The Blessing -- yes, blessing -- of Snow

Algonquin Park Tom Thomson 1914

Praise God from whom all blizzards blow, Alleluia!            
 When snow comes down and cold winds blow! Alleluia! 
            Praise God for shovels, gloves, and plows, 
            When four-foot drifts surround your house!
            If more snow falls, Praise for snowballs.
            Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Linda Bonney Olin 2019

At the risk of incurring your wrath, these cold, sunny days have lifted my spirits immeasurably. Of course I don't have to commute and I'm healthy enough (thank you God) to get outside to shovel and to enjoy.

I have fond memories of Winter in the days of my youth in Southern Ontario. My settlement charge was in outport Newfoundland and it was a pleasure to find a logging road to cross-country ski with Ruth, which she did one year until a few months before the birth of our son.  

We lived in Sudbury in Northern Ontario for eleven years and we would regularly make the hour drive to Killarney Provincial Park where we skied, snowshoed, and climbed up the snow-covered ridges. We would also venture out onto Georgian Bay where when the wind picked up we could hear the groaning of the ice and the loud report of pressure cracks. It was both terrifying and exhilarating. Ruth and I would often take a lunch with a thermos of tea and find a sheltered spot to sit on the pads we brought along to insulate our heinies from the cold. It was sacramental to share a meal in this way, to be very much on our own, embracing the solitude and silence.

All this came to mind a couple of days ago when we took advantage of a fresh fall of snow by skiing at the end of our street, which is the edge of the city. We made our way through the woods and across an open field to a stand of birch on the far side. It was windy enough that snow "wraiths" rose up before us and we listened to the clattering and groaning of the trees.

God was present in that blustery hour, and we arrived home with cold faces yet perspiring with exertion. I might not praise God for blizzards but a fresh fall of snow is a blessing.



March in the Birch Woods Clarence Gagnon 1919

A Tale of Two Tweets

 You shall not pollute the land in which you live; for blood pollutes the land, and no expiation can be made for the land,
for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it. 
You shall not defile the land in which you live, in which I also dwell...
 
Numbers 35:33-34  (NRSV)
 
President Trump has earned a reputation as a blithering twitterer, which is not a good look for the most powerful person on Earth...or wait, does that title belong to Nancy Pelosi?

There were two tweets recently in which Trump essentially contradicts himself. In one he makes the tired argument that because there is cold day or cold snap global warming or Global Waming as he terms it, doesn't exist.

In the beautiful Midwest, windchill temperatures are reaching minus 60 degrees, the coldest ever recorded. In coming days, expected to get even colder. People can’t last outside even for minutes. What the hell is going on with Global Waming? Please come back fast, we need you

Trump does this often, even as saner and more informed folk point out that what happens in a day, or a series of days doesn't mean that climate change isn't real. I come back to the helpful metaphor offered by climate scientist (and Christian) Kathryn Hahoe offers that weather is like mood while climate is personality.

In the other the president tweeted about biblical literacy of all things, a subject he has regularly demonstrated is anything but his strong suit.

Numerous states introducing Bible Literacy classes, giving students the option of studying the Bible. Starting to make a turn back? Great!

As Trump's approval rating continues to slide we shouldn't be surprised that he's attempting to ingratiate himself with those who figure we ought to be reading the bible more.

The thing is, literacy suggests developing an understanding of biblical texts, not just throwing out "back to the bible" slogans. The bible says nothing about climate change but there are plenty of texts acknowledging God as Creator and enjoining humans to humbly act as stewards and co-inhabitants of the marvelous web of Creation.

Mr. Trump would do well to pay attention to polls which suggest Americans, including evangelical Christians are finally paying attention to climate change. A total of 72% of polled Americans now say global warming is personally important to them, according to the Yale program on climate change communication. This is the highest level of concern since Yale starting polling the question in 2008.

 Let's pray that this is a turning point for the planet, before we get "wamed." 

 O Lord, how manifold are your works!
    In wisdom you have made them all;
    the earth is full of your creatures.

Psalm 104:24

Waters of Life

Durrow Abbey Well, Ireland

And may the blessing of the rain be on you,
may it beat upon your Spirit and wash it fair and clean,
and leave there a shining pool where the blue of Heaven shines,
and sometimes a star.
from a Scottish blessing
The last of the three Celtic spirituality sessions I'm leading at Trenton United Church was rescheduled for next Wednesday so I've continued to explore our last subject area, which is the earth-honouring aspect of the tradition. There are plenty of holy mountains, sacred trees, and sacred wells/springs in Celtic Christianity, many of which were likely established as auspicious places before the first missionaries arrived in Ireland and Scotland.

