The taste of hospitals and airports says: You are here under whatever circumstances, tired, no doubt stressed. Have a coffee. Sit down. No-one will care if you cry; everyone is going somewhere different sometime soon. Everyone is crying or dazed, on edge yet kept in secure wards or waiting gates, volatile, yet in comfy chairs.Continue reading “How we wait”
Tag Archives: waiting
Haven’t You Heard?
Some will sit as though nothing’s new, staring at the constant sky. I confess that I’ve done so too and held the lie. Some will wait for what does not come and think that waiting is divine. Some will fall and some will run until the time. Yet in the terminal of souls a voiceContinue reading “Haven’t You Heard?”
Damascus Road Prayers: Advent 2
…as if He were a seed in our garden, or a small flash of light for our pupil, He shone forth and diffused and filled the earth. (Saint Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns for the Nativity) Days crack like soil. In the parts of the world where summer parches we wait like potholes for the rain.Continue reading “Damascus Road Prayers: Advent 2”
Second Candle: Advent is Slowing
One candle grows short, a second descends, And three others wait for the rising of light. Wicks burn down and dwindle, yet hope still appends The longing of prayers in the slow Advent night. In the day, though the shouting of sun may shut out The lamenting of captives, yet watch in the night, ForContinue reading “Second Candle: Advent is Slowing”
First Candle: Advent is Waiting
Advent is not simply Christmas extended: Calendar flaps decked with chocolate each day; Shops tinsel-lined as though God intended The season to dazzle our wallets away. Advent is not for the first-fruits of commerce, Nor is it for month-long pre-parties and drinks, And not for fluoro-lit reindeers dispersed In gardens, despite what the suburbs mayContinue reading “First Candle: Advent is Waiting”
Lent 46: Holy Saturday
Down, they took his body down; Joseph, Nicodemus took him to the tomb reserved for him and soldiers stood and watched. There they stood; the soldiers stood, to see what ruse might there unfold. suspicious, victory not quite won, the soldiers stood in wait. Dark took hold, the sky asleep, the faithful inContinue reading “Lent 46: Holy Saturday”
Lay this body down… – Streaming Page CXVI’s “Good Friday to Easter” Day Three
What now? Death takes the best; the body droops upon the Cross. We look; the sting in eyes declares that all is done. It is finished. What? Are we done for, Lord? Where the hopes and fears of all the years, once met in You? Where now? All done? All done for? What next?Continue reading “Lay this body down… – Streaming Page CXVI’s “Good Friday to Easter” Day Three”
The Consolations of Writing 