And Just What Is Hoarfrost, You Never Ask

 

He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly. 

He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes. 1

He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold? 

He sendeth out his word, and melteth them: 

he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow

Psalm 147:15-18 King James Version 

This morning there was one of those red alerts for our community on the Weather Network. It was for fog, which was accurate, although by the time we headed to Trenton for worship all that remained was the ghostly white coating on trees. A week or so ago we headed to Prince Edward County for a cross-country ski and the drive there was beautiful because the trees were adorned with ice fog all along the highway.

 I commented on this hoarfrost and Ruth responded by saying that this is a term no one uses anymore. This is true, of course, except for the occasional oddball who enjoys an esoteric word or phrase. Apparently the term dates back to the 14th century, but I'm not quite that old. 

Our brief exchange got me thinking about hoarfrost in the bible, Isn't there a reference in the King James Version, the translation of the 17th century? Yup, although just one, and just in this translation. Try to say "scattereth" or "melteth" five times fast! 

You may never use the word hoarfrost but we can all appreciate the fleeting gift it represents, and with milder weather on the way, it may be another year before we witness it again. With climate change, could it be an endangered phenomenon? 

Rewilding and Topsy Farms

 

The forecast for this past Thursday was good so we decided to visit Amherst Island which is a twenty-minute ferry ride from Bath, Ontario, in Lake Ontario. We go over two or three times a year, just to enjoy the various roads which follow the shoreline and those which pass farms which have been around for a long time. We always work in a ramble, perhaps at the Sand Beach Wetlands Conservation Area or the Owl Woods. Amherst Island is a pilgrimage spot for birders, and while we don't go there specifically for this purpose, we keep our eyes open. We saw nearly 20 raptors of various kinds, including an eagle, as well as other birds and the deer which bounded across the road in front of us. 

We also made our way to Topsy Farms, an enterprise which has been around for decades, beginning as a hippie-ish collective. Slowly but surely the original participants departed, except for Sally and Ian, who are now benign matriarch and patriarch of this sheep farm, and more. The "and more" includes an intentional and public commitment to conservation,and living in harmony with surroundings, given new energy by the succeeding generations of this family who have decided to stay and make a difference. We really admire what they're doing, and always make a purchase or three, perhaps wool for Ruth's next knitting project, or lamb for a stew. On Thursday Sally was sitting out, basking in the sun like a turtle on a log, so we could enjoy a bit of a chin-wag. 

In addition to selling their excellent products Topsy Farms has invited those who appreciate their ethos to become participants in a number of ways, and recently we sponsored a metre of hedgerow which they plan to re-establish on a particular pasture. At just a metre I joke that I'm sponsoring a bush, but I know that others are getting on board, which is the idea behind this collaborative effort at rewilding. 

Why would we do this? One of my early pastoral charges was just south of Barrie, where some of the ambitious farmers, including a family in my congregation, were tearing out hedgerows between fields to allow their whopping big tractors and equipment to move about adjoined fields without impediment. At the time I admired their enterprise, at least initially. I came to realize that the reason their were virtual brown-outs on some windy days was because topsoil was blowing off those fields and scudding across the roads. And along the way I learned that removing these hedges was contributing to the decline in bird nesting areas, as well as homes for other critters.

In recent years we've altered the mix of our charitable giving to include a wild animal rehabilitation centre and a couple of turtle rescue projects. The majority of what we return to God through financial giving continues to be to our local congregation and food programs for humans. But we feel that we need to consider the bigger picture. While Topsy Farms is a business, we feel that care for Creation is a collective enterprise. Perhaps even a small contribution on our part can make a difference, both to their admirable goals  and to our perspective on responsibility. 

