One must have a mind of winter To regard the frost and the boughs Of the pine-trees crusted with snow; And have been cold a long time To behold the junipers shagged with ice, The spruces rough in the distant glitter Of the January sun; and not to think Of any misery in the soundContinue reading “#adventapertures2025: Blue Christmas”
Tag Archives: chronic illness
#adventapertures2025: day 18
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, who knew a thing about maps, by which life moves somewhere or other used to tell this story from the war, through which history moves somewhere or other. ‘The young lieutenant of a small Hungarian detachment in the Alps sent out a reconnaissance unit into the icy wastes. At once it began toContinue reading “#adventapertures2025: day 18”
#adventapertures2025: Sunday 2
It is not by chance that both words consideration and desire (from Latin desiderium)-make reference to the stars (sidera in Latin). Stars played a role in medieval cosmology that might surprise us: seeds were thought to grow into different plants as their response to different stars – a special star for oak trees and aContinue reading “#adventapertures2025: Sunday 2”
#adventapertures2025: day 3
To journey without being changed is to be a nomad. To change without journeying is to be a chameleon. To journey and be transformed by the journey is to be a pilgrim. Mark Nepo from Christine Valters Paintner, The Love Of Thousands, (65) Why begin a journey, especially when one has no idea of whereContinue reading “#adventapertures2025: day 3”
#adventapertures2025: day 2
If it’s true that the universe consists of atoms and void and nothing else, then everything that exists—the sun and the moon, mother and the flag, Beethoven’s string quartets and da Vinci’s decomposing flesh—is made of the elementary particles of nature in fervent and constant motion, colliding and combining with one another in an inexhaustiblyContinue reading “#adventapertures2025: day 2”
I am limited
Last week it was my great honour to have another ‘monk in the world’ post published on the Abbey of the Arts Blog. Here is that post: A few months ago I wrote these words in response to a series of photographs (some of which are pictured here) I made in collaboration with the KinshipContinue reading “I am limited”
Epiphany 2025: for coming home
It could be the name of a prehistoric beast that roamed the Paleozoic earth, rising up on its hind legs to show off its large vocabulary, or a lover in a myth who gets metamorphosed into a book. It means treasury, but it is just a place where words congregate with their relatives, a bigContinue reading “Epiphany 2025: for coming home”
day 20: for nourishment
In winter, we are prone to regard our trees as cold, bare, and dreary; and we bid them wait until they are again clothed in verdure before we may accord to them comradeship. However, it is during this winter resting time that the tree stands revealed to the uttermost, ready to give its most intimateContinue reading “day 20: for nourishment”
day 16: for healing
Mutuality means learning to lean into [angels’] wisdom for us and seeing angels as partners in the journey of spiritual transformation. We allow them their full agency as they allow ours. Over time, as we begin to see patterns of support emerge in our days and feel their presence in our prayer moments, trust isContinue reading “day 16: for healing”
Sunday 3: for presence
… dig your toes into the earth and know that you are evolving here and now, even among the untidy mess of the unknown. It’s all becoming mulch for the green growing heart of you, coming home to yourself. Jenneth Graser, Unlocking the Secret Garden (Day 28, 85) On the death of Queen Elizabeth IIContinue reading “Sunday 3: for presence”
image into ikon 