Rest your dreams on a twig
By Donna Joy Tai
January-February 2016
As part of my discernment journey prior to becoming a missioner, I participated in my first-ever silent retreat at Manresa Jesuit Spiritual Renewal Centre in Pickering, Ontario. My trepidation at the thought of not speaking for more than 36 hours quickly disappeared as soon as I began to explore the beautiful natural environment of the centre. I could resist any temptation to speak by going for a walk: under the tall whispering pines of the Rosary Way; along the convoluted, surprising path of the labyrinth; down the hill and through the woods to the meandering stream…
Rest your dreams on a little twig © 2003; text by Joyce Rupp, OSM, art by Barbara Loomis, OSM; Sorin Books
(www.sorinbooks.com)
On this silent retreat, God spoke to me in astonishing ways during my various nature walks. However, God really grabbed my attention through a slim book of poems inspired by nature: Rest your dreams on a little twig, by Joyce Rupp, with pencil drawings by Barbara Loomis. I would randomly choose a page and be delighted and amazed by the appropriateness of the poem, providing necessary answers and unexpected insight… especially regarding my impatient and yet unfulfilled desire to go to mission overseas. I was gently reminded that…
Life unfolds
slowly,
surely. (like a fern)
However, within me
There’s a bluebird
in my soul
seeking wings,
longing
for the freedom
to fly
in new untried
meadows.
It was as if Joyce Rupp knew me, a total stranger, more intimately than perhaps I knew myself. She certainly captured the essence of my state of mind then. Currently in my third year of mission in Guyana (life surely unfolding), this little book remains a constant and clairvoyant presence—soothing and reassuring at times, probing and demanding at other times, always challenging me to enter more deeply into my experience of mission, of faith, of life in general. I have learned to draw on nature and on people for inspiration when in the grips of misunderstanding, frustration, solitude, and fatigue.
Scarboro lay missioner Donna Tai making papier mâché piñatas with students at the St. John Bosco Academy, a school for orphaned boys in Georgetown, Guyana. Donna’s ministries include the orphanage, catechesis, and bringing music and friendship to the elderly and shut-ins. She hopes to begin working with victims of human trafficking, an initiative of the Sisters of Mercy.
The loveliness
of a single flower
in radiant bloom
can sing
my drooping spirit
into joy.
The loveliness
of a single person
with a listening gaze
can sing
my heavy heart
back into life.
I’ve come across
both kinds
in my time of need
and both
have brought me hope.
And hope, I believe, is essential for any rewarding and successful mission experience—certainly for the missioner and perhaps even more so for the people being served.∞