Green Patches

Useful and Acceptable Gifts

I was puffing my way up the hill to church last Sunday; at the last minute as usual, but I just had to stop and pick up these conkers.  I dithered for a nanosecond (I mean, a fifty-something year-old woman getting all excited over something like this - honestly!), but my inner five year-old won in the end, you'll be glad to hear.  The same inner five-year old that I remember popping out during my first retreat seven years ago now, as I wandered round the wild garden at CSF Compton Durville.   It was like exploring a jungle! I was  so thrilled! By the time I went home I must have gathered half of the Somerset countryside on my windowsill - plus any number of creepy-crawlies besides.

To return to last week,  off I hopped to church where I arranged my treasure carefully on the pew in front of me, and, I regret to say, didn't really take in very much of the service at all that morning. Never mind, for once I've managed to get ahead of myself, what with Harvest Festival coming up and all. I came out of the sacristy this afternoon to see one of the flower ladies busy decorating the place with a lovely collection of leaves, conkers and other autumal goodies. Somebody is going to find it rather difficult to concentrate this Sunday as well, and we're not just talking about the children. My inner Busy Fauve is dying to go for a run. As I'd suspect too,  the insect life that might have come into church with the decorations. Who knows? If they hang around for long enough, they'll be able to take part in the pet blessing service the following weekend!

 The beech husks in the photo are another 'treasure' unearthed by my resident Fauve and I on our walks which make me smile.  Do any bloggers remember the classic Joyce Grenfell monologue Useful And Acceptable Gifts where she plays a (Very Buckinghamshire) countrywoman giving a lecture to a Women's Institute on how to make a 'boutoniere' out of beech husks?  Wonderful. Any road, I'm not able to pass a beech tree at this time of year now without giggling quietly to myself. 

So, I'll be up there this Sunday, ploughing the fields and scattering away. And I'll be thinking about boutonieres, earwigs and the gifts of laughter and wonder.

 

 

 

'Busy' Fauve and Contemplative Gannets - 2

 

"So beware of behaving wildly like some animal and learn to love God with quiet, eager joy, at rest in body as in soul. Remember your manners, and wait humbly upon our Lord's will. Do not snatch at it, like some greedy greyhound, however much you long for it."

 - The Cloud of Unknowing cp 46 

For the bookworms - Teaser Tuesdays

From my Musings  blog.

Forever Autumn - Blog of The Week

 

Pom- pom- pom, pompom, pompompompom pom-pom-pooommm...

Never repeat yourself, did I say? Oh dear.  Oops, rules are made to be broken and all that... Guaranteed to make  even the most po-faced personage  smile (I'd love to see what they'd make of Franciscan liturgy),  thought-provoking  and possessed of  an unerring timing that helps me put all my angst-provoking spiritual lingerie-entangling into perspective.  Yes, Blog of The Week goes yet again to those cyber-coenobites and liturgical virtuosos  - The Beaker Folk of Husborne Crawley. 

 

'Busy' Fauve and Contemplative Gannets

 

Well, that won't win us  the photographer of the year award, will it? Still  it captures our resident French canine 'Busy Fauve,' to a tee. Greenpatch dog operates at two speeds only: full speed ahead or dead stop. This morning we enjoyed a  long, wet, muddy walk where from  start to finish it was nose to the ground, tail in the air and a 100 mph demo of a weaving technique so impressive that I'm tempted to hire him out to the local Caledonian Society for their next Scottish Dancing demo. Life for your average happy, well-fed and loved pooch is happy, shiny and full of exciting discoveries. For who else is  rolling in unidentified, pongy  substances the equivalent of a 5 Star Spa Experience? The sound of a slab of cheese being unwrapped three rooms away like  Grand Opera!

When I wasn't trying to stop GPD dragging me into the canal I got to thinking that  he and I bear a striking resemblance. (apart from the wagging tail and parfum de boue et crotte, of course).  Not that my nearest and dearest could exactly describe me as the life and soul...However, contemplative though I fancy myself to be, and however still I may look on the exterior.. inside..oh dear! At times  I dart about from one fascinating idea to another, sniff at one tantalising possibility, glance off it onto something else , soak in ideas until my head is bursting.  I want more! It's  easy to mistake quantity for quality. It's so insidious, creeps up on you just as you think you've learnt from the last time.  Spiritual indigestion isn't a pretty sight. Though thank goodness I don't have the spiritual equivalent of GPD's dicky digestive system; all  his cavorting around frequently ends up with him bringing up his breakfast. One thing he does get right, however, is living in the moment.  Something I could learn from.

Our cat, though...she simply 'is.' No explanations needed.

To see a 'busy Fauve' in full flight, have a look at the clip below. It's not of our GPD, but 'Bazou' is a joy to watch and for me captures the happy-go lucky attitude to life of this cheerful little dog. Enjoy!

