Just back from a day out in the cold celebrating Advent whilst people buy Christmas trees. Tired but happy…
Here are a few pics-
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- editation walk, Morag’s Fairy Glen.
Advent thing day one, Dunoon West Bay- a few pics…
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Tag Archives: meditation
Advent arrives…
So, today is the first day of Advent.
It is also Emily’s birthday! (More on that later!)
As part of my journey through Advent, I am going to use a comic-book-calendar version of the nativity, by the wonderful Si Smith (see here for 40, more of his art.)
The calendar is available for download from Proost- here, along with all sorts of other advent materials. Go on- it’s worth it!
Here is number one, to wet the appetite…
Picture preach 3- religion reaching for God…
Listing- book project…
I have finally finished my collection of poetry and prose which forms a new book called ‘Listing’. I have very much enjoyed the creation of this thing, but there is so much other stuff I need to be getting on with, so it is great to have it completed.
Next- the wilderness book with Nick, and this novel that may yet find some kind of shape.
This (might) be the cover photo, taken in Benmore Gardens by yours truly-
This book, which will be published through Proost and will hopefully be available in June/July. It is a collection of words-poems prose and meditation- based on some Biblical lists-
Ecclesiastes 3
Galatians 5
Matthew 5
1 Corinthians 13
Some of the poetry I have tried out first on this blog. Here is one more- if you like it, then please get hold of the book!
Now is the time to keep
There is a time for all things under heaven…
This Kingdom is always here
Always now
Held here in the hands of we
His failing followersStanding on the shoulders
Of countless men and women of faithDiggers of catacombs
Carvers of secret Kingdom symbols
Men making missionary journeys in hide skinned boats
And setting up carved crosses
Monks and nuns holding the world in prayer
Parchment gilders
Cathedral builders
Protestors
Reformers
Transformers
RenewersSo I take from you my fathers of faith
Grateful for the gifts you gave to meFor the canon of Scripture gathered and held precious
For those adventuring out with good news
For purifying zeal
For generous, graceful orthodoxy
For those planting a cross in the gutter
And those who consort with kings
For Bible teachers and interpreters
For a hundred synods
And a thousand million books
For people lit up in the fire of the Spirit
And others who seek the Lord in silence.For Methodists and Catholics
Wesleyans and Quakers
House and Mega churchers
Baptists and Greek Orthodox
Each facet of a this precious thing
Called ChurchAnd perhaps most of all
I stand in the sheltering shadow
Of people who stood between me
And a harsh prevailing wind
Who saw through the mess of me
Or chose to ignore it for a while
And shared with me the love that draws us
And meant itAll of these treasures
Handed down
To keep
Reflection…
Woman at a window
All coffee misted
And mild of hair
Watching middle distance
While I whisk by
Holding to a road all silver black
Mixing rainbows
From sun
After rain.
Still life
Momentary melancholy
Brought to soft focus
By speed, and the low winter sun.
I pray reflection finds
A kind mirror
And her seasoning will go
Soul deep.
But me, I push past the spray of a log lorry
And a sudden blind panic
Brings me to my own days business
And the looping road
To Inverary.
WANTED- people ready for some small adventures…
So- a new year turns.
If you are like me, you will have been indulging in a little self examination- thinking about how life has been, and what possibilities the new year might bring.
Perhaps you have had thoughts of stepping out the old routines, and opening up some new things- finding new places, new connections and deeper spirituality.
Perhaps you are ready for some adventure. Small ones perhaps- not all of us are Bear Grylls!
Anyone fancy some fish by the way?
Assuming that this is not your fancy- how about joining us for trips into the wilderness to find something slightly more palatable?
If so, we at Aoradh would love to hear from you.
We are planning some trips out into the wild places hereabout- to find places where we can appreciate the beauty of the mountains and hills about us, and also to use some of these spaces for group and individual meditation. These will mostly be based within Argyll, Scotland- or in the Cowal Area, where we are based.
Nick and I have been working on some wilderness meditations- some of which are on the aoradh website- here. We would very much appreciate some folk who are willing to be our guinea pigs (or should I say, Red Squirrels) as we give them a wider road test.
As part of this, a few of us are planning a trip to a small uninhabited island on the bank holiday that begins Friday the 1st of May. We have not finally decided the venue for this yet- there are a couple of possibles, and it rather depends on transport. Past trips away have included trips to Coll, Little Cumbrae and the Garvellachs.
The format of these trips has been that people are prepared to be self supporting- with their own camping and back packing gear. We will then make our own small community for a weekend, in a beautiful, wild and uninhabited space.
For the weekend trip, there may be some transport costs- but that is all, we are not interested in profit- but rather in friendship with each other and a deeper relationship with God.
So we are clear about the legalities of this- we offer a partnership- not a package tour. You come at your own risk!
For those who need to be more organised- we have set some dates for later in the year when we hope to organise one day events- which will include a mediation around a ‘found’ space in the wilderness- caves, rivers, mountains etc.
16th May (Family weekend??)
20th June
18th July
19th September
24th October
contact me for more info!
Pull up a log- sit by the fire. The Kettle is on…
A day of mixed blessings…
The fridge grave yard.
