Our turn for some snowy chaos….

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We have escaped the worst of the winter weather so far this year- sure we have had ice and snow, but not the deep suffocating blanket that others have had elsewhere.

But this morning, heavy rain turned suddenly to thick snow, and over the course of about 5 minutes the roads were treacherous. Will’s school bus was defeated, and after trying to get him to school through the traffic madness, we gave up as all the roads were blocked.

He has not yet stopped dancing around the house singing “No scho-ool, no scho-ool, no scho-ool.”

Songs of Praise: carols in a pub…

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I know I know, it’s a bit early for all this carol singing, but it is the second Sunday in Advent…

Sorry folks, but I think this video clip will only work in the UK, as it uses the BBC i-player, but I loved this episode tonight. The long running BBC songs of praise programme is a bit of a joke over here- often ultra traditional and a miss-match of the vaguely religious with secular awfulness.

But it often make me cry.

Because in the middle of all the mush, there will often be a story full of grace, or a hymn that takes me back to childhood, or a moment of delicate beauty.

Tonight features Kate Rusby, one of my favourite singers- who could sing the words of a phone book and still be worth listening to. She describes a tradition of singing carols in pubs from the end of November up to Christmas, in the South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire area of the UK- not far from where I grew up.

It is where Michaela learnt music by playing cornet in brass bands that grew out of the mining communities now long gone.

So if you are not moved by choirs and organs, skip this clip forward to around 22 mins into the show (but the hymn before is lovely too…)

It is worth it.

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Psalm 139 meditation, part 2…

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(From Aoradh daily meditations- the first part is here.)

9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

I am sometimes invincible

And forget my need for you

Even in the shallow certainty of success

Stay with me father

.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

And when I surely succumb

To the gravity of my human condition

Let the darkness be holy

Let the black become royal purple

And the shadows

Become your open arms

.

13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

This means that you are never

An accidental father

You have no bastards

No unwanted drains

On your holy resources

.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

Because there is a masterpiece you made

In me

Framed in this shabby shape

Are your majestic brushstrokes

.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Unborn I was known

Unconceived I was expected

There was a space empty

Waiting for the shape of me

.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;

And you became incandescent

With hope

.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.

Weigh me on scales

Skewed towards grace

For my heart is heavy

With the unshed weight of my world

.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

Open me gently

To the new-

To the possibility

Of something deeper

And more beautiful

The power of the event…

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I have spent much of the day in a horizontal position, after coming a cropper yesterday running to escape a hail storm- falling down some stairs onto a low wall. Most of the damage done was to the ego (thankfully it was dark) but I have a bruised and battered lower back.

From a prone position, I have watched too much pointless TV.

Which set me wondering again about the way life just slips by- measured according to bites of tertainment

Entertainment

Infotainment

Leisuretainment

After a day in front of the box I am craving something to happen that is real- that has significance. A real conversation, a new encounter, or something creative and beautiful.

But what I did was to switch on the laptop and look out across the great wide web, full as it is with ephemera, all pretending towards significance.

And I came across this video of U2 doing a ‘secret’ concert in downtown Brooklyn NY.

Of course, this is a just a bit of clever media manipulation by a great rock and roll band- but you can see the effect that their presence had on people.

Their experience of the mundane was transcended by the extraordinary.

These kinds of moments are always rather precious- even for people like me who incline towards the cynical, hiding behind observational distance.

It makes me think again about church. I have spent a lot of time using music to try to create ‘events’. Often I failed- but sometimes these events did transcend the mundane. And it is hard not to be seduced by the high of playing music to thousands of people, or tens of people. It becomes a way of making a mark- a stab at significance.

In Aoradh, we do not really do these kind of things any more, but the power of events as a way of giving people opportunities to collectivise spiritual experiences is still part of our repertoire. This is the reason for our up and coming Sky lanterns event in a couple of weeks…

But the pursuit of experience can be addictive- even idolatrous. Real life does not happen on a stage. It happens in the press of ordinary things.

