Anyone recall my blog entry from last year at this time about this Advent book by Gayle Boss with lovely illustrations by David Klein? Okay, just pretend you do. All Creation Waits develops the theme that the Advent season, which begins the Christian year and ushers us toward the celebration of Christ's birth, is a time of expectant waiting. But it isn't just Christians or humans who participate in this quiet, powerful unfolding. All Creation yearns for the coming of the Christ.
What does it mean to be participants in a time of holy anticipation? How do we centre down and awaken to the possibilities of this season when secular culture almost demands that we be hurried and harried consumers?
Today Ruth and I will participate in what is called a Guided Forest Therapy Walk. These walks are mindful sensory and connective experiences in nature conducted by a trained person in this particular program. Our walk guide will be Stana Luxford Oddie from the Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority. Stanna was featured in a CBC news piece and I was intrigued by what she had to offer. I met with her a few weeks ago and enjoyed our conversation, so off we will go in multiple layers of clothing for a non-religious but contemplative walk in the woods with strangers. Here is part of the invitation and instruction for our guided walk: "To allow us to really immerse our senses in the forest we will move very slowly, if at all most of the time. In the 2.5 hours we will go less than 1 km and have many opportunities to sit and be still."
I confess that this will be part Advent preparation, part curiosity fulfillment, part exploration of what might be applied to my hope of becoming something of a Pastor of Woods and Water in the days before me. I experience God profoundly in the natural world and after nearly four decades of leading worship inside a church structure I have a desire to be an "outsider." I'm confident that others are intrigued by this as well.
Does this stir your curiosity? Do you want me to report back, providing we don't perish on a lonely forest trail this afternoon? Here is the CBC article and another from the United Church Observer magazine. After I visited Stana I discovered that there was a piece there from this past summer! It is quite good, but I ain't climbing a tree.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/forest-therapy-walks-nature-kingston-1.4364550
http://www.ucobserver.org/myls/2017/07/dip_in_the_woods/
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