john o’donohue

I’ve just bought John O’Donohue’s book “Benedictus – a Book of Blessings” (lovely friends Cara, Ian and Gail knew him from his time at Greenbelt and are big fans). Tragically, John died in January this year at the ridiculously young age of 52. It’s an absolutely beautiful book – this is a blessing for belonging:
May you listen to your longing to be free.
May the frames of your belonging be generous enough for your dreams.
May you arise each day with a voice of blessing whispering in your heart.
May you find harmony between your soul and your life.
May the sanctuary of your soul never become haunted.
May you know the eternal longing that lives at the heart of time.
May there be kindness in your gaze when you look within.
May you never place walls between the light and yourself.
May you allow the wild beauty of the invisible world to gather you, mind you and embrace you in belonging.
Note: thankfully, not only does he leave his books but also there are various CDs of his readings…. he has the most wonderful, lilting, Irish voice.

birthday weekend

As I indicated in my Friday blog, Moira+I were very much looking forward to spending the weekend celebrating Ian’s 50th birthday with great friends in Oxford. It proved to be an absolutely brilliant couple of days! Arrived at Gail+Ian’s first thing Saturday morning in time for us all to walk to Quod in the High Street for a superb breakfast; some of us then walked across Christchurch Meadow before meeting up at the King’s Arms pub in Broad Street for several glasses of ale (or whatever!); on to the Old Parsonage Hotel for an amazing high tea; and then chilling out at Gail+Ian’s with the odd glass and huge helpings of goulash. Sunday saw us meet up on Port Meadow with even more friends for mayBe’s community eucharist (see yesterday’s blog) followed by yet more wonderful food and great coffee at Manos café/deli in Jericho.
Lots of laughter, great food+drink, hugs and happiness.
Life is good! Happy birthday Ian!
Photos: Quod breakfast; Lisa+Esther; Rachel+Ian+Gail+James+Esther; Ian+Gail+James; Lisa+Cara
PS: …. and the Villa beat Blues!

remembering

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

mayBe on the quantocks

Spent a wonderful time on the Quantock Hills with lots (26 of us, I think?) of old and new friends from the mayBe community, Oxford over the weekend. Worship, liturgies, prayers, stories, laughter, conversation, music, great food, drink, swimming, face-painting, football, frisbee, cricket, long walks, silk-screen printing, huge campfire and even some Andy Goldsworthy-type art installations!
Now need another weekend to recover!

take me back*….to mull (not hyndford street)

Spent much of the weekend preparing the basement for this coming weekend’s SouthBank Arts Trail (eg. decorating, framing, hanging and moving lots of stuff out of the basement and piling it into the dining room!). Still not finished, but it’ll be fine by Friday (honest). Played lots of music over the course of the past 3-4 days, including loads of Van Morrison stuff (just brilliant!). One song – not a particular favourite of mine as it happens - took me back to a wonderful holiday/retreat on Mull with our great friends Cara, Fay, Gail+Ian from Anamcara (forerunner to maybe) in October 2001. As soon as I heard the opening bars of “On the Bright Side of the Road”, I was instantly transported back to our little wooden shack (it's in the top left of the picture) at Croig on a beautiful sunny morning, looking across the white sand to the flat waters of our little cove; Fay was cooking breakfast; and VM was playing on the CD player. Great memories!

Photo: Croig beach, Mull
PS: *obscure reference to a line from VM’s “On Hyndford Street” from Hymns to Silence!

lovely break

Friday and home to Bristol. Feel recharged. Found time most mornings to use the mayBe prayer mat resources (especially prayers for the beginning of the day), the Celtic Daily Prayer book and Anthony Bloom’s book “Meditations on a Theme”. Went round to Mags+Jez’s house in Goveton last night for a lovely meal – and to listen to water cascading down the hill from the adjoining field after so much rain this week!

Photo: icon+candle in the sanctuary, Old Walls

spiritual journey

One of the things we miss about moving from Oxfordshire is the wonderful mayBe community of friends. Not only did it provide a weekly get-together around a midweek meal (and wine!), but it also provided us with a particular kind of food for our spiritual lives. Our local church community in Bristol (at St Aldhelm’s) is wonderfully welcoming and we certainly feel we belong there; we’ve also been very fortunate to have the weekly house group, but we’ve become increasingly aware of how much we miss what mayBe had to offer. We spoke to Ian about this when we were in Oxford just before Christmas and he asked us why we didn’t “make it happen” ourselves… we’re still pondering this!
For me, like many, the New Year has often been a time for reflection and I sense that 2007 will make for further interesting times as we continue on our spiritual journeys. Some things have already been added to the “will-do” list: a) booked a week at Old Walls, near Kingsbridge, Devon in February for part-retreat/part-holiday and b) booked a week with Iona Community on the island at the end of August.
It’ll be interesting looking back at the end of the year!
Photo: beach at Berrow (from our walk on New Year’s Day)

relaxing with friends

Number of Christmas presents bought to date? None! So, clearly, I should have been battling my way through crowded shops this weekend in a mad panic, with so little time before 25 December. Instead, Moira and I spent a wonderful restful time with our lovely friends Gail+Ian and Ken+Debby in Oxford…. enjoying a relaxed lunch yesterday, then back to K+D’s for more red wine, iced lemontello, more eating (including ricciarelli biscuits and brandy chocolates), talking and lots of laughing!
It was also great to be with all our other mayBe friends to celebrate an open air eucharist today in Port Meadow on a brilliant, sunny morning, followed by brunch at the wonderful Jericho Café.
Celebrating Advent/Christmas with friends is quite magical – and definitely beats shopping!
Photograph of the mayBe open air eucharist on Port Meadow

PS I see David Attenborough did win the "living icon" award!