A hard time for the planet. A brutal war in Ukraine. Rising inflation around the globe. The pandemic. A climate reckoning that is bringing unexpected, devastating changes to every corner of Mother Earth.
Centuries ago, an itinerant carpenter, a healer and prophet roamed the Middle East during another troubled time. The countryside was occupied by an iron-fisted foreign empire. Peoples and tribes were divided along bitter divisions of ethnicity, race, religion, and social class.
The wandering prophet raised unsettling questions about perception. “Let those who can see, see,” he said. “Those who can hear, hear.” Then he attended wedding celebrations, ate breakfast with fishermen, fed hungry crowds with bread and fish, spent time with children, and carried on extended conversations with strangers at public wells.
Not long ago, Eric Leroy Adams, mayor of New York City, was interviewed about the state of his urban metropolis. A former police officer, he continues to serve as a focus of fierce criticism for not reducing crime to levels expected, not meeting stated goals to change policy enough to move that city to a better place.
Adams responded. “Every word has an accent. It depends on where you place the accent. The word will sound different, even sometimes carry a meaning that you don’t expect.” He used an example. “If you ride the subway 900 times but on the 901st time you encounter a homeless person who’s aggressive and rude, there’s a good chance you will return to your apartment and comment, “This city is going to hell.”
I think Adam’s observation is on to something.
The same goes with health and illness. If an individual lives a relatively long life, but the last months or years are difficult ones, the danger is that this is how they will be remembered. It’s called the “Peak-End Rule” in hospice care. This is a mind-trap. A dangerous one. Atul Gawande, physician and author of “Being Mortal,” confesses he struggles with this regularly in his own life. And how he relates to patients and their families.
Navigating our beautiful, yet often harsh world, hasn’t so much to do with what actually happens to us. It’s about how we understand the life in which we find ourselves.
Adams and Gawande remind us that we each have choices about what moments we choose, and will choose, to shape and define our lives, our work, and our most cherished relationships. We all need help with this. Right up until our last breath. That’s what prophets, healers, friends, and priests are for. Sometimes formal ones. But perhaps, more important, informal ones.
Forward we go.
Fall 2022 Equinox Newsletter
CONTENTS
JOURNAL NOTES
PROJECTS & PRESENTATIONS: Healing Waters Training, Ishpeming.
Our gratitude to the West End Community Health Foundation, which enabled the Cedar Tree Institute to facilitate six trainings in March and April for the “Healing Waters Project.” Based in faith community settings, these events involved our area’s senior citizens. Mind-body strategies were demonstrated and practiced to improve health and reduce stress.
Denise Dufek, health coach, and Michael Grossman , M.D. served as key facilitators. Our appreciation to Steve Solberg, recently retired pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Negaunee, for graciously assisting as community coordinator.
PRAYERS OF STEEL
By Carl Sandburg
Lay me on an anvil, O God.
Beat me and hammer me into a crowbar.
Let me pry loose old walls.
Let me lift and loosen old foundations.
Lay me on an anvil, O God.
Beat me and hammer me into a steel spike.
Drive me into the girders that hold a skyscraper together.
Take red-hot rivets and fasten me into the central girders.
Let me be the great nail holding a skyscraper through blue nights into white stars.
On May 14th, CTI’s Director provided an invocation and closing blessing at the UP Labor Federation’s Hall of Fame Induction for Mike Tibault and Kathleen Carlson . The role of faith communities with organized labor finds deep roots in the 1930’s, especially with the participation and insight of theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. His experience in Detroit as a parish pastor among auto workers provided a sharp-edged, prophetic influence for the vision of progressive Christian leaders. A reading of “Prayers of Steel” closed the evening in honor of Mike, long-time friend of the Institute, a labor activist, and retired union iron worker.
In April, the CTI Director provided a presentation on the practice of harvesting maple syrup for Wild Church, an interfaith venture of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan and the Northern Great Lakes Synod of the ELCA. Lanni Lantto continues to provide leadership for this vibrant, creative ministry along with the support of key volunteers including CTI’s faithful friend and long-time advisor Ken Kelley. Blessings on this visionary work. (REF: www.upwild.org)
On May 20th, CTI presented “The Mystery of the Cedar” for a gathering of the local chapter of PEO Sisterhood, a long-standing philanthropic organization. Coordinated by Garee Zellmer and Judy Baldwin, this event was held at the UMC’s Connection Center in Marquette. The Northern white cedar is essential to the integrity of Michigan’s forests.