Today was a strange kind of day.
We have a houseful of friends coming to stay for new year tomorrow- around 25 will somehow sleep here I think. This means getting the house ready- cleaning up, making space where currently there is clutter, and stocking up the cupboards with food for the masses.
I am really looking forward to seeing friends, catching up with the stuff of life, sitting round the fire with guitars and slow walks with the kids. It is always a time of blessing.
What was not a blessing was the breakdown of the fridge freezer- full of food for the week ahead! We found a replacement, and I suppose the old one had done it’s job for long enough.
Alongside this, the lights in the kitchen packed in (transformer- now replaced) and Outlook Express has decided I am no longer to be trusted with my own e-mails, asking me repeatedly for my password. Modern technology huh?
However, one e-mail that got through was a blessing.
I had an e-mail from a guy in Chile- Chris Esdaile, who has used one of our wilderness meditations , converted into Spanish, with a group in the Atacama desert!
There are some great photo’s on Flickr– showing a very different kind of wilderness.
Technology can bring blessing then- a connection with something whole worlds away…
Beaches were made for contemplation…
We step out of the car into a wind whipped in from the arctic
Unconstrained by obstacle
And walk the soft sand towards the music of the sea.
Passing the strandline of shells left by the high spring tide
Grateful when feet find the firm sand squeezed by the kettledrum roll
Of the wonderful waves
As they spit out sparkling pebbles
Left in the sunlight like gifts from GodInside our hats and scarves we are alone in inner space
Apart from the occasional sentence shouted into the salt air
To bring the kids away from a wave that reaches further towards
The tops of welliesBeaches, I think, were made for contemplation
Just the place for poets
So I lift my watering eyes to the wind
And stand before a sea going out for ever
But also keeping on coming in
Offering to all the far horizon
And the longing for landfall
At the mercy of a friendly wind
And the fall of the tideI watch the waves in the distance, hoping for a glimpse of a sea monster
And ponder all that life down deep
All those colours invisible in indigo darkness
Alive in creations overflow
And it is all too big
UnfathomableCuttlefish
Alien flashing transparency
Reduced somehow to parrot food
In another worldWhale
So big that movement seems tectonic
ImpossibleSo with faces numb
But senses alive
We walk on towards the reward
Of the seaside town
Offering some out of season hospitality
To poets and all
Spiritual walking and pilgrimage
I had a good evening last night with our friends Nick and Lindsay- Nick fresh from travels to the USA. he had been to a conference for outdoor education/leadership types, and seems to have had a ball.
We have a project underway looking to create opportunities for meditation and reflection in the outdoors- using elements of the spaces we find ourselves in to bring deliberate attention to God, and to our journey with him. Some of this will hopefully become a book, if we ever get our acts together to get it finished.
Some of the meditations can be found here…
As part of this, I have been thinking a lot about the great traditions of pilgrimage.
People of all faiths seem to recognise pilgrimage as an essential spiritual practice. In researching WHY this should be the case, there seems to be very little complex theological reasoning involved. Pilgrimage, it seems, can not be easily deconstructed into theological structures- rather, it has to be walked, and experienced.
Pilgrimage appears to have meaning only in the life of those who walk it. It may have shaped whole counties and cultures, but it has not easy yardstick.
Some walk to escape, others walk towards.
Some walk in companionship, others alone.
Some always have an eye on a destination, others live for a far horizon.
For all- there is the outward symbolism of an inner journey. A decision to walk towards God…
We are all of us, sojourners. A long way from home.
What’s so important is the attitude of the pilgrim. And the attitude of pilgrimage is one of openness, one of allowing the unexpected and the surprise to be present with you, and to not be caught up in what your plans were, or the way things should be going, but rather what’s happening, and what the experience is giving you. I think the sense of coming to a pilgrimage site, it’s so awesome that you can’t but feel complete, or you can’t but feel invited in and a part of the millions and millions of people down through the ages, who have made a sacred track.
Lauren Artress
Angels on Dunoon pier…
We (aoradh that is) are just home after spending most of the day dismantling a worship/mediation space on Dunoon pier on the theme of Angels, as a celebration of Michaelmas
We used a vacant pavillion building on Dunoon pier- it used to be a bar/disco but has been largely unused for years. We have used it in the past as a 24/7 prayer room, and also as a space for a mediation labyrinth (check this out for more info on the labyrinth- you can get a kit from Proost also…)
It is a lovely liminal space- out above the water, close by the town centre, with the passing of many feet as the ferries disgorge their passengers. In the daytime, it is bathed in a lovely light, and at night, it becomes a beacon out on the dark waters.
This time we worked with Kimberley Bohan – minister of the local Episcopal church, who brought the idea of Michaelmas to us. As with all of these community things we have done, we wanted to offer a place where people could just come in and encounter God. With no other agendas- no hard sell. Just hospitality and the rest up to the Holy Spirit.
The stations we set up in this space included a community collage, ‘messages’, The story of Raphael, a holy space, and a way of responding using post cards with Angel words.
I hope it was meaningful to people.
Here are some photos;
this fragile tent 