You shall turn again to earth.(Christina Rossetti, “For Advent”) Before leaving for our new home, we takethe last year’s compost and distributerich, fermenting soil across our garden bed,while lawn – parched from summer – longs weakly for green.I too am parched and thoughmade of mud I cannot rest in dirtuntil the heat is passed.And soContinue reading “Advent 14: Last Things”
Tag Archives: God
Advent 13: But I said, “I have laboured in vain”
The sun beating heavily on our heads, we feltthe agony of things straining against themselves,felt the longing but not the reward and grewweary of the day. When I spoke, it was gravel in my throat.“Show me,” I demanded, “the length of these days.Show me the end.” And the sundid not relent in its frenzied beamingwhileContinue reading “Advent 13: But I said, “I have laboured in vain””
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”
A Mindlessness Prayer
These days when all of the socks are odd and all your thoughts are scrambled eggs and, try as you might to talk to God, nothing much makes any sense, for the rubbish awaits in noisome piles, the bills are due and so’s the tax and the laundry measures its depth in miles and theContinue reading “A Mindlessness Prayer”
“Consolation” – Elizabeth Barrett Browning
I don’t normally share other people’s work here but I read this gem this morning and it was so precious – especially the ending – that I thought I had to post it. Consolation – Elizabeth Barrett Browning All are not taken; there are left behind Living Beloveds, tender looks to bring And make theContinue reading ““Consolation” – Elizabeth Barrett Browning”
Memento Mori: After Chris Wallace-Crabbe
And Adam, seeing that immortality had not clothed him but left his glory naked, felt in his body the future ache of all who would toil and moil their mortal days, and taking Eve’s hand, he hid their rude-awakened flesh in the quiet of a deceitful glade while the immortal searched to clothe them andContinue reading “Memento Mori: After Chris Wallace-Crabbe”
Testimony of Earth
For this demon who harms men and corrupts them is particularly anxious that his servants not gaze up to heaven but instead that they be bent over to the earth and make bricks inside themselves from clay. (Gregory of Nyssa, The Life of Moses) At the moment of exhaling, he sanctified the clay he shapedContinue reading “Testimony of Earth”
George Herbert at Bemerton
I am the man who has seen affliction… (Lamentation 3:1) His portrait would have him serenely contemplating a garden, one hand raised beatifically like the saints of old. Often I would have my days like that, passed in that perfect serene of green, spirit quiet within like the waters without, no trouble straining pastoral brow.Continue reading “George Herbert at Bemerton”
Toddler-speed
Only when we are going somewhere does he dawdle, suddenly eager to investigate every fencepost, every garden paver. When we’ve all the world’s time, he hurries, as though life might catch him before he is done, as one learns to do when small and only grown-ups can open doors for you, where moments must beContinue reading “Toddler-speed”
If Ye Love Me
So many ways to wash feet: the posture, not the precise nature of the action, matters – poised at ground level, familiar with the dust and grime of the day’s streets, outer garments shed to throw off all show, the creak in the knees accompanying the splash and the mess of the self washing offContinue reading “If Ye Love Me”
The Consolations of Writing 