Amazing Teens!

Thorndale’s Community Youth Clubhouse - organized by youth for youth

A warm late August evening marked the grand opening of Thorndale’s Community Youth Clubhouse.  This interesting event was the fulfillment of several years of planning by a group of youth and advisors of this small, thriving village. How proud the young people appeared as speaker after speaker acknowledged the honor that it was to feature local teenagers who had spent an enormous amount of time not only attending planning meetings but also designing space and programs in a main street former school that is the site of this new endeavor.

Grant writing is an onerous task which the youth successfully embraced. For their efforts at proposal writing, budget submission, etc., the youth group was awarded $15,000 from the Royal Bank’s future launch program and in partnership with London Community Foundation assisted in funding the clubhouse space. The London Boys and Girls Club will provide oversight of the facility.  In addition, Family Service Thames Valley has stepped forward to offer free mental health counselling. Representatives from these services offered glowing praise to the Thorndale youth who worked with great ardor to realize their dream of a youth centre. They encouraged the teens to continue developing skills and experiences that lead to success.

Along with the crowd of over 100 people, several booths were featured on the grounds announcing interesting club initiatives including the development of a community cookbook.  Three boys at another booth were fundraising by selling a selection of dog toys, treats, etc. This is to help fund the vision of a young lad leading his project to establish a dog park in town. 

Following the speeches and ribbon-cutting ceremony, music from an accomplished teenaged duo filled the air as the assembled crowd was welcomed to tour the clubhouse which features cozy rooms decked out with a donated pool table, hockey game, comfy couches, and quiet areas.  A monthly calendar of events includes special events, recreation opportunities, and school tutoring.

Personally, it was a highlight of summer 2021 to visit beautiful Thorndale and see creative, skilled young people gathered with families and friends to bring their dreams to reality.  Quiet pride shone on faces basking in the glow of what young people can achieve when encouraged by adults and supported by peers. Long live the little towns and villages that take pride in rural life and nurture families and children to become skilled leaders and solid citizens!

-Sister Jean Moylan, csj 

Sending a Birthday Card? Kick it up a Notch!

““If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment.  Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people.”    ”

—    - Thich Nhat Hahn

This quote by Thich Nhat Hahn, reminds me of the story of evolution, especially on a birthday!  I like reflecting on the Big Bang, and enclosing it into a birthday card, a handwritten note, with some of the following content: “13.7 billion years ago our Universe Story began.  Next came the creation of stars, galaxies, and supernovas, our sun, to 4.45 billion years ago with the creation of Earth, planets and the Solar System, etc. right to the creation of modern humans, and the development of language some 40,000 years ago.  These are a few facts that are cited before the creation of “our human ancestors” some 2.5 million years ago.  Imagine the magnitude of this. We humans are not long on this planet, and not very old when looking at the big picture of things.

Take a moment yourself, to do as Nhat Hanh suggests, “Look deeply into the palm of your hand, see your parents and generations of your ancestors. All of them alive in you at this moment.  Each is present in your body, alive in this moment” as you write your birthday card, as you walk and breath, moment by moment, “You are the continuation of each of these people,” generation after generation of ancestors.   More than that, it has been determined that we are evolved from stardust. Put that on your next job application!

““Our ancestry stretches back through the life forms and into the stars, back into the beginnings of the primeval fireball. This universe is a single multiform energetic unfolding of matter, mind, intelligence, and life.” ”

— Brian Swimme.

Yes, a birthday greeting can convey thoughts that open the viewer to an expansive perspective of BIRTH and the story of the Universe, our home.  Judy Cannato author of Radical Amazement writes, “our work is to integrate the new universe story, to take it in and live it out”, to “intertwine it with our own, and nurturing the most significant relationship we have, relationship with life itself.”

Taking all that into consideration, I think the occasion of sending a birthday card creates an ideal opportunity to connect with a deeper meaning - of life.  

by Sister Patricia St. Louis, csj