All Will be Well

Julian of Norwich (1342-1416) was a Benectine mystic whose little cell I have visited in Norwich, Norfolk England. She was a recluse and seldom left her little room but she was able to 'see' far beyond the confines of the parish and the present tumult of her day. She wrote the first published book in the English language by a woman and was motivated in her life and writings by her belief that “the [Lord Jesus] will have all our love fastened to Him.”

Fressingfield, in NE Suffolk, is just a few miles due south of Norwich, Norfolk. In and around this little village nestled in small hills, my line of Barbers have lived since at least the 1300's - until my line (through gg grandfather Robert) came to Guelph, Canada in 1836.

Robert was trying, no doubt, to put behind him his recent arrest at a 'riot' at the infamous Bulcamp Workhouse. Conditions in that place seemed to him and others of the day, and to me still, to be intolerable. With so many newly poor and unemployed farm workers, often coming from large families, and with the government's Corn Laws and with the new technologies such as steam threshing machines replacing much sheer manpower' - there was not much hope for many for gainful employment or advance.

Instead they were consigned to the dreadful 'House of Industry,' were called 'inmates' and in the case of spouses separated into the men's or women's quarters. Frustrated, the agricultural populace sizzled, boiled and finally blew in this and many other similar settings throughout England.

I treasure notes indicating that Robert's father William paid surety to gain his release, perhaps so he could travel to Canada with a family whose daughter, Harriet Oakes, he would soon marry in this 'new world.'

Who knows how things - born of awful, evil circumstances will ultimately turn out, with influences evolving towards the good of generations yet unborn?

We too, in the chaos, frustrations - and in the midst of the seemingly random events that influence us in so many ways - make our own choices and sacrifices. Perhaps, even in struggle and uncertainty, they reflect the same light of hope and ultimate rest in which Dame Julian lived. In such faith she would say: All shall be well, and all shall be well; and all manner of things shall be well.

Things We Carry

An old cart in vieux Montreal reminds me that we carry with us, in our hearts, things that are colourful and beautiful, that live with us still.

Next Generation

My son Andrew and his wife Dana, at a recent wedding in Montreal.

Life - Ambiguous & Abundant

My mother's mother's mother was christened in London, England at the beautiful historical church, St. Martins in the Fields. I love the dicta of their Ten Point Charter and especially the last one's wording: We are committed to identifying and affirming what is good and identifying and opposing what is evil, and living as best we can in the mess in the middle.

Yes . . . humbly seeking to live with and for Christ as best we can - in the mess in the middle.

Discouragement

Every once in a while we just seem to lose steam. I think it was Dr. Leslie Weatherhead - not only one of the world's great preachers, but also a distinguished psychologist who had that experience. It is said that in middle-age he entered a period of depression that was one of almost unrelieved darkness.

One of the things that helped him was a quotation from Robert Browning:
If I stoop into a dark tremendous sea of cloud
It is but for a time.
I hold God's lamp close to my breast.
Its splendour soon or late will pierce
the gloom.
I shall emerge one day.

A Favorite Author

Frederich Buechner always challenges my faith, inspires my heart and gives new insight into both how to understand and how to say things that are important.

Here's an example - "The story of Jesus is full of darkness as well as of light. It is a story that hides more than it reveals. It is the story of a mystery we must never assume we understand and that comes to us breathless and broken with unspeakable beauty at the heart of it yet by no means a pretty story though that is the way we're apt to peddle it much of the time.

"We sand down the rough edges, play down the obscurities and contradictions. What we can't explain, we explain away. We set Jesus forth as clear-eyed and noble-browed whereas the chances are he can't have been anything but old before his time once the world started working him over and, once the world was through, his clear eyes were swollen shut and his noble brow as much of a shambles as the rest of him."

Marvellous!