7 days reflection

Dear Monty,

14/12/14
There are owls over this coal tip garden - tawny owls that hoot and screech.

15/12/14
The dilemma of how not to be self promoting.
How do I reconcile those Christians who say certain religions are evil and wicked from the fact that Christ himself said that any religion that becomes hypocritical is evil - this surely includes 'Christianity'. We do not need swords - forgiveness and peace are our weapons based upon a secured inner peace. I wish we could stop fighting with our tongues and get on with a life of faith.

23/12/14
Solstice passed - days will slowly become longer - buds fatten. If we haven't succumbed to winter and death  - we look forward to a spring.
Christmas was invented to turn us away from the worship of nature's gods. Christ's birth wasn't celebrated by the first Christians. They celebrated life in Messiah - the consolation of Israel. Our constructed mid-winter festival is a mix of wassail and church tradition. The advent of Christ has become wound up in so much tradition, but it is as much a present reality as the bare bones of winter, it was a moment in world history which broke through into our time-bound world and revealed the ever existing sphere of the God who is spirit - through Christ.
There is no particular feast or celebration needed now, apart from breaking bread and sharing wine - yet on we go distancing ourselves from the fundamental - a very dim reflection of the light. Braking up the continuum into days has its downside.

25/12/14
The sunset over the park

Pines with guilded edges

Gilt sun sliding west

Clouds turn from lemon yellow to gold then pink

Now in dusty blue the slip of moon reflects a kind of melancholy

Upon this earth he stood

He wept

And I weep still

Remember the author of our story

'The angelic host proclaim' - we have forgotten him

So we bow to fabled stories

And forget the consolation he can bring

Look 

Look up to the moon

Ancient

Empty

Like the earth once was

Our lives lived under it 

Its phases, shadows, light

Tells us of a might beyond our understanding

Why this fertile earth so close to pitted desolation ?

Was our seed meant to foster love ?

Instead we cry

'I am not my brothers keeper'

And so we weep

Yearning for another Eden.

26/12/14

Impatient, we now open boxes on Christmas day, so boxing day becomes an anti-climax. Like so many festivals they have their moment and then they are over. I see berries and birds and nature waiting for the spring - we cannot wait - we cannot rest. I inwardly rest.

27/12/14

The dog sleeps in the low sun on the sofa after his hobbling run

On sore paw

He soaks up the warmth

And huddles his paws and tail together.

-------------------------------

The immovable star

Last night I looked up to an immovable star through the roof light

There the clouds moved fast like wisps of smoke

veiling eternity

This one star shone through the infinite distance above my head

How far was she above my bed ?

There before I was born

And for centuries after I am dead

Constant light

Too far away for me to even imagine

In the garden of the night

Time is almost timeless

As we turn about in our beds

As the earth spins on its axis orbiting the sun

We are so insignificant.

28/12/14

O bright and clear morning

The sound of sparrows chirruping in the hedge

Golden sun

Blue sky

Hope rises with the light

Strange that the sound of ' random' sparrows can do this.

Then a carrion crow sits on the highest point of a cypress tree

And crows

Just to make it complete.

Paul.