Whatsoever |
Whatsoever |
This earlier blog post reflected on waiting particularly from the perspective of Simeon, in the Bible, who had waited for the Messiah to appear. Here are some more reflections about waiting. The world learning about waiting : `Our 21st century western perspective of time and space - it was thrown by the pandemic - nothing is as it was and we all had to wait, for end of lockdown, for the vaccine, for the chance of travelling again, for normal connections with people to resume. It took far longer than we imagined. The impacts have been far worse. It is clear that we know nothing at all about so much. What are does waiting feel like?:
The ultimate waiting However, despite all these feelings about waiting, there are also much more profound times of waiting that can cut far deeper: Waiting for the second coming, waiting for death, waiting for love, waiting for conception, waiting for the 'second shoe to drop' Each of these brings great challenges as they may be impossibly distant, terrifyingly real, resignedly impossible, scarily uncontrollable, worryingly pessimistic. So, what is positive, hopefully, real and affirming about waiting? ‘`Good things come to those who wait’ - where does that phrase come from? We know that impatience and rushing can lead to the gimcrack and unsatisfying. Grabbing and forestalling the true processes can give less than the best, much less. ‘Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord’ - This from Psalm 27 is about the way to do the waiting - so it is not weak, pessimistic and pathetic but it is possible to do the waiting strong and optimistically, hopefully. There is a restfulness in waiting - a freedom in ‘there is nothing I can do’. It can be a time of receiving, slowing down. And it requires a load of trust. Trust that I am waiting in the right place, trust that ‘all things are working together for good’, trust that there is a plan even if I haven’t seen it. It helps to get a bit more understanding of time and eternity. The Psalms are a great place to go for this. What do Psalm 27 and Psalm 90 tell us about time? Psalm 27 - is about becoming free, and the way to do this is to dwell ‘in the house of the Lord, safe, hidden, set on the rock. He cries for mercy, for God not to forsake him but to lead and guide. The pslam is full of yearning and hope and ends with the glorious words (v 13,14) - and if they are reversed, it would read….’Wait for the lord, be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord’….’ I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living’ In Psalm 90 there are many references to time. eg v4: ‘A thousand years in your slght are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night’. V12: ‘teach us to number our days, that we may gain the heart of wisdom’. V14: ‘Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days’. Another place in the Bible that helps in waiting Surprisingly, perhaps, this can be found at the very beginning and end of the book of the Acts of the Apostles. It is usual to characterise this book as a great adventure story of the spread of the gospel and the growth of the church, full of movement and drama and action. However, right at the beginning, in chapter 1, we read of a group of people having to wait, not knowing all the answers. They then have to make a journey and wait again Then right at the end of this roller-coaster of a book in chapter 28 we find that great activist, Paul waiting in Rome, in rented accommodation, using that time of waiting to proclaim the kingdom and teaching about Jesus Christ. Waiting is necessary, powerful, and worth it.....something is happening, even if we are not quite sure what! As you wait, and think nothing is happening, things are going on in the background, and perhaps if we weren’t forced to stop and wait, the really important things would not happen. Acts 1:1-11
In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” Acts 28:26,30-31 “ 'Go to this people and say, “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.” …. …..For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ---with all boldness and without hindrance!
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A tree on the Longshaw Estate in the Peak District - shaped like a great open cup with branches coming down to the ground and other soaring upwards.
I have made several images of these leaves over the years. The first was a collage of New York which included leaves I found there and brought home . I was amazed by the way the modern buildings were surrounded by such ancient trees. Other more recent images try to capture some of the excitement and elegance of the leaves that I collect every autumn. A drawing of a Ginkgo leaf is used to make an 'aide memoire' of things that seemed important . The list relates to being on the journey of life, including he impossibility of trying to hold water in pocket and walk with stones in one's shoes. At Hopton Hall the wall of the gardens have been built curved. This makes them stronger apparently. It certainly makes them more remarkable and unusual. The height perhaps and the direction of the prevailing wind were perhaps to great to trust in a straight wall. The great curves are like hands being held, surrounding something precious. It reminds me of the Matisse painting of the dance where the curves together swing and sway. Another wall : old stones dividing the wilder wood from the more tamed. This is at the edge of the gardens of Chatsworth House and feels like a special discovery. The locked gate is tantalising - as if we are on one side of a secret garden. There is another wall at Chatsworth that is a remnant of the past, a foundation repurposed. It is an unlikely enclosure - a solid stone wall that formed the foundations to a great glass house which was dismantled because it was too expensive to heat. The base stone wall remain and now the space enclose a maze and some flowerbeds. at this time of year full of great seek heads. Children try to find their way through eh geometric hedges of the maze - "put your hand up sp I can see where you are the Mother cries" . The flowerbeds are full of the future, surrounded by the past. In the middle there is a small model of what used to be. Now the foundations of the past enclose plants open to the sky producing seeds for the future which can freely fly, over the corridors of the maze. It is easy to take striking pictures at this time of year. The leaves change and flicker and the yearly