A few weeks ago, prior to the “shelter-in-place” mandate from State and Federal authorities, I spent an afternoon as part of a medical team meeting with individuals struggling with challenges of opioid addiction. A physician led the team. Along with a nurse practitioner and an experienced LPN, I joined them as a representative of the faith community.
Our meeting room had no windows, but was clean and comfortable. An examining table, a desk with a computer, blood pressure monitoring equipment, and other sterilized devices were neatly arranged. Patient interviews and check-ups, part of a biweekly and monthly routine, took place in a renovated administrative hospital building. Across the hall were main offices for our region’s most respected network of substance abuse treatment centers.
Most clients we saw that afternoon were dependent on friends or public transportation to see us for their appointments. More than a few had tattoos and bruised forearms from previous months, sometimes years, of intravenous drug use. Ravages of addiction, broken relationships, and our tough economy had left their marks on them, physically and emotionally. In spite of dealing with multiple stressors, all were courteous, highly appreciative of their time with us.
A young woman in her early 30’s was extraordinarily measured, balanced and positive during her 30-minute appointment with us. Grateful. Hopeful. She’d been able to sustain her sobriety after completing an in-patient substance abuse treatment program three months earlier. We invited her, at the conclusion of her appointment, to share a “take-away” lesson from her treatment experience.
She paused, thought for a moment, then replied, “It’s all about mental health. It’s not about drugs. It’s about why I end up, along with a lot of other people, many of them my friends, needing to use substances in the first place.”
The haunting pandemic moving around our planet is triggering a variety of responses, among them fear, panic, despair. It’s important to remember that no amount of cash will repair our global well-being. The broader challenge is to revision and redesign a more equitable, efficient, and caring fabric of care for each other and the natural environment we share.
As we recover, reboot, rebuild, and reconnect as this fire storm diminishes, we need to address core mental health needs, not only for ourselves, but for the most vulnerable who live among us. Banks with reserves and stock markets with profits will not save us. Attention to our personal and collective mental health, a higher priority for emotional and spiritual life, will.
Let’s, meanwhile, hold up in prayer the courageous medical workers, police officers, EMTs, and all essential workers, mail carriers, truck drivers and grocery store clerks who are risking their own health to protect us all. Sooner or later, the light will come. Then another kind of real work will begin.
Spring 2020 Equinox Newsletter
CONTENTS
JOURNAL NOTES
INSTITUTE OUTREACH
Welcome back from Lebanon Rick Pietila and Jackie Kosey. They’re in Marquette still working for the US State Department. Jackie is an administrator. Rick is an IT specialist. Because of recent COVID-19 Federal health directives, their assignment to China is delayed. For CTI, Rick serves in several roles as a teacher of mind/body practices and as a project leader.
In February, the CTI director served as liturgical leader and preacher for Prince of Peace Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Harvey and as liturgist for Messiah Lutheran Church in Marquette. On the first weekend of March, prior to the shelter in place Federal policy, he was guest presenter on the “Gift of Water” for Unity Church’s Sunday morning gathering.
As part of building a deepening integrity into CTI events, beginning in 2020 our retreats, projects and workshops will adopt “Eating for the Planet” guidelines. We will consistently be offering, as a priority, vegetarian meals alongside conventional options. We also continue to frame all Institute functions with prayer and mindful times of personal reflection.
WOOD CHIPS
Wood Chips is a brief weekly reflection that CTI has recently launched via social media thanks to our webmaster Obadiah Metivier. Recent postings have focused on personal reflections to the shifting crisis in global health and economic infrastructure. And how they impact life here in rural Upper Peninsula.
WELLSPRING: COVID-19
A RESPONSE
The Northern Great Lakes Synod of the ELCA (Lutheran) Church and the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan, in partnership with the Cedar Tree Institute, invites pastors, priests, and faith leaders to join us via the internet (Zoom) for a 6 week series of health forums targeting the providing of pastoral care.
WELLSPRING
Health and Wellness In a Time of Crisis
With
Dr. Mike Grossman, MD, family physician
Kelly Mahar, MD, community psychiatrist
Jon Magnuson, MSW & Lutheran Pastor
April 24
May 1
May 8
May 15
May 22
May 29
FRIDAYS 11 A.M. – 12 P.M.
