Circles of caring. Formal and informal. We need them both – those who are trained and compensated – medical professionals, clergy, therapists, and social workers – but also others who provide another level of support, less visible, less recognized. Before time runs out for each of us and we wonder what happened, especially at the end of our lives, it might prove helpful to do some sorting out.
A conversation from a couple of summers ago lingers in my memory. A longtime friend and his wife visited from the Pacific Northwest. My friend’s wife works as a front line social worker in rural Washington State assisting folks burdened with poverty, facing serious physical and emotional challenges. She did a lot of home visits. Her observation from that experience continues to haunt me.
“Here’s what I’ve learned,” she said. “What I’ve witnessed.” Leaning forward from the couch in front of our fireplace, she spoke with measured gratitude and reverence . “Most of these folks” she said, “know how to care for one another. Countless times I’ve seen their friends, and often strangers, welcomed into dilapidated homes and makeshift trailers. I watched them freely share their food, belongings, their time. I’ve rarely seen this in most middle or upper-class neighborhoods. There, relationships are mostly defined by commercial transactions, by gates and fences. It’s about protecting possessions, property, counting, comparing wealth.”
After a pause, I responded. “I believe there’s a deep part in all of us that hungers for the kind of presence and charity you often saw in those communities.”
So here’s a thought: It’s not necessary, at some time in your life, to live among the poor to experience this kind of hospitality. But, then, maybe it is. Obviously, it does no good to romanticize cultures of poverty yet how else will most of us ever discover the most important things in life are not for sale?
I think about a former school superintendent who visits inmates at our local prison, my retired physician friends who make themselves available as fierce advocates for the seriously ill, volunteers who staff remote, rural fire departments, those who serve food to the homeless at local churches, coaches who guide youth in intramural sports, mentors who spend time with at-risk teens. And dozens of individuals young and old, some disabled physically and emotionally, who for over 25 years have knelt beside me in forests, planting hundreds of small, fragile cedar trees in efforts to heal the earth and fight climate change.
All these individuals are part of an informal network of caring, like the two new friends in Escanaba who now support our friend and colleague who recently suffered a stroke. One thing I know. All of these dance in rhythm with the hidden heart of the universe. As with those many unheralded acts of mercy and compassion my good friend’s wife once witnessed among the rural poor in Washington State, it matters not that the world takes little notice. In the end, this is what will save us.
Spring 2021 Equinox Newsletter
CONTENTS
JOURNAL NOTES
This summer, CTI continues its annual tree planting project in partnership with the Yellow Dog Community Forest and Big Bay’s Community Presbyterian Church. This season we’ll be planting 500 trees along the river banks of Lost Creek. Volunteers are needed! Folks from all walks of life have joined us over the years. Thanks to Rochelle Dale from the YDWP who is helping coordinate our planting efforts.
Responses to the Global Pandemic continue in ever-shifting extremes. The Cedar Tree Institute (CTI) has chosen a path of carefully measured engagement, holding strictly to public health protocols but offering projects that address rising challenges of mental health, isolation, and substance abuse in rural Northern Michigan. Since the beginning of 2021, efforts have included:
• Zoom training on Mental Health and Religious Life for clergy and lay leaders of the Northern Great Lakes Synod of the ELCA in partnership with Bishop Katherine Finegan’s Leadership Support Check-In Series. 4/13/21
• An article published in Lake Superior Magazine on the gift of maple syrup making – “Old Tradition, New Season,” with a tribute to its origins with the Native American community here in the Great Lakes Basin. 4/5/21
• The publishing of “Time of the Hunger Moon: Saints, Wolves and the Global Pandemic” in, Earth Beat an e-magazine of the National Catholic Reporter. The article addresses the loss of ecological integrity and its connection to the rising threat of dangerous viral diseases. 01/21
• A Guest Editorial in the Mining Journal entitled “Blessing our Home, by Staying in our Home.” Reflections about the irony of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk’s vision of colonizing Mars while the “Blue Planet,” our home, and her ecological health is being ravaged and betrayed.
• A presentation with Pastor Bre Kinnunen on “Spiritual Passages in Young Adults” for the NMU Campus Ministry Association. 2/21
• An interview with Great Lakes ECHO, a podcast of Michigan State University’s Department of Journalism. A conversation on environment, religious faith, and the wolf-hunting controversy waging in Northern Michigan. 2/21
UPDATE from a small town in West Texas during the historic winter storm in February
Emails from Kent Fish, retired ophthalmologist, musician, leader in his Disciples of Christ congregation, husband, father, grandfather and CTI Research Fellow. Written as informal notes to Institute colleagues. Printed with permission.
