Monthly Archives: August 2009

how to wash dishes

August 11, 2009 – 8:30 am
By Kendall Kadatz | Posted in Uncategorized Comments (0)

Ashley Burtch is a recent graduate of SSU and is currently serving at a l’Arche community in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.  The following is a reflection on her experience of living in community there. Also, if you haven’t done so, make sure to check out the video of the core members that Ashley lives with.

Well, that’s it.  Vacation is over.  It was so incredibly good.  Far beyond what I could have hoped for in a vacation.  So I take a deep breath and I close my eyes to sleep tonight unsure of what tomorrow brings, which is, I suppose, true about any day.  I end vacation tired and satisfied.

We’ve had a dishwasher while here in Saint John (and have enjoyed making full use of it, despite some pangs of guilt).  Candice found the following passage in Miracle of  Mindfullness by Thich Nhat Hanh. It seems so appropriate in light of the pending return to a life with more daily responsibilities than I am used to carrying.  It reminds me that I must learn, again and again, to live present in each moment. It would be so easy to look back at vacation and wish for these days again, because they have been so enjoyable.  For that matter, it would be so easy to look back at my time at SSU, or at home with family, or my childhood and long to be there again.  At the same time, it is so easy to worry about coming changes, the future, my “life plan”, where the heck I’m going and on what road.  But all of that distracts me from the opportunity that is here and now.  The opportunity to learn, grow, develop, enjoy, breathe, digest.

This is a long quote, but well worth reading.  Especially if you, like me, have a lot of dishes to wash.

Thirty years ago, when I was still a novice at Tu Hieu Pagoda, washing the dishes was hardly a pleasant task. During the Season of Retreat when all the monks returned to the monastery, two novices had to do all the cooking and wash the dishes for sometimes well over one hundred monks. There was no soap. We had only ashes, rice husks, and coconut husks, and that was all. Cleaning such a high stack of bowls was a chore, especially during the winter when the water was freezing cold. Then you had to heat up a big pot of water before you could do any scrubbing. Nowadays one stands in a kitchen equipped with liquid soap, special scrubpads, and even running hot water which makes it all the more agreeable. It is easier to enjoy washing the dishes now. Anyone can wash them in a hurry, then sit down and enjoy a cup of tea afterwards. I can see a machine for washing clothes, although I wash my own things out by hand, but a dishwashing machine is going just a little too far!

While washing the dishes one should only be washing the dishes, which means that while washing the dishes one should be completely aware of the fact that one is washing the dishes. At first glance, that might seem a little silly: why put so much stress on a simple thing? But that’s precisely the point. The fact that I am standing there and washing these bowls is a wondrous reality. I’m being completely myself, following my breath, conscious of my presence, and conscious of my thoughts and actions. There’s no way I can be tossed around mindlessly like a bottle slapped here and there on the waves.

In the United States, I have a close friend named Jim Forest. When I first met him eight years ago, he was working with the Catholic Peace Fellowship. Last winter, Jim came to visit. I usually wash the dishes after we’ve finished the evening meal, before sitting down and drinking tea with everyone else. One night, Jim asked if he might do the dishes. I said, “Go ahead, but if you wash the dishes you must know the way to wash them.” Jim replied, “Come on, you think I don’t know how to wash the dishes?” I answered, “There are two ways to wash the dishes. The first is to wash the dishes in order to have clean dishes and the second is to wash the dishes in order to wash the dishes.” Jim was delighted and said, “I choose the second way—to wash the dishes to wash the dishes.” From then on, Jim knew how to wash the dishes. I transferred the “responsibility” to him for an entire week.

If while washing dishes, we think only of the cup of tea that awaits us, thus hurrying to get the dishes out of the way as if they were a nuisance, then we are not “washing the dishes to wash the dishes.” What’s more, we are not alive during the time we are washing the dishes. In fact we are completely incapable of realizing the miracle of life while standing at the sink. If we can’t wash the dishes, the chances are we won’t be able to drink our tea either. While drinking the cup of tea, we will only be thinking of other things, barely aware of the cup in our hands. Thus we are sucked away into the future —and we are incapable of actually living one minute of life.