Scholars don't really know to what extent these holy sites were adopted by Christians because there were no pre-Christian records, but the wells and springs became places where baptisms occurred and healings were purported to take place. When Roman Catholicism supplanted Celtic Christianity the sacredness of these wells continued to be recognized and even to the present day there are Masses said and annual gatherings at many of them.



Refreshing my memory about this has prompted me to consider the degree to which we desecrate rather than honour our abundant fresh water in Canada. The Aboriginal peoples of this land are far more likely to speak of water as sacred. Even though water imagery is plentiful in scripture and baptism is a sacrament, we Christians don't make much of a fuss about our rivers and lakes and other bodies of water.

Perhaps we should listen more closely to both Celtic and Aboriginal perspectives on water. Not long ago the excellent Environmental Commissioner for Ontario Diane Saxe (since eliminated by the Regressive Conservatives) informed us that a shocking amount of raw sewage flows into the Great Lakes, which are also a source of drinking water for millions --duh! And many First Nations communities have lived without a regular source of clean drinking water for decades.

It seems to me that we need to return to a sense of the sacred and sacramental for our water, a recognition that it is God-given, the gift of the Creator. Perhaps it's time to conduct worship more often at the edge of waterways and to recall that Jesus' baptism was in a river, a sign of grace and abundant life.  

Of course we can also challenge governments at all levels to ensure that there is clean
water for all..



Water is the most life sustaining gift on Mother Earth
 and is the interconnection among all living beings. 
Water sustains us, flows between us, within us, and replenishes us. 
Water is the blood of Mother Earth and, as such,
cleanses not only herself, but all living things. 

Assembly of First Nations

Premier Chicken Little

Ontario Premier Doug Ford gave a speech this week to the Economic Club of Canada in which he warned that the federal government's carbon tax risks triggering a recession. Apparently a thousand people paid to hear him intone that "a carbon tax will be a total economic disaster. There are already economic warning signs on the horizon. I'm here today to ring the warning bell that the risk of a carbon tax recession is very, very real." 

Ford is acting as though he's had his bell rung and needs to undergo a concussion protocol. He gave no details about how the carbon pricing scheme would lead to recession and is he custom he did not take questions from reporters afterward. Hey, I won't confuse us with the facts, the sky is falling!

I don't know what's more pathetic, Premier Chicken Little serving up this unsubstantiated fear-mongering or those willing to pay good money to hear it. The response for economists was swift, with a number suggesting the Ford doesn't seem to know what a recession actually is, while other refuted his claim. Please note: these are ECONOMISTS, not the dreaded environmentalist who supposedly don't care about the economy.


We know that the economies of British Columbia and Quebec are actually doing just fine with a carbon tax and cap and trade, as is Ontario's former cap and trade partner California. We've been told that the decision to scrap cap and trade in Ontario will cost the government three billion dollars in revenue. There's a fiscally responsible move.

It becomes clearer and clearer that Mr. Ford is in way over his head when it comes to understanding the realities of cap and trade and a carbon tax (they are not the same, but he conflates the two.)

I am a Christian who cares about the economy. I want Ontarians, including my adult children and their partners to have meaningful work in a thriving province. I do know that the words economy and ecology have the same root in the notion of the oikos, the household. Please get our house in order, Premier Chicken Little.

Sincerely, Emily Carr

Emily Carr (1871–1945), Dancing Sunlight c. 1937, oil on canvas,
Purchase 1978, McMichael Canadian Art Collection

“The artist himself may not think he is religious,
 but if he is sincere his sincerity in itself is religion.”

 Emily Carr

There are days when it's a challenge to write about eco-faith issues because they can be complicated and depressing, even as we seek a hopeful path as Christians.
I saw this quote and painting today as a tweet from the McMichael Gallery in Kleinberg, Ontario. I found it encouraging from a brilliant Canadian artist who was religious -- or at least an Anglican. Carr was intrigued by Lawren Harris' Theosophist outlook, seeking the power of the divine in the natural world. She decided to stick with her Anglicanism, despite finding clergy rather boring.

We all have the opportunity to become aware of God, the Creator, in the beauty of the world around us.

