Blossoming

I encountered these irises the other day. They made me think of the word iridescent, which is fun to say, but also apt here: producing a display of lustrous, rainbow-like colours. I mean, really, a purple iris — in its delicacy, its impossible perfection, its sheer abandonment in colour and form — is a pretty special thing, not only a thing of beauty, but the culmination of the iris’ purpose in the world.  

I had the opportunity to speak about the idea of blossoming recently, at a memorial service for one of my aunts and a cousin. My aunt died this winter after being in chronic pain from a car accident for twenty years. My cousin, in her mid-fifties, died last December of cancer.

Flowers are important in our family. There are not only gardeners among us, but floral designers and judges. Often gatherings of women in our family have occurred to produce floral creations for weddings, anniversaries, and too often recently, funerals. We did this again before the memorial service for my aunt and cousin, remembering them as our fingers worked with florist’s tape and rose stems.

The wise poet Kahlil Gibran knew of the significance of flowers in human existence:

I am the lover’s gift; I am the wedding wreath;
I am the memory of a moment of happiness;
I am the last gift of the living to the dead;
I am a part of joy and a part of sorrow…

What I was able to say at the memorial service was that it is God’s intention that everything blossoms; that each living thing grows to the culmination of its existence – to bloom, to be fruitful, to die at the end of its lifespan. When this doesn’t happen, when lives are cut short by illness or by pain, God weeps with us.

At the cemetery, those who wished placed blossoms into the graves where the ashes of my relatives had been laid. The last gift of the living to the dead; the beauty and perfection of the blooms and the love which placed them there serving as blessing, as farewell, as hope for blossoming in this world and the next.

Event: Citizens’ Workshop – Guelph Rivers

Citizens’ Workshop: Preserving a Rivers-Based Open-Space System for Guelph
7:00-9:00 p.m., Wed. April 18
10 Carden St., Guelph

I write this blog because I believe that as a species we need to remember how to be stopped in awe. In the Old Testament, this is often referred to as “the fear of the Lord,” but it’s not actually about fear, it’s about respect, awe and wonder directed beyond our human selves and worldly concerns. Posting pictures of beautiful things is one thing, public policy is another, and it seems even my local municipality is taking a step backwards in changing the focus of Guelph’s official plan away from the protection of our rivers, even though the trail system and the naturalization that has been intentionally developed along the river corridors in this city is the single most positive initiative I’ve experienced in the 22 years I have lived here. Here is what University of Guelph professor emeritus Hugh Whitely has to say about this shift:

Guelph’s Rivers-Based Open-Space System At Risk:
New Official Plan Gives Low Priority to Greenland River Corridors
Prepared by Hugh Whiteley April 16 2012

City Council is about to consider adoption of a new Official Plan for Guelph (OPA 48). The proposed new Official Plan eliminates the River System Management Plan as the basis for planning the river systems of Guelph. The concept of a Linked-Open Space System for the City built upon the foundation of river and tributary corridors as naturalized public open space is abandoned. Rivers are demoted to a peripheral element in the city with their principal role identified as providing “scenic views and focal points particularly within the downtown.”

In 1995 Guelph adopted an Official Plan that established Guelph as the leadership Canadian city in environmental sustainability. The Plan positioned the city to move closer to becoming a sustainable, prosperous and caring city living in a harmonious relationship with its natural setting, especially its rivers.

Guelph’s special beauty was identified in the plan as “rolling hills and scenic river valleys ……. blanketed by a canopy of mature trees.” Guelph’s sense of place required, as a first priority in the Official Plan, the protection, restoration and enhancement of a Linked Open-Space System with the rivers and creeks, and their valley land corridors, as the essential core elements.

The Official Plan extolled the Linked Open-Space System as a critical, integral component of Guelph’s image. Among the many important contributions made by open space to the lives of Guelph’s citizens the Official Plan identified as most distinctive the presence of “spiritual value providing visual pleasure, tranquility, recreation and renewal, essential to human health and well being.”

The spiritual values of water, and of the rivers and creeks that are at the centre of the open-space system called for in the current Official Plan, are widely appreciated and supported by current Guelph citizens. They also are a sacred trust in which Guelph shares responsibility with our First Nation neighbours, the original stewards of water as the source of life.

The central and essential role of rivers and river valleys as natural corridors that marks Guelph’s current Official Plan was based on the River System Management Plan (RSMP) developed for the city as a citizen-led initiative in 1993. The RSMP was a leading-edge initiative that marked the end point of a decades-long growth of community recognition of the much-neglected presence and importance of rivers in the lives of Guelph’s citizens.

