In his book “Embers – One Ojibway’s Meditations”, Richard Wagamese writes of a great teaching he learned about life from a Woman Elder. My wife has First Nations Status with her roots in the Ojibway nation, she shared this with me. When Wagamese asked this woman about the greatest teaching in life, she responded “You have to make your own moccasins.”
I want to live a Psalm 23rd life for the years I have left. If Jesus really is my Shepherd, and with me 24/7, do I want this? For if I answer this honestly, and say yes, my life is going to be different and that coincides with one of my words for 2024. Different! However, . . .
. . . I will be sharing from my journey in this room. I will expand upon what I am “unlearning” from this new vantage point.
. . . We have kept this practice up and every New Years for the past 25 years have met with a couple on New Year’s Eve, over a great dinner and the four of us have reflected back at the goals we set last year and discuss questions for the coming year. We have notes for these past 25 years and it is very intriguing to look back and see how much has been achieved . . .
As a small boy being raised on our farm, Christmas was a very special time. Each year, our family looked forward to it. Finding the right Christmas tree in the woods behind our farm was the mission. I spent much time through the year in the forest area, building forts. I was always on the look out for that evergreen . . .
The continental divide between North America and Europe runs directly through Iceland. At Pingvellir, the World UNESCO Heritage site, one can literally stand between the two continents and touch both at the same time. I recently did exactly this . . .
I used this analogy to a colleague:
I have entered a room, which I have never been in before. Oh, I have seen the door in the distance and had a perspective of what the room held and was like. Yet, four weeks ago, I opened the door and walked in. I am finding some surprises. I have looked back through the door at what I left behind and sighed.
There are tales of supposed holy sites, holy ground, where it seems conditions are opportune to experience the presence of God.
Eugene Peterson also wondered about these stories and wrote about Flathead Lake, Montana. “I sometimes wondered if something like that could be going on in this place. I sometimes wonder still.”