MLK and Environmental Justice

“It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated.
We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,
tied into a single garment of destiny.
Whatever affects one destiny, affects all indirectly.”

Martin Luther King Jr.

There has been some speculation that Martin Luther King Jr. would have eventually included environmental issues in the overall commitment to justice, as he had become more vocal on the Viet Nam War. This intrigues me and I appreciate that this article by Paolo Rosa-Aquino appeared yesterday in Grist magazine: What the environmental justice movement owes Martin Luther King Jr. I found it helpful and share it all here.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is mostly remembered for his role in the civil rights movement and nonviolent protests, but environmental justice groups also see their cause reflected in his work. The day before he died, for example, King helped rally striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. In addition to suffering from low and inequitable pay, black workers did the most dangerous and dirty work compared to their white peers, and suffered from dismal working conditions while bearing the burden of the associated health and safety risks. “You don’t get more environmental justice than that,” Eddie Bautista, executive director of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, told Grist. “All the environment really is is where you live, work, play, or pray.”

Dr. King’s actions not only led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965; His work paved the way for environmental legislation such as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act. He recognized that many of the struggles of his time — including racial inequity, poverty, politics, health, and human rights — were inexorably linked. According to Bautista, in the early days of the environmental justice movement, some advocates described their work as a synthesis of the environmental movement and the civil rights movement.

King’s work continues to influence young environmental activists today. Just before she took office, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called fighting climate change “the civil rights movement of our generation.” And modern-day environmental groups such as the Sunrise Movement are using the kind of nonviolent direct action techniques espoused by Dr. King as tools to push lawmakers on policies such as the Green New Deal.

And then there’s the fact that the environment is simply one more lens through which racial inequity manifests. Bautista emphasizes it’s crucial for communities of color to be part of climate solutions. After all, “if you’re not at the table, you’re probably on the menu,” he said.
And if King and other civil rights movement leaders who have passed on were alive today, what might their reactions to climate change be?

“Climate change is an existential threat that a lot of these folks [in the civil rights movement back then] weren’t as aware of.” Bautista said. “But, if they were around today, these would be some of the same fights they would be fighting.”

A Super Night to Howl

Do you ever feel that we're being "had?' In these days of elaborate names for every meteorological and astrological event it seems that we can't just call one a storm or a full moon. Nope, there are Alberta Clippers and Weather Bombs, and last night we experienced a Super Wolf Blood Moon, with a side order of eclipse, although most of us would have blissfully slept through it.  I have this image of bored meteorologists and astronomers sitting in a bar, dreaming up the names. I know that it isn't true, but did we hear any of these terms fifty years ago? I figure much of this has to do with the weather as entertainment in today's media.






Actually, we have long figured that humans are affected by the phases of the moon, hence the terms loony and lunatic. And our Judeo-Christian tradition is strongly influenced by the moon, with both Passover and Easter dependent on the moon for setting the date of these faith festivals.

The film The Passion of the Christ was awful in many respects but it was set during the final days of Jesus' earthly life and the full Paschal Moon figures prominently. I'm sure we'll be treated to some amazing photos of the Super Wolf Blood Moon in the next few days.

Praise God from Whom All Blizzards Flow!

I'm going to come clean and admit that we've been hoping that the forecast for a lot of snow this weekend comes true. We don't say it too loudly but in the Winter we should "go snow, or go home." No, we don't commute (or work) and we're not frail quite yet, so we can take our time shoveling with the pay-off that accumulated snow means Winter activities we may not be able to participate in before long.

I figured I should share this clever hymn by writer Linda Bonney Olin. While I don't really want four-foot drifts around the house (the reality in parts of Newfoundland this Winter) I'll gladly offer up some alleluiahs if there is enough of the white stuff for a cross-country ski, or three.




Stan Collins Bonne Bay NL

Mary Oliver and the God of Dirt

The god of dirt
came up to me many times and said
so many wise and delectable things,
I lay
on the grass listening
to his dog voice,
frog voice; now,
he said, and now,
and never once mentioned forever

I wrote about the life and legacy of poet Mary Oliver in my Lion Lamb blog after hearing of her death from cancer earlier this week. Oliver gave us extraordinary insights into the ordinary rhythms of the natural world, although she encouraged us to pay attention in every aspect of our daily lives. in one of the legion of tributes to Oliver the writer suggests that she wrote "secular psalms" which is both a homage and contrast to the psalms of the Judeo-Christian bible. I might quibble a bit with this notion because so many of her poems are deeply spiritual, even though not religious, but it is a helpful reflection.

