Snowshoes are being hauled up from our basement, tools collected, sleds prepared, buckets and taps cleaned. There’s been unusually heavy snowfall this winter. Maple syrup season is later than usual. Always dependent on the weather, perhaps this year it will last only a few days.
A peculiar, magical equation frames the making of maple syrup in this North Country. Temperatures need to fall below freezing during the nights, then rise into the high 30’s or low 40’s F. during the days. Either you collect the sap in this specific window Mother Nature has given us, or you wait another year.
Mircea Eliade, the renowned scholar of world religions, often referenced the importance of learning to live with different kinds of clocks and calendars. He made special distinction between Temporal Time and Eternal Time. The former, he suggested, is reflected by a world that calls us, again and again, with tasks to accomplish, schedules to be met. There’s a heavy dose of satisfaction in that way of living if you’re up for it. The world applauds and rewards us for “seizing the day.”
Eternal Time, on the other hand, is when time and space collapse, when we experience some-thing that points beyond ourselves. Good music can do that, or a walk in a park. Sharing a relaxing, healthy meal with friends and family are other examples. Regular practices of communal prayers and traditional rituals provide another important doorway into this deep, restorative realm. We are swallowed up in another time and space of wonder and peace.
Trying to apply Eliade’s observations about these competing dimensions of time in day-to-day life isn’t easy. Some things don’t seem negotiable: Needs of small infants dependent upon us, obligations of employment (those of us still in the work force need to eat and provide resources for those we love), health restrictions, and the long-term commitments we carry into our personal relationships.
Yet given that, it is vital, for the health of each of us and the planet, to challenge ourselves when we too frequently default to, “I’m too busy.” Modern life is defined by distraction and frantic attempts to capture time. IPhones, the internet, social media and a disconnect from rhythms of the natural world take an enormous toll on each of us.
Great teachers of wisdom remind us that part of living a full, meaningful, and abundant life is to honor these two dimensions of time in some kind of a graceful dance. Nobody said this would be easy or comfortable. Of course, get your work done. But also remember the words of the poet Mary Oliver: “Do not hurry. Bow often.”
It’s important to find ways to enter into moments of Eternal Time, each in our own ways. In my case, for the next few days, it will be in the forest, moving slowly, keeping a cast iron wood stove heated, boiling sap from hundred-year-old maple trees. Making syrup and sugar. Mending spirit and soul. Step by step.
Spring 2019 Equinox Newsletter
CONTENTS
IN APPRECIATION
Thanks Maria Formolo, dance and Tai Chi instructor, and Michael Grossman, MD, family physician, for presenting at the Institute’s “Medicine as Movement” Tai Chi Retreat in February. CTI’s Tai Chi teaching staff has recently been certified for instruction in Fall Prevention and Arthritis Management with Michigan State University and the Tai Chi for Health Institute.
The March/April issue of Health Progress, a nation-wide Roman Catholic medical journal, features “A Call to Reverence: The Mystery of Water.” Written by the CTI director, reflecting on experiences with the Interfaith NGL Water Stewards.
Ref: https://www.chausa.org/publications/health-progress/current-issue
IN MEMORIAM
Joe Bunker 1942-2019
On a snow-filled January afternoon, family members and friends of Joe Bunker gathered in Park Cemetery for a committal service honoring the life of this former postal worker and Master Sargent Fire Chief of the United States Air Force. Joe was a lover of Great Danes and motorcycles. The CTI Director officiated at his grave site committal service on January 7th. His wife, Sharon, died in 1997 and was the first hospice patient the CTI Director visited following his return to Marquette. As he sat by her bedside in a living room on Presque Isle Avenue, Joe and Sharon’s two beloved Great Danes were present; inches away, watchful, caring, mourning.
Larry Mustamaa 1948-2019
Larry was born in Republic and studied at Suomi College and Michigan Technological University. He also lived for a year in Helsinki, Finland. Larry was born with a severe physical disability that didn’t prevent him from finding years of work as a caregiver at Pathways Community Health and assisting at the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store. For a Lenten campus ministry gathering at Northern Michigan University, the CTI Director carried him over a snow bank and through a doorway that night. Larry came to share with our students his reflections on his faith and life . He was a faithful member of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Marquette.
What is lost, can not be compared to what will be found.
-Godec, Medieval Monk
INTERFAITH WATER STEWARDS UPDATE
Public community presentations are scheduled for Friday evenings, April 12 and May 24, at Messiah Lutheran Church in Marquette. Along with local Buddhist priest Paul Lehmberg, CTI has been coordinating the efforts of eight faith traditions to deepen their conservation and appreciation of water in the Upper Peninsula.
“Clean Water / Wild Places” will be a two-part series. April’s presentation focuses on community efforts to resist a proposed sulfide mine on the Menominee River. May’s presentation will feature invited guests from Aquila Resources and Eagle Mine who have been asked to describe policy, regulations, and environmental protection guidelines for their proposed and ongoing mining operations here in the Great Lakes Basin. Special thanks to Jordan Matterella, NMU student and Water Stewards coordinator for her organizing efforts as we engage in exploring complex and contentious issues around economy, mining, and environment from faith-based perspectives.
This summer, Water Steward volunteers will be planting 500 Northern white cedar trees in the Yellow Dog Watershed, an ongoing effort to prevent stream erosion and contribute to a buffer against climate change. Note: 1 mature cedar tree, while producing oxygen, removes 47 tons of CO2 (carbon) a year from the atmosphere.
OPPORTUNITIES
Dreams, Neuroscience & the Inner Life
Workshop for clergy, priests & lay leaders. (May)
The Iron Butterfly
A Mind/Body Workshop
Strategies for health & wellness. (June)
Janus Project Series
Training for medical staff, hospice volunteers,
and physicians. (May and August)
Midsummer Cedar Tree Institute Festival
A celebration of gratitude! (July)
Spirit of Place: A Theology of Water
A 3-day retreat in Marquette. (September)
CTI staff & volunteers will travel to area
beekeepers leading brief blessing ceremonies for
these important pollinators. (May, June)
SPECIAL THANKS
To CTI volunteers & friends Nathan Meadows, Melanie Mottinger, and little Oakley (born April 2018) who served this past year both as part of the Medicine Wheel Project Support Team at the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community and for our CTI retreat on “The Wall” at a Franciscan Retreat Center in New Mexico.
CTI is a nonprofit organization initiating projects & providing services in the areas of mental health, religion & the environment.
One-third of our services are pro bono. Counseling services are available with Jon Magnuson (MDiv., MSW) and are covered by most insurances.
For information contact us at 403 East Michigan Street, Marquette, MI 49855 or contact us via email. Telephone & Fax: 906-228-5494
The Spring 2019 Equinox Newsletter is brought to you by Cedar Tree Institute.
