Thanksgiving

About a month ago we went on a staff retreat and work planning session at a Jesuit centre in Guelph. About 650 acres, it's an old growth forest project, an organic farm and market, and an allotment of community gardens (overseen by no less a saint than St. Francis of Assisi).



It also provides affordable, community space for not-for-profits, and is a source of contemplation for all who walk its grounds.


As Kelly has noted, I'm a blogging laggard these days, but the delay in posting these pictures, especially the very Catholic one above, a statue of Jesuit founder St. Ignatius Loyola heading resolutely into the wind, was attributable to something a little deeper. Soon after our retreat, word broke in the press about another sex scandal involving a Catholic bishop. Kind of hard to work for a church-based organization when this kind of thing happens, kind of hard to maintain your faith, kind of hard to write about it.

But the more I think about it, the more I respect a place like the retreat centre in Guelph, which preaches from such a different text than the bishop in question, and those who defend him. It's a place that understands our deep connection with the world around us, the call to live with respect for every other living thing, the call to think about every action you undertake. It's the kind of faith that celebrates mass outside in bare feet and gets in trouble with the bishop for it.

It's a place to be thankful for. And this weekend, Thanksgiving in Canada, gave plenty of reminders of other things for which I'm grateful.

My mother's pastry recipe, and Kelly's hands which turn it into a beautiful organic apple pie:



Daisy, who scared us all this week with what seems like a delayed allergic reaction to her annual shots, but who recovered enough to do her usual jobs of pastry supervision...


and catching the morning sun:


The simple pleasure of a walk through the neighbourhood, which on Sunday brought with it a wave of migrating hawks (I counted about 25 in one swoop), and beauty by the side of the road:





Hope you had --or will have in the next few weeks-- a very thankful Thanksgiving!