We just hope we live long enough to see the outcome, although we aren't hedging our bets!

https://www.topsyfarms.com/products/sponsor-a-meter-of-hedgerow

Saving Turtles and Turtle Island

                                                        Sea Turtles on Ship Deck 

 If you've been reading this blog over time you'll know that I have an admiration for turtles because of their prehistoric lineage, developing alongside dinosaurs. I certainly brake for turtles and help them across roads. I also appreciate their prominence in Indigenous spirituality and the concept of the Earth as Turtle Island. I've mentioned the base of the baptismal font in M’Chigeeng Immaculate Conception Church on Manitoulin Island which is shaped as a turtle. 

I'm thinking about turtles today because of what it proving to be a catastrophic Winter storm throughout a large swathe of the United States and particularly the state of Texas. The freezing temperatures have been accompanied by snow and ice leaving millions without heat and water.as the power failed.

The sudden and deep cold also affected water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico, stunning and incapacitating untold numbers of sea turtles. Thousands have been rescued, thankfully, but who knows how many will perish. At least 4,000 are sheltered in a convention centre on San Padre Island. 

                                         Sea Turtles in Convention Centre 

This is the largest cold stunning event ever recorded, and a reminder that unprecedented weather events affect creatures of all kinds. This is likely a result of climate change and the global weirding which comes with it. This is a term coined by climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe to describe the unpredictability of weather, which is short-term, when climate, which is long-term is altered by human behaviour. Hayhoe is a Canadian and an evangelical Christian who lives in Texas, a climate-denial state despite intensifying weather events, including hurricanes, which have been catastrophic. 

We can pray for the well-being of those turtles and other wildlife affected by this deep freeze. But in some respects they are passengers on the ark with humans at the helm. We can pray for leaders in government who are at the helm, and the millions of people who claim allegiance to Christ and the God of Creation, they might steer in a new direction for the benefit of all. I just hope that the turtle convention doesn't vote us off the island, and the ark!

                   Turtle base Baptismal Font (to left of altar) M’Chigeeng Immaculate Conception Church

Ash Wednesday in the Snow

 

                                                       Walk Through Cedars -- Frink Centre

You desire truth in the inward being;
    therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
    wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
    let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
    and blot out all my iniquities.

                                  Psalm 51:6-9

I'm an early riser but I slept in to 7:00 this morning and awoke to sunshine, the first time in 2021. The days are lengthening, thanks be to the Creator, but yesterday's snowfall meant that the world was even brighter. The temperature at that early hour was a bracing -24 C, perhaps the coldest start to any day this Winter. There is a special quality to the air when it's this cold which I love and seldom experience as winter's become milder.

Our hope is to get out on our cross-country skis this afternoon after it "warm's up," if that term can be used to describe sub-zero temperatures of -5 or -6C. We're thinking of taking along a backpack of kindling to start a fire as a recognition of Ash Wednesday . We will attend an in-person, "touchless" Ash Wednesday service at Trenton United this evening, but this is an opportunity to reflect on the words of the traditional psalm for the day, Psalm 51, en plein air.  In the throes on regret and contrition for his crimes of rape (Bathsheba) and murder (her husband, Uriah) King David pleads "wash me whiter than snow." 

Some have been commenting that we're actually entering into the twelfth month of Lent, because of the pandemic, which is true to some extent. Yet we have found that getting outdoors in all seasons has been our "salvation" in a manner of speaking. 

It may be a challenge to feel suitably penitential today when are fingers and toes aren't working at full capacity, but we'll see how it goes! We may choose to express regret for our sins and transgressions, but we rarely regret the decision to spend time in the beauty of Creation. 

Lengthening Toward Lent

Current Time:	Feb 15, 2021 at 8:30:45 am
Sun Direction:	121.73° ESE↑
Sun Altitude:	12.68°
Sun Distance:	147.776 million km
Next Equinox:	Mar 20, 2021 5:37 am (Vernal)
Sunrise Today:	7:08 am↑ 107° East
Sunset Today:	5:39 pm↑ 253° West

1 All earth is waiting to see the Promised One,

and open furrows await the seed of God. 

All the world, bound and struggling, seeks true liberty; 

it cries out for justice and searches for the truth.

