Fair Haven Cathedral

Wake up in a hotel room next to an airport.  How many times have done this?  Far from home, around the bend, all my worldly goods packed into a bag, my lover, headed home.  A cup of coffee, the Ancient Text, The Ancient of Days, a few lines in my journal, a moment to meditate, think, and set my heart, my life, my day in order…in a strange room, next to the airport.  I listen to good clarinet music. My lover stirs.  

We dropped off the RV yesterday.  She was a great old girl, kept us high and dry through some hard rains, more than one blow, and across New England and Eastern Canada.  She was in many ways a sanctuary.  But tonight we will lay our heads down in a greater sanctuary, a basilica, Fair Haven Cathedral.  We are headed home.  My lover is up.  Let the day begin.   

 

Turning Home

We turn home today, one of the great events of life.  It is always good to be in a foreign land, in the wilderness, among the forests and trees.  It puts all things in perspective.  How wonderful America and our people are.  American southerners are especially good because they look at you and often say a hearty, “Good morning,” welcome to the neighborhood, where we are friendly.  It is hard to get people in Canada to look at you, much less speak.  But when they hear us say, “Good morning,” they awaken to a relationship being offered and reply; not heartily, but sincerely.  

We should all experience a turning toward our land, toward our people, our roots.  It places all the tomfoolery going on around America into the buffoonery category.  I digress.  Turning south from Prince Edward Island.  It is good to be going home!   

Betty standing in the Bay of Fundy as the tide is out.
Largest tide fluctuation in the world. 

Happy Thanksgiving for Steeples

The PEIslanders are a neat and hardy people.  The potato harvest is being brought in, the fields are tidied and ready for a harsh winter, the dairy cows are being milked, and all the tourist shops are shuttered or will be on Saturday.  Monday is their official Thanksgiving, and so this is a long holiday weekend for most of them, a time for getting one's island in order and gathering to give thanks for all His Blessings.  

As is our habit and our good blessings, we found a church, St. Dunstan’s Cathedral Basilica, in Charlottetown.  It was easy to find, the steeple rising above all other things.  A steeple is such a kind act.  It was first created to be a beacon of hope to all those who were struggling in the Dark Ages of Europe.  Under it you could find help, food, lodging, safety, and unburden yourself.  It was truly the example of Christ’s teaching, ‘Whatever you did to the least of these, you did it unto me.’  I just happened to read this parable in my time with the Ancient of Days this morning.  

The steeple still serves that for me and mine.  We have been drawn into its hope-filled interior all over the world as we seek always to draw “Nearer my God to Thee” to revive our souls, worn thin on the good trails of this earth.  My lover and I lit a candle, knelt, and prayed our heart’s desire; she wept.  We rose and quietly left as pilgrims have been doing for all the ages: “There is a place of quiet rest.  Near to the heart of God.”   

      

 

Googolplex And More

Sitting in deep color, a wooded campsite on Prince Edward Island, dressed in fall’s fancy.  Colors have held true our whole visit.  You must not read this as some line off the cuff, some sentence that will do.  When I say color, I mean a divine thing, a most sacred event.  So many single leaves put to shame, and placed in context, all of the color field, abstractists, and even the impressionists' paintings of the last 150 years.  No human creative effort can compare, can match the colors that are true color, not those added to a canvas.  Color so extravagant, so exuberant, underscored by the fact that it will be tossed away, infinitely fluttering to earth to decay and nourish the same sacred act next year.  Try not to miss the sacredly divine as it waves past you by the googolplex.

A leaf I picked up on a hike the second day we were here.
The cup is by Megan Peden, a former student of 
mine.  I always travel with her cup.  

   

Tumbling Along

We will move toward home today even though we won’t turn directly south for three more days.  It was a long haul up here and a long one back, ending in a mad dash for the border to get us to our plane on time.  Canada has in many ways caught us off guard and made us pay.  I had closely followed the weather to make sure we packed appropriately, but I did not take into account the wind and “feels like.”  For instance, this morning when I got up, the temperature was 43°, but with the wind, which is strong, it “feels like” 27°.  That is a significant difference in how one might dress.  

However, we are both tumbleweeds, just easily go with the flow, and so we are now layering 4 and 5 layers to go out and have learned a good lesson.  

Had a good hike up Salmon Ponds Trail yesterday; it rained most of the late evening and night, and we are facing a six-hour trip to Prince Edward Island today.  We have a three-day camp there, setting us up for the two-day mad dash. Tumbling along.  Happy Trails.   

 

 

Shine On Kind Star, Shine On

We are neck-deep in Canada, and there’s no one here.  It seems all the Canadians have moved somewhere else, leaving behind rolling hills forested with stunted, brilliantly colored trees, a vastness of uninterrupted creation with no one to tend it.  We are tending to it, paying attention to Him who made it, acknowledging Him, thinking the world of Him for making it all. It has turned cold, 44° in our camp this morning. Nothing says comfort better than a rated 20° LL Bean sleeping cover and a warm lover beside me.  

We are in this kind of climate now: when the sun is out, you are warm, but when it goes behind a cloud, you are immediately cold.  Everyone should often be in this predicament to put our star in its rightful place.  A relatively small star in a particularly small arm of a very small galaxy, yet all our hopes, dreams, and lives depend on it.  If I didn’t know its Maker, I would be worshipping it this morning and begin to build a temple to it.  And I NEED worship, somewhere to place all this thanksgiving I have as this star shines on my body right now. Thank goodness for my Three God who makes the seemingly insignificant truly significant!!! Shine on, kind star, shine on.     

We are on the Cabot Trail, a beautiful
byway there in the background.

 

Tender and Mild

2 Days Ago,

I lay around in the morning; the RV is all quiet. I sit by the window drinking coffee, reading the Ancient Text, today leaving Malichai and joining the glad tidings of Christ’s ancestry in Matthew. Listening to good clarinet music in a forest of quiet color, a breeze rustling my world awake. We sit at the border of Canada; we are lazy; we have no reason to get going: “All is calm, all is bright, round yon virgin mother and child, holy infant so tender and mild.”