100 Pieces of Magrat

What an interesting way to spend a rainy afternoon/evening!

Here is the result: my list of just less than 100 items/possessions that I'd rather have with me than not. Of course, we/I have lots of other great things, but these are the ones that 'spoke' to me today. And yes, I know a bag of bits isn't strictly speaking one item, but it's my list and my rules! :-)

I also decided that furniture, household linens and supplies, and kitchen-ware didn't have to be included. And this will make for such a quick start as & when we move to our retirement flat by the sea somewhere, sometime...

I've added the reasons why by request :-)

A Hundred Pieces of Magrat

1. 3 rings, specs/sun specs (worn all the time)
2. Wallet of ID/essential docs (birth cert, marriage cert, passport, bank stuff, certs)
3. Laptop + charger
4. Kindle + charger
5. Phone + charger
6. Camera + charger
7. Toothbrush + charger (in bag of toiletries)
8. Hair brush & dryer + adapter
9. Bag of cosmetics 
10. Bag of nail stuff 
11. White name candle holder & candles (First present from Wm)
12. Book 1 - The Religious Experience of Mankind - Ninian Smart (The book from the first year Religious Studies undergrad. at Lancaster back in the mid-1970s)
13. Book 2 - Rock of Doubt - Sydney Carter (Yes, it is ok to doubt and question!)
14. Book 3 - Winter Solstice - Rosamunde Pilcher (The best novel ever)
15. Book 4 - Holy Bible - George Lamsa trans. from the Peshitta
16. Book 5 - Poems - Gerard Manley Hopkins (Beautiful genius poems)
17. Book 6 - Four Quartets - TS Eliot (More genius)
18. Carved wooden bear book ends (brought back by maternal grandfather from the Black Forest)
19. CD: Lovely in the Dances (Songs by Sydney Carter, sung by Maddy Prior et al)
20. CD: George Harrison (Always my favourite)
21. Bread board & bread knife (Board was part of kit at uni, knife inherited from maternal grandmother)
22. Orange coffee pot (Another part of uni kit!)
23. Tree of Life trivet (from Bea) & coasters (6) (From J&M)
24. Bird mug set (3) (Given to, and inherited back from, mother)
25. Cherry cup & saucer set (2) (My favourites!)
26. Bowl set (3) (Inherited from maternal grandmother)
27. Cream/brown insect plate set (8) (Found at The Hearth)
28. Cream teapot & milk jug set (Simple & practical)
29. Willow pattern tea cosy (Gift from Wm)
30. Serviette rings - pair (wooden one that I've had for ever & silver one that was my father's - part of a wedding present given to him & mother but I don't know who by)
31. Italian biscuit tin (from Lidl about 10 years ago - nice biscuits, pretty tin)
32. Tea caddy (bus) (Cute)
33. Tea caddy (herbs) (Mother kept my Earl Grey tea in it)
34. Ikea cutlery set (Simple & practical)
35. Ikea wine glasses set (6) (Simple & practical)
36. Plain glass tumblers set (French - Arcoroc) (6)
37. Wooden handled small knife set (3) (Inherited from mother)
38. Picnic set (Brilliant wedding present from W&S)
39. Tap/hat stand (Quirky!)
40. 'Live well, love much, laugh often' sign (and I have)
41. X-stitch sampler (made by me in 1994)
42. Brigid's Cross (from our Bethrothal & Wedding)
43. Wooden heart (made by Wm)
44. Wax picture (made by me, given to Mother, inherited back)
45. Klimpt apple tree print (Best painting ever, and reminds me of the beautiful carol by Elizabeth Postern 'Jesus Christ the apple tree')
46. Anglepoise lamp (Another bit of uni kit)
47. Small red Persian rug (Brought back from Isfahan by Uncle Brian)
48. Anderson blanket (my clan!)
49. Pen mug (from the Heron Cross Pottery in Staffs.)
50. Jug vase (Mother's)
51. Rider Waite Tarot deck (Used it since 1973)
52. Guitar (16th birthday present from parents)
53. Dandelion paperweight (Given to and inherited back from my father)
54. Mini chest of drawers (where mother kept her sewing kit)
55. Toys (Bears x 3, doll x 1, horse & cart)
56. Small flowery rucksack (Can't miss it!)
57. Sika + plant pots (& plants?)
58. Bamboo wind chimes (they sound nice)
59. Wooden twirler (cleverly made & good energy)
60. Small wooden box (Paternal grandmother's jewellery box)

61-100: 3 month capsule wardrobe 

Things: possessor or possessed?

