Growing up on a farm in Kent – the garden of England – I learnt how to test when fruit was ripe for picking. It’s all to do with touch. Whether apple, pear, plum or strawberry, the fruit might look ripe, but if it resisted a gentle twist, it was too soon. And the fruit …
As the nights draw in, so the temperature gradient steepens. It gets cold, particularly at ground level. I notice this tonal shift while walking my familiar paths in the valley. Autumn arrives with splashes of colour and breath you can feel as you inhale the nutty brown aroma. I also see a shift in my …
Granular convection. When a can of mixed nuts is shaken, the largest variety tends to end up on the surface. This phenomenon is sometimes known as the “Brazil nut effect”. It can be seen in many places: food processing, manufacturing, geology … But it seems to happen to us, too. When we’re shaken, certain things …
How we see the world is framed by our understanding of how things are. And in turn, that is reinforced by the language we use. Suzanne Simard provided a brilliant demonstration of this in her conversation with Krista Tippett for the On Being podcast this week: Forests are wired for wisdom. In talking about her …
The days draw us to this day and asks if we are ready? PROPHET I wonder why you brought meto these splintering days,this age of earth-deathand default extinctionand the smothering of constellations, nostalgia claws at mescreaming send me back, then I sense a fire that doesn’t consume,a cloud of breath-taking holinesspassing across the face of …
What’s that thingtugging at yourheart,just out ofsight? What’s that soundyou can’t quitehear,yet you recognisethe rhythm? What’s that callthat shapes yourlife,yet still waitsto be named? It’s time to harvestthe little seedsplanteda while agoin the dark. ~ I am a little surprised to be here, again. Yet, I sense there is more to be embraced in the …
Sometimes we need shadows. Not as a place of escape or excuse, but of rest. In gentleness, where the angled light helps us uncover our own depths. Naming things that have profoundly shaped us without our consent. Because here is the place of unhurried compassion and grace. Breathing space for a life being restored.
Shadow play is intricate and beautiful. It invites us into a world of suggestion. And throws into relief details we might miss. However, it isn’t the real thing and can only ever be two-dimensional. Yet sometimes, we settle for the shadow rather than venture into the light. I wonder why?
We awoke to a mist-filled valley. It’s hard to get your bearings in the muffled stillness. When you can’t see where the sun is rising. Yet, we knew there were clear skies above. Waiting and watching. Listening and sensing. This is not a place to be impatient. We cannot make the weather change. We just …
What is time? Is it fixed, or is it fluid and slippery? Does it have a beginning and an end? And what about our time, is one hour the same as another? In one sense, each moment is a threshold and how we cross it will be shaped by how we inhabit time. “A life …