I don't want you just to sit down at the table.
I don't want you just to eat, and be content.
I want you to walk out into the fields
where the water is shining, and the rice has risen.
I want you to stand there, far from the white tablecloth.
I want you to fill your hands with the mud, like a blessing.



 I went looking for my copy of a wise little volume called God of Dirt: Mary Oliver and the Other Book of God by Thomas W. Mann -- and eventually found it! The Christian tradition has long held that there are two books through which God is revealed, the book of creation and the book of scripture. As the title suggests, Oliver had a remarkable ability to awaken us to that other book. Mann quotes Oliver:

Now I think there is only one subject worth my attention and that is the recognition of the spiritual side of the world and, within this recognition, the condition of my own spiritual state. I am not talking about having faith necessarily, although one hopes so. What I mean by spirituality is not theology, but attitude.

In a way Oliver's poems/psalms remind us that Christianity is an earthy religion. The biblical first person is Adam, a name which means groundling (hence my blog) or earthling, or dirt-person. Jesus, God-in-the-flesh, is the new Adam and the old Adam's skull is often placed at the foot of the cross in depictions of the crucifixion from earlier centuries. And of course there are many of the 150 psalms of the bible which give praise to both creator and creation.

As we remember Mary Oliver we can all ponder these two books and how she opened the window for us to catch a glimpse of the God of dirt.

Bless the Lord, O my soul.
   O Lord my God, you are very great.
You are clothed with honour and majesty,
²   wrapped in light as with a garment.
You stretch out the heavens like a tent,
³   you set the beams of your^* chambers on the waters,
you make the clouds your^* chariot,
   you ride on the wings of the wind,
⁴ you make the winds your^* messengers,
   fire and flame your^* ministers...
...¹⁰ You make springs gush forth in the valleys;
   they flow between the hills,
¹¹ giving drink to every wild animal;
   the wild asses quench their thirst.
¹² By the streams^* the birds of the air have their habitation;
   they sing among the branches.
¹³ From your lofty abode you water the mountains;
   the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.

from Psalm 104

Here is my Lion Lamb blog from yesterday on Mary Oliver

https://lionlamb-bowmanville.blogspot.com/2019/01/mary-oliver-and-paying-attention.html

 

How to Break Bad Climate News

British Columbia wildfire

Bad news and bleak realities don't go away if we just don't talk about them or ignore them. This seems so obvious, yet we do it all the time. Often people will ignore troubling physical symptoms or warning signs of a home in disrepair, only to have

Katharine Hayhoe is a leading climate scientist who lives in Texas. She is a Canadian by birth, upbringing, and citizenship, and she happens to be a committed Christian. I appreciated hearing her speak at St. George's Anglican Church in Kingston a few years ago. She  reminds us that talking about climate change is essential, but how do we do so with those who are resistant? In a TED talk she shares how, and this is the description of her address:

How do you talk to someone who doesn't believe in climate change? Not by rehashing the same data and facts we've been discussing for years, says climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe. In this inspiring, pragmatic talk, Hayhoe shows how the key to having a real discussion is to connect over shared values like family, community and religion -- and to prompt people to realize that they already care about a changing climate. "We can't give in to despair," she says. "We have to go out and look for the hope we need to inspire us to act -- and that hope begins with a conversation, today."
https://www.ted.com/talks/katharine_hayhoe_the_most_important_thing_you_can_do_to_fight_climate_change_talk_about_it?language=en

Bye the way, Dr. Hayhoe regularly points out that climate change is not a matter of belief, it is science.



Hurricane Harvey Houston

Here is the link to an article in Yale Climate Change Connections called How do I break bad news about climate change?': A six-step guide to honest and compassionate conversations by Sarah Peach which addresses the same challenge.

https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2018/11/how-to-break-bad-news-about-the-climate/

 

Despite Repeated Warnings: Sir Paul & Climate Change

 

Despite repeated warnings
Our danger's up ahead
The captain won't be listening
To what's real said

It feels that there's a good chance
That we've been misled
And so the captain's planning
To steam ahead

What can we do, what can we do
What can we do to stop
This foolish plan going through
What can we do, what can we do
This man is bound to lose his ship and his crew

Despite repeated warnings
From those who are to know
Well, he's got his own agenda
And so we'll go