The Vision Statement, Goals and Objectives of the RSMP were adopted by Guelph City Council in October 1993 as a basis for planning for the river systems of Guelph. The central goal adopted was the achievement of a natural corridor along the rivers and tributary creeks of Guelph. The Management Master Plan for the River Systems of Guelph contained in the RSMP was adopted as a guide for development in the river-land corridors. Planning staff were directed by City Council to take account of all RSMP recommendations in the preparation of the new Official Plan.

The resulting Official Plan, with its central focus on a rivers-based linked open-space system put Guelph far ahead of other cities in planning for sustainable environments not only ahead in Canada but around the world. In the last decade the concept of natural river corridors as a marquee element in city planning has advanced elsewhere. In 2008 Oakville followed Guelph’s lead and won planning awards for its river-system-based plan for North Oakville. In granting approval the OMB commended Oakville for establishing as the first priority of planning the establishment of a natural heritage/open-space system to protect, preserve and enhance the natural environment.

In the United States, in the last few years, Denver Colorado has embarked on a $50 million dollar plan to renaturalize the Platte River within the city and both Los Angeles (Los Angeles River) and the City of New York (the Bronx River) adopted smaller-scale versions of such plans. In Asia both Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur have ambitious plans underway to green their river corridors.

It would be a retrograde step for Guelph to abandon its commitment to a rivers-based open-space natural system just when the importance of such systems is being recognized elsewhere. Much has been accomplished under the existing Official Plan to protect, restore and enhance the natural environmental corridors along Guelph’s rivers and creeks. But there is still work to be done. As redevelopment occurs there is and will be opportunity to protect threatened links and restore broken links on the system on both the Speed river (especially north of Eramosa Road) and along the Eramosa in the York District development lands.

It would be especially unfortunate for the decision to downgrade Guelph’s rivers and creeks and their natural environment corridors to be made with no public discussion or debate. To stimulate proper public discourse the deficiencies in the proposed new Official Plan must be identified and made public. As a starting point for discussion retaining the following sections of the current Official Plan in the new Official Plan should be supported.

Section 3.6.18 Character of Development Adjacent to the Rivers and Public Open Spaces
Section 6.9 Environmental Corridors and Ecological Linkages
Section 7.12.6 Linked Open Space Concept

The future of Guelph’s rivers, creeks and riverlands as the essential core of a sustainable natural environment/open space system for the city is very much in doubt. If you care about our natural heritage please attend a Citizen’s Workshop on Preserving a Rivers-Based Open-Space System for Guelph on Wednesday April 18th 10 Carden Street 7 to 9 p.m.

For more information contact Hugh Whiteley 519 824-9345 or email hwhitele-at-uoguelph.ca

Knowing the Names of Things – Overrated

With my head buried writing final papers last week, spring arrived! Who knew!

I took this picture Monday while walking with my friend Nancy. Nancy and I always have an interesting time because she is the type of person who knows the names of things, and I am not. I will point to a yellow bird and say, “Look, Nancy, a yellow bird!”

“It’s an American goldfinch,” Nancy will reply, and so we go, with trees, flowers, birds. etc., — me giving the basic description, Nancy coming up with an actual name.

“I’m a big-picture kind of person,” I tell her by way of explanation of my absolute ignorance. It makes us laugh.

Besides these trilliums, however, tiny yellow, lily-like flowers were also blooming on Starkey Loop. I pointed them out to Nancy, and sure enough my mind began to stretch back to grade three and the spring nature walk that Mrs. Taylor took us  on. Surprisingly, said mind retrieved the word dogtooth, which I triumphantly exclaimed to Nancy as the name of this lovely flower.

Poor Nancy just shook her head. “Trout lily,” she corrected me, “but at least you knew it had an animal in its name…”

There were lovely little purple flowers by the trail too (my description, obviously), which we thought might be dogtooth, but Nancy’s iphone was getting poor reception in the woods, so we couldn’t check.

Late Monday night, however, I received an e-mail from a certain walking partner:

dogtooth violet
n.
Any of several plants of the genus Erythronium, having leaves with reddish blotches and nodding, colourful, solitary, lilylike flowers on leafless stems. Also called adder’s-tongue, trout lily.

In terms of the naming of this particular bit of Creation, we were both right!

Chalk one up for Sheryl…

 

A Different Way to Win

It is a fact that two of my children compete in the sport of biathlon, a combination of cross-country skiing and rifle marksmanship. I haven’t written about our life in biathlon, but the time has come…

Biathlon is a sport that doesn’t naturally lend itself to a lot of drama. You ski well, you shoot well, or you don’t. Sunday, however, at the Canadian National Biathlon Championships in Valcartier, Quebec, I witnessed something profound, and my son Graham was a part of it.

