Dear One, I want you to enjoy your life. I want you to enjoy being alive. Life is full of beautiful and interesting things, and people, and places. There's far more here than you can ever possibly experience. Follow your curiosity. Let it be your guide. Do not worry about making mistakes.Do not worry about … Continue reading To you
Negative Capability
We were talking about Negative Capability: capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries and doubts without any irritable reaching after fact or reason. (Keats) We were talking about it in relation to creativity and being an artist. It is the ability to wait. One might be very active but within this activity, there is an openness … Continue reading Negative Capability
The gifts and the giver
TIME AFTER TIME I came to your gate with raised hands, asking for more and yet more. You gave and gave, now in slow measure, now in sudden excess. I took some, and some things I let drop; some lay heavy on my hands; some I made into playthings and broke them when tired; till … Continue reading The gifts and the giver
Disclosure II
Brahms: A German Requiem I am sitting on a chair. I am not comfortable. My bottom is sore. I am unsure of this selection of music. It is one person’s choice of their favourite pieces and performances, much of it firmly within the core canon of the Western classical tradition: Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and … Continue reading Disclosure II
Disclosure I
[This is a first attempt to articulate experiences in Ceremony and how they have opened me to more of God.] Thursday 17 March 2022 Gorecki: Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, I Qobuz | Spotify | YouTube I am sitting cross-legged on a meditation cushion. My eyes are closed as I listen to the music. I am … Continue reading Disclosure I
Coming Out
It all started with an email. Of course, it had been going on before that. Annette and I had been reading Gabor Maté, particularly When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress. On 29th October 2021, an email dropped into my inbox: Psychedelics and Compassionate Inquiry with Dr Gabor Maté. [The original details … Continue reading Coming Out
Authority and Tradition
I have been pondering how authority and tradition work together. I have thought for many years that spiritual direction offers an opportunity to relocate the locus of authority from without to within. I mean by this that, rather than constantly looking to scripture, church tradition, books on theology and spirituality, or teachers, preachers, and leaders … Continue reading Authority and Tradition
One needful Lenten discipline
Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. John 3.5 I have understood something new about Lent this year. It starts with a question: Why did Jesus go into the wilderness immediately after his baptism? I’ve always imagined Jesus discerning who and what … Continue reading One needful Lenten discipline
There is no one but us
A light has gone out. When I heard the news, my first thought was, “Who is going to proclaim truth now?” Annie Dillard’s unsettling retort to Psalm 24:3-6 came immediately to mind: Who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? There is no one but us. … Continue reading There is no one but us
Only basic goodness gives life to technique
Years ago, I dipped into Stephen Covey’s book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I was hit between the eyes by this sentence: Only basic goodness gives life to technique.p. 21 I am not good, but I’d like to be, and this sentence has stayed with me as a standard to live up to. It … Continue reading Only basic goodness gives life to technique
A letter to three faith leaders
Dear Archbishop Justin Welby, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, and Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, I write as a Christian and a member of the Church of England. I hear that you have written to the House of Lords about your disquiet over the Assisted Dying Bill. There are two things I wish to say in response to … Continue reading A letter to three faith leaders