On July 16th and 17th, the Cedar Tree Institute facilitated two workshops entitled “Tai Chi: A Dance of Iron and Silk” for the first annual Sacred Forest Festival held in Marquette. Thanks to coordinator Conner Ryan, Director of Unity Yoga. An extraordinary event bringing together folks from an array of backgrounds and ages.
IN APPRECIATION
Nonprofit organizations are high-risk ventures. Most have limited life spans. The best do their work because of a shared vision, wise strategic counsel, and an ability to focus on meeting a real need. All of them are dependent on individual support and donations. One third of projects of the Cedar Tree Institute are carried out at no cost to the community.
Our thanks to people from all walks of life, postal carriers, teachers, wild land forest fire fighters, truck drivers, artists, teachers, physicians, coffee farmers, and carpenters.
FR. JACQUES MARQUETTE: THE RETURN
A DAY OF REMEMBRANCE
On June 18th, 2022, bones of Fr. Jacques Marquette were reburied at their original gravesite in St. Ignace. Prayerfully placed there in June of 1677, they had been missing since 1877. Over two hundred and fifty people joined us. Native American spiritual leaders led the ceremony with guests from Canada, Wisconsin and Washington State. Sounds of traditional Anishinaabe drums and whistles from the bones of eagles flled the Museum Courtyard. Pipe carriers brought prayers and tobacco offerings. Delegates from Marquette University, Milwaukee, also traveled to join us.
At the close of the afternoon, a young Native American fire-keeper from Mackinac Island, looked up to see a single eagle hovering over the gathering.
He sent a photo, taken on his phone, to Br. Jim Boynton, a Jesuit and tribal member, one of the planning team members who helped lead the two days of activities alongside Native spiritual leaders Tony Grondin and Russ Rickley.
To St. Ignace’s Museum of Ojibwa Culture’s staff, Shirley, Tom, and Francie . . . and to Russ, Tony, Jim, Makari, Dan, and Dave, we take a bow to you all for bringing into being this historic day of healing and hope.
And our thanks to Jim Elder and Steve Mattson, special companions on the way.
Father Jacques Marquette has come home.
LITANY OF THE EARTH
By A. Fritsch, S.J. (1971)
An edited poem from
“Words through the Seasons”
Earth, mother of the human race
Dust from which we came
Garment of our loves and yearnings
Bearer of our transgressions
Provider of birds
Nourisher of flowers and plants
Haven from sea storm and air fight
Autumn’s last bloom, telling of our end.
Urn of our bones, grace of our people.
Our home.
Al Fritsch is a Jesuit priest who contacted the Cedar Tree Institute in 2018 with an inquiry. He asked if we would assist in efforts, alongside spiritual leaders from the Native American community, to return the remains of Jacques Marquette back to their original burial place in St. Ignace (1677). Fr. Fritsch, age 90, traveled from Kentucky with a companion, to join us on the day of the reburial in St. Ignace.
The story of “The Return” is now part of a permanent historical record thanks to the work of historian and friend Dan Rydholm. That narrative can be accessed by contacting Shirley Sorrells, Director of the Museum of Ojibwa Culture in St. Ignace,
Accounts of this unusual series of experiences and events regarding “The Return” are documented in the following articles, newspaper stories, and editorials:
*Marquette Monthly Magazine, May 2022
*The Christian Century Magazine, June 15, 2022
*Op Ed Mining Journal, July 2-3, 2022
*St. Ignace News, June 17, 24, 2022
*TV News WPBN/WGTU, June 20, 2022
With an invitation in the January 2022 issue of the Ecotone, and a gracious response of donors for this singular, historical effort, there was no cost, of any financial kind, incurred by the St. Ignace Museum of Ojibwa Culture. A filmed account, documenting this story of hope and healing, is being prepared by Makari Rising. It will be ready for distribution in November and premiered at the 2022 Fresh Coast Film Festival scheduled for October 12 -18. Marquette, Michigan.
IN MEMORIAM
LON EMERICK 1933-2022
One Saturday morning, Lon and his beloved, eagle-eyed wife Lynn led a group of us on a hike among the pines near Little Presque Isle north of Marquette. At the time, he was a professor of Speech Pathology and Audiology at Northern Michigan University. That was 25 years ago. I remember vividly his instruction to the small group of us that had gathered for an Institute workshop we were participating in called “Ways of Seeing.”
“Let’s not talk for a while,” he said. “Let’s allow the trees, the earth, the birds, the rocks, the water to speak to you. Most of us have forgotten how to listen. Let’s try it,” he teased, with a smile. “Let’s see what happens.”
