Winter Trees

7th January

The gardens in our neighbourhood and our roads are covered with broken branches. The high winds, accompanied by lashing rain, have made it impossible for even large birds to forage for food. The smaller ones seem to shelter in bushes near wooden fences, and so are closer to the ground and the food wind-tossed people scatter for them. I’m glad to have a heavy jacket on when I venture forth to feed the gulls. Often the force of the wind prevents them from flying to their feeding site. Once the wind abates, and there is some daylight, they can be seen as distant specks in the sky.

When it is lighter, I notice all the worm-casts on the grass. Is it because the worms need air, and surface more obviously for the aeration of the sodden soil? Just occasionally a dead worm lies on the path. The first snowdrops are out but look out of place in the wet earth. Even a few violets are in sodden flower, and small clumps of primulas bloom amid the wet, decaying leaves.

We began our post-Christmas clearing early. Over the years we have accumulated cards kindly given to us for turning into other cards.... Last year templates were made for the size card we can manage, and for which we can buy envelopes. There is a considerable variety, although perhaps only six basic formats. Two of us spent at least four mornings (even whole days) on this work during the last week.

THE FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY Personal reflections

I began by thinking about the gifts the Wise Men brought to the young Child, who was born on the edge of society, and linked it with the search for the new incarnation of the Dalai Lama in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, and then thought of men and women who travel across the continents to find a holy man or woman who can understand them and guide them. Humankind, at its best, is always seeking a ‘path of life’ as lived and taught by a holy person.

The named gifts the Magi brought were, I think, used for divination and healing. Considered in relationship with the eschatological prophetic writings in the Hebrew Scriptures, including the Psalms, these ‘gifts’ are seen as foreshadowing the Messianic Age. Translated into the glorious liturgy of the Christian Church, they point to an as yet unrealised future, and the liturgical hope that worship in eternity will be like this, full of triumphant wonder and rejoicing as the whole of creation brings tribute to the King reigning in the Heavenly Jerusalem. After many years of accepting this, I now find the imagery somewhat inappropriate. Was this really what Our Lord came to reveal to the poor and lowly, and to mere children?

I then wondered whether our own life could, on a very simple and natural level, be seen as an epiphany - that is, a tiny revelation of God to and in each one of us?

Gold surely is a symbol of the Sun, without which there could be no life on our planet - and the sun has to be the right distance away from us to permit the earth to flourish. But the greatest treasure we can have on earth is the loving environment provided by caring and accepting people, who can both teach us by example and encourage our physical and spiritual growth. Hence the enduring quest for ‘holy men’.

Incense is used to purify the atmosphere, being a very strong perfume, thus preparing a place into which an important person can safely enter. This fragrant cleansing of the atmosphere was used from the earliest times as a symbol of homage and reverence in places associated with the Holy One. Was it also seen as a disinfectant, killing that which is harmful in the spiritual atmosphere in which we live?

Myrrh is a medicinal herb, perhaps used for cleansing wounds, and is also associated with death - perhaps to hide the stench of decay.

Is gold our God-given life?

Is frankincense a call to encounter the Holy?

Is myrrh that which can heal us in life, and prepare us for death?

If this is what they are, then we can all share these gifts on earth - life, reverence for all creation, and loving concern for all who are suffering.

Collect for the Epiphany:

O God, who on this day revealed your only Son to the nations by the guidance of a star, grant that we who know you now by faith alone, may be led to the vision of your beauty and mystery.

15th January

The full moon, radiant in the north-west just a short while ago, is already a half-moon moving south-west. So half a month has gone. We are already in the second week of the liturgical year and all signs of the Christmas season have vanished - except for the boxes and tins of chocolates and biscuits stacked high on a storage shelf. And still the gifts flow in, all of them a symbol of affectionate remembrance. The blue hyacinths are over, their fragrance gone. Now the bulbs are being fed by the remnants of their own fruitfulness, safely protected from frost and wind on top of another shelf. Many harlequin ladybirds ventured forth before the frost came: what has happened to them in the bitterly cold garden?

Life and death are constantly before our eyes, especially through the many requests for prayerful remembrance of the sick, and prayers for the dying. We do not seem to know how to relate to those who are deeply afflicted by the mental state of parents, partners, friends or children who are suffering from complaints which afflict the mind. Some carrying this burden become aware that former friends stay aloof, unable to deal with their affliction...

The best gift we received recently were the following lines, from a monastic visitor:

Silence

I need not shout my faith, thrice eloquent

Are the quiet trees and green listening sod;

Hushed are the stars, whose power is never spent;

The hills are mute: yet how they speak of God!

Charles Hansen Towne

21st January

Howling wind and rain are back. A newspaper in Somerset carried the photograph of three ladybirds frozen to a leaf. Apparently they can survive zero temperature. So many of ours have returned to the garden during a sunny period but casualties indoors have taken their toll. I saw a cat playing with one on the blue carpet, and others are accidentally trodden underfoot. Worms are drowning in flower-pots outside, while the occasional fly buzzes around indoors. We are experiencing a very mixed-up season, with life and death ‘in combat’. Clumps of snowdrops look a little solitary in the flower-beds.

28th January 2012

We began our ‘spring-cleaning’ early this year. Dealing with different types of cards and paper gave way to the sorting of materials, clothes and wool. Some good quality cloth and new clothes have gone to those who can make good use of them. The Scriptures warn us about any form of hoarding , so we are trying to share what we have ... with the ulterior motive of wanting to make more space!

We have had two frosty mornings, which make the hitherto ‘soggy’ garden shine. I heard a fox calling one early evening. It is a strange, slightly high-pitched sound. The foxes enter our garden through a hole in the fence for a small snack left in the meadow area for them. The days are getting lighter, and some poor little flowers bloom in isolation. The cats are reluctant to go out but come for prayer walks ... The other morning, during our blustery days, the wind seemed to be growling and I thought I saw the cats flattening their ears in defensive mode....

January has not been an easy month for anybody in the world. Humanitarian disasters abound due to climate change; political upheavals have led to internecine conflicts in some countries; and in Europe we experience financial concerns, which will continue to affect the whole of our society. We pray for a sense of balance and mutual concern, and the ability to share what we can with those in need.... even if it is only a kind word and a smile.

Primula: Winter Flower of Hope