event yet again seems marvellous and full of blessing Local walks are full of blessing.......... Multicoloured maples Hidden like cyclamen under tree Dancing fountain Grandeur of trees Persistent roses remaining Fruitfull seeds sycamore rose hips holly berries Gardened cared for Times and seasons turning Bright autumn Free Leaves Flying through the air Hidden dahlias and daisies Into the woods Carpeted with leaves of summer past Complex dense Light shining through Quiet pathways Many different species Roots making stairway and old brick and stone laid down and worn Shade and sun. Dark and light Dry and wet Glimpse of a sunlit field An old stone wall and wooden bridge Rustle of wind in branches Autumn leaves are for kicking. Their dry sharp friable texture made the carpet for early days of student life. Their unbelievable colours make the humdrum wood come alive. Their flat, damp, treated-in pattern on the shiny grey pavements make a short-lived decoupage. Here are three ways of moving away from the conventional and expected and being brave enough to cope with imbalance and change and mess
Cutting the canvas I had a canvas - a rather poor still life that I was tired of looking at. I covered it with thick light blue paint and it became a door with a handle. I made the colour more interesting by adding pastels, But then I was brave, and cut apertures into the canvas with a craft knife. I have never done that before. I then scrunched paper to come through the gaps and adorned with a red ribbon. Here is what resulted: Colouring outside the lines Sister Mary came to the art classes in the church hall. With her white hair and careful manners she was rather shy in the group, happy to let her more strident fellow nun make the running while she made her tentative small watercolours of the still life set up in the middle of the room. One Saturday morning we thought about colour and how it can be laid down and juxtaposed to make interesting patterns. Each had a simple line drawing to ‘colour in’ and set about the task with relaxed earnestness. But on this morning Sister Mary became even quieter than usual. When she showed what she had done she giggled nervously but with a great smile on her face. “Look”, she said, “I’ve coloured outside the lines. I’ve never done that before. Is it allowed?” She left that morning taller, more confident in her stride. A few weeks later she died peacefully at the convent - the smiling end of a life well lived. Her dedication to her faith and mission was indeed a life lived outside the ‘normal’, ‘acceptable’ lines. Finally she was able to make that visible in her wonderful drawing. Writing in the book
I was brought up to revere books. My father had been raised in a home with very few and so was determined to have books in every room. If I wanted to buy something to read he would always help (not so if I wanted a record) and he never wanted anyone to write an inscription in a book, however meaningful, as it would sully the purity of the precious object. Years later, when I had a home and many books of my own (loved but not treated quite so reverentially) I returned to Tate Britain where there had been many childhood family visits. This time it was to see an exhibition by Peter Doig. I bought the catalogue and sat in the cafe of the gallery looking through it. Going round the exhibition I had written some comments in the little free handout they gave you but they seemed insufficient to do justice to all my thoughts and ideas. I took the pen out of my bag and there and then, with cooling coffee and the chatter of tourists and art students around me in the round room, I started writing in the book: about what I liked, what I questioned, what I wanted to remember. The nagging critical voice in my head was quietened. I could do this. I reasoned that if I wanted a ‘clean’ version I could always buy another copy but for now this was mine to interact with and dig into and write in! PROCESSION. is a strong word that does not have to be limited by ideas of dry process or conformist following on. It can also speaks of a wonderful way of moving forward, in the company of others, to something splendid. The journey itself is fascinating, stimulating, sometimes very hard. But it is all getting somewhere : there is a purpose. There is a great sentence in Tom Stoppard's play 'Arcadia' which says; "We shed and we pick up, like travellers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it" Here are some images and words that reflect this idea One verse in the 'OMF hymn' (words by Frank Houghton) says : We bear the torch that flaming Fell from the hands of those Who gave their lives proclaiming That Jesus died and rose Ours is the same commission The same glad message ours Fired by the same ambition To Thee we yield our powers In this praedella, the horses lend an inevitability of the procession moving towards Calvary. However the people and the energy pull backward and forward. Only Christ faces us. This photo was taken at Curbar Edge in the Peak District. Here are the new generation of the family dancing forward across the hills into the future. What a wonderful free procession they make. Cezanne, in his inimitable way, invites us to make a procession through the avenue of trees to the distant light. Even if we are alone at the moment, others will come as others have gone before. And finally, apparently Queen Elizabeth II had a fondness for an aboriginal proverb :
We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow. to love...and then we return home. From the play 'Arcadia' by Tom Stoppard "We shed and we pick up, like travellers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it" p 38. Septimus "The unpredictable and the predetermined unfold together to make everything the way it is. It's how nature creates itself, on every scale, the snowflake and the snowstorm. It makes me so happy'" p47 Valentine "Its wanting to know that makes us matter. Otherwise we are going out the way we came in.....If the answers are in the back of the book I can wait., but what a drag. Better to struggle on knowing that failure is final" p76 Hannah "Structure building itself in the rubble and the mush. Islands of order emerging in oceans of disorder" p 79 Valentine
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WhatsoeverThe posts are 'postcards' on my journey through faith and art. The name 'Whatsoever' comes from Philippians 4:8 in the Bible : Categories
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