Lon was not only an extraordinary guide to the natural world. He was essentially a remarkable human being. As noted in the obituary penned by his family: “A husband, father, friend, teacher, mentor, author, naturalist, UP lover, runner, inveterate saunterer, and proud descendant of Cornish immigrants.”
He and Lynn were there, over the years, with encouragement, as the Cedar Tree Institute made efforts to mobilize faith communities to engage in collaborative environmental initiatives. They provided key financial support efforts in 2004-2008 as we worked with a Native tribe (KBIC) and at-risk youth to plant wild rice in seven different sites in Marquette, Alger, and Baraga Counties.
As a writer, Lon documented the back story of the struggle to preserve Little Presque Isle from being developed as a site for a coal-fired power plant. Some of us believe that account should be required reading for every citizen and visitor to the Great Lakes Basin. It’s a witness to vision, hope, and what people from all walks of life can do to protect a natural wonder.
Like a weather-tested, long-lived white pine, he stood during most of his years, tall and strong. Tough, as it will be for many of us, he was destined to travel these last years into a final, descent of compromised health and perception.
A shout of celebration for the life you lived, Lon. To Lynn and daughters Mary Ellen and Lynn Elizabeth, our deepest thanks. You helped make him the man we so admired and loved. A beacon for all who choose to celebrate the landscape and waters of this corner of the world.
From Lon’s preface and introduction to “The Superior Peninsula” (1991)
“I believe, with James Joyce, that local explorations may have general, perhaps even planetary significance . . . As in all things which relate to human relationships with the land, Henry David Thoreau said it most eloquently: I love my native valley; ft in it like an acorn in its cup.”
ON THE HORIZON
The Mystery of Trees
A Retreat on Ecology and Spirituality
October 19-22. Big Bay, Michigan
Tai Chi (Mind/Body Practice)
Wednesdays (5:30-6:30 P.M. Sessions)
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Morgan Chapel
Beginning in September
Monday Class 5-6 P.M. Zoom
Journey of Hope
Addiction, Recovery and Healing
A training for substance abuse recovery workers and clinicians. December 7-8. In partnership with Great Lakes Recovery, this event includes a public benefit concert with Grammy-nominated songwriter Mary Gauthier and Jamie Harris. December 8th, 7 P.M. at Messiah Lutheran Church in Marquette.
Falling Upward
Men’s Retreat
Exploring Aging and Spirituality in the Second Half of Life
Fortune Lake Camp, Crystal Falls, MI,
November 2022
Water Stewards II
Drinking Water Interfaith Initiative Coordinated by regional faith communities and Native American Tribes in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. 2022-2025
Thanks to the support of John and Pauline Kiltinen, a book of essays “The Gift of Water” will be printed in fall of 2022. The volume is a compilation of essays written by 42 individuals accompanying our recent four-year interfaith effort (Water Stewards I) to preserve, sanctify and celebrate the waters, streams and lakes of the Northern Great lakes.
CURRENT AREAS OF CONCERN for Citizen Involvement in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula
*Marquette County: Commercial Space
Port Proposed. Ref: www.citizensforasafeandcleanlakesuperior.org
*Menominee County: Sulfde Mine Proposed
Ref: www.upenvironmental.org
*Mackinac County: Pipeline (oil) Proposed
Ref: www.cleanwateraction.org
The Cedar Tree Institute, a nonprofit organization provides services and initiates projects between boundaries of medical institutions, faith communities, American Indian tribes and social action movements. One-third of our services are provided pro-bono.
CTI BOARD
- Jon Magnuson, CTI Executive Director
- Steve Mattson, Financial Consultant, Wells Fargo Private Client Services, Retired
- Jim Elder, Attorney
ADVISORY COUNCIL
- Larry Skendzel, Physician, Hospice Care
- Gareth Zellmer, Consultant, Trainer
- Ken Kelley, Professor Emeritus, NMU
- Rick Pietila, U.S. State Department
- Jan Schultz, Botanist, USFS, Retired
- Michael Grossman, Family Physician
RESEARCH FELLOWS
- John Rosenberg
- Ruth Almén
- Kent Fish
- Joseph Piccione
For information contact us at 403 East Michigan Street, Marquette, MI 49855 or contact us via email. Telephone & Fax: 906-228-5494
The Fall 2022 Equinox Newsletter is brought to you by Cedar Tree Institute.