                            Voices United 5

Above  is the screenshot from the moment I checked sunrise and sunset this morning. The sky was quite light at 8:30, but the blessing was that we could look out to see trees and birds at our feeders from just after 6:30. And this evening we'll enjoy the same until shortly aftter 6:00 PM. Even though our planet Earth is nearly 150 million kilometres from our star, there are changes in our path around the Sun which bring us hope.  

Hallelujah! Well maybe we'll hold back on the hallelujahs because we're supposed to refrain from this celebratory word in worship, including song, during our Christian season of Lent.  Ash Wednesday, is the movable commencement of Lent, and this year it is two days from now, the 17th of February. One succinct description of Lent says:

Lent is a season of forty days, not counting Sundays, which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday. The English word “Lent” comes from the Anglo–Saxon word lencten, which means “lengthen” and refers to the lengthening days of Spring.

We have been experiencing frigid days and now have the prospect of significant snow which remind us that Spring isn't exactly around the corner. Yet those lengthening days will take us through the sombre weeks of Lent with a sense of promise built into sunrise and sunset, bringing us to the joy of Easter. 

The hymn "All Earth is Waiting" is actually for Advent, yet there is a sense that the anticipation of Christ's birth is also for his rebirth. The Earth, seemingly locked in dormancy and death, will bloom again. Thanks be to God, Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer. 

When a Super-highway is a Sin

 

Nearly 20 years ago the Ontario government introduced legislation to protect a portion of  land in what is known as the Golden Horseshoe of Southern Ontario. This is the region which curls around Lake Ontario and where 8 million people live,  more than half of the province's population.It is actually the most densely populated area in Canada. The McGinty government called the area The Greenbelt, and the premise was that this would be a permanently protected area of green space, farmland, forests, wetlands, and watersheds, There was opposition then, from developers and landowners. Those opposed included some farmers who felt this this curtailed the possibilities of selling their property at some point, and they had the strongest argument in my opinion.

The Green Belt has been essential for environmental protection, along with ensuring that prime agricultural land was not paved over, or became a sea of housing developments. Then came the Conservative government and the lies of Premier Doug Ford who promised not to touch the Green Belt. His administration simply has no concern for conservation or protection of our air and water. Conservation Authorities have had funding cut, and their mandates changed. Late last year six members of the Greenbelt Council stepped down — joining David Crombie, the council's chair — to protest proposed government rules they say would gut environmental protections in the province. 

Since the beginning of 2021 two major highway projects have been announced which will go through areas which are sensitive from an environmental standpoint. The GTA West 413 highway will cost $10 billion and run through 55 kilometres of prime farm land protected areas, and conservation lands And as with the 407 highway, it is more than a transportation corridor. It opens another region up to the pressures of development. The 407 is under-utilized, so why not figure out how to maximize it? 

Why should this matter to us as people of faith? Is opposing a highway Christian?

From a personal standpoint I regard this systemic dismantling of environmental protections as systemic sin. I appreciate that this may sound overly religious, and naive,  and "anti-progress." I don't consider it progressive if we can't figure out how to feed ourselves without shipping produce from the other side of  the continent, or if we can't breathe. 

And there must be some sense that "the Earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof" rather than solely a resource to be exploited. We ignore the balance and integrity and beauty of Creation at our peril. 

Count Your Blessings and Birds, One by One

 

Look at the birds, free and unfettered, 

not tied down to a job description, 

careless in the care of God

Matthew 6: 26a The Message

It is -16 Celsius outside as I write this morning, and Southern Ontario is in the midst of an extended "cold snap" as we used to call periods of frigid Winter weather. Now we talk of Polar Vortexes and Alberta Clippers, as though we know what these terms actually mean. 

We are also in the midst of the Backyard Bird Count, which runs from February 12th to 15th. It is described this way:

The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual four-day event that engages bird enthusiasts of all ages around the world in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are. Anyone can participate, from beginners to experts.

