Walking with God in the Garden

God's creativity blooms forth.

In front of my city-sized lot runs a thoroughfare crawling with bumper-to-bumper traffic come rush hour. But 75 yards back, behind our 1950’s ranch, blooms three-dozen varieties of vegetables, herbs and flowers. I’m not alone in finding perspective, peace, and God’s companionship and healing in my garden – a sort of blooming, body and soul, amidst a technology-saturated world. 

With gardens offering retreat-like benefits along with countless practical perks, it’s no wonder the National Gardening Association (NGA) cites Americans as “consistently rating gardening as a favorite hobby.” In fact, NGA statistics show a 19% increase in Americans planning to grow edibles from 2008 to 2009.

St. Francis, lover of
God and His creation.

Of course, one stimulus to such enthusiasm might be recession. A nicely maintained food garden yields an average $500 return, according to NGA. Adding a few new perennials like asparagus, chives or rhubarb yearly expands a base of nice varieties to harvest early spring through late October. Growing annual seeds indoors to plant outside early spring is a cheerful, winter’s end project that also helps cut food costs.

I find the practical and esthetical blend of gardens irresistible. Phenomenal changes occur daily, and sometimes, even hourly. Early morning squash blossoms expand, begging to be stuffed with cheese, dredged in egg and flour, and stir-fried into a gourmet delicacy. Snap peas unready to pick at 7 AM, plump by dinner.

What a luxury, loading the table with fresh-picked produce.

I’ve lost my fear of bees, since we so nicely coexist. Robins and mourning doves flit by, unfazed by my now-familiar presence. The neighbor dog “Buck” pops his dark, Labrador head over the fence to grin, until I give him a friendly pat.

As for the plants, clearing riotous weeds to reveal order seems allegorical. Learning a “green thumb” is not genetic as much as developed through persistence, trial and error, and following wise advice from more experienced gardeners, is heartening.

Echinacea -- beautiful and medicinal.

I’ve had my summers of growing tomatoes lush with foliage but bare of fruit, planting seeds that refused germination, babying green peppers to watch them spread leaves but refuse to flower or bear. But for the past several years, my mini, raised-bed gardens, have flourished.

After a friend recommended Mel Bartholomew’s method of “Square Foot Gardening” a few years ago, I devised manageable plots in raised beds. Amending soil with equal portions of compost, peat and vermiculite, made it fluffy and amenable to tender plants. (I later learned people are raising health concerns over vermiculite, so I’ve switched to perlite, an amorphous volcanic glass.) Such methods make gardening accessible to the elderly, very young, developmentally disabled, people recovering from illness -- even those with severe physical limitations.

Planting gourmet lettuce in partial shade helps plants
survive the heat. I'm still harvesting lettuce in August. 

In fact, I suffered from a concussion and neck injury this summer and spent minimal time outside, yet still found my micro-gardens manageable, harvesting baskets of beans, hearty quantities of cilantro, and gourmet lettuce galore. Fresh-picked raspberries garnish breakfasts.  Spicy Egyptian scallions enliven sandwiches. Heirloom tomato plants are flowering and fruiting, promising an abundant yield.

Planting in raised beds has turned me into a successful
gardener -- finally!

One day, when healing from my injuries seemed interminable, I clapped on a hat, sat cross-legged next to my string beans, and sang while I harvested, until the blues lifted. I have a weakness for old, sentimental songs, and I enjoy singing this favorite hymn from 1913 that sums up the lure of a garden:

I Come to the Garden Alone

I come to the garden alone

While the dew is still on the roses

And the voice I hear

Sounding in my ear,

The Son of God discloses

And I walk with Him

And I talk with Him

And He tells me I am His own

And the joy I feel

As I tarry here

None other has ever known…

By C. Austin Miles.

A garden's delicate beauty helps us
transcend earth.

