Rev. Kathi's Message

Although our days have been quite warm the past few weeks, fall arrives on Monday and the nights are cooling off. I have been turning on the fireplace in the evening, and even if it is not a “real” fire, it does warm up the room and I enjoy the extra light it casts.

In Scotland and Ireland, peat (a bit like turf) is still harvested from the bogs, dried and burned for fuel. When we travelled around Ireland six years ago, we were fascinated by the stacks of freshly harvested peat waiting beside the country roads. It keeps their homes warm and the food cooked. To save resources fires are not extinguished, rather they are “put to bed.” Peat fires are covered and smothered to keep the home warm overnight and to make it easy to stoke in the morning.

Like you, I have a lot of metaphorical fires that need to be tended. They aren’t the sort of fires I want to put out, rather things in life that need care and attention. When there are too many fires in life, I find myself feeling as if I am scrambling to keep them all tended. There are always some fires, I can let go cold. However, most of them honestly need constant care.

With a limited amount of energy, money, time, each fire we tend not only spends resources, it also takes up head space as we mentally track which ones may need an extra log. Instead of keeping ALL the fires burning, there may be some that could be “put to bed” for a time. Putting a fire to bed means assessing priorities, asking: Is this what I really want to do at this time in my life? Could they be moved to another week, month, year?

Realizing which commitments can be put to bed does not mean that we will never do the action again, rather it means we are lowering it on our priority list for now. Putting some of our fires to bed is not getting rid of them or ignoring them. It is creating margins in our lives. It is a shift of temporary priorities. It is deciding how many fires we can tend well, and which ones are the most important in this moment. It is creating healthy boundaries around all the things we are called to do.

Putting of few of our fires to bed frees us up to participate in our other commitments more fully, with more ease and with greater presence. We can be creative and spontaneous with the rest of our life. Everything can flow with movement and grace.

Some fires can be put to bed for a day, others for a week, a month or a year. Choose a fire or two, nestle it down, keep it warm, leaving it to be tended at another time. This practice will open space to be more present in the now.

 

Kathi

Orange Shirt Day: 

Orange Shirt Day takes place on Monday 30 September. It is a time to recognize and remember all those who attended residential schools. Please consider wearing orange as a sign of your commitment to reconciliation, to take time to share with people why you are wearing orange, and to continue to advocate for the changes we need to make to achieve reconciliation.

 

Please feel free to wear an orange shirt to church on September 29, if you wish.

CLIMATE CHANGE  

My Caribbean region is suffering the dire consequences of climate change! Unlike the large economies of the world, who are responsible for most of climate change, our small islands do not have the vast resources needed for rebuilding. My heart is breaking for my Caribbean sisters and brothers and the grandmothers, grandfathers and children of the Bahamas. Not only have people lost homes and businesses, many are enduring the agony of not being able to locate loved ones.

None of us living in the region or of the diaspora is at ease during the hurricane season because we do not know if/when our island will be hit with a storm such as Dorian or Irma (which in 2017 devastated Barbuda, the sister island of Antigua, and Tortola where many of my relatives reside).

Climate Change is real! World, we gotta do better! We have to take better care of the planet that has been entrusted to us.

Submitted by Dianne Hope

(Please note that if you would like to help with the United Church's relief and reconstruction efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian, the cheques should be made out to the United Church of Canada.)