On the first day of Christmas, they hauled you from me with the forceps while a crimson Santa blinked outside and made the rain new blood. The second day, I washed with frankincense, fed you thin gold, summoned by the high star of your cry. The third day, milk came swaddling-pale, shepherd’s flock white. TheContinue reading “#adventapertures2025: day 24”
Tag Archives: John O'Donohue
#adventapertures2025: Sunday 3
‘It was said of Rabbi Simcha Bunim that he carried two slips of paper, one in each pocket. On one he wrote: Bishvili nivra ha’olam – “For my sake the world was created.” On the other he wrote: V’anokhi afar v’aefer – “I am but dust and ashes.” He would take out each slip ofContinue reading “#adventapertures2025: Sunday 3”
#adventapertures2025: day 7
“Advent is a story of Old Testament prophecies. It is a story of cosmic fulfillment. The dream of a world repaired in the holy darkness of Advent. A whisper is heard, words are formed.” Rev Lisha Epperson Packing to go on holiday always induces fear in me as well as excitement. It is the fearContinue reading “#adventapertures2025: day 7”
#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”
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”
Watchnight: for growth (unknowing)
I clear the surface of my desk and make a pool of light with my lamp. I go off to fetch matches and light a candle. One light is steady and sure, the other uncertain and flickering. I open my notebook and work between these two poles. On balance, it’s where I prefer to be:Continue reading “Watchnight: for growth (unknowing)”
whole: day 20
Then is it true that you also need us?… … Look: I am giving it to you, this fragment; but how, In your completeness, could you need it? from ‘then is it true’, Helen Tookey Spirit may not always bring my seeingdarkly into the light; sometimes Spirit encourages me to see even more darkly intoContinue reading “whole: day 20”
Under a Sap Moon (Vernal Equinox 2021)
What needs to go? What like the seasons is preparing to shed, or to grow. is silent yet in the earth? To reflect, make three columns with your paper and ink: Then walk through the garden of your life, with full attentiveness. Take part in your practice, with your arms raised like the trees, thatContinue reading “Under a Sap Moon (Vernal Equinox 2021)”
Epiphany 2021
Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy. The birds still rememberwhat we have forgotten,that the world is meant to becelebrated. Terry Tempest Williams I wonder if I can help ‘heal the worldContinue reading “Epiphany 2021”
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”
image into ikon 