Not only does gardening provide inexpensive, nutrition-rich food, develop biceps (from shoveling, weeding, constructing supports for plants, etc.), provide sun’s Vitamin D through our hours of labor, and soothe frazzled nerves, it helps us transcend the earth, reaping rich spiritual rewards. Of course, frequenting the sacraments and adoration chapel, nurturing a rich prayer life, reading scripture, are all foundational. But for a nice hobby to enrich one's walk in faith, gardening is ideal.  The vibrant palette and fragrance of plants is uplifting. The teeming life of worms and butterflies, bees and songbirds seems optimistic. They’re tireless and productive, as we should be. Seeing piquant and healing herbs proliferate and tomatoes plump transmits this incredible sense of God’s creative genius. It’s all so inspiring.

An "outdoor room" with a reflective mood.

God visited the Garden of Eden just before sunset (Genesis 3:8). Jesus chose a garden for quiet prayer in the final hours of his life. And for several Sundays in July, readings in the Liturgy were horticultural. Matthew 13, for example, refers to seeds cast on rich or rocky ground, and probes questions of why weeds coexist with fruitful plants. Struggling with recalcitrant weeds, scrubbing stubborn soil from gardening-calloused fingers, encountering thorny stems on delicately flowered plants – all help us relate more personally to God’s workings in creation and our lives.

Religious art and statuary turn
gardens into retreats.

Spring roared in like a lion this year, but I remember 40-degree days when the skies were a gray canvas -- and I still couldn’t resist running outside to check on my chives and Egyptian scallions, fragrant spearmint, and spinach seedlings shivering in the breeze. Now, as August opens with record-breaking heat, the garden pulses with life, drinking thirstily and producing prodigiously.

“The earth and its fullness are the Lord’s,” says 1 Corinthians 11:27. I thank God even those of us in the city can put hands to soil -- that His voice can be so clearly discerned, as we “walk with Him” in the garden.

Practical gardening tips:

Hostas are the heartiest plants I know,
besides weeds, of course!

        1) Go organic. According to the February 1995 American Journal of Public Health, the risk of children developing cancer is increased four times in homes where chemical weed and insect killers are used. Corn gluten for heartening grass to be more weed-resistant, liquid garlic for pest control and encouraging robust growth, and nematodes to curb grubs, are just a few natural solutions we’ve found for common gardening woes.
2)   Planting in raised beds divided into miniature plots provides protection from flooding and a grid for a wider variety of plants.
3)   Raising planting beds on waist-high stilts makes gardening accessible to the elderly and disabled.
4)   Amending soil with 1/3 portions of peat, compost, and a substance like perlite keeps growing medium fertile and nicely aerated.
5)    Drying out more easily than plots sewn directly into the ground, raised beds must be watered diligently.
6)   Adding religious art and statuary turns your plot into a prayer garden. Saint Fiacre is the patron saint of gardeners, Saint Francis is popularly associated with nature, and a Blessed Virgin statue surrounded by lilies becomes a “Mary Garden.”
7)   Chatting up knowledgeable workers at a local garden shop specializing in organic, heirloom and regional plants, helps you discover special, hearty or unusual varieties that grow well in your planting zone.
8)   Exchanging clippings of perennials with friends inexpensively adds plants like strawberries, scallions and mint to your garden.

Let squash crawl up trellises

or they'll take over your garden!
This pumpkin reseeded

itself from one tossed out 
last year.

9)   Adding layers of newspapers and then covering deeply with woodchips or peat creates pathways and borders between planting beds. It looks attractive and is a cheap, efficient way to keep down weeds.
10) Starting late in the growing season is fine. Some crops, like garlic, can be planted in the fall. Plywood frames for raised beds can be assembled over winter, and indoor composting systems even allow all-year composting.
11)  Following good composting techniques will heat your pile internally and kill weed seeds, so you won’t be sowing weeds with your veggie seeds.
12) Taking time to enjoy the garden makes all your effort worthwhile. Put a chair there and a little table for your mug of coffee or tea, and bask in your garden’s beauty, preferably early morning when the “dew is still on the roses,” or in the golden glow of dusk. Even a five-minute visit before or after the day’s work, is rejuvenating.
13) Weeding ten minutes daily keeps maintenance under control.
14) Involving children in planting and planning beds, even if gardening isn’t their “thing,” helps them develop a good work ethic. As part of the household, they should contribute a fair share in the production and harvesting of fresh food for the table. Who knows? Some day they may even continue the gardening tradition within their own families.

