day 18: for planet

Earth teach me stillnessas the grasses are stilled with light.Earth teach me sufferingas old stones suffer with memory.Earth teach me humilityas blossoms are humble with beginning.Earth Teach me caringas the mother who secures her young.Earth teach me courageas the tree which stands alone.Earth teach me limitationas the ant which crawls on the ground.Earth teach meContinue reading “day 18: for planet”

for community

It is in the shelter of each other that people live. (Irish proverb)  Making room for community is different from spending time with my extended network of friends and family.  In my current definition, it’s a network of people with whom I have a meaningful encounter, exchange or dialogue, whether online or in person.  Continue reading “for community”

k’s big bday gratitude: one year (and a bit) on

Last week I finished writing all my thank you cards, notes and letters to those who donated to the fundraising campaign I launched as part of my ‘Big Birthday’ celebrations.  To my utter amazement, we managed to raise over £950.00 for the charity Creative Response which has been such a crucial lifeline for me sinceContinue reading “k’s big bday gratitude: one year (and a bit) on”

whole: Christmas Eve

BEAUTY CAN SAVE THE WORLD  so says the magnet pinned to the front of my fridge. But what does it know clinging to its empty whitewashed tomb? But then as I drive beyond the endless fields of rabbit’s foot and wild rye, I pass a hillside of white tulips—their cotton petals flinging the sunlight backContinue reading “whole: Christmas Eve”

whole: day 27

He loved cherry sunsets growing heavy on the branches of the evening; He loved bud coloured dawns opening from the east’s earth. He loved the sea, green in its happiness, seeking the shore; He loved to see it languishing back stonily from its crest to its groove. He loved the character of birds, the flockContinue reading “whole: day 27”

whole: day 22

Though I have never caught the word Of God from any calling bird, I hear all that the ancients heard. Though I have seen no deity Enter or leave a twilit tree, I see all that the seers see. A common stone can still reveal Something not stone, not seen, yet real. What may aContinue reading “whole: day 22”

whole: day 19

There is an elemental love in the universe by which name we know each other and encourage ourselves to live. There is a silver river that connects everything from which some part of us never leaves. There is a mercy making its way up through the ocean of the earth to the shores of ourContinue reading “whole: day 19”

whole: day 9

IT IS ONLY BY PUTTING IT INTO WORDS THAT I MAKE IT WHOLE. Virginia Woolf If seeingdarkly is my shorthand for ‘for now we shall see through a glass, darkly’, then my shorthand for ‘now I know in part’ (I Corinthians 13.12 KJV) is knowingdarkly. There are so many days when I do not knowContinue reading “whole: day 9”

whole: Sunday 2

But for God to reach us, we have to allow suffering to wound us. Now is no time for an academic solidarity with the world. Real solidarity needs to be felt and suffered. That’s the real meaning of the word “suffer” – to allow someone else’s pain to influence us in a real way. WeContinue reading “whole: Sunday 2”

Sunday 4

Joy is hidden in compassion.  The word compassion literally means ‘to suffer with’.  It seems quite unlikely that suffering with another person would bring joy.  Yet being with a person in pain, offering simple presence to someone in despair, sharing with a friend times of confusion and uncertainty … such experiences can bring us deepContinue reading “Sunday 4”