Some photographs taken on my way back from Bute yesterday, driving over the middle of the Cowal peninsular from Colintraive.
Early winter…
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Category Archives: photography
A day on the Clyde…
A few photographs from a Clyde crossing…
World of wonders…
I was looking out at the night sky, now gloriously clear after the fog of the weekend. And it hit me again…
What an amazing place we stand in the middle of.
Transcendent moments like this always make me softer- more human, more alive.
At the same time, I want to share them with my friends and people I love.
And to celebrate them by allowing them to shape me into making something artistic and beautiful.
Most of all, they make me long to reach out towards the thing beyond- whom I poorly understand, but yearn for- and can only name as God.
Others tell this same story better than me- here is one of them. Forgive the Germans chattering in the background- they were not experiencing transcendence. They like prog rock over there you know…
Stand on a bridge before the cavern of night
Darkness alive with possibility
Nose to this wind full of twinkling lights
Trying to catch the scent of what’s coming to be (in this…)
World of wonders…
Somewhere a saxophone slides through changes
Like a wet pipe dripping down my neck
Gives me a chill — sounds like danger
But I can’t stop moving till I cross this sector (of this…)
World of wonders…
There’s a rainbow shining in a bead of spittle
Falling diamonds in rattling rain
Light flexed on moving muscle
I stand here dazzled with my heart in flames (at this…)
World of wonders…
Moment of peace like brief arctic bloom
Red/gold ripple of the sun going down
Line of black hills makes my bed
Sky full of love pulled over my head
World of wonders…
Advent prayers rising…
We are back in this evening after another day spent out on Dunoons West Bay, serving mulled wine, mince pies, and having lots of good conversations with folk as the came to collect Christmas trees.
We had also set up some meditation things, did some music (oh my fingers!) and were selling Sky lanterns with the intention of inviting people to write prayers/thoughts on them, and participate in a massed sky lantern launch.
Why did we do it?
- To encourage people to be reflective and conscious of the season of Advent- a way for people to become more Spiritually aware, and open again to the Spirit of God
- To support work to raise money for CLANN (Community leisure development) and Christian Aid.
- To make a lovely spectacle that will linger in people’s minds
- To bring people together- and allow community to flourish, in all it’s different forms
And it was great!
We had a mixed blessing with the weather- it was calm, dry, but the Clyde was masked in freezing fog, and echoing with the mournful fog horns as ships passed out to sea.
However, the sight of the lanterns going off up into the mist was wonderful- eery, moving and affecting.
What was even better was the numbers of people who came and took part this evening- from schools, community projects, families, individuals.
Michaela described one family who lit the lantern, then stood together around it as it warmed up, arms around one another in silence. Then they let the lantern rise up into the night sky. Whatever their prayers were, may they be blessed…
Here are the promised photos- Andy took some more, so I will hopefully get to post a few of his soon.
Winter takes a break…
I had a lovely drive back from Helensburgh today- all the mist moving around the mountains in the late afternoon stillness.
I had to stop a few times- here is why
December…
Winter can be cruel
The darkness cover us, and cold winds close us off from one another
December comes, and the trees are bare
The hillsides become an impassable sponge, soaking up the rain that never seems to be far away
Where once a thousand bluebells blazed, it is now almost impossible to believe that anything can ever live again.
And into this time, comes the season of Advent
A time of waiting
A time to dare once again to hope
A time to re imagine the coming
Of a King
Who might yet
Light up everything
In brand new spring
Holy darkness
Is it darkness that we fear
Or the possibility of
No longer knowing?
This shrinking down
From adult to tiny child
As the tentacles of night
Enfold us
Is like a passage from this place
To another
It is the terror in need
Of a mother
It is the foxhole we share
With each other
But then what is it- this conspiracy of biology?
This delusion we shape
In rods
And cones?
Perhaps the darkness can be holy
Stripped of neon
It glows
And crackles
And beyond the edge of us
Off the rainbow register
There is a seeing
Without seeing
And a knowing
That knows
Nothing
Out in the indigo darkness
You are
And here are we
With hardly a spark
Between us
Shining
Starlit darkness…
The stars are out.
And Michaela reminded me of a discussion we had a few years ago about the mystery of God. It stemmed from me quoting Gregory of Nyssa, who apparently said something like this-
The move towards God is a journey into Holy darkness.
It really resonated with me- it spoke of the mystery of God, and the presence that we often feel in open spaces. It also spoke to me of a process of unknowing that I was experiencing at the time- a loosening of absolutes and a discovery of faith that is no longer built from stones, but is made up of reflected flecks of light.
The first collection of writing I put together was called ‘Blue Dark‘ because of old Gregory… and because of a lovely poem by our friend Susan.
At the time of our discussion, some of my friends (and Michaela) did not get it. God is LIGHT not darkness they said. Darkness is about fear and loneliness…
Then Michaela had this encounter with starlight.
And, unusually for her, wrote a lovely poem. I thought it time to reproduce it here, along with some photo’s taken this evening…
Starlit darkness
In the darknessIs a childhood fearSafe from one streetlightTo the nextFear locked awayTill I am againOut aloneNo streetlights to rely on
In the darknessIs no hopeNo mysteryAt best nothingnessAt worst a nightmareWaiting to happen
But then you talkOf the starlit darknessAnd I remember for a momentThe fearThe quick steps up our hillOnly to stop halfwayBreath taken by the beautyEyes lifted heavenwardThankful for the big skyEyes searching something familiarBut yet awesome
No more fearOnly wonderAt the beauty of the darknessThat brings out the stars.
Michaela GoanDecember 2007
From the ferry…
Yesterday we took a trip over the Clyde.
It is a very ordinary trip to us- we do it all the time. We go to the bottom of our drive, turn left and after about 200 yards, there is the terminal.
The rhythm of the ferries in their back and forward battle with the tides is the backdrop to our lives here. The lights pass comfortingly by on wet stormy nights, and on still morning you can hear the safety information announcement clearly floating in the air as we lie in bed, wrapped up warm whilst the commuters head for the city.
Yesterday was ordinary.
But there is beauty in the ordinary.
There are fragments of wonder.
The Firth of Clyde at night…
The moon was out on the old river again tonight. It is hard to resist the click of the shutter…
I think it time to re-post this poem too-
Firth of Clyde
Broad estuary
Flowing coal black
Flecked with the streetlight
Lines of amber combed out by the current
Moving
Yet standing stillThe Clyde is running clean now
Rich in all manner of living things
Yet somehow
SterileLike the fresh paint
On a mothballed dockyard crane
Masking the memories
Of an age of smoke and steam
Now goneNo more slap of paddles
Or thump of ships moving in the night
No more bulging holds
Of Empire plunder
No more sugar, no more spiceA thousand ships have carried off the morning tide
Past Bute and beyond the Cumbraes
Beckoned by Paddies Milestone
And drowned by Sirens on some distant shore
Now flotsam
Of this mighty River
this fragile tent 