Photos and story by Marianna Bartholomew

Can't attain a certain goal? Perseverance may win out...or, perhaps, achieving that goal would only bring grief! Our schnoodle (schnauzer/poodle) Maestro eyes Lily, the neighbor cat. He just got "skunked" last week, but here he is, up for another adventure.

Green Lake Revery

Photo of Green Lake, Michigan courtesy of
Blackberry Bluff Retreat

Green Lake
By Marianna Bartholomew

Sand hued, milky aqua, dusky blue
ribbons of ripples
placid yet expectant


for the oar dip
the fin splash
the skimming skip of a stone


Heavens and waters
split gently
by undulating green


Fir boughs held wide
like welcoming arms
bear blithe, feathery tenants


They chirp for no human audience
singing praises to their Creator


Nothing like turning technology OFF to write poetry longhand, in a journal, by a tranquil summer lake. My family has tent camped at Interlochen State Park on Green Lake several times, enjoying evening concerts at Interlochen Arts Camp. My trumpet-playing husband attended the arts camp as a teen, providing him and his family a lifetime of good memories and a great, affordable, vacation destination spot.

(Indiana just passed an education resolution that children are no longer required to learn cursive in schools. They will be taught keyboarding instead. Yikes! I protest...On the Fourth of July, my family was admiring the elegant cursive on a facsimile of the Declaration of Independence. If children can't write cursive they won't be able to read it....thus whole generations will be cut off from reading the original documents upon which our country was founded. Let's brush up on cursive, teach it to our children, and never be too busy to write a little poetry!)

Sharing good music: an act of charity, made easy by technology

This "virtual choir" makes inspiring use of new technologies. "Lux Aurumque" means "light and gold," referring to Christ's Incarnation.

     Three Saturdays ago, I approached the breakfast table to find a teen peering from my laptop screen with quirky, bug-eyed intensity. The boy was lip-synching to a pop song, and his act had been frozen mid-syllable.

     "He's gone viral," explained my husband, handing over our town's newspaper. On the front, a nearly full-page photo displayed the same boy, a Freshman at the local high school who lip-synchs pop tunes into his computer webcam and posts them on his own Youtube channel. Going "viral," his videos have been viewed by upwards of 40 million people.
     Hometown kids sharing music on this scale? Unprecedented. Inspiring. Problematic. On the up side, new technologies allow talents to soar. Hitting headlines last week was 11-year-old Jackie Evancho, who first won acclaim on TV's America's Got Talent with Gounod's Ave Maria. Her album Dream with Me, released June 14, challenged rapper Eminem's Bad Meets Evil for #1 new album on Billboard's charts. Evancho came in second (beating Lady Gaga and Barry Manilow), with songs like A Mother's Prayer (performed with Susan Boyle), Puccini's O Mio Babbino Caro and Handel's Ombra Mai Fu, and more popular tunes like When You Wish Upon a Star.
Evancho's a prodigy but something else helped her rocket to stardom -- people shared her talents through technology. For example, I learned about her from my mom, who showed me a recorded Evancho PBS special. I returned home to Google the girl's online videos, found her fan webpage, and am now sharing her music through Facebook, Twitter and blogging.

     "Do not conform yourselves to this age," says Romans 12:2, "but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect." Many entertainers are renewing their minds, using technology to advantage and offering inspiring fare.

My oldest teen introduced me to Eric Whitaker's "Virtual Choir" (top of blog) and I showed her this upbeat Cajun band, L'Angelus (below).
     Innovative technologies can help us investigate new sounds, record and refine our own musical talents and spread great music exponentially. Sharing music, whether sacred or secular, classic or contemporary, can be an act of charity that brightens someone's day, uplifts their spirit, and introduces them to a new repertoire. How can we develop a wide-ranging love of music, and extend that to others -- both first-hand and effectively using technology?:

