The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) broaden the scope of the Millenium Development Goals (MDG) which were established at the turn of the century with the goal to help developing countries reduce extreme poverty and hunger, prevent deadly diseases and expand primary education to all children by 2015. By 2013 many goals had noticeably been achieved such as combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis and improving maternal and child health. However progress towards the MDGs was uneven and some were not able to be realized. Further action and global commitment was required!
A Global Effort for our Common Home – International United Nations Day
Seventy-four years ago on October 24 the United Nations established its founding charter. To mark this day, we have to think big, to think globally to all that has been achieved by this global effort to work for peach, justice and humanity. The Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, states the importance of this institution, “UN Day highlights the enduring values of the Charter, which entered into force on Oct 24, 74 years ago…Amid stormy global seas the Charter remains our shared moral anchor.”
A Harvest of Communion
Recently at Villa St. Joseph we held our annual Harvest Barbecue for the gardeners of our Organic Community Gardens. We supply the burgers & hotdogs, they all bring something from their garden plot for the feast.
Our Blue Communities Update
With the Federal Election coming October 21, let's take a look at what water promises are being made to Ontario voters. Our Fall
has a lot of updates. Including:
The chronic gap in drinking water access for First Nations across Canada is one of the few water issues that all four Ontario parties agree on. All want to end long-term DWAs by 2021
Just in time for Thanksgiving, here are some teachings from what Robin Wall Kimmerer calls
'The Honourable Harvest':
Ask permission of the ones whose lives you seek.
Abide by the answer.
Never take the first. Never take the last.
Harvest in a way that minimizes harm.
Take only what you need and leave some for others.
Use everything that you take.
Take only that which is given to you.
Share it, as the Earth has shared with you.
Be grateful.
Reciprocate the gift.
Sustain the ones who sustain you, and the Earth
will last forever.
from: https://ojibiikaan.com/event/a-teaching-about-honourable-harvest-by-robin-wall-kimmerer/
To learn more about water issues and to take action, visit the Blue Community website.
Do Not Push
If you frequently drive, or crawl along, congested highways like the 401, you have ample experience in the phenomenon that, ‘Life happens while you’re busy making other plans.’ Recently, after a beautiful day of Jubilee celebrations with my religious community in Toronto, I was heading west on the 401 in the early afternoon. Well, you may have guessed it. A trip of about 200 km from Toronto to London should take about two hours or thereabouts, but never four! Yet that’s what it took that day, putting paid to plans I had for the evening.
However, not all was lost. One tends to take in so much more while moving at a snail’s pace. A slow pace can also lend itself to pondering some of life’s big questions, at times triggered by those with whom we share the road. How could I not stop (ah, we already had stopped in our tracks) to take a photo of the humongous truck adjacent to me with the warning Do Not Push emblazoned on its rear? This phrase gave me pause to ponder why I do not take kindly to being pushed. Cold fresh WATER, as advertised by my other huge travel companion, would have been most welcome as I sat there mulling over why most of us resist being pushed. I mean, no one in their right mind would try to push that monstrosity of a truck, but there are plenty of folk who like to push others, for whatever reason. However, my mind drifted into quite a different direction.
If you have read some of my previous blogs, you know that I am a hospital chaplain. Over the years I have spent time with people of all walks of life, but especially with children as I have a soft spot for all those sick kiddos at the hospital where I minister. Preemie babies in incubators and tiny tots in the Paediatric Critical Care Unit tend to really tug at my heart strings. So, while I’m stuck on the 401, the Do Not Push transports me to the hospital where babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit might as well have those words, or ‘I’ll do it my way’, emblazoned on their incubators. “Do Not Push, Doc”, seems to be what these amazing tiny human beings at times say loud and clear. The exceptional nurses who care for these babies refer to it as ‘Preemie Power’. Though tiny and seemingly fragile, and totally dependent for everything on those who care for them, these babies ‘wield’ their power. They grow and thrive at their own pace. They will not be pushed.
At times it may seem as if all that is being done to save a preemie, is in vain. And then, when all looks bleak and those carefully constructed plans and expertise seems to be for naught, those babies surprise everyone. They do it their way, and against all odds begin to thrive. Before you know it, a miracle unfolds before your very eyes. Yes, miracles are not uncommon in the NICU. They are not the kind of miracle that might make the headlines. They are the nearly imperceptible, slow miracles you could miss if you are not attentive to the awesome wonder of tiny babies doubling their birth weight within a couple of weeks, much to everyone’s surprise. I have heard moms call their tiny infant a trickster, who keeps everyone on their toes. No, these babies will not be pushed. But, yes, with tender loving care these incredible babies, as tiny as they are when they are born, grow surprisingly well and given time, go home to lead healthy lives.
- Sr. Magdalena Vogt, cps