I sit here on Christmas day and I am silent, truly silent. Today I actually notice the hum of the freezer and the whisper of the furnace blowing through the vents. I look out the window and see the Linden tree pods gently swaying in the breeze. I have been doing my best this advent season to take time each day to be silent and do my advent readings, but each morning I had a limited amount of time before I had to rush off to work in a busy retail store.
This advent we were encouraged through our Sunday services to take time. We learned of how in the Ancient Near East water was at a premium and was very effective as an image for abundance. In our culture, time is at a premium. Today it is a luxury for me to sit here and soak in the silence and reflect on this past year and what my hopes and dreams are for the next.
In her book “Amazing Grace” Kathleen Norris discusses and experiment that she did with various children’s classes where she made a deal with them that “first you get to make noise and then you’ll make silence”. P.16 When she raised her hand the children would make as much noise as they could and then when she would lower her hand they would have to be quiet. It took a few tries to get it down, making sure that no pencils were rolling off desks, or that not a one was shifting in their chair.
Then after the exercise she asked the children to make illustrations to express how they felt in the noise and then in the silence. She found that what was most interesting about the experiment was how “silence liberated the imagination of so many children.” P.17 When they drew images of making noise most of them were clichés like “we sound like a herd of elephants”, but when they drew images of themselves making silence she found a great deal more depth and maturity. One child described their picture as “Silence is spiders spinning their webs, its like a silkworm making its silk”. The most poignant comment made by a young girl that Norris keeps returning to in times of busyness and distraction was “Silence reminds me to take my soul with me wherever I go”.
I too find a lot more clarity and depth in reflection when I make time for silence and journaling. Even today am better able to process what my aspirations are for the next year. I feel that I am in a time of transition that requires mindfulness and prayer about what is next for me. Fortunately I have not completely missed Advent with the busy retail season, we have yet to reach Epiphany and I look forward to taking more time each morning to read, reflect and pray now that the rush is over. Since moving to Toronto 2 and a half years ago I have been working at Ten Thousand Villages. Before I worked at Villages I was also a volunteer there for 2 years. I believe strongly in advocating for the artisans and their right to be paid fairly for what they make and to advocate for them to ensure that they can send their children to school and have access to health care and to better their communities. I have spent my last many years advocating for global change and global goals. I grew up not far from Toronto – just across the lake. I spent a lot of time looking across Lake Ontario to see the CN Tower and the Skydome. I would drive over the “Niagara Skyway” peering over the median to get a look at the CN tower if it was a clear day. Now Zak and I live here and when I look across the lake, I don’t see St. Catharines. I LIVE in Toronto now. It used to be a large foreboding place. I felt intimidated every time I would drive in on the Gardiner. I would start shaking, hoping that I would take the right exit and get to my destination all right. Zak and I spent our first year in Toronto living downtown. I wondered, how do people LIVE here? We did not know any of our neighbours. Everyone was held tightly in their little cells stacked on top of each other. We spent our first year here scouting the city out. We knew we didn’t want to stay downtown for long. We slowly began to realize that Toronto is FULL of neighbourhoods. I would work with the volunteers at my store and they would mention all these places that I never heard of. “Riverdale, Riverside, Leslieville, The Beaches, Rosedale”. I would go for frequent runs from our downtown apartment and see how far I could get. I started out with my loop around Coronation Park just southwest of Bathurst, along the lake. I inched my way further along the Lakeshore trail, past Ontario Place, past the Exhibition Centre, past the Argonaut rowing club, the Legion and Sunnyside Pavilion. Eventually I made my way to High Park. As soon as I stepped on the trails, that’s when I felt at home in Toronto. I realized that people do actually LIVE in Toronto – Families are here, there ARE people in the neighbourhoods. Now we have moved to the West End and I am familiar with Roncesvalles, High Park, Parkdale, Dufferin Grove and many more. When we moved from Edmonton to Toronto, I had only finished 3 years of my degree from the University of Alberta. Since then I have been working on my last year of courses bit by bit through correspondence coursework. It has taken me another 3 years to finish my last year, but I am on the homestretch and hope to be done and graduate in the next few months. Once I finish I want to take a more active role in my community in Toronto. I have been working for global issues at Villages, and am excited about all the possibilities to volunteer and work to make my community in Toronto a better place too. I don’t know where my place is yet, but I know that there is some way for me to advocate for social issues, maybe help with job creation and training, and food security issues. These are just a few areas of interest I have in common with certain organizations making a difference in Toronto, and I look forward to playing more of an active role in the near future.
I too find a lot more clarity and depth in reflection when I make time for silence and journaling. Even today am better able to process what my aspirations are for the next year. I feel that I am in a time of transition that requires mindfulness and prayer about what is next for me. Fortunately I have not completely missed Advent with the busy retail season, we have yet to reach Epiphany and I look forward to taking more time each morning to read, reflect and pray now that the rush is over. Since moving to Toronto 2 and a half years ago I have been working at Ten Thousand Villages. Before I worked at Villages I was also a volunteer there for 2 years. I believe strongly in advocating for the artisans and their right to be paid fairly for what they make and to advocate for them to ensure that they can send their children to school and have access to health care and to better their communities. I have spent my last many years advocating for global change and global goals. I grew up not far from Toronto – just across the lake. I spent a lot of time looking across Lake Ontario to see the CN Tower and the Skydome. I would drive over the “Niagara Skyway” peering over the median to get a look at the CN tower if it was a clear day. Now Zak and I live here and when I look across the lake, I don’t see St. Catharines. I LIVE in Toronto now. It used to be a large foreboding place. I felt intimidated every time I would drive in on the Gardiner. I would start shaking, hoping that I would take the right exit and get to my destination all right. Zak and I spent our first year in Toronto living downtown. I wondered, how do people LIVE here? We did not know any of our neighbours. Everyone was held tightly in their little cells stacked on top of each other. We spent our first year here scouting the city out. We knew we didn’t want to stay downtown for long. We slowly began to realize that Toronto is FULL of neighbourhoods. I would work with the volunteers at my store and they would mention all these places that I never heard of. “Riverdale, Riverside, Leslieville, The Beaches, Rosedale”. I would go for frequent runs from our downtown apartment and see how far I could get. I started out with my loop around Coronation Park just southwest of Bathurst, along the lake. I inched my way further along the Lakeshore trail, past Ontario Place, past the Exhibition Centre, past the Argonaut rowing club, the Legion and Sunnyside Pavilion. Eventually I made my way to High Park. As soon as I stepped on the trails, that’s when I felt at home in Toronto. I realized that people do actually LIVE in Toronto – Families are here, there ARE people in the neighbourhoods. Now we have moved to the West End and I am familiar with Roncesvalles, High Park, Parkdale, Dufferin Grove and many more. When we moved from Edmonton to Toronto, I had only finished 3 years of my degree from the University of Alberta. Since then I have been working on my last year of courses bit by bit through correspondence coursework. It has taken me another 3 years to finish my last year, but I am on the homestretch and hope to be done and graduate in the next few months. Once I finish I want to take a more active role in my community in Toronto. I have been working for global issues at Villages, and am excited about all the possibilities to volunteer and work to make my community in Toronto a better place too. I don’t know where my place is yet, but I know that there is some way for me to advocate for social issues, maybe help with job creation and training, and food security issues. These are just a few areas of interest I have in common with certain organizations making a difference in Toronto, and I look forward to playing more of an active role in the near future.