We have just had Canadian Thanksgiving, a time of gratitude. It is a time to be filled with wonder at the abundance of the harvest and the beauty of the fall foliage. Beyond that it is an opportunity to understand that with such bounty there is responsibility. Those who have, must share in order to maintain balance in this universe.  

In times of stress, especially when I was a caregiver I look to the autumn to refill me. I would push Sue in her wheelchair and we would survey the falling leaves and I would scrunch them up to make a crackling sound for her to imagine she was walking through them. However drained I felt before hand, the Canadian Autumn images nourished my body and soul.

I’ve just returned from my fall refresher, with a camera filled with new images. We stayed in Collingwood but traveled mostly through Grey County with two important stops in Meaford.

On the first visit we took a walk on a new hiking trail along the banks of the Bighead River. This whole area of Ontario is an oasis for hikers with the famous Bruce Trail, The Georgian Trail and now the 15km Trout Hollow Trail. It was developed by the members of the Bighead River Heritage Association and completed in 2002.  Trout Hollow was where John Muir had lived and worked from 1864-66. This Scottish born American, “The Father of the National Parks” was the founder of the Sierra Club, an organization dedicated to the “preservation of wilderness, wildlife and wild places.”

The Bighead River was low this day I walked through river bank forest and on dry stony river bed. I was enthralled with the fossils to be found in vast numbers of river rocks. Salmon, with determination, were waggling their way upstream to spawn. To move upstream from one resting pool to the next, their dorsal fin and tail came out of the water as they slid over the stones. Such instinctive drive was demonstrated by the fish to complete the journey. What commitment to nature and the preservation of the natural environment  had been demonstrated by those who chose to create the Trout Hollow Trail. Abundance was being shared. I was beginning to feel revitalized.

Later in the week I returned to Meaford.  This time to examine a memorial to those from this town who had died while serving in the Second World War. A fascinating story was to unfold. When war broke out in Europe the Minister for Christ Church Anglican in Meaford was Rev.Harold Appleyard..He went to England in 1941 as Military Chaplain in the Canadian Army and saw first hand the destruction of building by bombs in the south of England. He also saw the shards of coloured glass, hundreds of years old, fallen from church windows. He had a dream. From destruction he wanted to rebuild. From what was lost he wanted to create anew. He collected and catalogued the fragments from English, Welsh and Irish Churches and Cathedrals. When his troops went to mainland Europe after D-Day he collected stained glass from ravaged churches in Belgium, France and Holland.

To honour the role of Canadian soldiers, an English company completed the windows without cost. Rev. Appleyard returned to Meaford in 1945 and was awarded the Military Cross.  In 1946 the windows arrived from England to adorn the sanctuary and cloisters of Christ Church.

They are exquisite. Some of the glass is 700 years old. Some colour has a depth that takes you to another world. Looking closely you see that they are a mosaic of images, some complete, others completed with stray pieces which do belong. It is a memorial for fallen soldiers and one window was commissioned by Rev.Appleyard to honour his safe return, but they do not glorify war.

The glass moves from a wounded core to a place of rebirth.The windows remind us that there is nothing new in the world. All that there is, is all there has been; all there ever will be is here now. With our savage mentality we kill the living (humanity, plant and animal species) and we destroy the material,  but we do not eradicate the essence. From the past, from the pieces, from what there is – we rebuild. And if we learn one lesson, we share what we have. It is ours only temporarily. For this life is only temporary.

Let us be good stewards of rivers where salmon glide over fossiled stones millions of years old. Let us enjoy the renewal of wholeness when witnessing stained glass from over 100 damaged churches.  The Soldiers and the Conservationists create an uneasy balance. Thanksgiving is.