We shout the loudest
We'll not always be the smartest
But they have their promised moments
Right before they fall
Red sky in the morning
Doesn't ever seem to face him
But a sailor's warning signal
Should concern his soul

How can we stop him?
Grab the keys and lock him up
If we…

 

Legendary musician Paul McCartney met John Lennon in 1957 and the rest is rock and roll. The cute Beatle is still surprisingly youthful looking at age 76 and the crazy bugger is still producing music and touring. And ya gotta love his ramble around Liverpool with James Corden in a Carpool Karaoke episode. Maybe Sir Paul's fountain of youth is his decades-long commitment to veganism.



Grist

McCartney has a new LP called Egypt Station which has been reviewed as eccentric and banal and awesome...figure that out! There is a climate change song in this collection with the title "Despite Repeated Warnings" which takes a stab at the deniers around the world, including "The Captain." The Grist magazine review by Zoya Teirstein is quite interesting and here is a portion, including the quote from a McCartney interview:

“Well, I mean obviously it’s Trump,” the singer told BBC in an interview last week. “But there’s plenty of them about. He’s not the only one.” The song touches on climate-related issues, including wildfire smoke — “red sky in the morning (What can we do?).” It’s a timely reference, as smoke from fires choked the western U.S. in August. McCartney’s song also alludes to the scientists who raised the alarm about climate change: “a sailor’s warning signal should concern us all.”
But the best part of the song, in this writer’s opinion, is McCartney’s not-so-subtle jab at climate deniers: “Those who shout the loudest may not always be the smartest.” He doubled down on those lyrics in the BBC interview. “People who deny climate change … I just think it’s the most stupid thing ever,” the second-best Beatle said...

The obviously biased writer then asks, tongue in cheek "What’s next? “Drive My Electric Car?” “Here Comes the Solar Panels?” Whatever it is, we are 100 percent here for climate-woke Paul McCartney."

As someone who's been banging a rather small gong about climate change for the better part of three decades I appreciate that someone with a far bigger drum is doing so and is willing to "speak truth to power." As much as I wish my preaching about care for Creation made a difference we need a flotilla of celebs, and other influential world figures to get involved...and practice what they preach.

Seeking Sanctuaries of Silence

Gordon Hempton is the acoustical engineer or acoustical mystic, as I like to think of him, who intentionally studied, recorded and immersed himself in silence for most of his adult life. He regards silence as an endangered species on Earth because human noise has seeped into virtually nook and cranny of the planet.

In a marvelous seven-minute contemplative video called Sanctuaries of Silence Hempton speaks of being "baptized" at age 27 into silence during a storm This observation is reminiscent of the wilderness story of Elijah and the "sound of sheer silence" in the biblical book of  1 Kings, chapter 19. The use of religious terms such as "sanctuaries" and "baptized" are appropriate, regardless of his spiritual leanings, or lack thereof.  Not only are we impaired when it comes to "hearing ourselves think," we have we are unable to hear God in our noise-filled lives.

Henri Nouwen reminded us that our word deaf comes from the Latin "surdus" -- absurd. Without the attention to the natural world we may be unable to listen for God's voice. This is not meant to demean those with hearing impairment, who are often better listeners than those of who have 20/20 hearing, or whatever the hearing equivalent may be.

Here is Sanctuaries of Silence for your consideration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69sr8wr7ZPY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69sr8wr7ZPY

The Joy of Trees

Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner Andrea Inness
 is seen amongst giant sitka spruce and bigleaf maple trees
 as conservationists in British Columbia push for protections on an area of old-growth forests.
  (TJ Watt / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

You shall go out with joy
  and be led forth with peace;
 the mountains and the hills
  will break forth before you;
 there'll be shouts of joy,
  and all the trees of the field
 will clap, will clap their hands!

Voices 884 (from Isaiah 55)
 
I've described Richard Powers' novel The Overstory as a tour-de-force, a marvel of writing which left me in awe. With both complexity and clarity it tells the stories of a number of people whose lives appear disconnected but become intertwined, and the trees which shape their existence.

One of the characters, Olivia, has a near-death experience which awakens her, jolts her both figuratively and literally into a desire to find her life's purpose:

She's alive, and she doesn't know why. She lies awake at night, staring upward, remembering being right next to the only discovery that matters. Life was whispering instructions to her, and she failed to write them down. The prayer thing becomes easier. I'm still. I'm listening, What do you want from me?

