Monthly Archives: December 2003

Jeremy Olson has a great blog on the words of Éowyn from LOTR – The Two Towers.

Éowyn states that what she fears most is being caged in so that her life would be lived without valor.

I have just finished seeing the final movie The Return of the King.  I love these stories by Tolkien and have read them to my kids as they were growing up.  The movies capture the story of these books so well that even the pictures developed in my imagination as I read them are not altered a lot. 

I think what we see in LOTR is a common mission – to strike at evil no matter if it costs everything and no matter if the battle is won or lost.  Everyone has their own part they have to play and the success of the mission depends on everyone accomplishing their part in the big story – it is all interlinked.  So you see the people going into battles that would be considered hopeless because they have to try and defeat evil or die in the process.  Dieing is a better fate than becoming evil.  And the ultimate quest of Frodo to destroy the ring is not his alone but belongs to everyone that is fighting evil.  He could not do it without everyone else doing their part.

The integration of stories is maybe seen best in the role of the elves.  The triumph of good with the destruction of the ring will end their existence in Middle Earth.  But it will also allow the life in the Shire to go on in its own good way.

I think we all have our places where God wants us to go.  We could choose to stay in our cages, whatever they are for us, or listen to him and follow him wherever.  I think we, too, are in a long story (to which we know the ending) where we all have our individual parts to play that must be played in order to accomplish what God wants for this world. 

We can be caged in by a lot of things.  Our church institutions can do this to us if we listen to the leaders of them more than to God.  Our human leaders have their own expectations that are not necessarily in sync with God’s plan for our world.  This is a big challenge to those of us who are involved in church leadership.

More than institutions, we cage ourselves when we place ourselves and not God at the centre of our lives.  So we tend to listen to what is good and safe for us and stay in the cages we make.  Like Éowyn we should fear living caged lives with no valor. 

Sundays can be busy days.  For myself the busyness is usually centered around participation in worship, family and church events.  I suspect that for a layperson like myself the busyness is a sort of welcome change of pace created because of things we choose to do.  It’s not work but some days it is hardly classified as quiet and restful. 

Today started out like most of my Sundays – worship practice, then coffee some time to sit in the sanctuary and pray and then the worship service.  Today we had our annual Carol service where we hear the stories behind the writing of the different carols that we sing.  Grace and Johanna sang “Mary Did You Know” – a beautiful song and they did a good job.  I wish we had them sing more often but it is hard to get them to do this without twisting arms.  Today they actually were the ones to suggest it so it got done. 

I seemed to make more than my usual number of mistakes today.  Christmas music is beautiful but not always the easiest to play.  I am always surprised that it is on the days when I perform the most poorly, in my opinion, that someone will come up after and remark how they enjoyed the music.  I am glad that we don’t have to be perfect to be useful to God.

It was a bit of a rush after church to get home, eat and then get out to the Little Red River Park for our church Christmas party.  Especially since Leo invited David and Kieran home for lunch promising them some tourtière.  So, since the one that had been cooked last night was gone, we had to wait a bit while dinner cooked.  And there were many phone calls as the girls had to call the friends they had invited to the party and make all sorts of arrangements for rides out to the park. 

By 2:30 we were out at the Cosmo Lodge which is right below the ski shack at the park.  We sort of took over a good part of the lodge and had a lot of fun for the rest of the afternoon.  The kids with pliable osseus structures and some crazy adults went tobogganing and sliding, some went sking or snowboarding and the rest of us walked or sat around inside and played games. 

I got out my snowshoes and took a hike up the hill north of the lodge.  There actually wasn’t a lot of snow because the weather has been so mild.  My snowshoes have these wonderful steel teeth (crampons) that make it quite simple to climb hills.  I need to do this more often!  I sat down and reflected when I got to the top of the hill – on how out of shape I am!!

Tonight, we are babysitting again.  Tonight is Annette’s staff party and we promised to look after our wonderful grandson – who incidentally does a lot of screaming when he is mad or upset.  And since he just woke up – Grandma is going to sign off this blog!

A good part of my day has been involed in the making of the tourtière.  And tonight I just had my first piece – have to test these things you know!  It has turned out quite well I think. 

My husbands family, being good French Canadians, introduced me to this delicacy.  Tourtère is a pork pie that is traditionally eaten only at Christmas time.  In fact the first one was not to be eaten until after returning from midnight mass on Christams Eve.  Some parts of the tradition have not been kept.  You can even buy it in Superstore now all year round. 

My version of the tourtière is an adaptation of an old recipie found in the Canadian Cookbook – the ancient ugly brown version which I used in high school home-ec many years ago.  I took this recipe book with me to the Congo and unfortunately that is where it still is.  (One does not evacuate carrying a heavy cookbook!  And how could one choose which of many books are invaluable enough to carry out.)  My recipe was modified while we lived in the Congo due to the fact that it is really hard to grind pork meat in a hand meat grinder – unless you have the refrigeration facilities to keep it real cold.  So I would cook the pork roast till very tender and then put it through the food processer.  It gave it a better texture too and was less greasy than the ground pork version. 

My recipe is sort of like this:
Lean pork roast
One or two onions chopped up
Water to cover
Salt and pepper to taste
About a teaspoon of nutmeg -depending on the quantity of meat

Cook slowly (a slow cooker is great) till the meat is so well done that it pulls apart easily.
Let it cool and skim off the fat.
Process in a food processor till the meat is about the consistency of ground beef.
Fill the pie shells adding about 1/2 cup of liquid over the meat in each pie.
Bake at 350 till the crust is golden brown.