We have a bunch of feeders hanging so that we can see them from the warmth of our family room and we're constantly amazed by the resilience of these feathered creatures, There are roughly a dozen species which persist in this climate. As I noted recently, we get three types of woodpecker, two of nuthatch, different finches, cardinals and blue jays. The juncos and chickadees are usually the first to show up in the morning. with the chickadees puffed to twice their normal size. We wish the starlings wouldn't arrive and muscle away the other birds, but they land in, squabble with each other, fill up, and leave. 

I came upon the Mary Oliver poem, below, and I begrudgingly conceded there may be a room in my heart for the starlings, although this sentiment will probably pass quickly. I will soon begin a Lenten study group on the Sermon on the Mount which included Jesus' encouragement to live beyond worry and anxiety, like the birds of the air. Easier said that done? Always, yet by the grace of God, we aspire to this freedom of the spirit. 

I don't really consider the Bird Counts at different times of the year to be aspects of a spiritual discipline, but why not?  The season of Lent begins next Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, and someone else who read the poem online commented:  

 That’s going to be my Lent resolution this year - to be light and frolicsome, and to soar upward without fearing danger.

The Musings of a Christian this Lunar New Year

                                         Today's Google Doodle for Lunar New Year 2021 

On Wednesday Emmanuel College in Toronto, a United Church seminary, held an ecumenical service to anticipate the Lunar New Year. Today is the first full day of what has often been called the Chinese New Year. hence the Google Doodle.

I have never paid much attention to this celebration. There are, though, other Asian cultures which observe this festival, as does the diaspora of these cultures around the world. It's probably a quarter of Earth's population which is trying to figure out how to observe this day, including a communal meal,  in the midst of a pandemic. 

Snooping around, the celebration seems rather complicated to my Western brain, but that doesn't mean much other than I'm ignorant! I'm curious about the lunar connection because other religions including Judaism and Christianity have an important lunar component -- think Passover and Easter, both related to a Spring full moon. 

I got thinking, as well, about the relationship to the animals of each year, and the notion of being connected to these creatures. To be honest, I'm not interested in signs of the zodiac or horoscopes, yet the relationship with other beings, actual and mythical invites us out of an anthropocentric focus. 

I'm not sure how I'll sort through all this as a Christian, but I have learned over time that its important to be open and respectful of other traditions. I would be intrigued to see how the ecumenical service unfolded. Happy Year of the Ox!

Respect Inuit or Leave

 

 Christi Belcourt, artist 

The elders and hunters are reporting that the iron ore mine called “Baffinland” is causing the water and land to turn red (see photos in my comments) and the fish, the caribou, the seals and the whales are becoming scarce. They are sounding alarm bells that it isn’t right, and they are saying if anyone doesn’t respect the knowledge, the land, and the culture of Inuit, they must leave Inuit lands.

The words on this poster are from the Elders and it’s by request that I made it. So please feel free to share. #inuitblockade

Once again Indigenous people are protesting the intrusion of a resource extraction company into traditional lands. An iron ore company called Baffinland on Baffin Island wants to double production at their mine and local Inuit who have been there for time immemorial are blocking the airstrip near Mary River to object to the expansion. The promise is that there will be considerable economic benefit for locals but they are maintaining that culture is more important than money. Other Inuit in the territory have joined in with the protest. 

The local Inuit say that increased shipping has already resulted in seals and whales being harder to find and the snow is often bright red with iron ore dust. They feel that creating a rail line to service the mine will affect the caribou population. 

We should be concerned about where this will lead. In the past couple of years peaceful Wetsuweten pipeline blockades in British Columbia have resulted in SWAT team arrests of protesters. Recently all charges were dropped against these protesters but there is a "might makes right" reality which enlists militarized police to uphold the interests of corporations while disregarding those who have lived on the land for generations. Why do we accept such a show of force in these situations while police shrug at violent white protestors in Nova Scotia?

