December 17, 2011
Hello!
If your life is like mine, you are in the midst of the rush before the holiday. There are gifts to purchase, cookies to bake, foods to prepare, friends to see and holiday cards to write. It is amazing how easy it is to get caught up in the rush, to join the thousands of other people who have near impossible lists of things to do dogging their every step. Don’t you have the urge just to stop the madness, to simply put your foot down and refuse to engage in the insanity that is meant to create a meaningful holiday experience for those you love? I do, but even if for a moment I am able to put those feet down firmly, the flow of those around me quickly takes the ground from beneath my feet, and there I am again, rushing from here to there, to everywhere.
A friend of mine shared with me a conversation he had with a girl he is dating. She works 80 hours a week, and then when she’s not working, she’s running 10-15 miles a day. She doesn’t have time to talk to him, let alone spend time with him. He asked her: What are you running from? She didn’t like the question. But it’s a good one. What are we running from? What would happen if we stopped running, stopped trying to complete that near impossible list of things which must be accomplished in the next 8 days for those of us who celebrate Christmas and in the next 3 days left those of us who celebrate Hannukah? It is so counter-seasonal, this crazy rushing headlong across the shopping malls and grocery stores of our time. We are approaching the Winter Solstice, December 21st, the shortest day of the year. In this part of the earth, nature has gone to sleep; it has slowed way down; it has allowed its metabolism to slow down so that just enough is happening to sustain life. Meanwhile, we humans rev up our activities. We try to conquer the dark with lights all over our houses. We try, as best we can, to avoid the quietness of this time of year, filling it with movie openings, shopping sales, caroling, concerts, theatre, and all kinds of company and family parties. As nature rests, to prepare itself for the spring of new life, we human beings continue to find ways to burn up our energy, to make things happen in our day to day lives, so that we don’t rest, contemplate, enjoy the life that is ours.
There is something amazing about the degree to which we human beings can live independently of the rhythms of nature. There is also something troubling about it, because we have so removed ourselves from those rhythms that we act as if they don’t matter to our lives. In fact, our culture is very much at ease with the idea that nature exists to serve human needs. Human science and technology will make nature serve human purposes. We can see this in our insatiable search for fossil fuels, impelling us to find those fuels in ever more remote places, using ever more sophisticated technologies, with insufficient attention to the consequences to nature and to society that the use of such technologies might engender. We pursue a very comfortable, even luxurious, lifestyle with little attention to the cost of that lifestyle on the planet and on those human beings in our society who often bear the brunt of the waste from our lifestyle. Despite our belief in the capacity of science and technology to overcome any natural limit, the facts of nature are that our resources are limited, our lifestyle does have a devastating impact on the environment, people, and animals, and plants and water and soil and air, all are negatively impacted by the way we live our life, out of tune with the rhythms and integrity of nature.
Perhaps the wisdom of a time like this, the winter solstice, is to stop our relentless activities, to slow down, to take a hint from nature itself. Perhaps the take away from nature’s witness is that we human beings need to reflect upon the wonder of our existence on this blue planet, and our interconnectedness with all of creation, and our dependence on the resources of our natural home. Perhaps slowing down, reflecting upon and being grateful for this beautiful planet might give us insight into how to live more gently and more respectfully on it.
As the winter solstice approaches, I wish you a peaceful holiday season, one in which your life will more clearly reflect the rhythms of this time of year.
Mark Doorley
President, The Board of Trustees
The Center for Environmental Transformation
www.camdencenterfortransformation.org
NEWS & NOTES
1. The first Saturday of January, January 7th, will be a clean up day at the Center. From 9AM til Noon we will get the Center into tip top shape in anticipation of the arrival of our first retreat group of 2011 on Sunday, January 8th. Please join us. Contact Mark Doorley at markdoorleynj@verizon.net if you can make it.
2. On Wednesday, December 21st, Brigid’s House, in the Waterfront South neighborhood, is hosting “In Love with Night,” a Winter Solstice celebration. All will gather at 1719 Ferry Ave. for a brief Solstice observance, followed by a light-bearing and caroling stroll through the neighborhood, to conclude around the hearth of Brigid’s House with a warm drink. For more information, contact Cassie MacDonald at 856-448-3044 or email her at peacecatcamden@yahoo.com.
3. Every year Sacred Heart Church in our neighborhood delivers over 1100 baskets of food to people who live within the parish boundaries, which is most of South Camden. The preparation is enormous. There will be opportunities to assist in this effort next week. On Thursday, December 22nd, from 10AM – 1PM and 6PM – 8PM and on Friday, December 23rd, 10AM – 1PM, 6 – 8PM assistance is needed with preparing the baskets. Please contact Cathy Fox at littleredfox650@aol.com if you’d like to help. The baskets are delivered to the families on Saturday, December 24th, beginning at 9:30AM. This is an amazing experience! If you can help out, please contact Cathy Fox.
4. Last week the Board of Trustees of the Center kicked off the 2012 Capital Campaign. Many of you may have received something from us through the postal service. If you have not, it is because we don’t have your mailing address. (You can remedy that by sending it to info@camdencenterfortransformation.org. ) However, you are certainly invited to be partners in reaching our goal of $50,000. The capital campaign is aimed at raising the money necessary to complete the replacement of all the windows in the retreat center, to completely redo the front entrance of the Center, and to restore the side porch to its former glory. Please join us in making this possible. You can make a contribution through PayPal on our website, or you can send a check made payable to “The Center for Transformation” to 1729 Ferry Ave., Camden, NJ 08104. Please write “capital campaign” on the memo line. Once the renovations are completely done we plan a gala event and will invite everyone to celebrate the completion of this renovation project which began in 2008.
5. Remember, as you complete your holiday shopping, that we have Fr. Michael’s “Green Book,” a collection of his monthly letters available, as well as copies of the DVD “The Poet of Poverty,” based on those letters available. You can order them through our website, or send a check payable to the Center for Transformation to 1729 Ferry Ave., Camden, NJ 08104. Be sure to write on the memo what you would like.
6. Please visit Living On Earth, a National Public Radio show, at www.loe.org. This is a fantastic site for stories from throughout the world about nature, all of it. For example, this morning they did a piece on why ducks and song birds don’t seem to be bothered by the cold of ice and snow. Do you know why they don’t get cold feet? Click here to get the answer.