So, the end of May, and we've been here at Karningul for eight months. And yes, it is still raining... but we do now get warm sunshine too, in between the torrents! The final flat-pack is flat no longer, so there is nothing in boxes that shouldn't be - at long last. And the garden is beginning to take shape, not only in terms of the chicken run and the fruit trees, but the patio is currently piled with wood for the raised herb beds, a pergola, and an abri - a covered area next to the existing wooden garden shed, so William has somewhere out of doors to work. The original idea of getting a second shed, to act as a tool store and work shop, has been ruled out due to the rain. There's still a lot to do, of course, and we're waiting for various quotes from various workmen & suppliers.

Meanwhile, last evening we lit what may be the last fire of the season down in the snug, and, while eating pizza and chips, watched Bettany Hughes' 2015 programme on the Buddha - one of her 'Genius of the Ancient World' series. It was easy watching, if not containing anything new. The part that has stuck in my mind is her interview with a Buddhist monk about the eight possessions he's allowed. He actually named only seven: three robes (lower, upper, and double or triple layered outer robe), a needle & thread (to mend the robes), a bowl, and a razor (for shaving his head). He didn't mention the water filter/strainer - necessary to ensure nothing living is killed. Another list also includes the belt used to fix the lower robe around the waist. Monks may also be authorised to possess toiletries, medical requirements, housekeeping materials, official documents, protective materials (umbrella/parasol, insect repellent, sun cream, pair of sandals, and so on), items required for travel and for telling the time/date, rosary beads, books, basic furniture, and practical items such as a pair of scissors, a cup, a padlock.

All this reminded me of a novel I read last summer: A Hundred Pieces of Me, by Lucy Dillon - the first  that I read of her series set in the same small town, and I recommend them all. The main character in A Hundred Pieces of Me has just moved from a spacious family house to a new apartment - for which she has far too much stuff. As she unpacks the many boxes she decides to keep only a hundred things - the ones that mean the most to her - and sell, throw away, or give to charity all the rest: de-cluttering with a vengeance.

As the story goes on, various other themes emerge, and while I love the story, I was frustrated not to learn what all the 100 things were! But it made me think, what 100 things would I keep? Having completed the units I was writing for the seminary, I have some desk-time on my hands, so shall have a go at my list... Watch this space for the result... Will number one be an umbrella??!

Gardening for land and soul

Now that spring is here, and already hinting at summer to come, we're out in the garden most days, not, at yet producing anything worthy of next week's Chelsea, but getting lots of hard basic work done: cutting the grass, the hedges, the banks, clearing the ditches, setting up the sechoir parapluie (rotary clothes line) and the parasol, and, yes at last, getting my hands on plants (after a visit to Rostrenen market yesterday) and potting up some trailing geraniums, alyssum and campanula. The little front garden is looking almost pretty.

The hens continue to amuse us, although we don't like the pecking order Mrs Fluffybottom maintains, with poor Chickpea at the bottom - and they continue to provide us with an average of 2 eggs a day - so lots of baking, omelettes, and yummy poached eggs on toast for breakfast!

And, along with all that, and dog walking, and all the usual daily stuff, I'm also making time to write some study units for the interfaith seminary through which I got my doctorate at the end of last year. It's a challenging thing to do, and stretches me in ways I don't always expect, and I'm very glad to be doing it. I'm also making sure that I answer all my own questions, write the essays and do all the exercises, not only to make sure they all work and make sense, but to continue my own personal spiritual development and ministry (over 28 years since I was ordained. Wow.).

