beauty and meaning

Beauty and Meaning

“By its very nature life is full of meaning, for the God who said “let there be light” also proclaimed it good. And the God who said “let us make humankind” also blessed us and proclaimed us to be very good indeed.” Br. James Koester, Society of Saint John the Evangelist, ssje.org, Brother, Give Us a Word, November 10, 2018.

We are gathered this weekend with a group of friends who meet once a year on the top of Petit Jean Mountain to give thanks for Camp Mitchell, the camp and conference center for the Episcopal Church in Arkansas. Our bishop celebrates Eucharist with us, we learn about what has been happening at the camp over the past year and new volunteer opportunities, and we give money for a project for the new year. We have paved roads and paths for those who are handicapped, remodeled buildings, and contributed to a farm program, but mostly we hope to educate people about the camp so they can go back home to remind others of this natural jewel.

Our camp has changed lives, especially those of our children and youth. This is where so many have met God.

The camp is strategically built on the brow of a small mountain overlooking the Arkansas River Valley and the Arkansas River. In the early morning, clouds fill the valley and we cannot help but feel we are indeed in heaven. Each evening, the sunset paints a new pink and orange and red panoramic skyscape that no other artist has been able to duplicate. Indian caves with their faint markings live below while three hundred-million-year-old fossil rocks live beside us at every turn as reminders that life was here long before we were.

Every inch of nature on the mountain is spectacular, but living on the brow is not an easy life for human dwellings. The wind and rain and electrical storms take their toll. The upkeep is high. So that is why we come together.

We are actually paying it forward to care for a place that has changed our lives to preserve it for those who are coming after us, most we will never know. The beauty of Petit Jean Mountain has not only brought us closer to the God of our understanding but has been one of our best teachers about stewardship, caring for a precious pearl of great price that we have been privileged to view for a nanosecond of its existence.

I will keep permanently in my mind this image from our opening Eucharist just after the sun set last night. We light candles around the altar to remind us to give thanks for all those who were here before us who cared for this land. We also light candles to give thanks for our children and grandchildren and great grandchildren who will come to this holy ground long after us.

Joanna Joannaseibert.com

Mentors

Mentors and friends

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us. Hebrews 12:1

I have a friend and mentor, Isabel Anders, whom I first met many, many years ago in her Advent book, Awaiting the Child, An Advent Journal. She wrote the Advent of her first pregnancy about the meaning of Advent to a woman who also was preparing for a child. It is still one of my favorite books to read in Advent, and I often give the book to other women who are expecting a baby during the Advent season.

I wrote to Isabel when I first started writing. She encouraged me and directed me to places where I could send my writing. Isabel and I reconnected several years ago when I realized she was the editor of Synthesis CE, www.synthesispub.com, a lectionary study guide based on the revised common lectionary especially for sermon preparation and Christian Education. We have never met face to face, but still share writings and encourage each other now almost weekly. We may know each other better than many friends who daily visit face to face.

Phyllis Tickle likewise was a friend and mentor. I timidly walked up to her at a book signing at a conference and asked if she looked at other author’s writings. Without hesitating, she immediately gave me her email address and told me to send her what I had written. She encouraged me, took time to read my material, suggested places to send it to, and wrote endorsements. Another friend, Duke Cain introduced me to Keith Miller who also encouraged me even though he was still so busy with his own writings. I can never express to these four people what a difference they made in my life. I can only pay it forward and hopefully do the same for others who ask for input about a talent or career they hope to pursue.

This is about gratitude, gratitude for those who take the time to help us along the way, those who encourage us. We must never forget them, give thanks for them, and in some small way, repay them by doing the same for others. How easy it is to believe that we achieved goals on our own, when along the way there are so many people to thank for guiding us.

Our community connections may not simply be the people who live near us. Our small group, so to speak, may be many miles away. Duke Cain, Keith Miller, and Phyllis Tickle have died, but I still feel their presence and encouragement. Keith and Duke and Phyllis and Isabel have been a part of the communion of saints in my life, living and dead, and “God helping, I want to be one too.”1

We are called to remember that we are never alone as we are constantly “surrounded by a cloud of witnesses supporting and caring for us.”

Joanna joannaseibert.come

1”I Sing A Song of the Saints of God,” Lesbia Scott

Hope and Beauty

Wendell Berry

“If you’re aching over the ugliness and unworthiness of the current American situation, take hope in the beauty of the Hannah Coulters of our world—who have lost so much and yet never been defeated.” Parker Palmer, Christian Century, October 24, 2018, vol. 135, no. 22. p. 24.

This recent Christian Century issue asked well- known authors, “What book would you describe as beautiful?” Parker Palmer’s source of beauty was Hannah Coulter, one of Wendell Berry eight novels about a fictional town, Port William, near the Kentucky River. Berry knows this land well since he and his family have farmed there for many generations. Parker was drawn to Hannah’s beauty as an icon of an elderly survivor of the death of two husbands who still could not be defeated by life as she renews a relationship with her community and the land. She tells her story simply and never loses hope even when her three children leave the farm. Hannah’s story is one of adaptation.

Our book group some years ago read A Place in Time, another book by Wendell Berry composed of twenty stories about the history of the Catletts, the Coulters, the Penns, the Rowanberrys, the Milbys, the Branches, from the end of the Civil War in 1864 to 2008 in Port William. These also are stories of the survivors of a hard life. Beulah Gibbs narrates her own story of how she and her family accumulated their possessions and land as she watches all being sold at auction so she can have money to go into a nursing home. Her worldly goods look different and not as important when they sit out on our lawn rather than in her living room. They are not as meaningful when they lose their relationship to each other.

Beulah Gibbs survives with memories of all that long life with her family on the farm keeping her company, as she looks forward to the caring visits of her community and those she loves.

I remember the story of the farmhand who has a crush on the preacher’s wife just before he goes off the World War II, but I have already forgotten many of the stories. However, as I pick up the book, I like Palmer, also remember and feel hope and beauty being personified in the pages of the twenty stories.

I am learning a little about connecting hope to beauty and want to continue to read about both, especially from masters of hope and beauty such as Berry and Palmer.

Joanna joannaseibert.com