As the time for reflection and report writing increases daily it seems, I have also been making time to simply touch again those places and scenes that have nourished my soul. So today, I wish to invite you to simply share a little number of experiences...
As sugar cane cutting season draws to a close, I have been amazed at how many controlled fires there are on the island. The fields that I have been just cut are sometimes set on fire to burn off a noxious weed plant, called "cow-itch"(?) which can be very toxic if touched. So there are many days when the sky is filled with thick black smoke drifting across the island, blocking
the sun temporarily and leaving residue on cars etc depending how close one is to the site of the burning. I can not help but wonder what effect this might have on those with respiratory illnesses. Yet, cane sugar is a fundamental component of the economic structure of this country. One day the fire was so close to the Forbes residence that I actually became concerned. Mary and I watched as the fire trucks came in just in case things got a little out of hand. Thankfully all was well but I was left with a sense of the panic that one would feel with a major forest fire looming on the horizon.
As I travel this country I have been constantly amazed at how similar many things are to my experiences of life in Southern Ontario. Perhaps it simply takes time to see beyond the palm trees and beaches and tourist places when one visits a country. Development in Barbados looks essentially like development on the fringes of any larger city. At the major crossroads, one is to find the gas station/fast food outlet combinations and the mall of course is just behind them with car dealers and lumber stores filling out the landscape. There is something to be said about the force of our globalization, a force that tries to make everything the same at least at its broad level.
Late last week I went back to Bats Rock Beach for a swim and some final reflections on a painting that I was asked to do as part of the internship review. It was early in the morning and the only other person on the beach was a man doing yoga. Just watching him made everything even more calm and centred. I swam, I thought, I wrote. And then I said goodbye to the place that had started much of my contemplations of how a people and a person can be strong and yet remain porous - an image that the coral rock of this Island had provided me with from the beginning of this journey.
Last Sunday I was asked to do a children's story with a congregation outside of the Bethel Circuit. The young preacher from South District had been assigned to preach at Hawthorne
Methodist church. It was a Sunday when all the preachers from one circuit go and preach at another circuit on the Island. I did my demonstration of how God is in the world using Asian theologian Kosuke Koyama's image of a God that runs from the centre to the horizons to embrace those there and make them part of the centre (see his full message as presented in the 1998 World Council of Churches in Harare at http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/assembly/pth3-e.html. Many of the churches seem to be beginning their reflections of how to be the people of God in this new day of a challenging global Empire. Those are important places for all of us to struggle on how to understand God in different ways and how to understand ourselves in relation to the activity of God in the world. The people at Hawthorne enjoyed the demonstration with the children. I don't think I will ever forget using this as a way to open that critical discussion.till next time...many blessings!
Life is good when thoughts and experiences mesh into a fabric that becomes stronger each day.
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