A propos of which, I wrote the following that last weekend, as an expression of my image of ministry - well, my sense of and call to ministry anyway, which is a quirky but enduring thing :-)

My Poem of 'Mini-yes-try'

Yes, I am small, small on my own, just mini-me,

not huge or tall or strong or brave,

but frail and faulty, faltering and doubting,

vulnerable and hurting, leaping without looking,

making it up as I go along;

but small is not frightening, not threatening,

to those who feel even smaller,

who hide their smallness and their fear,

and you will speak, through me, please Godde,

the words they need to hear

and touch the hands that need to hold:

a mini-me can find the ones who hide,

who need an ear, a hug, a love, a smile, a laugh,

someone to walk beside.

So yes, I will say Yes to your call, although I am small,

a Yes to take me who knows where

to stand alongside who knows who,

but I will go, although the way I do not know

and sometimes I get lost and take the longer path,

but you will bring me home;

and on the way there will be joy, and views of beauty,

and above the stars will shine and sing,

and sometimes too there will be love.

And yes, I will try,

and when I fail and fall then you will hear my cry,

and know that once it was I who said Yes,

and you will find mini-me again

and set me back on my small feet

to take small steps - but never alone,

for where I go you go,

and where you go, I will follow.

Something to listen to!

Ascension Day: Thursday 10^th May

Some beautiful Gregorian Chant for you to listen to, on this day of the mysterious ascension of the Lord:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G2j5qktpE4

Viri Galilaei, quid admiramini aspicientes in caelum?

Alleluia: quemadmodum vidistis eum ascendentem in caelum, ita veniet,

alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

Omnes gentes plaudite manibus:

jubilate Deo in voce exsultationis.

Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto

Sicut erat in principio et nunc et semper

Et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

Ye men of Galilee, why do you wonder, looking up to heaven?

Alleluia, He shall come back as you have seen Him going up into heaven,

alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. 

O clap your hands, all ye nations;

shout unto God, with the voice of exultation. 

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,

As it was in the beginning, is now,

And will be forever. Amen.

Catch up...

The long, long, long winter has finally turned to Spring, and we enjoyed, last weekend, a couple of days of really warm sunshine - which, of course, meant we forsook work in the house for the garden, which now has mowed grass, a hacked back west bank all the way along our patch to the north of the house, and the makings of a deluxe chicken coop... Yes, Mrs Fluffybottom and her gang of four (Big Venus, Chickpea, Grey Malkin, and Little T) are arriving next week!! (This is them in their current patch.)

Meanwhile, having celebrated Earth Day last Sunday, 22nd April (did you sign the plastic petition and check your global footprint??), tomorrow, 29th April is the feast day of Catherine of Sienna. Born Caterina Benincasa in 1347, she was the 23rd of 25 children that her mother bore: they didn't all survive, including Caterina's own twin. After the death of her sister Bonaventura in childbirth, Caterina, then aged 16, refused to marry her widower brother-in-law, and chose instead to join the Dominican Order of Penance (later known as the Dominican Third Order), an organisation of religious lay people who lived at home, wore distinctive dress and worked with poor and sick people - of whom there were many, this being the era of the Black Death, which wiped out a third of the population of Europe.

Three years later Caterina experienced a vision of Jesus putting a ring on her finger, which she later described as a 'spiritual marriage' to Christ. While continuing her charitable work, Caterina became concerned by the corruption within the church, and, like many others, blamed this on the moving of the Papal court from Rome to Avignon, French politics and lifestyle being believed to be decadent and corrupt......... No comment!

So, from 1374 onwards, Caterina, and a group of those who followed her lead, began travelling throughout northern and central Italy, advocating clerical reform within the church, repentance, and renewal through total love for God. She also sent a series of letters to Pope Gregory XI, exhorting him to return to Rome, and she was even granted an audience with him in 1377 in Avignon. Caterina also wrote a major treatise about love for God, neighbour, and self, entitled 'The Dialogue of Divine Providence'.

She died at the age of 33, is revered for her writings, her political boldness, and her spirituality, and was proclaimed the first woman 'doctor of the church' in 1970 by Pope Paul VI. Her theology and spiritual experience are generally described as 'mystical'.

The term 'mysticism' has been defined and used in many ways over time, but generally involves extra-ordinary states of mind and experience, including the sense of becoming one with the Divine/Absolute, the consciousness of Godde's omni-presence, and unusual intuitive insights. I like the simple definition that the mystical is that which inspires a spiritual sense of mystery, awe and fascination, or, as another has put it, using the eye of love to gaze at divine realities. As I look around and see the garden and the countryside springing into green life, I know whose hand is at work - and it isn't ours.

