Boredom: … the mood of diffuse restlessness which contains that most absurd and paradoxical wish, the wish for a desire. Adam Phillips, On Kissing, Tickling and Being Bored, p.71 It is one of the most oppressive demands of adults that the child should be interested, rather than take time to find what interests [her]. Boredom … Continue reading Boredom: guardian of the Temple (part 2)
Boredom: guardian of the Temple (part 1)
One of the more distracting things about capitalist culture is that there is no stupor, no time to vegetate. What I would suggest is more time-wasting, less stimulation. We need time to lie fallow like we did in childhood, so we can recuperate. Rather than be constantly told what you want and be pressurised to … Continue reading Boredom: guardian of the Temple (part 1)
Do not be consistent
Those who write about God, like John V Taylor in The Christlike God, suggest that there are two fundamental, and fundamentally different, experiences of God: the numinous and the mystical: in a numinous experience you feel yourself "to be in communion with a holy other" who can "attract, fascinate and compel" as well as evoke … Continue reading Do not be consistent
The God who tears
Come, let us return to the Lord who has torn us and will heal us. God has stricken us and will bind up our wounds. After two days, he will revive us, and on the third day will raise us up, that we may live in his presence. Let us strive to know … Continue reading The God who tears
Waiting
I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you … Continue reading Waiting
Palimpsest
When a person can’t find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure. Viktor Frankl (quoted in Simple Marriage) For about 20 years I didn't have a television. One day this quirk came out when I was chatting with some work colleagues. One of them blurted out, "I'd die if I didn't have … Continue reading Palimpsest
Make no improvements
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 the wrecks … Continue reading Make no improvements
This and that
The universe was not designed with the comfort of human beings in mind. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Flow p.8 I notice two themes in my writing: God and this body – which is not other than God's body – are to be trusted. I enjoin you to relax, to trust, to attend to them, and to live … Continue reading This and that
Practise kindness
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore. Naomi Shihab Nye In 3 reasons to prayer: 1, 2, 3, I wrote about what makes prayer difficult, why you avoid it, why you say you haven't the time or are not disciplined. In prayer you become, perhaps only dimly, aware of life's physical, emotional and … Continue reading Practise kindness
The borderlands of prayer
Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think [iPhones] are … Continue reading The borderlands of prayer