Bound and Determined
Monday, April 8, 2024
Jan Rayburn
I took the plunge into my teenage years with a three-week canoeing trip in the Boundary Waters — a million plus acres of wilderness with forests, lakes and streams in the Superior National Forest located in northern Minnesota where it meets Canada. I say it was a canoeing trip, but my memory sure seems to recall a whole lot of portaging, which is a strenuous trek with all your gear on your back and the canoe hoisted over your head, held by the frame and support bars to traverse over land from one open waterway to another. I still have a permanent knot in my neck from this fun task!
There is nothing smooth sailing about portaging. It was an intense camping experience with very specific instructions, rules, guidelines, and warnings — not the least of which was no sweets allowed as they can attract bears. While I weighed the pros and cons of a bear visit versus three weeks without sweets, the instructions continued with steps on how to rope the backpacks holding our provisions up in the trees through a rather primitive but effective pulley system in order to prevent bears from foraging through them. We were diligent in the practice until the last few days of the trip when we were too tired to do the last few tugs on the rope and indeed fell victim to the bears taking our food, leaving us to survive on a diet of saltine crackers until the end of the trip. Lesson learned.
The rules are not necessarily in place to be restrictive, rather, they are just plain necessary for safety, well-being, and providing the best possible experience. The days were long, grueling, demanding, and absolutely amazing! I mean, we showered every day in waterfalls!
April showers not only bring May flowers (see what I did there?), but April is also the nationally designated Child Abuse Prevention Month.
The Archdiocese of Miami has been proactively protecting the children and vulnerable adults in its care since 2002 when the USCCB (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) created the Charter for the Protection of Children, culminating in each diocese adopting a Safe Environment Policy for their entities. Decades of learning and growth have made us a worldwide leader in such protections, policies, and best practices.
A major element of the policy is the educational component. The archdiocese partners with Virtus to provide timely and topical information on the latest concerns, troubling trends, and statistics, as well as providing the techniques and tools to combat them.
This year, we provided a new Virtus online training module addressing Healthy Boundaries for Adults. It provides guidance on appropriate behaviors in relationships with children, vulnerable adults, and other adults. The module is required of all employees, educators, and vendors, as defined by the USCCB. Coming this month is a similar training on the same topic specifically designed for clergy. It, too, will be required.
These trainings are among the library of educational materials designed to protect God’s children, as are all the Safe Environment policies and requirements. They serve as a reminder that we are all God’s children, not just minors and the vulnerable, and each of us needs healthy boundaries.
What is it about boundaries that make us recoil?
Is it the notion that no one likes to be told what to do?
Is it that we think we only really need one rule —the golden rule— in all we do?
Or perhaps just 10 commandments?
While we may think it should be that simple, it is rarely the case, especially in such a wonderfully diverse community like the Archdiocese of Miami. When many cultures come together in our mutual faith and Christian formation, it is essential to have guidelines in place and explanatory trainings to make them understandable and user-friendly.
It really comes down to respecting yourself, your role, and others around you. We are called in baptism to look out for one another. Those who get angry when you set a boundary are often the very ones with whom you need to set a boundary. The more you value yourself and others around you, the healthier your boundaries and the healthier we are as a Church.
So, whether we are talking about a canoe in the Boundary Waters, Noah’s Ark, Michael’s boat ashore, a water taxi in Broward, a dive boat in the Keys, or an airboat in the Everglades (and all points in between), jump on board to join us in our ongoing efforts to protect children and all adults, especially the vulnerable, in our homes, neighborhoods, canals, intercoastal waterways and the Atlantic Ocean.
With healthy boundaries in place, your excursion will have no troubled waters.
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