Godde

I wrote the following prayer as part of a study unit I am creating for the Seminary within which I am also continuing my post-doctoral studies.  I am choosing to use the Middle English term Godde as, for me, it carries both the masculine, feminine, and gender-neutral aspects of the Divinity, and I strongly prefer this to the use of either God - exclusively male - or Goddess - exclusively female.

Holy One,

strong and kind,

compassionate and resolute,

Godde who is all:

I kneel before your beauty and your love.

I thank you for the experiences of this day

and for your presence within it and within me;

I confess the many ways in which I miss the mark

and fall short of being true to my self.

Great and gracious Godde,

grant me your courage to face each new day,

grant me your wisdom in all my encounters with others,

and grant me your patience with my self.

I open my eyes to see you,

my ears to hear you,

my heart to know you...

Laugh and cry with me, Godde, my friend;

speak and move in me, Godde, my Lady and Lord;

live and love through me, Godde, my end and my beginning.

Wait for me, and all your children, until we find you;

inspire me, and all your children, until we serve you in each other

and in all your creation.

The earth and the heavens are your realm,

the power and the glory are yours,

now and for ever.

So mote it be.

Dark

It must be dark where you are,

shutting people out,

before they have the chance to break your heart.

It must be lonely where you are,

hiding yourself away,

before you have the chance to see who you might be.

Little boy with golden hair, you didn't want a sister.

You wanted life to stay the way it was,

to be the precious baby, the only one;

you never knew how much

you were, and are, the beloved son.

It doesn't have to be this way.

The more you shun, the more I seek;

the more you spurn, the more I need to speak

the words we never said,

to feel the love we never found,

to hold the hand that never led.

Little boy with golden hair, you didn't want a sister.

You wanted life to stay the way it was,

to be the precious baby, the only one;

you never knew how much

you were, and are, the beloved son.

It doesn't have to be this way.

It doesn't have to be this way.

The penultimate old song!

Eilon

I'm not going to try with pretty words

to write a song about the spring;

I'm not going to try

to count the raindrops or catch the wind.

It's enough to see the morning rise;

it's enough to watch the land coming alive.

I'm not going to try with pretty words

to write a song to make you mine;

I'm not going to try

to steal your bread or drink your wine.

It's enough just to see you smile,

it's enough to be with you this little while;

it's enough.

I'm not going to try with pretty words

to write a song about the dream

I'm not going to try

to paint the rainbow, say what I've seen.

It's enough to be coming home,

it's enough just to know, yes, just to know

that I'm not alone.

31st March: Easter hymn

Easter Hymn

It's you again,

falling like a vagabond back into my heart.

It's you again,

spinning rhymes and riddles that tear these walls apart.

And am I me again,

sifting through old memories, the litter of our nights and days?

It's spring again,

rising like a promise and greening all the land.

It's spring again,

bringing light and warmth into the darkness where I stand.

And am I me again,

singing ancient melodies, the litanies that love betrays?

For I have walked the spiral path that led me deep into this night;

Step by step and stone by stone, the labyrinth has turned me round,

but never quite reached home.

The web of tears will trap me, bind me to the past,

unless at last I trust in what I cannot hold

and look beyond what I can see,

to sing the pilgrim liturgy.

It's you again,

lodging like a fallen angel here within my heart.

It's me again,

rising with green promises to tear these walls apart.

And so it's spring again,

bringing light and love and hope where darkness cannot stand...

So take my hand, and walk the spiral path to darkness and to light.

Step by step and stone by stone the labyrinth will turn us round

until at last we're home.

We do not choose the trap of fear that bound us to the past,

because at last we trust in what we cannot hold

and look beyond what we can see...

It's spring again, it's you again, it's me.

Earth Day: Sunday April 22nd

Hi & happy Easter.

If you're looking for Holy Week/Easter stuff, you're almost too late - and it's on my other blog page 'Celebrating the Year'.

Meanwhile,  please take some time to look at this website, thanks:

https://www.earthday.org/earthday/