Surely this is a matter of justice for the Inuit in a part of Canada we tend to ignore and disregard in the south. As Groundling Christians who care about the fragile ecosystems of these areas we can also ask why extraction trumps protection and balance again and again. 

The "Church" of Winter Wonder

On Sunday we "went to church" in the warmth and comfort of our family room, an experience which will likely change for us as a result of yesterday's announcement of some reopening in Ontario. We are blessed to live in an area where there only three active cases of COVID-19, so next Sunday we may be sitting in a pew, once again. 

We did venture out for a walk in the afternoon, this time at the Bleasdell Boulder trail north of Trenton, home to an enormous glacial erratic  Because of the low incidence of COVID we interpret "stay home" as "stay apart," which we do wherever we roam in the area. The small parking lot was packed with vehicles although we didn't actually encounter many humans on the trail. We may have "accidentally on purpose" come across our Trenton family with the two grandlads. They are well-trained, so extremely cautious about physical proximity. Just the same, they ran and explored in the woods and along a frozen creek. It was a tonic for us, a rambunctiously holy hour and a half. 

                                                                        Photo: Ruth Mundy

Despite some briskly cold days during the past two weeks we have noticed more people out in Conservation Areas and Provincial Parks and even on the Bay of Quinte than in any other Winter of the eight we've lived in Belleville. That has actually been the case since the coronavirus became a threat nearly a year ago, through all the seasons. It was next to impossible to book campsites last Summer and Fall and people have taken up paddling, birding, hiking, in record numbers across the province. 

We're hoping that we get more snow than the meagre amount which has fallen locally this Winter, and the opportunity to enjoy the season more fully. We are convinced that getting our there is good for body and soul, and there is a sense of reverence and wonder of God the Creator which is worshipful in the best way. 

The "Thin Places" of Prayer

                                      Sea of Galilee - Father James Martin 

Father James Martin is a Jesuit priest whose generous Christian orthodoxy has led him to an inclusive outlook on the LGBTQ2 community with the accompanying wrath of a segment of Roman Catholics. His social activism is balanced with a personal devotional life which includes prayer.

He has written a new book called Learning to Pray:A Guide for Everyone, suggesting that there is no one way to pray. Even though releasing a book in a pandemic is not ideal, he offers this wise perspective in a Crux magazine interview:

 These days many of us are involuntary monks. Our lives are physically circumscribed, as they might be in a monastery. There has been a natural moving inward. That points us to prayer. Also, in times of discord, people look for a sense of stability. That also points us to prayer.

Martin also speaks in the book about what he calls "thin places" where we may be more attuned to God while in prayer. The notion of the  "thin place" comes from Celtic spirituality, in the November pagan celebration of Samhain, then incorporated in the Christian All Hallow's Eve and All Saints Day. It is a time of the year when the membrane between this life and the next is at it's most permeable.

Father Martin has posted photos of his "thin places," including a couple of chapels and a panoramic view of the Sea of Galilee, in Israel. Many of us do feel that we have been ushered into the presence of God, the Creator, when we are in the natural world. What our senses give to us is a form of prayer, steeped in wonder, which may then be expressed in words, whether a hymn, or an exclamation, or a tumble of words of gratitude.

Perhaps we can all ask, as Father Martin did on Twitter, to identify our "thin places" of prayer. 

Will Farrell Storms Norway, Thanks be to God

 It seems that Saturday Night Live alumnus Will Farrell can't help but be funny, whether he's starring in film, or as the theme speaker for graduates at his alma mater. Even when he's serious he is hilarious. His latest gig is a commercial for General Motors in which he heads off with Kenan Thompson and Awkwafina on a quest to prove to Norway that America can trounce the Nordic nation when it comes to electric vehicles. A remarkable 54% of cars sold in Norway are electric because the government offers big breaks to buyers.  A week ago GM, one of the largest vehicle manufacturers in the world, surprised everybody by announcing  that the company will aim to sell only zero- emission cars and trucks by 2035. 