With love and peace,

Ashley

Tangible Moments in Time…

August 4, 2009 – 8:21 am
By Shelley Perry | Posted in Alumni Abroad Comments (0)
Cahir Castle (County Tipperary)

Cahir Castle (County Tipperary)

The view from St. Canice's tower (Kilkenny)

The view from St. Canice's tower (Kilkenny)

The Seven Towers of Kells, monastic ruins (county Kilkenny)

The Seven Towers of Kells, monastic ruins (county Kilkenny)

Where do I begin? I have done and seen so much the past three weeks it is hard to decide what to share.  After Dublin I arrived in Kilkenny which has acted as a home base for me during my time in Ireland, staying in a quaint cottage with friends of friends who have taken in a poor Canadian traveller with open arms! Kilkenny is the county of medieval walls, castles, cathedrals…and beer (the home of Smithwicks, Bulmers and of course Kilkenny)!  Ancient ruins are common place, with eleventh century monastic ruins, castles, and cathedrals sitting confidently among nineteenth century famine workhouses and mills. Throw in some SUVs, highways, and shopping malls and it’s truly a confusion of eras!

But staying with locals, I have learned, is the primary way to ensure an authentic Irish experience. My hosts have taken me all over Kilkenny and beyond to experience all the wonders of the area–from exploring castles to exploring caves!  Some of my favorite spots have been those off the beaten track and not yet valued by Tourism himself.  For example, the town of Kells is home to a very large monastic ruin known as “The Seven Towers of Kells,”  nestled along the county’s  rolling hills beside the south bank of the King’s river.  This thirteenth century monastic community was the centre of a Norman town and is currently passed over by tourists.  In fact, we may have passed only four or fiver other people as we walked freely around the ruins! In a country where at times tourists threatened to outnumber locals, this is astonishing indeed! It was a serene experience as there is something inexpressibly profound about grazing your hand along the same stones in the way that someone might have done 800 years before you!  It is perhaps one of the only thing that has the ability to make time tangible.

Other highlights of my time in Kilkenny include the Cahir Castle (1142), which unlike the Kilkenny castle has not been “restored”  but left in its ruined form for tourist to explore its watch towers,  intricate stairwells and courtyards; the Dunmore Caves (a hiding place from viking invasions); and St. Canice’s Cathedral in Kilkenny city (where I accidentally dropped my camera down the 9th century tower!).  I have also had the privilege of seeing what has become my favorite church; a church which is so tiny it would be full with just fifty people!  What I found so remarkable about the church is that it is hidden very well down below the country road among naturally beautiful,  lush greenery. In fact it is so well hidden that Cromwell himself missed it when he ravaged the area! And so it has remained preserved unlike so many other Catholic churches in this area that were seized by his army–a small humble church with a victorious secret indeed!  Now I have had the privilege of being a part of the same church’s history that escaped Ireland’s greatest villain….Yes, another tangible moment in time.

But perhaps my most valuable moments have come from conversations with locals about history, politics, and of course, the economy–a favorite topic of conversation in Ireland these days.  After the infamous “Celtic Tiger” (a period of economic boom in Ireland), the recession is hitting the country hard, creating extreme distrust with government and banks here in the Republic.   It is not hard to see similarities in Ireland’s economy and culture (pre Celtic Tiger) to that of the Maritime provinces, and I am growing ever-more convinced that there is much we could glean from Ireland’s success…and her mistakes. I fear that things here will get much worse before they get better…but then again I am no economist.

There is so much more to tell but for now that is enough!  Thinking of all my friends and family as I continue in my pilgrimage and wishing you could be here to experience this as well…

With love,

Shelley