2/18: “Hi Y’all. Yeah, it’s been a bit chilly down here for the past week. Record 10 inches of snow and low of -2 degrees. Our family has had no toilet use or running water. The city water pipes burst and are still being repaired for several days, but we have had some electricity off and on, so not complaining.
Have had a nice quiet few days of reading Tony Schwartz’ What Really Matters by the fire of, two of Rohr’s books on the Enneagram, and The Zen Teachings of Jesus for my inner Merton, I guess. Supposed to get above freezing tomorrow, so with a thaw we get to see if our pipes have leaks.
2/19: I’ve turned off my water down at the road in front of the house and have lots of yellow snow just off the porch edge since the toilets are frozen. Gonna venture out in the morning in the Subaru to go downtown to church to open our food pantry to try to feed some folks. The all-wheel drive is finally useful! Apparently, the grocery shelves are empty since no trucks can get in.
Another day, another crisis.
It’s been that kind of year.”
IN MEMORIAM
GRACE AND PRESENCE
John Sinclair 1925-2021
We all have “father” figures in our lives. We need them. John Sinclair first connected with the Cedar Tree Institute during a kayak trip in 2001. He joined us in Los Alamos at a Benedictine monastery for yet another retreat, then yet another on the Columbia River. During a break, he and I stood on a Pacific coast cliff together reflecting on the mysteries of life and death. John Sinclair was a retired Presbyterian pastor, a soft-spoken justice activist, and former missionary to Latin America for 15 years. He told a small group of us in New Mexico that he remembered once looking out the seminary window at Princeton and watching a lone figure. It was Albert Einstein, carrying an umbrella across the courtyard. John had three sons, was predeceased by Maxine, his gracious wife of 70 years. Thank you, John, for the ways you blessed me personally with your presence, spiritual strength, and, more than once, special words of encouragement.
William G. “Bill” Davis 1941-2021
In the last issue of the Ecotone December 2020, we offered a gracious bow to the unexpected death of Kathy Davis. The Institute wrote to her husband Bill a brief card on the afternoon of Kathy’s passing. He responded with a gracious handwritten note a few days later. “Thank you. Your’s was the first note received. It will not be forgotten.” Bill Davis suffered a debilitating stroke six weeks later. He died on April 10th. Kathy and Bill were beloved supporters of many of our community’s environmental, and cultural activities.
Carl Hammerstrom 1937-2021
A leader in the Marquette medical community, Carl was a faithful member of Messiah Lutheran Church. For many of us, he was a “larger than life” figure. Carl was among the first to fight for restrictions on tobacco use in the 1990s. He often sent articles on religion and medicine to clergy associated with our congregation. Prayers are with you, Lynne, Eric, and Mary Beth. Carl’s life touched many people in lasting, personal ways.
Darlene Peters 1962-2020
In 1988, my family and I lived in the Pacific Northwest. A Jesuit priest sent a young Native American woman to me one morning to discuss an unplanned pregnancy. Married to a man, also a tribal member, she was beginning a career, struggling with difficult, personal issues. As she left, she shared a dream from her youth. Later that afternoon, I led a workshop for a church in East Seattle. An elderly Danish woman shared a dream from her own teenage years. I was stunned. It was the same dream, in specific details, to what I had heard hours earlier in my office on Sandpoint Way.
A year later, Darlene called to schedule a visit. She entered my office carrying a cradle board. On it, wrapped in a soft blanket, was her newborn daughter, Amy.
In years following, Darlene served with my colleague Ron Adams as a co-facilitator for workshops with teachers and social workers on cross-cultural dynamics. I last saw her one evening in 2018, during a retreat along a remote river in Washington State’s Skagit Valley. On that occasion, Cedar Tree Institute staff gifted her with a Pendleton blanket as a sign of honor and gratitude. Darlene Peters died of COVID-19 on December 20, 2020.
Born with severe disabilities, her daughter Amy, the young newborn I welcomed wrapped in a blanket on that cradle board, died from health complications in 2008.
The dream Darlene shared with me long ago was about one day leading her tribal people. I heard Darlene once ran as a candidate for tribal council. She never won that election. But she carried another kind of power. Days ago, I learned she was one of five persons lost to COVID-19, memorialized by Amna Nawaz on Christmas night’s broadcast of the PBS News Hour. Nawaz cited Peters’ compassion and honesty grounded in her Catholic faith and her traditional cultural spiritual traditions. PBS viewers learned that Peters, an outstanding public speaker, worked for the last years on the Swinomish Reservation as a mental health counselor after completing work on her master’s program. She was 58 years old.