The "what do you want from me?" is eventually answered when Olivia join a group of nonviolent radicals who become champions of trees and give themselves "tree" names, Her partner, Nick,  becoming Watchman and Olivia being Maidenhair and they take up residency in a giant redwood for two weeks to block harvesting.Their stay ends up lasting for more than a year, during which they watch as the forest around them is cut by loggers.

I thought of this novel when I read two very Canadian news stories this past week. Researchers in Algonquin Provincial Park have discovered a stand of old-growth trees which are hundreds of years old. One pine is at least 400, and others two and three hundred years-old. On Vancouver Island a stand of ancient trees has been found, some  of which are 800 years-old.



Mike Henry, senior ecologist with the Ancient Forest Exploration and Research Group,
tangles with the 408-year-old tree.  
(Ancient Forest Exploration and Research Group) Toronto Star

The Algonquin trees are in a part of the park open for logging and could be harvested. Many Ontarians are unaware that large areas of the park are unprotected. In B.C. conservationists are pushing to have the 13 hectares of this grove protected as well because it is within a harvesting license. Ken Wu, executive director of the Endangered Ecosystems Alliance says:

It is probably the most spectacular and beautiful old growth forest I’ve ever seen and I’ve explored a lot of old growth forests...old-growth forests are vital to sustaining wildlife, including unique species that can’t live in the second-growth tree plantations that old growth forests are being replaced with... the Mossome Grove is home to not just some of the oldest and grandest trees but also animals and birds such as Roosevelt elk, black-tailed deer, black bears, wolves, cougars, marbled murrelet, northern goshawk, pygmy owl, screech owl, Vaux’s swift, and long-eared bats.

It's so important to ask "what does God want from us?" when it comes to protecting the forests of our planet, which are vital to our survival. It's more than survival though. Our relationship with trees enriches our lives with the beauty of Creation.

Our Daily Bread & Plastic

Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses...

                         Matthew 6

The CBC television program Marketplace did an excellent, unsettling piece on the plastics which are now omnipresent in our Canadian grocery stores. They set a challenge to two couples, one to make choices not to buy products wrapped in plastic and the other to abandon their virtuous, low-plastic ways. They visited a supermarket in Britain which has informed suppliers that they will now source products from companies which reduce or eliminate plastic packaging -- or else. It has been remarkably successful -- in 10 weeks, the store eliminated the use of plastic packaging for nearly 2,000 products --and business has increased.

Marketplace polled customers as they left grocery stores and overwhelmingly they wanted less plastic in their shopping carts. Yet inquiries to Loblaw and Sobeys about reducing plastic were met with either silence or, well, corporate bafflegab.



It just seems to be getting worse, rather than better. Eggs in plastic containers, and fruit of every description, meat with trays which can't be recycled. And even if we do "recycle" our plastics we're discovering that shiploads of the stuff are being sent to countries such as Malaysia where it is illegally dumped. God knows we can do better, and while we already attempt to reduce plastic waste in our household, I realize I better step up my game. The blue bin for plastic just has too much in it being kicked to the curb each week. We all need to tell those who sell us our daily bread and just about everything else in our lives that plastic doesn't make sense.

https://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/episodes/2018-2019/plastic-waste-the-supermarket-challenge



Canadian plastic in Malaysia

The Hermit of Oyster River

There are times when I'm paralyzed in my Groundling blogging because there is so much bleak news about the state of the planet. How do we celebrate the beauty of Creation in the midst of this? Who wants to hear bad news all the time?

At the end of the year I noticed a tweet from Hakai magazine noting that an article about Father Charles Brandt was a favourite from 2018. I've written about visiting Father Brandt at his hermitage on Vancouver Island at least 25 years ago after seeing an episode of CBC's Man Alive featuring this gentle, wise man. He seemed old then, yet he's still there at age 95, although he will be moving soon.

Here is the excellent  Hakai article by Brian Payton, well worth reading about an inspiring Christian.  

https://www.hakaimagazine.com/features/the-oracle-of-oyster-river/

Here's another by James Wood while you're here

https://www.mycampbellrivernow.com/29382/oyster-river-hermit-priest-explains-decision-to-preserve-land-in-will/



In 2008, Brandt was in his 80s
and still fishing for steelhead on the Upper Islands Pool in the Campbell River,
British Columbia. Photo by George Reid