• Stay informed about what's served up by pop culture, because it impacts friends, neighbors, and our children. A five-minute surf through Billboard hits and songs on iTunes will help you check contemporary music's pulse.   
• Engage in a lively exchange of good music via email, Facebook, Twitter, your own Youtube channel or blog.
• Develop "favorites" lists with loved ones on Youtube, so they can easily access good videos.
• If new technologies seem too complicated or off-putting, ask a friend in the know to show you how to use your computer, iPod, MP3 player, etc, in a better way. 
• Explore your heritage by doing online searches for ethnic music. My family enjoys Celtic and Cajun, which reflects our Irish and French background. Use this helpful search tip: In your address bar, type in http://ckuik.com/.....and then your search word. You'll be amazed by all the resources that appear
• Make delving into music history with your family fun by exploring Youtube footage of stars like Caruso (who really did shatter glass with his voice), Louis Armstrong, Harry Chapin, Woody Guthrie (2012 marks his centennial celebration), and classical musicians like Isaac Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma. 
• For an eye opening view of how pop music has evolved over the decades and impacted culture, delve into The Andrews Sisters, The Platters, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Tijuana Brass (My 14-year-old trumpet playing son gets a kick out of the above, rare video), Peter, Paul and Mary, Bruce Springsteen, etc...Explore Youtube footage of Eurovision Award Winners.  
• Learn more about classical music on websites like this About.com site.
• From a Catholic perspective, publications like National Catholic Register feature critiques on contemporary musicians; fans, performers and media swap info on LinkedIn groups like that of the United Catholic Music and Video Association; the website of the Catholic Association of Music encourages musicians and fans to connect, and features a page of links to inspiring artists; You can download MP3s from Catholicmusicnetwork.com; Other helpful links include Catholicjukebox.com, Hearbeat Records; Ave Maria Radio.net; Catholic Music Express
• Staying rooted in faith helps us yearn for purity and seek music that refines and expands us. 
• Surrounding ourselves and our children with the best of a wide range of fine music and literature, we develop a discerning taste.
• Loving music begins at home. My classically-inclined father asked that rock be confined to our bedrooms to make for a more peaceful home. My Suzuki piano teacher mother immersed her family in Beethoven, Bach and Rachmaninoff, as well as lighter fare from old movie soundtracks and Broadway. My husband plays guitar and trumpet and I love to sing, so our three children explore a wide range of music, all playing instruments and/or singing in choirs.  
• Learning to play instruments leads us into a richer repertoire. If you played an instrument as a child but it's gathering dust in the attic, why not brush it off and start playing? Hopefully people around you will eagerly follow your progress.      To ease someone into appreciating classical music, a humorous bridge to more serious listening could be viewing Victor Borge clips.
• Formal music instruction is great, but it's also fun to approach music as play, trying new sounds and instruments such as recorder, tin whistle, harmonica and percussion. 
• Attending live music performances gets people excited in a range of good music. Free community and university concerts help build neighborhoods, and many university bands welcome adult musicians from their regions into their ranks.

  Sharing excellent music, whether sacred or secular, classic or contemporary, is an act of charity, made easy by technology.  

  Now, back to my friendly neighborhood Youtube hero. He's proof of the flip side, the perils of online surfing. Seeing his videos launched me into this blog topic. Why? He was performing Billboard hits with lyrics so lewd I deleted them from my blog. The morning news team from Chicago's WGN television network visited this boy's bedroom to lip-synch with him and record labels are competing for this same privilege. Interviewed by journalists, flown to L.A. to appear on late night television shows and even toured abroad, this boy has parents who sound loving and supportive, and who say he can continue his celebrity gig as long as he gets his homework done.
       This scenario seemed so surreal, it made me realize how out of touch I had become with pop rock. What is the average teen listening to these days? I streamed Billboard hits with lyrics on Youtube and it was like jumping into a salty pool of piranas. Three out of five top hits were rap songs with perverse and abusive sexual content and foul language. See this article by Mary Hassan for a graphic analysis of today's pop music scene: Music Messages: Destroying a Generation. At least 60% of parents don't realize their children have easy access to porn, says Catholic rock group Critical Mass out of Canada. See the above video for more interesting statistics.

