to wander
in solitude,

to see afresh 
or for the first time,

the beautiful wonder
of creation,

to be recreated 
with an awakened 
heart

to the brotherhood 
and sisterhood

of all that is.