 

 

 

Late Blog of The Week - The Cartoon Blog

Welcome to my Blog of The Week - 'late' this time, not  - thankfully - in the Precious Ramotswe, Alenxander Mcall-Smith sense, more in the 'unexpected diversion caused by fault at the telephone exchange and subsequent circuitous and ultimately time-wasting wanderings round the labyrinthine bowels of a certain provider's website and call centre system' sense of the word.  But that's another story, which, I hope, will not be set to run and run...

So, to BOTW: this time round, I chose what I call one of the 'Big Blogs,' Dave Walker's Cartoon Blog and his reflections on his struggles to maintain his creativity under pressure.  I've had a bit of a sea-change myself, lately, partly prompted by the examples of other people who've not been afraid to be seen to be vulnerable. (At times in the past, the dreaded words:"Now, I'd like us to turn to our neighbour and share..." has had me glancing at the door to locate  the nearest exit for the loo). Hence, I have a great deal of respect for those of us who have the courage to stand up and share their 'seagulls,' or in my case, 'seabirds.' Yes, I know the picture here shows a stork; there is a perfectly simple explanation for this here.

Seagulls, seabirds, storks; which gives me a chance to make an even more tenuous link: Wildgoose and tertiary and actor Paul Alexander's classic reflections on the work of the Holy Spirit: Chasing The Wildgoose which he originally wrote for Franciscan enquirers.

"In the Celtic tradition ‘the wild goose’ is the symbol for the Holy Spirit. The

 

wild goose is an enigmatic creature; once seen, never forgotten; once

 

heard, always remembered; here one moment, gone the next; fond of

 

desolate places and freedom; a romantic figure living a wild life; almost

 

impossible to follow, but once pursued, almost impossible to give up."

 

Keep your seagulls flying, Dave. They're an inspiration to us all. 

When I started this feature, I'd planned never to repeat a blogger, but, as it was International Talk Like a Pirate Day yesterday, I simply couldn't resist linking to Archdruid Eileen's Liturgy. 

                                                                                                                                                          aarrmen!

 

 

 

A little black something...

 

 

"So, what's it to be? Plain, striped, checked, retro-flower-power,  insulated, 2/4/6 wheel, flap-top, drawstring, foldable, Warhol, Monroe,  Paris market, leopardskin print, silver? Will we take the plunge? We'll keep you posted…"

  Remember our sartorial dilemma last Summer? Well, at last  we've  solved  it! Do feel free to pop over to Musings where Mr GP reveals all!

 

 

 

 

 

Autumnal musings

From an old favourite by Stewart Henderson:

 

" ...In the shaping and stacking

of this pruning season,

when there are a few, final flowers

let us be

still, facing Autumn

as the soil turns over

and becomes amethyst

whilst sleeping,

and the wombs of muted roots

brood with honey and hue.

 

For what appears as in demise

then contradicts,

what's dead can rise."

 - Stewart Henderson, Still, Facing Autumn, Plover Books, 2001

Blog of The Week - Camino to Santiago de Compostela

 - St Columba's Bay, Iona

Another Monday, another Blog of The Week.  This time round Ive chosen a theme very much close to my own heart these last years - pilgrimage - and some reflections on the journey by Johnnie Walker on Camino to Santiago de Compostela.  

 " I look sometimes with pity and at other times with jealousy when people stand up in Church and appear to say with utter conviction "I believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, Maker of heaven and Earth." Creeds never did anything for me. Certainly not as much as pilgrimage. I think I spent my whole life developing a method of being in the church with all of its beauty and musical power whilst being insulated from the institution. There are no arrows for the path I have followed to what may be to some the self-evident conclusion that I need to journey towards God rather than the church. My parents felt I had lost my way when I didn't take the career they thought I should, or marry the "right kind" of girl. I've used these words myself with my own children. Useless words. Wrong words. I hadn't lost my way. I was finding my way. I was looking for arrows in a church where there were none. I was looking for signs that God actually exists. I tried very hard. Nothing came.

…Then slowly in the heat of the long meseta I saw the world was a lot bigger than me. In the mountains I saw the raw power of a waterfall, the stately form of a startled deer, an exquisite wild flower blossoming. Across my path I watched the ants and caterpillars march with some purpose of their own. Above the eagles circled high. Heat and distance and solitude. Sweat on my back and a dull ache in my toes. Mile after mile. Never a thought of stopping. Of just chucking it. "Taxi for Walker" never entered my head. Not once. For all of its pain this is too good."

 - for the whole post go here

Many of us struggle to find the words to articulate our own experiences along the road, so we're always blessed by gifted story-tellers and guides like Johnnie who can walk ahead of us and point to where we might encounter God. Thank you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elegiac

 - image credit: Wikimedia Commons courtsey of The Prints and Photographs Divison, Library of Congress

'Elegiac', Dictionary.com's 'Word of the Day' is strangely apt...

Francsican prayers of peace from the Francsican JPIC: Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation Group can be found here.  

There will be vigils for Prayers for peace  on 17 September from 8 pm to Midnight at both the Covent Chapel in Freeland and at St Mary's  Bridge Chapel in Derby. These have been arranged by the JPIC representatives in the two areas and anybody nearby is welcome to join them for all or some of the time.