     It's no news flash that a huge disconnect can exist between parents and teens regarding technology and pop culture. When kids are plugged into ear buds, it's tough to gauge their musical tastes. And while parents work long hours to make the world go 'round, teens have privacy and freedom to easily delve into murky waters, accessing music and images that are far darker than what was once accepted as mainstream.

     What seems new is the meteoric heights and influence quickly reached by digital music stars. One high school dropout recently rocketed onto Billboard charts and into the Guinness Book of World Records. Her concert last week in Tampa, Florida, drew a crowd of more than 12,000, from the ages of fourth grade through mid-40's, according to a Tampa paper. The first line in the article describing the event was "Sex still sells." The concert featured 15 costume changes and looked like a burlesque show. It's astonishing that parents take kids to see these shows.
     As for the mainstreaming of lewd lyrics, "People who'd never do things mentioned in songs think it's ok to sing the words if they're set to catchy music," one of my teens mused. But the words we speak do reflect the state of our soul.
     It's often said America's culture today was partly shaped by the musical groups of the 1960's. So what does the nature of pop groups today predict about America's moral landscape in the next 30 years?

 We can all have a say in how this scenario unfolds.
Some kids disappear hours on end to have parties of one before computer webcams. Of course, even adults struggle with addictive computer behavior.  Photo by E. Bartholomew

     Pope Benedict XVI loves to play the piano, and in 2009 spoke about beautiful music as "a spiritual and therefore universal language." It's a way to bring "understanding and union between individuals and peoples. Music...accompanies all human experiences, from suffering to pleasure, from hatred to love, from sadness to joy, from death to life...It is...no coincidence that all civilisations have given importance and value to music in its various forms and expressions... great music almost naturally invites us to raise our minds and hearts to God in all situations of human existence, the joyful and the sad. Music can become prayer."  

Serving inner city Brooklyn youth, Father Stan Fortuna turns rap into prayer.
Of course, some musicians are more about earning six-digit royalties than making music prayer, so we have to use caution in the blogosphere. Here are a few reminders to help us be good gatekeepers regarding what floods into our homes:

• Keep computers in public places within homes and enriched with protective software to help filter out the bad.
• Devise reasonable guidelines for internet use and hours of access in your home. Kids (and adults!) easily become internet addicts, losing sleep and active lifestyles over solitary browsing. Those hours online slip away too easily. If either a child or spouse is spending too much computer time, tactfully address that issue.
• Humbly point out rotten lyrics when we hear loved ones sing them. Print out lyrics and have people read them apart from the music if they insist messages really "aren't that bad."
• Encourage kids to unplug from earbuds when we're in their presence. When children are on palm pilots or iPods while moms or dads are chatting on cell phones, seldom the twain do meet. 
• Avoid hypocrisy. Not all old or "classic" music is moral. Not all contemporary music is evil. The content of some operatic story lines and librettos would make the average person's hair stand on end. "It's all about informed consent," reflects my oldest teen. People need to be consciously aware of lyrics they're singing and consider whether they should be singing them, no matter the genre. It's really informed consumption, an intelligent approach.
•  Charitably insist that schools, dance studios, etc, keep music decent. A local dance teacher found new music for a recital number when a parent printed out and showed her the inappropriate lyrics of one piece.

     Keeping updated on new technologies and using them wisely can be an adventure. How else might you connect with a Kenyan choir...(Notice how even this remote community wasn't put off by using technology!)...

... or, a fledgling composer from another state who began his own popular Youtube channel...

     We just have to keep it all in balance and remember -- first-person contact trumps technology any day. Have suggestions as to how we can better use technology in our quest to spread excellent music? Let me know by leaving a comment. In the meanwhile, I'll sign off with another virtual choir video entitled "Sleep:" Good night and happy listening!
        

Stargazing and Lake Walking

Chicago Skyline Panorama from Adler Planetarium, a photo by B

southerntabitha on Flickr.

In late May, children finish their final flurry of field trips before summer, and adults long to burst bonds of office and household walls.


