Category: Spiritual Life
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116. ‘Into My Arms’
December 2022 A friend of mine, John Walker, was recently telling me about his son Jonny: a gifted musician…who founded the Keep Streets Live Campaign, to advocate for public spaces for people and against the criminalization of homelessness and street culture. Jonny once said: “Buskers act as civic lighthouses. We give directions, we break up fights, we…
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115. Incarnations
January 2023 One of the joys of being feral is the freedom to think & explore. These thoughts have been buzzing round in my head recently. There’s nothing new about them. Others have been articulating them far better than me for centuries. But only now have they fallen into place for me. I find them to…
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114. Charlie Mackesy
January 2023 A couple of years ago I read and enthused about a book ‘A Boy, a Mole, a Fox and a Horse’ by Charlie Mackesy, and gave copies to friends as Christmas presents. This Christmas there was a film version of the story on BBC 1, and an audio version on BBC Sounds. Even…
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110. Jesus died for God
September 2022 I have never found the idea of Jesus’s death being a sacrifice a meaningful one. Quite the contrary. What sort of God needs to sacrifice his child in order to be at peace with what He has created? That sounds barbaric to me. I can understand why the first Jewish Christians understood Jesus death in those terms.…
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107. Everything
June 2022 I was recently in conversation with a friend and we were both feeling depressed and angry over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Then I remembered a poem by a Russian poet, Anna Akhmatova, entitled ‘Everything’ and I read it to him. It moved us both deeply. Here it is: “Everything has been plundered, betrayed,…
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106. Clemency Burton Hill
January 2022 I quoted Clemency Burton-Hill from her excellent book ‘Another Year of Wonder’ in a recent post entitled ‘Year of Wonder’ [the title of her previous book]. In it I quoted some lovely words of hers for the beginning of the year. Both her books offer a piece of classical music, together with a…
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105. Our temptations
January 2022 We are each called to incarnate some aspect[s] of God in our life, that is our calling, our vocation. It will be what brings us fully alive as a son or daughter of God. Moreover whatever we incarnate of God, being ‘of God’, will be eternal. It will be at least part of…
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103. A Year of Wonder
January 2022 I’ve become a grateful fan of Clemency Burton-Hill and her book ‘A Year of Wonder: Classical Music for Everyday’ ever since I bought a copy several years ago. In it she offers a piece of music for every day of the year, and a brief commentary that helps to open up the piece…
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96. Top up or bottom down
May 2021 I was talking with a friend recently, and he mentioned the vision that Julian of Norwich had in which she saw God as a Lord and human beings as the Lord’s servants. I had to admit that while I understand that image of God in my head it doesn’t engage with either my…
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94. New Life within
March 2021 My friend Colin and I have met regularly to talk over many years. He retired early as his wife Joy was not well, and as her illness progressed and she was confined to her bed, he became her full-time carer. As he could no longer visit me I started to visit him at…
A CONTEMPORARY SPIRITUALITY 