Graham’s been competing in biathlon for six years, but this past year has seen him negotiating first-year university in Ottawa, living on his own, academic work, training, and travelling to competitions across eastern North America almost every weekend since Christmas. With the shared goal of qualifying to compete at Nationals, he has done all this with his longtime friend and teammate, Ian.

There is a certain yin and yang to this relationship. When they go to races, Ian drives and Graham navigates. In competition, they often show up in the range at the same time. With Graham a leftie and Ian shooting right, in side-by-side lanes and wearing identical Team Ontario race suits, they look like Spandex-clad, armed Siamese twins. In general, Ian is a better shooter and Graham is a faster skier, so more often than not, all season the two of them in their red, white and black, would be vying to see if it would be the fair one (Graham) or the dark one (Ian) who would cross the finish line first.

Even beyond biathlon, these two do a lot of things together. There is an all-you-can-eat wings outlet in Ottawa which is probably doubting the viability of its business at this point. Socially, they have come to finish each other’s sentences, and when they both won money at a race in Valcartier, they spent it all on the consumption of a wild variety of alcoholic beverages – together.

Ian’s dad, Cam, whom Graham knew well, died of cancer last July, so I like to think that this closeness has been good for both these young men. There are times when to have a buddy you can count on means a lot, and I think this past year may be equally so for both of them. They qualified for Nationals, and along the way they became independent – together.

For a lot of their races, Graham and Ian have been big fish in small ponds. They’ve enjoyed that. But Nationals is a different story. At this level, many of the athletes their age have decided to do nothing else but biathlon. They shoot, they ski, they eat, they breathe biathlon. That’s not so with these boys. And the other thing is, Graham’s shooting has been off all season. He doesn’t know why. At Nationals, they had their moments, but results-wise, they were not doing well.

Their last race Sunday morning, however, seemed to hold promise. Ian shot nine out of ten shots prone; Graham eight out of ten. Standing, however – for both of them – was a different story. They spent a lot of time doing penalty laps.

As other racers crossed the finish line, it became obvious that Ian and Graham would be competing for last and second-last. Sure enough, they emerged on the trail about half a kilometre from the finish, two red, black and white figures, Graham about five metres ahead of Ian. As they skied into the stadium area, Ian was closing in on Graham, and I expected an all-out race to the finish.

But something else happened. Graham slowed down. And as they came to the finish line, the two friends raised their inside hands and clasped them, crossing the finish line completely in step.  

It was magnificent.

In that gesture, competition got thrown out the window in honour of camaraderie. The ranking of last and second last got pitched in favour of being last – together. The race lost its significance and the friendship and all that these friends have been through was magnified, honoured and acknowledged.

I am not a fan of the concept of sacrifice, in terms of atonement or otherwise, but as we approach Good Friday, the whole thing reminded me of some of Jesus’ words in the Gospel of John: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). I think I get that now. I think I will forever have an image now to attach that to.

As Graham recovered in the finish area, I blew him a kiss. He may have a clutter of medals and trophies in his possession, but I’ve never been prouder than at this race, when he came in last with his friend.

Event: March 8 – International Women’s Day, Guelph

The Guelph-Wellington Women’s Health Alliance and the Zonta Club have teamed up to provide some interesting programming for International Women’s Week.

International Women’s Day Breakfast
7:00 a.m. March 8
Italian Canadian Club
Guest speaker: Janet Wilson, artist, author, activist

And, a first for Guelph:
Women on the Bridge
12:00 p.m.
Heffernan Bridge (near River Run Centre)
Gathering of women and men to unite with others around the world in calling for peace and an end to violence.

This sounds very cool, and I will be there! For more info, click here.

Event: Wild Goose Festival – June 21-24

My friend Gareth Higgins is the executive director of the Wild Goose Festival, taking place in North Carolina in June. This festival is inspired by Britain’s Greenbelt Festival, and apparently the inaugural festival last year was something else. Here is a link to video, just out today, that conveys the excitement and energy of this gathering. Not having a clue what it will look like to get there, I’ve already bought my ticket!

Stopped in Awe: Look Up – Starkey Loop Trail

Starkey Loop Trail, south of Guelph, is pretty much one of my favourite places on the planet. The trail is only four kilometres long, but it goes up and down, winding through mixed forest, around ponds and over streams. Occasionally you come upon old cedar rails and rockpiles, evidence of the farm that operated here before the land was donated to the Grand River Conservation Authority, but mainly it’s so removed and wistful that you can imagine yourself just about any place in the world. 

When I was training to walk the Camino de Santiago, I hiked here often, sometimes walking three loops at a time. Usually my eyes are trained on the trail, but the other day I looked up, and in trying to frame another image, my viewfinder caught this vista. I love when that happens.