A CHANCE TO ADDRESS THE FOLLOWING:
- Decision-making around health issues
- Specific Mind/body strategies to reduce anxiety
- Spiritual resources for various personality types
- Danger signs of emotional disorders
- Medication issues for parishioners
- Protocol for using available Emergency Rooms
This series will be limited to 12 persons per session, to insure all participants will have an opportunity to carry on meaningful conversations with Mike and Kelly, two of our community’s physicians.
Individuals may sign up for one or more sessions. A waiting list will be developed, if necessary. A timely opportunity for questions and answers with solid, evidence-based responses.
To register, or for more information, visit our WELLSPRING page.
Or, call Jon Magnuson 906-360-5072.
“Out of the mountains of despair, find a stone of hope.”
-Martin Luther King
PROTECTING A SACRED RESOURCE
THE NORTHERN GREAT LAKES WATER STEWARDS: UPDATE
Now in the 4th year of our environmental initiative, The Interfaith Northern Great Lakes Water Stewards moves forward in the midst of historic, economic and social upheaval.
At some point, the loss of life and economic damage will, for a time subside, at least temporarily. The deeper problems facing us as a global community, and as a country, will not have disappeared. If we continue to go back to our “normal” we are on track to destroy the natural carrying systems of the earth as we know them. The evidence is solid. Verified by the highest ranking authorities of the United Nations and Academy of International Science.
Physician Scott Emerson reminds us that water is our planet’s “essential nutrient.” Access to clean air and good water for all peoples, regardless of nationality, race, or economic status, needs to be protected as a basic human right. Faith communities can take this opportunity to collaboratively advocate to make sure that happens. It’s an invitation for an international hands-on effort that deserves the best of our energy, our commitment, and faith-based resources.
And for now, a review of what the Water Stewards have been up to, since 2016, as a small, vision-driven interfaith initiative here in Northern Michigan.
Paul Lehmberg, Buddhist priest and former NMU faculty member, has provided oversight of 42 “Gift of Water” columns for the Marquette Monthly written by 42 different authors from diverse faith traditions. Our Water Stewards’ strategic planning team has produced and distributed 8 public service announcements on the need to protect our waters, facilitated 9 congregational forums, and sponsored 7 community-wide gatherings on the “The Gift of Water.” These events involved artists, botanists, physicians, Native American leaders, poets, mining company executives, and environmental activists. For three years we’ve established a student chapter of Water Stewards on the NMU campus and supported two African-American clergy leaders from Flint who traveled to address our community about that city’s unprecedented municipal water scandal.
The Water Stewards’ strategic team also provided assistance to representatives traveling to the Standing Rock pipeline resistance effort in 2016 and, recently, worked closely with the Episcopal Bishop to raise critical questions to State agencies about safety of the proposed Enbridge Pipeline, scheduled to be constructed under the Straits of Mackinac. This summer we will complete planting of 3,000 Northern White cedar trees to protect stream ecology and address climate change. Over the last three years, 3 op-ed pieces and 4 feature stories describing these interfaith efforts to protect water quality have been printed in the Mining Journal, the Upper Peninsula’s largest newspaper.
Among key individuals leading the way, we thank Paul Lehmberg, Ken Kelly, Jeff Noble, Fred and Kathy Maynard, Jordan Mattarella, Kaitlyn Shepherd, poet/activist Kathleen Heideman and musician Michael Waite.
Our gratitude to the Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve, Messiah Lutheran Church, the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan, the Lutheran NGL Synod of the ELCA, the Northern Skies District of the United Methodist Church, members of Temple Beth Sholom, along with The Lake Superior Buddhist Zendo for their partnership in these efforts. Appreciation, also, to the UP Environmental Coalition for their special support in 2020.
RECOMMENDED READINGS
- “Sustaining Lake Superior” (2017) Nancy Langston
- “Troubled Waters” (2019) Seth Siegel
- “The Death and Life of the Great Lakes” (2018) Dan Evans
Our strategic planning team are regarding the above writings as “sacred scriptures” for understanding the challenges we face.
IN MEMORIAM
REGIS WALLING 1933-2020
Sometimes, individuals, it seems, find their vocation shaped by deep spiritual consciousness. Regis was the adopted daughter of Helen and Joseph Walling of Detroit. She entered the order of the Immaculate Heart of Mary as a teaching Sister in the Roman Catholic Church, earned two Master Degrees, then served as the founder and director of Pregnancy Services in Michigan. She left the Order after 29 year and continued writing and serving in various capacities for the Church, attending Mass almost every day, whenever possible.