That isn't exactly tomorrow, and while I'm not planning on hurrying the the grave, I could be pushing up daisies by then. Still, this was a huge commitment and will likely put pressure on competitors to step up their game. China has stated that all vehicles in that country with nearly 20% of the world's population will be electric within 15 years, which is also significant. 

GM has a checkered past when it comes to EV's. Back in the mid-90's they developed a vehicle that drivers loved. For reasons no one really understood they not only stopped production but bought back all the cars they'd sold. A decade ago they began selling the Chevy Volt hybrid around the world but dropped in 2019 for the all-electric Bolt. 

As a Groundling, a Christian whose desire is to make the changes in lifestyle which will allow us all to "live with respect in Creation," as our United Church creed declares, I'm hopeful about the development of low-carbon vehicles. Ultimately this will be an economic decision by vehicle makers, with a lot of "green-washing" thrown in. Electric carmaker Tesla is now more valuable than several of the giants of the industry combined, and Elon Musk is supposedly the wealthiest person on the planet. 

I hope that I'm driving a low-carbon vehicle (electric? hydrogen?) before too long and well before the aforementioned daisies. Whenever I drive past the bank of chargers in town with a growing number of Teslas plugged in I am encouraged that it will happen. Oh yes, in the commercial Farrell actually ends up in Sweden. 

Blessings and Birds

Even the sparrow finds a home,

    and the swallow a nest for herself,
    where she may lay her young,
at your altars, O Lord of hosts,
    my King and my God.
4 Happy [blessed}]are those who live in your house,
    ever singing your praise.

                                  Psalm 84: 3-4

 Early this morning I was reading Amy-Jill Levine's wise book called Sermon on the Mount. Levine is Jewish and offers that perspective on Jesus and his milieu as a New Testament professor at Vanderbilt University. I'm leading a study for Trenton United Church during Lent and as I prepare I'm feeling blessed. I was reading about the Beatitudes or blessings in Matthew 5, the verses which are the opening passage in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) 

I paused for a moment to ask myself how I feel blessed, enriched, even happy in what have often seemed like meagre, cursed times during this past pandemic year. I looked up to see the pair of cardinals on one of our feeders (8 feeders are visible from our family room windows) and I had my answer, or at least one of many examples of blessings. 

Northern Cardinal -- David Sibley

Even in the heart of Winter we have a dozen or so species of birds which show up, snow or shine, somehow persevering through all manner of weather. They simply receive what we serve up, everything from peanuts to sunflower seeds to suet. We love the cardinals and blue jays and a red-bellied woodpecker for their star quality. We could live without the "biker gang" starlings. We admire the plucky chickadees and nuthatches and downy woodpeckers. 

Later in the Sermon ,which isn't really a sermon, Jesus invites us to consider the example of the birds of the air when we are inclined to worry and fret. At the conclusion of the passage Jesus says “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today."  Huh. It's almost as though he had an understanding of the human heart. 

The study group will be both Zoom and in-person, if allowed, or just Zoom, depending on what Premier Doug permits. Our first session will be February 24th at 9:30 AM. Our last study included three people from different locales in the province because of the blessing (mixed) of Zoom, so you're welcome to join us wherever you may be. Check out the Trenton United Church website. 

St. Francis and the Birds -- Taize Christian Community, France 

Water, Wetlands and Life

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

The Peace of Wild Things -- Wendell Berry

Since the groundhogs stole the show yesterday, as they always do on February 2nd,  we may have missed that it was also the UNESCO World Wetlands Day. Ruth and I are paddlers, both in kayaks and canoe, and I love the variety of living things in marshes and wetlands. Living in Belleville we are blessed to have ready access to wetlands, large and small,and we are rarely disappointed when it comes to spotting everything from turtles, to herons, to ospreys, beavers and otters. One day I was on the marsh boardwalk in a local conservation area when several deer splashed through the cattails. 

