The Eudaimonia Blog

University

Sabbaticals provide space to build in different ways into the things that mean most to you in life. So thank you Grace Van congregation, elders and staff for making this sabbatical possible. On Thursday I was able to travel to Spokane, WA to pick up our middle son Isaac after his completion of his first year, i.e. “freshman year” at university, i.e. “college.” As a dual citizen of both the US and Canada, I find myself at times needing to translate the common parlance of both ways of speaking : ) Notice that seeing that my life for the last ten years and roughly 50% of the lives of our kids have been in Canada, I put the “quotations” in the American way of speaking and the non-quotations in the Canadian : ) Canada wins! Nonetheless, Isaac has thoroughly enjoyed his first year of university in the US, making great friends, enjoying university life at this small Jesuit college on the eastern border of WA state, that has an out-of-this-world basketball program as well as terrific electrical engineering degree program. He will miss his university friends this summer, but their loss is our gain in that we get to see our son back home for the summer. Well, we returned to Seattle on Friday to have dinner with my sister and then we drove back to Vancouver on Saturday.

Wishing You Were Here

But before driving home, we stopped by my parents’ graveside to remember what they meant to us in life. It was a time for my sister Cassandra, Isaac and I to remember our parents, his grandparents. I used to talk to my mom about 3xs per week and I miss her voice of reassurance, insight and wisdom. The world in these almost three years of mom being gone has become a bit colder and darker. I am now the “patriarch” of my family unit, but I don’t know some days if I am old enough and wise enough to step into such shoes. It’s interesting that as we get older, in some ways life becomes bigger, more humbling and complicated. I’m sure Freud would have a heyday here, but some days I feel as if I need my mother more than ever to navigate the challenges of life in a difficult world and especially the wisdom and insight into parenting young emerging adults, whom both my parents knew intimately and cared for well, especially mom. But alas, mom isn’t here and what is left is trust in the God who is. Cassandra and I also went to visit our maternal grandparents graveside as they had been very formative for us in our youth. Isaac joined us, though he had never met “Ama” and “Agon,” his great grandparents. But then before leaving, Isaac went back to the graveside of his grandparents and sat in remembrance and tears, while I waited for him in the car. Isaac was such a great caretaker of my parents as they became fragile, especially my dad who deteriorated gradually over a six-year period with Lewy Body Dementia.

Mother’s Day

Well, this morning I went and sat at Jericho Beach for the third year in a row on Mother’s Day. This was my third Mother’s Day without mom and this is where mom had come to watch me take open water swim classes back in 2016. Mom grew up in the island country of Taiwan so always loved the water. She came out in May 2016 to see me taking the class in roughly 10 degree water (Celsius of course), without a proper wetsuit. When I was done with the class, she asked why it was that I didn’t have a proper wetsuit in Vancouver waters. Through chattering teeth, I said, “because I’m tough,… and I’m cheap.” She gave me the look which I know meant, “well, that’s dumb!” and then told me to go buy a proper wetsuit on her dime. Thanks mom! I remember how tickled she was that day though to see me enjoying the ocean waters (despite the chill) just as she had as a child and also how while she was a consummate learner and explorer, that day I was learning a new skill. I think I made her proud that day, not in swimming without a proper wetsuit, but in tackling the ocean currents which I had never grown up around as a child. I always think of mom when I go to Jericho Beach, especially on a quiet Sunday morning in May. Miss you mom. Thank you for everything.

University Chapel

Well, we got to go to University Chapel this morning to witness the baptism of one of Calvin’s closest friends Luke. There was a recognition from this Baptist church of a different theological persuasion from Grace Vancouver Church that we were in the Eastertide season and that we would be for two more Sundays (culminating in Pentecost Sunday). It was exciting to hear Luke’s testimony about how God had worked in his life to bring him to the point of making a public profession of faith and, again while matters of doctrine were different, the joy of the Holy Spirit was not. Neither was the core of our confession as believers as together we recited the Nicene Creed, one of the historic creeds of the Church that has held believers of all stripes together since the 4th century. In addition, one of my favourite Psalms was read as a Call to Worship from Psalm 126 (ESV):

126 When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
    we were like those who dream.
² Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
    and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then they said among the nations,
    “The Lord has done great things for them.”
³ The Lord has done great things for us;
    we are glad.

⁴ Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
    like streams in the Negeb!
⁵ Those who sow in tears
    shall reap with shouts of joy!
⁶ He who goes out weeping,
    bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
    bringing his sheaves with him.

What this Psalm as well as the good work of University Chapel church gave permission for me to do in the midst of the celebrative season of Eastertide was mourn, even in the midst of the Joy and Triumph of our Lord in His death and resurrection. I thought that while during the Lenten season, we “break the fast” every Sunday as we gather in worship to celebrate the triumph of our Lord in His victory over the grave, so also during the Eastertide season, we find occasions to remember that we still sing songs of lament some days as we hope in a way that is unique to ” the world” (1 These. 4:13). Thank you University Chapel.

Planting a Tree:

Well, it was Mother’s Day of course, and the rest of the afternoon was for celebrating the mother of our children. What Tanya wanted was to go to Garden Works in Burnaby, to pick out a tree as well as some plants for our yard (I didn’t get a picture of the tree below, but I did capture some of the colour and beauty of the nursery). I love how the women in my life often teach me something about beauty. Some of the men in my life do this for me as well, but mostly the women. We enjoyed picking out a “weeping cherry tree” (weeping must be a theme for this otherwise joyful weekend, haha) and then did not enjoy filling two large bags with compost, i.e. manicured manure, haha. But we returned home on our great adventure and as evening approaches, I’m not sure if we are going to get the tree planted tonight,… we’ll see. Hopefully the world does not end tomorrow. It was the great Protestant Reformer Martin Luther who once said, “If I knew the world was going to end tomorrow, I would still plant an apple tree today.” Well, we don’t have an apple tree, and we do not know when in fact Christ will return, and we might run out of steam to plant a tree today… nonetheless, even if this age comes to a close tomorrow and the tree does not get planted, in light of the hope of resurrection for a fallen created order, there will be more opportunities that lie ahead. Thank you Eastertide. As the great Gloria Patri goes:

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Amen.

Today and these last few days have been those of hope and remembrance.