Category: Uncategorized
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Am I ready?
Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. (John 4: 6) Looking back to my journal entry of 7th October, I realise just how tired I had become by the end of last year, and, by contrast, how refreshed I am feeling now: ‘I, too, feel tired from…
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It is enough
It is enough just to be still. To sit in the present. Now. I don’t need to review the past, or plan the future; or read, write, draw. I don’t need to write my next blog, or solve the world’s problems, or try to discern my life’s course. It is enough just to be. Still.
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Crossing to the other side of the lake
This evening I will take myself off for 48 hours of solitude in the prayer hut at Ngatiawa. Perhaps, like my wedding, this will prove to be a highlight of my sabbatical. Unlike my wedding, I am feeling a degree of trepidation: what will these 48 hours mean? What am I being called to? …
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Ash Wednesday: A Franciscan Blessing
Ash Wednesday. The start of Lent. A time of pilgrimage, prayer, fasting; of sorrow for the sufferings of our broken world and our broken selves. A time also of anticipation and hope; of challenge – that we, in our brokenness, can become part of the solution. At our wedding, Justin Duckworth, Bishop of Wellington, blessed…
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To Ngatiawa on the Northern Explorer
A wedding and a honeymoon behind me (both wonderful, inspiring, full of joy and fun), I am heading south again to Ngatiawa for two final weeks of retreat – this time on my own, and perhaps fulfilling something of my original intention for this sabbatical. Lois has set off for three weeks in India –…
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Not all who wander are lost
How do I express the glorious beauty of these few days? A selection of instant photographs, and a few scribbled lines in my journal cannot possibly capture the rich experience of the tramp. To walk these paradise paths, my beloved companion by my side, drinking in the rich, untainted glory of the Marlborough Sounds –…
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Throwing individualism and conformity to the wind
In his book Silence and Honey Cakes former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, speaks of the twin curses in our society of excessive individualism and pressured conformity. In contrast, he calls us each to recognise our own unique personhood: ‘when you have a person who is wholly self-consistent, whose identity is completely bound up with…
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Two years
Tonight is the anniversary of Helen’s death. As I enter a new season of joy and peace in my life, it is with mixed emotions. Grief changes, it doesn’t go away. I feel blessed to be where I am, and able to walk with my grief, secure in the knowledge that I am loved. I…
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Come, walk on the water with me
Come, walk on the water with me! I’m in the mood for impossible things! Take out your heart of courage, A lamp amid your fears And walk on the water with me. Let’s touch everything we see And change it to hope Our hearts let’s change to flesh No more stones of apathy for us.…
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Counting the stars
Last night I woke and stood on the deck outside the chapel. The night was still. No sounds save the gentle Ngatiawa tumbling its way down to the Sea, and a lonely owl haunting the quiet valley. The night was clear. Dark forests towered above me, silhouetted against the star-lit sky. The half-moon,…