The Journey into Wholeness

This past weekend I was helping to lead a workshop on dreams.  The workshop took place in Toronto at the Danforth Mennonite Church.  As the title of the workshop - Dreams, God’s Forgotten Language – indicates in our approach to dreams, we understand dreams as a way that God speaks to us.  This was the first event of a new group which has been established to promote this understanding of dreams – Dreamwork Canada https://dreamworkcanada.squarespace.com/. 

The workshop was a great success thanks to the work of all the members of the leadership/planning team; Mary Sanderson. Betty Puricelli, Mary Klein and John Epp as well as me.  This was an ecumenical effort comprised of members of the United Church, Mennonite and Anglican denominations. We will have a return engagement on April 24^th and 25^th of next year at the same location.  All in all, it was a rewarding time with great participation by those in attendance who were very enthusiastic and receptive to the approach to understanding dreams which can sometimes - perhaps I should say often – be rather less than clear to the logical part of our brains.

In the past ten years or so I have done quite of few of these workshops after completing a program on facilitating dream groups at the Haden Institute. Many of these have been with my wife, Lorna Harris.  Lorna was attending the birthday party for our Granddaughter.  Lorna and I will be offering a one-day event on November 16^th at St. John’s by the Lake Anglican Church in Grand Bend Ontario.  If you are interested in being involved please contact Lisa Gumb 519-238-6600 or lgumb@hay.net.

The approach to dreams that we share in our workshops utilizes the concepts of Carl Jung.  However, as I noted above, dreams are a way in which God has always communicated with us.  God did so from the beginning of scripture with many accounts of people receiving divine messages in dreams.  God continues to do so today. 

One of the principles of working with dreams that dreams come in the service of health and wholeness of the dreamer and the world.  This is one of the guiding principles that informs my approach and appreciation of dreams.  I believe, despite what is often misunderstood about God’s desire and intention for us, God does not desire our perfection.  God desires our health and wholeness and for us to become as fully as possible the people God created us to be.

Coincidentally – if you believe in coincidences – the November issue of the Anglican Journal arrived in my mail box this morning - that is my snail mail box.  It contained an article by our new Primate Archbishop Linda Nicholls – that is the head of the Anglican Church of Canada and not the other kind of primate.  Archbishop Linda was writing about What it means to be whole.  She writes, speaking of efforts to set up a healing centre:

One of our first tasks was to define what it means to be whole - to be healed.  This is actually more difficult than it seems.  Are we ever fully healed and well?  There always seems to be some aspect of our life that is in pain, distressed or unbalanced!

I could not agree more – which is very fortunate as I wouldn’t want to have a serious disagreement with my Archbishop.  Dreams can be of great assistance in guiding us on that journey to health and wholeness. 

May each of us have dreams which bless us on our journey.

Give Thanks in All Things

Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian Friends which we celebrated on Monday.  We jump the gun on the United States in this one and perhaps on other things as well – but I won’t go there today.

It is a time where it is especially appropriate to give thanks and as I have said previously, we can give thanks in all things even when it is hard to give thanks for some things. Lorna and I have had a safe journey home – or I should say to our Ontario home from our Prince Edward Island home.  It was our seventh summer at the cottage – which is shocking.  Both the years and this summer have gone by in no time it seems.  Time must be speeding up – it can’t be that I am getting older – I just won’t look to closely in the mirror.  But it is good to be back here in Parkhill and find that everything was in good order – something to give thanks for indeed.  Our trip home was uneventful except for our effort to find hwy 407 – I do wish that the Ministry of Transportation would install some road signs to get to the 407 (which is a toll road that bypasses Toronto).   The Ontario government sold hwy 407 some years ago to private corporation which I didn’t agree with at the time – talk about killing the goose that laid the golden egg.  Oh well, this is supposed to be about giving thanks and not about griping or complaining. 

Remembering to give thanks – to show gratitude in all things is something that we can all strive for.  I believe that if we are able to do this through practice it will become second nature and will be a way of having joy in our lives.  I have not been able to do that yet and have to remind myself to give thanks for all that God has given me and to give thanks regardless on what is happening in my life - giving thanks in all things.  I find it hard to do when things don’t go the way I expect them to and people don’t live up to my expectations.  I do find that frustrating to find the universe is not set up to meet my needs all the time. 

As someone – I believe it was Julian of Norwich – said, all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.  I could add that it often seems just not yet.  However, be thankful in all things.

Blessing on your journey.

From the Heart

Last week, Lorna and I had a mini-vacation from our summer home in PEI and visited Halifax for three days.  We saw a lot and walked as much and had a great time.  We experienced many of the sights of Halifax including a tour of the Alexander Keith’s Brewery - great beer with a great history, Point Pleasant Park, the Public Gardens and much more. 

The two experiences which engaged me most were the Pier 21 Canadian Museum of Immigration, and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.  The Canadian Museum of Immigration touched me on a deep level when I engaged the stories of so many people from so many different lands that have been an integral part of the story of Canada.  We are all immigrants except the first nations who were also honoured for their place in Canada.  What impressed me greatly was the indisputable fact that we are at our best as human beings when we open our hearts to welcome the stranger who has come into our lives.  This is one thing that set apart the Israelites from other nations around them.  As noted by one source http://ronrolheiser.com/welcoming-the-stranger-2/#.XZIQgHdFzIU:

In the Hebrew Scriptures, that part of the bible we call the Old Testament, we find a strong religious challenge to always welcome the stranger, the foreigner. This was emphasized for two reasons: First, because the Jewish people themselves had once been foreigners and immigrants. Their scriptures kept reminding them not to forget that. Second, they believed that God’s revelation, most often, comes to us through the stranger, in what’s foreign to us. That belief was integral to their faith.

This welcoming of the stranger is a foundational part of our call as Christians.   Many of the groups which were there to welcome the immigrants at Pier 21 were church groups including the “Women's Missionary Society of the United Church, Presbyterian, Anglican, Lutheran and Roman Catholic workers, as well as the I.O.D.E.”

The second encounter which truly engaged me was, as I noted, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.  Specifically, it was the exhibit of the life and works of Maud Lewis.  I had been aware and impressed by Maud’s story previously, particularly in the movie if her life, Maudie. I was enthralled by how Maud’s life and who she was, was expressed through her art.  What I saw was an indominable spirit of someone who did not let all the challenges of this life; physical, economic, and cultural, prevent her from expressing in the most powerful way what and who she essentially was.  Her whole life and everything around her became an expression of her true self. 

These two events showed me what can be accomplished when the spirit of our being is allowed to spring forth into the world which God created and intended that creation to be and become. 

Blessings on your journey