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Hold On Tightly

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

I hope and pray that each of you are enjoying this beautiful weekend in some way.
I spent all last week at a monastery in Niagara Falls. It was my third of four weeks of study towards becoming a certified spiritual director.
[ If you are interested in finding out more about what that even means please feel free to send me an e-mail and I will do my best to try and explain it to you 🙂 ]
The monastery is right beside the falls. So when I have breaks I often jump on my scooter and go down beside the water. There’s something about being there that seems to ground me. It might have something to do with growing up in Newfoundland by the ocean. But whatever it is, whenever I am beside the rushing water that is heading toward that giant drop, somehow I seem to be able to forget everything else.
Even though I only get there every six months, I am reminded that this is happening every moment of every day whether I’m there or not. No matter how hard we humans try to destroy something as beautiful as Niagara Falls, we cannot overcome the enormous power of nature.
The same thing is true of life.

No matter how much things can change all around us in our lives and in our work, there are some things that never do change. Sometimes when we get overwhelmed with all that is happening around us, it is helpful to hold on tightly to those things which never do change.
There’s no ignoring the fact but this has been a very difficult a week. News of storms taking out entire communities, gun violence ending the lives of so many innocent people, drug overdoses on our streets, all make us wonder when will it end?
So on this Thanksgiving Day, we hold on tightly to our ‘Niagara Falls’. We clutch dearly onto those things which we cherish and never change no matter what. We offer our thanks on this day for the people and things we have in this life that we love, which will never change no matter what.
By being thankful, we can continue to strive to be the hand of God in the heart of the city.Happy Thanksgiving
Dion

Thanksgiving Prayer
For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
Amen
(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

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