Truth be told, we forgot all about the axe.Busy with our landscaping and renovations, weneglected our gardens, all tangles of weedsand fruit trees budding nothing while we poisoned the soil. No surprise to find that it should come to this,the moment of reckoning when our garden would judge.Yet we were golden and glimmering,felt eternal forContinue reading “Advent 8: The axe is lying at the root of the trees”
Category Archives: Devotional
Advent 7: Shedding
When the cry comes out – Prepare the way! –are we found listening, heeding or tending toour own private laneways, our private gains?If I am to hear Him when He should appearand if my feet will be swift and fleet,I must jettison allthat I hold yet holds me, andthrow off the loves that so easilyContinue reading “Advent 7: Shedding”
Advent 6: Benedictus
They shall not live who have not tasted death.They only sing who are struck dumb by God.(Joyce Kilmer, “Poets”) And so Zechariah became one of the poets,hymning the God of Israel with new voice,for those who have most wept will most rejoice,while others full of grace who did not know itcould never pen a hymnContinue reading “Advent 6: Benedictus”
Advent 5: Last Things
Hospital room. While my uncle and I tried to tend to my grandmother’s needs, we heard behind the curtain divider a granddaughter and grandson discuss cremation plans and how the west has avoided death while the east (both fresh from travel) takes the wiser path, rubbing face and hands in body ash and staring death’sContinue reading “Advent 5: Last Things”
Advent 4: Airport Christmas
We always move around and sofittingly our Christmas is mobile,each returning to their homes, like Josephand a heavily expectant Mary, carryingthe hope of the world in her womb. We depart carrying gifts in shopping bagsor catch up on forgotten things at airport stores.And when we arrive: reunion, butno birth, Messiah forgotten where we left HimandContinue reading “Advent 4: Airport Christmas”
Advent 3: Longing
O Lord, restore us deaf and blind, Unclose our lips tho’ dumb. (Christina Rossetti, “Advent”) At my desk, while a quiet internal road ebbed and flowed with the business traffic of the common afternoon, and wind kicked up dust from the gravel carpark and tossed hair into plaintive matts, and threw clothes into disarray IContinue reading “Advent 3: Longing”
Advent 2: Last Things
And what have we done?The year will pass regardless, yetopportunity arises now to askif our deeds have sown death or life,if lifehas sprouted from our dying deeds. Dying, however my breath may deceive,I must ask if my hands have turned to tendmy own grave, or a garden; if my steps have benttowards the straight, orContinue reading “Advent 2: Last Things”
Advent 1: Pine
Early evening, cool of day, we walk in the garden to find evergreen branches to weave a wreath of hope. My son is distracted. Not tall enough to reach with me, he stands to watch but soon decides instead to help pile the compost heap with grass. Evergreen and humus: these symbols arrest as IContinue reading “Advent 1: Pine”
And so this is Advent
Today is the first Sunday of Advent – and of a new church year! Having just launched my book “The Swelling Year”, I’m a little behind in my own plans for how to mark the season here at The Consolations of Writing, but I thought I’d begin by sharing some of my favourite Advent resourcesContinue reading “And so this is Advent”
Lie down in chaos
He gives His beloved sleep. (Psalm 127:2) The bed decked in a week’s laundry, and a million miniscule things left undone, Sleep still says, “Rest your weary head. The day is long, tomorrow longer, and after that who knows. For now, this minute, lie down. In chaos, be still.” So I am still, and theContinue reading “Lie down in chaos”
The Consolations of Writing 