Serve with a spicey tomato sauce or ketchup. 

Richard at connexions links to some very pertinent quotes from Oscar Romero on the Bruderhof Communities site.  I would recommend visiting  the site and reading all of the Advent readings.  Here is one I liked at lot:

The Council says humanity’s mystery can be explained
 only in the mystery of the God who became human.
If people want to look into their own mystery
 the meaning of their pain,
  of their work,
  of their suffering,
  of their hope
let them put themselves next to Christ.
If they accomplish what Christ accomplished
 doing the Father’s will,
 filling themselves with the life
  that Christ gives the world
they are fulfilling themselves as true human beings.
If I find, on comparing myself with Christ,
 that my life is a contrast, the opposite of his,
then my life is a disaster.
I cannot explain that mystery
 except by returning to Christ,
who gives authentic features
 to a person who wants to be genuinely human.

Today was a day spent tying up loose ends before a week off.  I always take the week off before Christmas to get ready for the festivities.  It is nice to be able to indulge oneself this way – being the boss has to have some perks.  And with a lot of kids in my house, I need the time.  Also the kids are now out of school and there are not many holidays that I get to take at the same time as the kids.

Today started out at one of our local community schools with half of the dental team.  The kids I was scheduled to see were not there – go figure!  So after some calls we got the documents I needed to make a year end report, went down to the teachers staff room to help them get rid of some of their Christmas goodies, discussed some of this half of the dental teams concerns, (and saw some of the reasons for them in action), then headed home to strart writing my report. 

We have some serious communication problems going on between the two halfs of the dental team that I have to help sort out.  That is actually the main reason for the report.  A few years ago I did the main administrative work for the program.  Now it is administered by someone more detached.  I guess my heart is in the program and I want to see it succeed, especially for the sake of the kids that are treated at the schools.  So I am trying to take back some of the ownership of it and get the teams working together more harmoniously.  Unfortunately, that means I have to do some confrontation – and I hate doing that.  It just isn’t me!  So I am trying to get the results I need to see without laying blame – by pointing out the areas that must be changed and improved.

One of the problems is working within a very limited budget.  It hasn’t increased since the program started back in 1993/4.  Salaries have increased.  Supplies have gone up in price.  So most of the cutbacks have come in the budget for my time and for parent/community involvement.  Since the budget isn’t going to allow for much increase in my time, I am going to have to do some juggling to squeeze more time out of somewhere without it costing the program anything.

Anyway, I then had to run over to my office for a couple of last minute jobs.  Got to talk to one of my friends who is very involved in the Francophone school.  She is interested in how we are doing at getting our boys siblings over from the Congo – and of course since we are francophone we have the “droit” to enroll them in this school.  She was telling about the Christmas program at the school.  This year one of the teachers from Africa ( a Muslim)  was Santa Claus and his young daughter was Mary in the nativity scene with a blonde,blue eyed, baby girl doll as Jesus!!  What you can get by with in a small school where the majority are Catholic but the school is run by a board independant from the Catholic School Board.  And best of all, it is so small it is like a small country school – everyone knows everyone else like an enlarged family.  The drawback for our kids was the smallness and lack of sports and variety in the program.

The Christmas tree is up and things are beginning to look decorated around our house.  Our creche from the Congo is on the mantle, the candle carousel from the Phillipines is on the shelf, the candles are out, my Santa collection is on the side board and packages are beginning to appear under the tree already.

Today I even put up the tree at the office.  It was a pretty small tree but it will help to make things look cheerful.  I guess it will be decorated tonight or in the morning.  We are only open this week so it does not have to last long. 

I also bought a nice big wreath for my front door.  I like having a real tree.  And decorating with lots of greenery.  At this time of the year with alot of white cold looking stuff outside, it reminds me of the promise of life to come.  And it smells like being in a forest – I like that smell.  We had enough of artificial trees in the Congo – so I am a bit of a real tree fanatic. 

And you know what?  I don’t have to keep this one alive!  I suggested to my son that he could get me a new plant for Christmas since my old croteus has died.  He asked me why he should get me a new plant since I had just finished killing my last one!  My tree will most certainly die and then it can become fuel for the fires at winter festival time.  No guilt there!

The second week of advent is complete.  This week when we have considered the candle of Peace there has not been alot of peace.  It has been hard to think in terms of peace for people who have been displaced by war.  It is hard not to spend time worrying about friends that are too far away, that may be traveling into dangerous situations, whose hopes have been dashed too many times, who now face personal sorrow as well.  

We have just had our staff party and it was fun.  We had a good time together.  And Roger got to treat us all to a little Leonard Cohen. 

It is at times like this that I find it difficult to set aside my worries and enjoy the moment I am in.  We live lives that are sometimes so comfortable that we forget the sufferings of others, both around us and far away.  We would like to live in our fantasy worlds of tinsel and glitter and shiny lights. 

And then all of a sudden I realize that I have been so preoccupied today that I forgot a couple of important events – the Santa Lucia open house and the youth parent meeting!  Can’t go back and do them now. 

I need to celebrate the coming of the Prince of Peace.  I need the peace only he can bring to my life with its worries.  Peace amid the chaos of an unpeaceful world.