Stargazing and Lake Walking
By Marianna Bartholomew


Lake Michigan is today as deep-hued and inviting as the Mediterranean
The Planetarium bobs on its surface like a misplaced Pantheon


I sit like some pith-chewing philosopher in my 30th-floor office perch
my eyes turned to the shore


Today is a business day


But what means that to the resplendent turquoise waters
the reeling gulls
or to neck-craning school children gazing 
at the stars


In my thoughts, I join them
Orion, Cygnus the Swan
then half-melted Milky Ways on the lawn
with a peanut butter and jelly lunch


The wind, the nostril-pinching sniff of alewives
The crunching of city grass and candy bar wrappers underfoot
A frisbee, crack! in the back
laughter

 Photo of Chicago's Adler Planetarium courtesy of Dee W.
on Yelp

And always, the beckoning of the blue
and, if you pretend, pure
lake water
lapping like the sea


Like the Mediterranean


It's a magnet
My computer is no competition


I should be star-gazing and lake walking
on this late May day.


Okay, it originally read "late April day," but I adapted that last line for this post. I also have to chuckle at the "lake walking" bit. No, I'm not referring to walking on water, but beside it! I wrote this poem years ago as I was feeling tortured in nylons and heels, trapped in my glass office cage, overlooking an exquisitely beautiful Lake Michigan in spring. The Adler Planetarium really did look like it was "bobbing" on the waters. As I struggled to focus on my work, with an incredible, panoramic view laid out before me, I found myself with that surge of "Spring Fever" to cast it all aside and go play...to join those field tripping kids on the Planetarium lawn. 


Anyway, milder, warmer days are bound to soon arrive, although I was wearing a winter coat last week,  temperature highs are predicted for just 56 degrees for tomorrow, and vacillating cold and warm fronts are stirring up fierce weather. 


I was finishing up this post when news came through of the devastating tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri. My heart and prayers go out to all those impacted by this horrific 2011 Tornado Season. I pray May closes out like a lamb and that no further lives might be lost to devastating storms.

Memories of Bayou Teche

From one of my 2005 journal entries:
"Sweltering heat. Rotten wood, warped flooring and artificial altar flowers in old St. Catherine Church. Flies buzzing bowls of condiments at a near-empty food shack, the only 'diner' in town. A Main Street so empty of businesses it looks like a ghost town. Shacks like houses of cards along Bayou Teche.

This commemorative edition was
recently published, including beautiful,
historic lithographs.

Vivid memories remain of my visit to Arnaudville, Louisiana in 1992, when I visited Catholic Extension subsidized missionary Sister Mary Bordelon. Talk about hidden poor. In this Cajun town of about 1,400 people less than 50 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico, dwelled the 'River Rats.' On a sunny day 13 years ago I met them, and still shudder that some locals likened fellow townsfolk to rodents. So-called 'River Rats' rented shacks along Bayou Teche, a spot romanticized by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his poem 'Evangeline.' The reality I saw was three- or four-room homes weathered gray and roofed with corrugated tin, elbowing each other in a wobbly row, along a curbless, cinder road.

An image of Arcadia, from the reprinting of Evangeline, shown above.

'You want anything fixed, you do it yourself!' one resident told me, about how her landlord seldom dropped by. 'But when rent's due, you can bet he's here!'

Outside, two children rode double on a bike. A teenager lounged against a doorway. A middle-aged man hunched on a lawn chair, nowhere to go and no way to get there. Then I met a 'hidden hero.' Amidst gray boards, cinders and bayou green, one screen door creaked open and a young woman named Cytina beckoned warmly, scarlet and blue ribbons flashing joyfully in her hair. Sister Mary and I stepped inside, and three was quickly a crowd in the shoebox-sized living room. Sweat beaded our foreheads as we chatted. Furnishings were spare: a sagging couch, a table, an old dresser against one wall. Nearby hung pictures of three brothers who died fighting for America in Okinawa, Korea and Germany. From a side bedroom came gentle murmuring. There lay Cytina's elderly mother, suffering after a stroke. She prayed constantly, statues of the Blessed Mother and Sacred Heart nearby.

Population of Arnaudville, LA, July of 2009 was 1,401. Estimated median household income averaged $21,204.