Regis wasn’t afraid of controversy and carried an admiration for theologians like Karl Rahner, and prophetic spiritual leaders like Pope Francis. She was a faithful member of our area clergy text study group and special friend of Chrys Levesque. A skilled wordsmith and courageous thinker, she was editor of the Journals of Bishop Baraga. Once we talked about the Jesuits we admired, especially their work among the poor in Central America and other forgotten places in the world. Regis, her cat by her side, mused from her rocking chair, “If I were a man, I would have been a Jesuit.” I responded, “Regis, you are one.”
At her funeral mass, on a cold snow-swept Friday morning, seven members (clergy) of our ecumenical text study sat together along with her physician Mike Grossman, a member of Temple Beth Sholom.
JIM RYERSE 1941- 2020
In the early 1970’s, shortly after I began serving as pastor of Zion Lutheran Church in St. Ignace and Trinity in Brevort, Lutheran World Relief was invited by the Federal government to assist in resettling Vietnamese refugees. I proposed we welcome two refugees looking for temporary homes. Our leadership called a special congregational meeting. There was extended discussion. And plenty of questions. We were among the poorest churches in town, financially. What were we doing bringing in folks who couldn’t even speak English? The vote was about to be taken. It was clear the decision was going to be a “no” vote. In the back of the crowded sanctuary there was a young man in blue jeans, sweatshirt, and a working jacket. He raised his hand. Everyone in the building knew him. It was Jim Ryerse.
He spoke three sentences. “I served in the Navy as a combat swimmer in Vietnam. It was the South Vietnamese who pulled me and my friends out of rice patties. They saved our lives. I say let’s bring them.”
You could hear a pin drop. The vote was unanimous. When the two refugees stepped of the plane in Pellston on a cold February night, they were in shirtsleeves. They carried a single duffel bag between them. In it was a small carved elephant. A gift.
To Amber, to Hilda, to Judy, to Wiz and to the St. Ignace community, our thanks for your father, husband, a boat captain, Mackinac Island police officer, and Great Lakes salvage diver. And my friend.
If you visit St. Ignace, there’s an inscription on Jim’s tombstone in Lakeside Cemetery. He had it carved, before his death, in Latin. Translated it reads, “Calm Seas. Safe harbor. Home at Last.”
SCHEDULED RETREATS & PROJECTS
Dependent on Public Health Directives
HORIZON PROJECT II
(August-September 2020)
Senior Centers: Mind Body Practices for Stress reduction and H ealth with
Drs. Mike Grossman and Kelly Mahar
Alger and Baraga Counties
JANUS PROJECT
Training for Hospice volunteers and
medical staff (September 2020)
THE IRON BUTTERFLY
“The Heart of the Brain”
With neuroscientist Dr. Layne Kalbfeisch (July 2020)
ONGOING TAI CHI CLASSES (Zoom)
SPIRIT OF PLACE RETREATS
Mystery of Forest (2021)
Pain & Pleasure in the American Dream (2020)
IN APPRECIATION
Dear Friends,
Those familiar with various types of Cedar Tree Institute projects may appreciate the words of poet David Lee, sent to us from Tom Hovde, a friend from the Pacific Northwest.
“The process of life, poetically speaking, is a passing between dream and reality, and the mark of anyone I could ever trust or care for is that he or she would never presume to say which is which.”
*There’s an envelope attached with this newsletter. For now, we invite you to place it aside, or use it as a bookmark, or to store some garden seeds. When the pandemic lifts, you may choose to help us. Know we will be here on the ground in this little corner of the Great Lakes. We’re not going away.
WITH GRATITUDE
By September, the Institute with volunteers from faith communities, recovery centers, American Indian tribes, Boy Scout troops, and juvenile courts, will have planted, since 1995, a total of 25,000 cedar trees in 15 counties of the U.P.
This is happening because of you, our readers, with your prayers, encouragement, and donations over two decades. Several of these trees, each one prayed over and blessed by volunteers, will live for a century. Some, for possibly 300 – 400 years.
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 2020 Equinox Newsletter is brought to you by Cedar Tree Institute.
