Zion Calendar

Monday 14 October 2013

General Secretary's Weekly Letter






October 11, 2013


Dear Friends,

Landing last week in Sudbury, Ontario, felt so familiar, even though I don’t know the place well and hadn’t been there for years. The topography of rocks, lakes, and trees reminded me of Yellowknife, one of my beloved former homes.

Will Kunder, Executive Secretary of Manitou Conference, knew exactly what I meant; we knew each other first when we both lived in Yellowknife in the 1980s and worshipped together at the United Church there.

As I prepare to spend Thanksgiving weekend in Port Stanley, Ontario, in my native Elgin County, one of the things I’m thankful for is the many places I’ve called home over the years. The landscapes of each of those places are somehow a part of me now:

  • the Yellowknife terrain where I paddled, hiked, skied and snowshoed, with the familiar collection of houses nestled on rocks
  • the limitless views over Frobisher Bay from the street where I lived in Iqaluit and the hills all around where you could hike (or ski or skidoo) forever
  • the long roads through prairie landscapes and the gentle introduction to urban life that Regina offered after my years in the North
  • the leafy streets of my neighbourhood in Toronto, connected to the heart of the city by subway yet a community in itself, too
  • and first and always, the fields and Carolinian forests along Lake Erie’s north shore in Elgin County. 
Those landscapes are part of me, and so are the friendships that cheered me and shaped me in each of those homes along the way.

Any of these places could have been home through a whole rich life, and yet I feel blessed to have been part of them all, each quite different from the others, and yet all part of the tapestry of our wonderful nation.

Thinking of all this reminds me that God’s plans for us are more beautiful and more complete than we could ever imagine ourselves. May God be praised.

Blessings to you in this time of Thanksgiving.

Nora