How many of usare waiting to come home?To arrive at the door,and not have to knock.To know we are welcome,here, now, in this place.Crossing the thresholdof grace, with grace. + Sue Heatherington ~ Thinking of the many far from home, physically and metaphorically. And those currently approaching a threshold, unsure of what they will find. … Read more
This is one of those plump acorns from earlier in the autumn. Can you see how it’s opening up and reaching for the dark? But it cannot grow into a sapling oak here on the path. So I moved it to a place where it could burrow into the leaf mould and the earthy soil … Read more
Gideon Heugh has just published a new book, Darkling: An Advent Journey, and I wanted to share it with you. This is a book for darkling days. A book for those who are hunkering down against the winter storms of life. A book for those who feel weary, lost, uncertain. It is not a book … Read more
Is there a difference between waiting and being patient? I think there may be, depending on our orientation. For many of us, waiting has a sense of being static and outward focussed. Who or what are we waiting for? Whereas being patient may be about our inner attitude. Holding something until it’s ripe or ready … Read more
Reading one of David’s Psalms the other day inspired this phrase: Passionately waiting. Because to pause with any less expectation would somehow be an abdication. Or, to put it another way, it would be like expecting someone else to do the work I am called to do or become the person I am meant to … Read more
What we think we seeis only surface, simply caught inthe angle of light; colourful texturescatching our attentiondistracting us fromthe deeper work of patiently andpassionately waitingfor the unseento be revealed. ~ Stimulated by a delightful conversation with Josie Mackenzie on the extraordinary alchemy of creating plant dyes.
Have you noticed? Often our significant questions invite us to sit with them for a while. Yet we’re in such a hurry. We’ve become conditioned to believe that questions need clear answers. Now. But how would we know we’re looking at it the wrong way round, upside down, or back to front? Indeed what if … Read more
There is a crack, a crack in everythingThat’s how the light gets in + Leonard Cohen, from Anthem So where is the crack, the light in Ukraine now? Over the last few days, I’ve been drawn to walking through the little tunnel in the hillside opposite the farmhouse. It’s the original overflow from the Victorian … Read more
Yesterday was my birthday, and the very short poem I shared – Water – is the beautiful question I am currently holding. Today, I want to share an extraordinary poem by the young poet Gideon Heugh, which opens his new book of poetry, Rumours of Light. It feels timely. IT IS TIME Turn your gaze … Read more
Advent is from the Latin adventus: ‘coming’. However, this isn’t a vague ‘maybe something is around the corner’. It is active anticipation of coming into place, or view or even being. Yet how we wait makes a difference. Not to what is approaching, but to us and our seeing and being. There is peace – … Read more