MIND BODY CONNECTIONS
Medical providers are recognizing and seeking to address the roles that emotional, mental and spiritual health plays in physical illness. Thanks to Dr. Michael Grossman, Dr. Kelley Mahar, Denise Dufek, and Barb Ojibway, CTI continues its support in 2021 for front line health workers.
• Hospice staff and area clergy joined together in March and April for The Eagle Wing Project, integrating practices that included reframing, patterned breathing exercises and sustained mindful movement. The setting was Marquette’s Presque Isle Park Pavilion.
• In February, staff of the Women’s Center of Marquette and Alger Counties met for two training sessions. The Moccasin Flower Project also addressed stress and its impact on emotional and physical health. Kelly Mahar and Denise Dufek served as facilitators. Rachael Grossman, renowned Portland-based chef, and her mother Helen provided two lunches as a gift. Those meals could have been served at the finest restaurant in the Upper Midwest! Diana Magnuson graciously presented each participant with a Ladyslipper (Moccasin Flower) print to honor each staff member’s contribution in protecting and providing shelter for women and children in our neighborhoods.
• Thanks to the Superior Health foundation, The Marquette Community Foundation, and the M. E. Davenport Foundation for helping these trainings take place with critical funding support.
• The Cedar Tree Institute continued its Tai Chi Classes in 2021 via Zoom. A total of 18 folks joined us from the Pacific Northwest, New Mexico, Nevada, Wisconsin, and Michigan for Series II and III.
• Outdoor Wednesday evening community Tai Chi classes continued at Marquette’s Mattson Park. Rain or shine. Participants’ ages ranged from 4 years to 82. We dressed for the weather. There were no fees for these Wednesday sessions. CTI’s response to the COVID-19: Our gift.
ON THE HORIZON 2021
NORTHERN GREAT LAKES INTERFAITH WATER STEWARDS INITIATIVE II: Born out of the U.P. faith-based Earthkeeper Covenant 2004-2014, CTI is now in the midst of building collaborative interfaith efforts to address the quality of drinking water in the Great Lakes region. We look forward to working with area tribal leaders, Bishops Rayford Ray and Katherine Finegan, Paul Lehmberg, local Buddhist priest, pastors Bre Kinnunen, Lori Ward, and Wild Church’s Lanni Lantto to bring this vision to fruition.
UPDATE: Over the last four years, the Interfaith Water Stewards Initiative I sponsored a variety of speakers addressing issues around the Flint water crisis and the proposed Aquila Back Forty sulfide mine adjacent to the Menominee River. In January, 2021, former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and eight other officials were indicted on criminal charges related to their handling of the Flint water crisis which poisoned over 12,000 citizens. Aquila Resources, an international mining Company, has been, as of this date, denied its permit due to potential destruction of wetlands.
JANUS PROJECT: A seminar for medical staff, hospice workers, addiction counselors, and clergy. Shadowland: The Dynamics of Loss and Grief. Thunder Bay Inn. Big Bay, Michigan, August.
THE MYSTERY OF TREES: A three-day retreat. TBA. Big Bay, Michigan. September.
SPIRIT OF PLACE: The Dance of Pain and Pleasure: An exploration of brain science, addiction, spirituality and justice. To take place in the midst of one of America’s famous playgrounds. Las Vegas, Nevada. November.
FORAGING FOR HOPE: A one-day workshop with Pastors Scott Ehle and Soren Schmidt. On the ground, searching for edible mushrooms, herbs, and medicinal plants. A day of reflection in an Upper Peninsula forest. Small group reflections on hope, nurture, patience, and spiritual discernment. Chassell, Michigan. September.
One-third of all projects, services and programs of the Cedar Tree Institute are offered pro bono to the community.
Thank you for your support!
Forward we go.
A SACRED JOURNEY
Red Road, a 7,000 mile pilgrimage, soon begins in Northwest Washington State stopping at seven indigenous sacred sites across North America with an exquisitely carved 24’ cedar totem pole. It will be stewarded on the journey by a Lummi Indian tribal delegation including CTI friends Kurt Russo and Lummi carver/community activist Jewell James. Both were key figures shaping the Bishop’s Apology of 1987 that continues to serve as a benchmark for North American efforts to restore and protect indigenous spiritual practices. This gift is scheduled to arrive in Washington DC in August.
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 2021 Equinox Newsletter is brought to you by Cedar Tree Institute.