Wetlands are essential for biodiversity, essentially arks for creatures great and small, yet there are under threat, world-wide, because humans choose to drain them rather than letting them flourish. The Holland Marsh in Ontario in now rich agricultural land but it was once a huge wetland, visited by environmental saint, John Muir in the 19th century.  

Most of what became an industrial waterfront in Toronto was once wetlands and the city has suffered because wetlands are protection against flooding and natural filters of toxins They are essential to clean water.. There is an extensive wetland rehabilitation project underway in TO which got underway under a previous administration. 

So, what is the current provincial government doing? Undermining Conservation Authorities which steward wetlands and selling unique habitats to industrial developers. Members of the Greenbelt Council have resigned because of this thoughtless and destructive trajectory.

We can all be vigilant in our responses to what are foolish decisions by Premier Ford's anti-environmental government. He seems incapable of seeing the bigger picture, yet we can't allow the despair which sometimes grows within us to quench our hope. 

We can also enjoy the beauty of wetlands, whether during a walk along a shore or a paddle. Every dragonfly and red-winged blackbird we see can be regarded as a prayer for Creation. It will be a couple of months still before the chorus of frogs returns to the marshes, but in the meantime we'll "walk on water" and dream. 

Groundhog Day & Groundlings

 

                                                     Groundhog Day with Bill Murray and ?

I have a real fondness for February 2nd, because it is the birthday of our older daughter, Jocelyn. When she was young  I cut out and painted a wooden groundhog for her to put on the wall, because this is also Groundhog Day. Her birthday is always cause for celebration in our family, but Groundhog Day is a strange event, don't you think? 

Groundhog Day has its origins in the late 19th century, the brain-child of a newspaper editor and groundhog hunters in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.-- hence Punxsutawny Phil. Phil and Wiarton Willie in Ontario, and Shubenacadie Sam in Nova Scotia, ceremonially emerge from their burrows today and cast their shadows as a prediction about the length of Winter. They are invariably wrong, but there is always media coverage of the reluctant rodents. I'm surprised PETA hasn't advocated for an end to these events.

There is a quasi-religious vibe to what has developed over time, with an almost liturgical quality to the events. Perhaps we can appreciate that the change of seasons has long been connected to religious events, a recognition that there is a spiritual quality to the lengthening of days and anticipation of what always seems like the rebirth of the Earth in Spring. We are approaching the beginning of Lent in the Christian year, a word which means lengthen. 

So Groundlings, why not get outside to say a prayer of thanks for the beauty of Creation and the shadow, or lack thereof, of a Groundhog? 

A Colored Man's Love Affair With Nature

                                                                                   Drew Lanham 

 I've written about Drew Lanham, the ornithologist whose memoir  The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature I found meaningful. In that book he talks about eventually moving away from what was often the harsh religion of his upbringing . Just the same, there is a deeply spiritual quality to his descriptions of the ways in which he sees and hears the natural world and birds in particular. 

In his book and elsewhere he has written about the realities of "birding while Black," knowing that there are dangers inherit in being a Black man roaming the countryside in ways which would rarely occur to someone who is White. He reflected on this when Christian Cooper, a Black man and a birder, was threatened by a White woman in New York City's Central Park last year. 

As we enter Black History month I will mention a wonderful interview with Lantham on NPR's, On Being just a few days ago.  https://onbeing.org/programs/drew-lanham-i-worship-every-bird-that-i-see/ In that exchange with Krista Tippet he reflected:

As much as I ran from my grandmother’s first Sunday God, I worship every bird that I see. And wildness is a wayward weed, but it’s also worthy of adoration and worship. So each time I see in those things that are flying or that are wild and free, I see a bit of me in that. And then that whole creation story my grandmother used to tell me about, I become a part of that, and I get to evolve through it. 

I commend the entire interview to you, in all it's poetic wisdom. While I'm still firmly Christian, my Groundling reverence for Creator and Creation resonates with Lanham's outlook.