Another Oasis

The world in 2011 is a place cluttered with things that make is difficult to be a young person. 26% of children are being raised in single parent homes. Depression affects 20% of Canadians, suicide is the second most common cause of death in the 15-35 age range. 15% of children are living in poverty. 1% have been direct witnesses of domestic violence. In a world like this, all of us, especially children, need a place where none of that is true. We need an oasis that shelters us from the violence and depression that envelops the world.

                The Fresh Air Fund was founded in 1877 by a pastor (Willard Parsons) who wanted “to allow children living in disadvantaged communities to get away from the hot, noisy city streets and enjoy free summer experiences in the country.” It is focussed on children from New York City and has helped 1.7 million children since its inception. One such child is a girl who comes to stay with us once a year for a few weeks in the summer.  It is one more way in which we can seek to be a blessing to those around us. I have spoken of designing our home to be an oasis to help rebuild and refresh us for the battle, but it can also be an oasis of blessing and refreshment for others. An uncluttered home leaves room to be a blessing to others.

                New York City, the base of operations for the Fresh Air Fund and where all the participating children live, has a population density fifty times that of Niagara. Open spaces are therefore rare and grass and trees are an occasional sight from a distance. The background noise is always at least as loud as a loud television and violence is much more prevalent.

                From out of this world, our guest comes to us via the Friendly Town program of the Fresh Air Fund. We enjoy having her and I think she enjoys being here. We are glad that for a few weeks each year we can provide a place that is decidedly unlike New York: quiet, green, not crowded, safe and filled thanksgiving, joy and contentment.

                In a world that is thankless, filled with sorrow and violence, we are thankful our home can be an oasis in which we bless others and seek to inspire them to live lives of purpose and commitment to God.

The Simplicity of Advent

          G.K. Chesterton, the British novelist, poet, satirist and Christian of the early 20th Century, said that “Weak things must boast of being new, like so many new philosophies. But strong things can boast of being old. Strong things can boast of being moribund.”

As my wife and I have established our seasonal traditions, we have slowly realized that, like Chesterton, it is the ancient customs that most speak to our hearts. Further, I am convinced that it’s often the small matters than can be the most important, or significant, or linger longest in the memory. So, we have constructed our holiday traditions based on the Middle Age custom of Yuletide which combines history with a counter-cultural simplicity. The Yuletide season, as traditionally constructed, begins four weeks before Christmas Day with Advent. This is meant to be a time of preparation for Christmas.

Now today, preparation for Christmas may typically involve detailed plans for the holidays, rushing about and purchasing presents, visiting family and friends, transporting children to this program and that and trying to fit everything before the end of the year.

But that is not the old tradition. The old tradition is, I suggest, a better tradition, a quieter tradition. When it was first observed, Advent was meant to be a time of quiet preparation and reflection upon Christmas and what it means and why we need it. So our Advent preparations happen early and are designed to create an atmosphere of reflective, joyful anticipation in our home. Once these things have been done, regardless of how busy the rest of the season starts to become, we know most of the preparations for Christmas are complete.

Advent begins as we mean for it to continue: in simplicity. We hang mistletoe by the front door. Now, mistletoe has long been used for its medicinal properties and even when everything else was dead in winter, despite the wind and snow, the mistletoe plant was still there and ready with its healing, life-giving berries. It therefore became, a symbol of God’s provision and grace and a sprig of was hung by the door as a reminder. Over time it became a custom for husbands and wives to kiss underneath it as a reminder of the gift each was to the other. With each kiss, a berry would be plucked and the bare sprig in spring would be a reminder of God’s covenantal blessings and the love present in the home.

To further that love and togetherness, we also construct a gingerbread house. Though, to call it a house is not always accurate: we have built houses, barns, a three foot condominium and a scale model of the Woolworths Building! Together, we design, bake, construct, decorate and display it in time for our next tradition, a tree-trimming party.

                The Christmas tree is another old tradition that is meant to symbolize the Christmas story with its lights, decorations, fragrance and angel or star on top. Each year, on the first Saturday of December, we invite our friends to gather at our home for food, singing and to help decorate the Christmas tree. It has become a tradition not just for us but for every one of the 60 or so people who attend. Our tree then becomes a reminder to us, not just of Christmas, but of the love, and friendship and warm feelings of fellowship that takes us all the way through to Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve represents, for us, the culmination of Advent. After weeks of quiet, reflective preparation, we loudly celebrate with the French Canadian tradition of the tourtierre. I was unaware of what a tourtierre was until I was reading a history of New France and discovered this savoury meat pie made with a variety of delicious ingredients deep with symbolism: the meat, representing material blessings, potatoes, things of substance and the rich variety of spices, the nuances of life together. It is thus a meal to be taken with family or close friends in thanksgiving and anticipation.           

                So, in the Marsh house, we have developed our own traditions, but based them largely on the ancient traditions, to prolong the holidays and keep them focussed on what really matters to us: simplicity, love, family, hope, reflection, faith in God and thanksgiving for Jesus. So, to me, Christmas is just a day, but Yuletide...Yuletide is the best season of the year.