The Dam at Spencerville

The waters wear even stones smooth

The inked and linked Ottawa anecdotes are dammed behind escarpments of history and when a snippet leaks from a Senate chamber or a tour guide reminds us that this is a sensitive and caring multicultural country I can not help shudder at the fading reality of that dream.  Now all this has very little to do with living and enjoying life other than to seek for each and every immigrant and refugee the same welcome opportunity that created this mosaic of opportunity.  We need hearts filled with passion for compassion! The dam at Spencerville ran a grain mil for over 75 years and was finally inactivated by time and changing demand.  But what stood our for me was the size of the millstone that was used to grind the wheat.  A solid rock of say at least a metre in diameter and 30 centimetres thick!  There is this story recorded in the Bible where the teacher turns to the crowd and says, “it would be better for a person to be thrown into the sea with a huge millstone hung around their neck than have them cause a little person to stumble…” Now little people are not just young persons, they may be weak or under-privledged or homeless refugees.  That was a big millstone and I was wondering if anyone in Ottawa had seen it. Gathered at the edge of the Niagara escarpment watching water carve stone as it had done for millenniums, I was stunned by the almighty patience of creation.  To create spectacle that can drag a nation from their screens is the miracle of time.  I can hear the words of my colleague, David, “give it a day…” Sitting by quiet streams or thundering falls has a way of making all those urgents in my life sublimate to time. We need to invite the nations of the world to see Niagara Falls and then as the Ecuadorian visitor said, “this could be a new home!”