At 28, Cytina was like a glowing ember amidst a spent campfire. She leaned forward eagerly when Sister Mary told her a new choir was forming at church. She clutched a novena book and spoke of getting more involved at the parish. Her eyes were deep and expressive. Her smile enlivened her pretty face. When she was a girl, doctors told her she had sickle cell anemia and might never live to be 21. Then a 'walkin' man' visited town, peddling 'blood-building' tonics to poor African-Americans. Cytina was convinced his tonic cured her.

She blinked away tears and said, 'Here I am at 28! God must want me here. Now I want to be a nurse to help others.'

Intersection of Bayou Teche and the
Atchafalaya River. Photo by U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers.

It seemed a pipe-dream. After losing three babies and the break-up of her marriage, Cytina had returned to the poverty of her childhood home. Now her address made her an undesirable. In fact, a 'River Rat.' 

People in town ask why these people don't work, Sister Mary told me in her gentle voice. 'But they have no cars and no way to get anywhere.' Today I recall those words as hurricanes rampage through the Gulf Coast. Evacuate? For the poor, mobility is a luxury. 

'With how the world's going, I am praying more,' Cytina told me thirteen years ago. 'I want to help make things better.' At 41, does this bright-eyed woman still dream of helping others? Or have cruel winds of circumstance and nature dimmed the light in those eyes?

'With how the world's going...' Sometimes it keeps me up at night...all the Cytinas hidden along all the bayous and cinder roads of the Gulf Coast. Countless hidden heroes are struggling to weather yet another misery, in already stressed lives.

People are strangers until you're introduced. Sister Mary introduced me and now a piece of my heart has been buffeted by the winds of the 2005 hurricane season. At night in my comfortable bed in suburban Chicago I wonder, where is Cytina now? Dear God, where and how are all the Cytinas?"

Sent by EXTENSION Magazine to Cajun territory, I saw pristine grounds, and an innovative and gracious approach to learning at Grand Coteau's historic Academy of the Sacred Heart, founded in 1821. I toured New Orleans' French Quarter, and boarded a fishing vessel for a shrimp fleet blessing. I was hosted for dinner by a family whose gorgeous home rivaled those found in any upscale suburb. But I also was privileged to visit with the hidden poor on remote crawfish farms, within the Atchafalaya Swamp, and along the banks of Bayou Teche. "Poor" is such a relative term. I was captivated by these people's rich faith and culture, strong family and community ties, their warmth and humor.  


Different faces of those I had met haunted me at night after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. I worried over their possible fates. I wrote the above reflection about Cytina and Sister Mary Bordelon in my journal, then asked colleagues at The Catholic Church Extension Society if they would like to use it in some way (I was freelancing for Extension Society at the time). They offered the piece on Extension's web page under its "Hidden Heroes" section. 


I later learned that Arnaudville is on high ground, so escaped catastrophic flooding. But the Cytina I met there, stranded without a car or job and with an ailing mother, represents to me countless hidden poor throughout the region. Click on this link to see the stretch of homes I visited where Cytina lived: http://www.catholicextension.org/bordelon/. The photo was taken during my visit to Arnaudville in 1992.


Today, Arnaudville's described online as a "great little town to raise children," and a charming place with lush trees and quaint shops. One of the oldest remaining towns in St. Landry Parish (settled late 1700's), it serves up a thriving Cajun culture, let loose in gatherings like the Etouffee Festival, held each April. After Hurricane Katrina, the town opened its arms to artists and musicians who needed a new cultural home, so a revival was sparked. A new cultural arts center established there in 2005 was attracting visitors from around the world, until it burned down four years later. Residents are determined to rebuild, an uphill battle since many struggle financially. With Lafayette just 14 miles away, jobs are to be found in factories, retail, and health care, for those who have a car and can afford the gas. But I can't even imagine the impact high gas prices are having upon this population. In 2009, more than 23% of Arnaudville residents fell beneath the poverty level. 

Tonight, Louisiana is again suffering, as 3,000 square miles of farms are flooded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to try to divert worse flooding from more populous cities like Baton Rouge and New Orleans. People of Louisiana, you have had much to bear. I remember one crawfish farmer telling me about Cajuns' infectious "Joie de vivre." May you never lose your joy.