Posts on Contemplative themes
"To be a contemplative is to learn to trust deep time and to learn how to rest there and not be wrapped up in chronological time. Because what you’ve learned, especially by my age, is that all of it passes away. The things that you’re so impassioned about when you’re 22 or 42 don’t even mean anything anymore, and yet, you got so angry about it or so invested in it. So, this word “contemplation,” it’s a different form of consciousness. It’s a different form of time."
Richard Rohr
The light and the shade
Q. How many Irish Mammies does it take to change a lightbulb? A. Sure don’t mind me I’ll be grand in the dark. Irish joke So the snow eventually thawed, although for days it was banked up on both sides of the escape route. I didn’t venture down to the […]
Broken
First things first. In Ireland the first day of February besides being St Brigid’s day is also the first day of Irish spring. OK, meteorologically speaking we are still in winter, but psychologically, because it’s our tradition, we’re happy to go with it. It’s not the only thing we’re totally delusional about. But […]
On another threshold
“Well, I think that the threshold — if you go back to the etymology of the word “threshold,” it comes from “threshing,” which is to separate the grain from the husk. So the threshold, in a way, is a place where you move into more critical and challenging and worthy fullness. And I […]
Even in summer there is darkness at times
The summer light has it’s moments. This year summer in Ireland has been a beauty. Sometimes later in the evening there are long shadows of delightful darkness. Darkness and light. As my year’s leave moves into the final quarter I need to decide whether to return to my busy day job or settle […]
Unfurling in their own time
I hear myself saying- I don’t know what I’m doing. And there’s a freedom in that. I say it, often in the most inappropriate places, only to discover that I’m talking to myself. This phrase soothes me, puts me back on the ground, drags up my humility. Humility which is sometimes in the clutches […]
Be your own sanctuary
“To be a contemplative is to learn to trust deep time and to learn how to rest there and not be wrapped up in chronological time. Because what you’ve learned, especially by my age, is that all of it passes away. The things that you’re so impassioned about when you’re 22 or 42 […]
Your true home
“Each one of us is alone in the world. It takes great courage to meet the full force of your aloneness. Most of the activity in society is subconsciously designed to quell the voice crying in the wilderness within you. The mystic Thomas a Kempis said that when you go out into the world, […]
Witching
Darkness, damp nature, gnarled old trees. I’m no witch, but looking into this leafy pool, I fall under its spell. Then down onto the woody undergrowth with me. And the power of the place, the magic! The more I travel with no agenda, the more the lens captures what I’m feeling and living through. Freedom, unfailing […]
The watery womb of chaos
“I wish I could close my eyes and be blown into dust and nothingness, feel all my thoughts disperse like dandelion fluff drifting off on the wind.” ― Lauren Oliver, Delirium Nothingness There was a whole lot of nothingness going on down at the River Anne, in the Anne Valley. Morning mist rising, […]