But we all need to kick up our heels from time to time…

“Madness is a full and legitimate human experience”

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This is a quote from Mary O’Hagan, user of mental health services in New Zealand, and Mental Health Commissioner.She was the keynote speaker at last year’s Scottish Recovery Network conference.

Her speech was one of the best summaries of ‘recovery’ as it applies to mental ill health, mental wellbeing and service developments that I have heard for some time. Recovery has been a theme on this blog for a while- here and here for example. You can listen to it all below.

All the more important at a time when nearly all media portrayals of mental illness are negative and dangerous to others, according to this report.

And if you think that this stuff does not apply to you- then consider this- mental ill health comes to all of us directly or indirectly. And even if the shape of your life keeps periods of crisis at bay, then I would contend that we learn far more for the human condition through coming to an understanding of mental distress than we do from a lauding only of success.

For those of us of faith, the hope of recovery is saturated with that most precious thing-

grace…
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Psalm 139 meditation- part one…

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I previously mentioned that Aoradh are in the process of using an e-mailed daily mediation as a means of sharing a deliberate spiritual practice. We have a rota to take a week at a time for a six week trial period.

If you would like to receive the e-mail, then let me know.

I took the first week, and it came to me again how much a reason to create can become in itself creative. And how it can become a source of blessing in the actual creating…

Here are the first three days- a meditation on Psalm 139-

1 You have searched me, LORD,
and you know me.

Yet still I hide

Still I believe that my hard disc is encrypted and password protected

Even from your

Benign virus
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.

The road is long

And this day is full of demands

Let me rest too

On your soft grass verge

4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, LORD, know it completely.

So let my words be fat with grace

And my vowels be round with kindness

Let me make you smile

When I see you in others
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.

For I am frayed at the edges

Like an old coat

Shaped and scraped by warm work

And I would be conformed

Around you

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?

You are not alienated by my unbelief

Or driven away by my failure

You inhabit my hopes

And dance at the very centre of all that I dream of

‘Ten Thousand Places’ available for download…

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M

‘Ten Thousand Places’ is now available as a download via Proost’s December release.

You can download, or pre-order a physical copy here.

Personally- I am old fashioned and believe that books need to be in paper form, but who knows how we will be reading them in 50 years time?

Regular readers of this blog will recognise some of the poems- here is one of them-

Choosing

You were made to choose

What you look for

You will find

Look for barren emptiness

It is there

Look for cynical meanderings

And you will wander those weary roads

Or you may look for wonder and beauty

The fingerprints of grace

On every rock

Every frond of fern

Every wisp of mist

In the shy smile

Of a little girl

In a teardrop channeled down the dirty lines

Of an old man’s face

In a whispered prayer from a worn out woman whose faith flickers

And is almost gone

Let me draw it all across the miracle of vision

And it will light up your soul

I will place eternity inside

This moment

I made you for just this tender thing

I made you

For all of this

I made you

For me

 

 

 

The insatiable moon film trailer…

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We were discussing a book by Mike Riddell that I loaned to our friend Pauline the other day- called ‘Sacred Journey’. It is a good book for those of us long on the road, and still trying to make sense of the spiritual nature of this life of ours.

And I remembered that one of Riddell’s other books, a novel, had recently been made into a film.

I went searching, and discovered the trailer…

I am trying to decide whether to read the book or wait for the film- anyone seen/read either?

It seems to be about the two issues closest to my heart- mental illness and God- and looks great.

Perhaps need to wait for it to be released on DVD, I can’t imagine it coming to our local flea pit…

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The cover of my new book…

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Ooooo…!

Just received a proof of the sleeve of my new book of poetry, out on Proost soon.

I have felt strangely subdued about this project- possibly because it has been a long time in the making- the poems were written over a ten year period, and I have been trying to get the book into shape for most of this year.

But Jonny sent me Jon Birch’s proof- and it is lovely!

Suddenly the book seems real.