SOUL-WARMING

This headline, in the Guardian newspaper last week, caught my eye.
It appeared on a day which was markedly cold and at a time of year when the weather in the UK included floods, ice, snow, bitter winds and all those elements which would encourage humans to join the animal kingdom in hibernation. (if only!)

It was also a time when yet more headlines drew our attention to a time when the darkness of humanity seems to be at its deepest. The Middle East is a tinder box of conflict; Ukrainian people are struggling against an evil foe, and bitterness in politics all over the Globe add to our woes. Even the Planet is angry with us. Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Volcanic eruptions, famine would, in earlier Biblical times have been attributed to an angry God (or earlier, gods).

So, the headline, ‘Soul-Warming’, grabbed my attention.
The sub text gave a clue. ‘the mystery man who chops wood to keep his neighbours from freezing.’

The article told a story by an American journalist, David Wallis, about a Woodsman in upstate New York who, in the midst of a harsh winter, went about quietly easing the suffering of others.
The man had once been involved as a director, writer and producer of films and TV programmes but has now given that up to help his struggling neighbours, especially the elderly trying to cope with freezing weather conditions.
He believes firmly that heat in winter is a human right but in a part of America where many are wealthy there are equally those who are poor and really suffering.

So, the woodsman has been quietly doing something about this over the past few years.
His mother was suffering from Cancer and later Covid, so he moved to look after her. He stocked a stand outside her home with bundles of wood which people could buy to fuel their fires. The proceeds were donated to local charities. Over time, the Woodsman noticed that bundles of wood vanished. He was sad that people were stealing. After a conversation with a friend, he thought of putting up a sign outside inviting people who needed wood but couldn’t afford it, to let him know and he would deliver some.

This led to a free firewood programme.
Alongside two local Librarians, who knew about people living in reduced circumstances, he joined forces with them in supplying wood to people in need. He drew upon financial support from those in his former career as things developed.  For him, it all really began to take off when one of the librarians called for his help. There had been a power cut and an old couple had burned their last stick of wood, could he help? Within hours, the Woodsman came to the rescue and went to their home. When he arrived, he found them huddled under a blanket with the fire long gone out. They were freezing cold. He brought wood and lit a fire for them. He continued to keep them supplied until power was restored. The journalist, David Wallis, called  it a Soul-Warming  action.

After that beginning, things just grew. The number of those he helped each winter were, he thought, a sign of increasing economic struggle. He not only supplies wood for them but also acts as one who listens and cares. He says that what he is doing is a ‘cheap form of therapy’ ~ for himself.
“I’m sort of a quiet guy. Giving away wood does draw me out, pushes me out. When you interact with people, and I listen a lot, you do learn their stories. And I’m moved by every one of them.”

He meets real, genuine people, who are not only suffering from poverty but also need people to touch their lives and souls. Some are ill and need compassion and care. Often, they just need someone to talk to. Life hits them hard, trips them up, and they need someone who treats them not as a case to be helped but as a human being who needs a friend. In his own quiet pragmatic and determined way he is being just such a friend.

We often think of a Soul Friend, as a kind of Spiritual Director, and of Saints who show us holiness. Yet the Woodsman is being a Soul Friend to the people he helps. There is both a physical and spiritual friendship and it is often hard to see where one ends and the other begins.
St Aelred of Rievaulx speaking of Martha & Mary drew on the distinction between Mary who sat at Jesus’s feet and listened to him and Martha who rushed around preparing a meal for him. Aelred made the point that both needed each other. Who would listen to Jesus if Mary didn’t sit with him and how would he be fed if Martha didn’t do it.
It seems to me that that the Woodsman in this story did both.

As he said, anyone can do something – right?

In times such as now, I need stories like this because they warm my soul too.

[Mr G] 16th January 2024