I recently re-watched the film Chariots of Fire and loved it again. I love watching Eric Liddel run. I love the music that wells up, as he puts his head back and runs towards that finishing line. I love his words, “God made me fast, and when I run, I feel his pleasure.” I love the picture of a man living out his destiny, doing what he was born to do, and knowing the delight of the Father in it. Yet as I watched, another moment captured my attention… Read More »Freedom
So Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. A woman who was 50 came to draw water and managed to fill a small plastic bottle. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” She looked at him and said, “Me give you a drink! I’ve only just about got enough to keep me going. Why don’t… Read More »Jesus and the Woman at the Well – a re-imagining
Easter ponderings I’m not a mother, so I don’t really understand this mysterious gift that motherhood bestows, but I do know it to have been reliably true throughout my life. It is Good Friday as I write this, and parents all round the country are preparing to hide Easter eggs of all shapes and sizes in their gardens for Sunday. A friend told me about a conversation recently overheard in a hospital waiting room – “The thing I like about Easter egg hunts is that I can say to my… Read More »It’s not lost until your Mum can’t find it
In a recent on-line retreat, I invited participants to respond to a list of questions (most of them shamelessly taken from John O’Donahue). The idea was not to answer every single question, but to go with those that awakened in us a desire to answer. It was a fairly brief session – no more than 20 minutes, but enough to bring us to pause and connect with ourselves (and God). These were the things I myself ended up journaling… until I ran out of time. Questions for Reflection Where did… Read More »Questions for Reflection
I am not a dancer (see my blog on An Invitation to Dance!) but I do love the metaphor of dance as life. A phrase I read a while back has accompanied me through his last year. It describes someone’s experience of what it means to have a relationship with God: “There is someone dancing with me and I’m not afraid to make a mistake” I love that! I love it for various reasons. For one, it tells me that I’m not alone as I give expression to who I… Read More »More on Dancing
Modern brain science tells us that spending a few minutes focussing on something that we deeply appreciate helps regulate our parasympathetic nervous system, and calm our anxiety. On another note, Shawn Achor whose Ted talk on The Happy Secret to Better Work (very entertaining by the way) is amongst the top ten talks, includes a daily practice of journaling three new things that you are grateful for (and apparently the act of actually writing them down increases its effectiveness) in his list of five things that help create happiness. … Read More »Glimpses of Goodness
I always like it when I come back to familiar stories and see things I’ve never seen before. The story of Mary and Martha is one that I thought had little more to give me, for I have mined it in the past and kind of assumed I had excavated all there was to see. Yet in a recent retreat day I came back to the 5 verses in a lectio experience, and lo and behold, it opened up to me in a new way. “Now as they went on… Read More »Martha’s Story
Yesterday I caught myself praying a prayer that I have prayed many times in my life. It goes like this: “Oh Lord, please make me into someone who is wise and full of insight, able to speak your words into people’s lives.” The prayer rose from the depths of my heart, as I longed to be more than I currently am. Yet truth be known, this prayer was motivated by a sideways glance. In the film Chariots of Fire, when Harold Abrahams competes against Eric Liddell for the first time,… Read More »“Yamness” or “The sideways glance”
In 2010 I went to Chile and made a new friend. A Colombian friend. I didn’t speak Spanish at the time, and she didn’t speak English, but somehow our hearts connected and I discovered in a way that I didn’t know was possible how communication really can happen beyond words. We had so very few words and yet we communicated. It truly was a sense of hearts knitting together and has been a God-given gift to me. The following year I visited my friend in her home country of Colombia… Read More »My cup of hope
(The following is not about my flat!) “I know it’s a shabby, dingy little place – but it was my own home – and I went away and forgot all about it. […] Mole saw clearly how plain and simple, how narrow even, it all was; but clearly too how much it all meant to him, and the special value of some such anchorage in one’s existence.” It’s Wind in the Willows. I came across this excerpt recently, and it made me dig out my old illustrated copy (given to… Read More »A Home of my own