night – image into ikon

#adventapertures2025: Blue Christmas

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”

#adventapertures2025: day 14

…darkness reaches out to offer whatever helping hand it can, calling us to trust it, saying, “Sometimes only the darkness will do.” We owe it to the darkness to reach out and grab that hand, to respect what it has to offer, to join it to the hand of light. Catherine Bird, The Divine HeartContinue reading “#adventapertures2025: day 14”

#adventapertures2025: day 13

Last thing each night, go out for the moon. Pull on old coat, shut garden gate. Roll up old sleeves. Swing arms. Poor soul. Think moonset. Moonrise. All running to schedule. World black and white, Walk up the lane. Last thing each night. Look up for the moon. No sign but rain. Almost back home.Continue reading “#adventapertures2025: day 13”

#adventapertures2025: day 12

There exists only the present instant… a Now which always and without end is itself new. There is no yesterday nor any tomorrow, but only Now, as it was a thousand years ago and as it will be a thousand years hence. Meister Eckhart Imagine if your culture had such an understanding of Deep Time,Continue reading “#adventapertures2025: day 12”

#adventapertures2025: day 11

Do you bow your head when you pray or do you lookup into that blue space?Take your choice, prayers fly from all directions.And don’t worry about what language you use,God no doubt understands them all.Even when the swans are flying north and makingsuch a ruckus of noise, God is surely listeningand understanding.Rumi said, There is noContinue reading “#adventapertures2025: day 11”

#adventapertures2025: day 9

I have begun, when I’m weary and can’t decide an answer to a bewildering question to ask my dead friends for their opinion and the answer is often immediate and clear. Should I take the job? Move to the city? Should I try to conceive a child in my middle age? They stand in unisonContinue reading “#adventapertures2025: day 9”

#adventapertures2025: day 5

I carry with me the awareness that many people find that this season brings not tidings of comfort and joy but of frustration and grief…. I believe… that in this season [we are invited] to carry the light, yes, but also to see in the dark and to find the shape of things in theContinue reading “#adventapertures2025: day 5”

#adventapertures 2025: Sunday 1

In the season leaves should love, since it gives them leave to move through the wind, towards the ground they were watching while they hung, legend says there is a seam stitching darkness like a name. Now when dying grasses veil earth from the sky in one last pale wave, as autumn dies to bringContinue reading “#adventapertures 2025: Sunday 1”

watchnight 2022

We met among alphabets. I saw myself Greek: walking the walls, inviolate as logic, mistress of philosophy’s glassy tongue. Translation came slow. I learned to trust Hebrew’s rich misreadings, risk reading between the lines: language of faith, our leap in the dark. ‘Among Alphabets’ Helen Tookey And when night comes, and you look back overContinue reading “watchnight 2022”

Blue Christmas 2: light is in the horizon yet

This piece was originally written for the Godspace blog to be a part of their Advent theme Proclaiming Justice, Seeking Peace Through Advent. It was published on 21 December 2022 here. All images by Kate Kennington Steer. … And if, as autumn deepens and darkens I feel the pain of falling leaves, and stems thatContinue reading “Blue Christmas 2: light is in the horizon yet”