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: 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”

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 18

Every breath is a resurrection. Gregory Orr (from “Concerning the Book that is the Body of the Beloved”) I am known by God.   I am being known by God.   I am knowing me with God.   I am knowing God with God. Seeingdarkly and knowingdarkly is not a one way street.  It isContinue reading “Whole: day 18”

whole: day 17

God loves flesh and blood, no matter what kind of shape it is in.  Whether you are sick or well, lovely or irregular, there comes a time when it is vitally important to drop your clothes, look in the mirror, and say, “Here I am.  This is the body-like-no-other that my life has shaped.  IContinue reading “whole: day 17”

whole: day 11

The truth of what we call our knowing is both light and dark.  Men are always dying and waking.  The rhythm between we call life … I walk in the dark feeling darkness on my skin.  Dawn always begins in the bones. ‘Hymn to Ra’, The Egyptian Book of the Dead As I am beginningContinue reading “whole: day 11”

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)”

day 24

This morning as I walked along the lakeshore,I fell in love with a wrenand later in the day with a mousethe cat had dropped under the dining room table. In the shadows of an autumn evening,I fell for a seamstressstill at her machine in the tailor’s window,and later for a bowl of broth,steam rising likeContinue reading “day 24”

psalms for passiontide: Holy Saturday Psalm 31.1-4,15,16

refuge rock refuge fortress rock fortress refuge These are the images of Psalm 31.1-4, the oh-too-solid opposites of the tangled net the psalmist feels closing around him.  On Holy Saturday, these are also images of a tomb in which an already much-mourned, much-loved, broken body lies waiting for its final anointing and arranging once theContinue reading “psalms for passiontide: Holy Saturday Psalm 31.1-4,15,16”

psalms for passiontide: Easter Eve vigil Psalm 136

Thank God! He deserves your thanks.     His love never quits. Thank the God of all gods,     His love never quits. Thank the Lord of all lords.     His love never quits. Thank the miracle-working God,     His love never quits. The God whose skill formed the cosmos,     His love never quits. The God who laid out earthContinue reading “psalms for passiontide: Easter Eve vigil Psalm 136”