We gathered on Port Meadow, Oxford this morning for mayBe’s community eucharist “in the open” on Remembrance Sunday. We threw handfuls of red and white rose petals into the air and we remembered those who had died in war and the peacemakers in our own two minute’s silence.
A powerful time together.
Sid and I learnt that our grandfathers were both at Ypres and the Somme during the First World War – both survived and both refused to speak about their experiences afterwards (my grandfather was in the Royal Horse Artillery and, according to family legend, joined up whilst under age).
The following words from poet Mary Oliver (“Staying Alive”) were used during our time together on Port Meadow:
“I don’t mean it’s easy or assured, there are the stubborn stumps of shame, grief that remains unsolvable after all the years, a bag of stones that goes with one wherever one goes and however the hour may call for dancing and for light feet.
But there is, also, the summoning world, the admirable energies of the world, better than anger, better than bitterness, and because more interesting, more alleviating”.
Photo: red+white petals on Port Meadow
Sid and I learnt that our grandfathers were both at Ypres and the Somme during the First World War – both survived and both refused to speak about their experiences afterwards (my grandfather was in the Royal Horse Artillery and, according to family legend, joined up whilst under age).
The following words from poet Mary Oliver (“Staying Alive”) were used during our time together on Port Meadow:
“I don’t mean it’s easy or assured, there are the stubborn stumps of shame, grief that remains unsolvable after all the years, a bag of stones that goes with one wherever one goes and however the hour may call for dancing and for light feet.
But there is, also, the summoning world, the admirable energies of the world, better than anger, better than bitterness, and because more interesting, more alleviating”.
Photo: red+white petals on Port Meadow
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