Words and Thoughts, for Life
The Wrekin looms out of the darkness on a Shropshire morning in March 2021. I drive past this iconic hill Monday to Friday every week, and sometimes it just speaks of life, for good, to me, as it did on this day…
~
Out of the darkness
It looms
~
The curving back
Of a dragon
~
Slumbering
Deep within the earth
~
As if long before
I was
~
Or any were
There was a primordial birth
~
Murmuring
Before rock
~
Took shape
And girth.
~
~
The light comes in the morning
like a new creation
~
As the darkness divides
and we see all that is good
~
All living things
have their moment of hope
reaching high into heaven
~
And we like them
feel the green shoots
~
Bursting within
budding into new blooms of light.
~
When you climb a hill, you sometimes experience a special kind of silence.
‘The Lawley’ is one of the Shropshire Hills – seen on the top right-hand side of the photograph taken from The Long Mynd, also featuring ‘The Wrekin’ top centre left.
As you get higher in your climb, the views become more and more stunning, and the silence deeper and deeper.
It can feel like “a new kind of silence”.
This poem was my attempt to that experience one day:
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There’s a new kind of silence
On the Lawley this morning
~
A kind of inner silence
On the Lawley this morning
~
As if a new kind
Of consciousness
~
Was slowly
Dawning
~
That has suffered
And died
~
And has risen
Again
~
Here on the Lawley
This morning.
Why do we have this amazing gift of being?
The ability to experience, to think and to imagine, to care and to love?
I love the words of a little-known writer, Thomas Traherne. He writes about the gift of life in a poem called ‘Salutation’:
1
These little Limbs,
These Eyes and Hands which here I find,
These rosie Cheeks wherewith my Life begins,
Where have ye been? Behind
What Curtain were ye from me hid so long!
Where was? in what Abyss, my Speaking Tongue?
2
When silent I,
So many thousand thousand years,
Beneath the Dust did in a Chaos lie,
How could I Smiles or Tears,
Or Lips or Hands or Eyes or Ears perceiv?
Welcome ye Treasures which I now receive.
3
I that so long
Was Nothing from Eternity,
Did little think such Joys as Ear or Tongue,
To Celebrate or See:
Such Sounds to hear, such Hands to feel, such Feet,
Beneath the Skies, on such a Ground to meet.
4
New Burnished Joys!
Which yellow Gold and Pearl excel!
Such Sacred Treasures are the Limbs in Boys,
In which a Soul doth Dwell;
Their Organized Joints, and Azure veins
More Wealth include, then all the World contains.
5
From Dust I rise,
And out of Nothing now awake,
These Brighter Regions which salute mine Eyes,
A Gift from God I take.
The Earth, the Seas, the Light, the Day, the Skies,
The Sun and Stars are mine; if those I prize.
6
Long time before
I in my Mother’s Womb was born,
A God preparing did this Glorious Store,
The World for me adorn.
Into this Eden so Divine and fair,
So Wide and Bright, I come his Son and Heir.
7
A Stranger here
Strange Things doth meet, strange Glories See;
Strange Treasures lodged in this fair World appear,
Strange all, and New to me.
But that they mine should be, who nothing was,
That Strangest is of all, yet brought to pass.
‘The Salutation’ by Thomas Traherne
He thinks about the gift of his body, of his experience, of having life itself.
He sees life as emerging from nothing – we each have our own personal “Big Bang” as another writer, Richard Rohr, said, and he takes it all as a gift from God.
I find it a beautiful poem. A poem that speaks to me about the beauty of the experience of life.
Life can be good when we are able to be grateful for each day of our existence, and gift our gift of being to others, as well as enjoy life for what it is.
~
The light comes
in the morning
.
Like
a new creation
.
As the darkness
divides
.
And we see
all that is good
.
All
living things
.
Have their moment
of hope
.
Reaching high
into heaven
.
And we
like them
.
Feel the green shoots
bursting within
.
Budding into
new blooms of light.
~
So many colours surround us!
It is June, and we are surrounded by wild flowers everywhere, in Shropshire and beyond!
Most of these wild flowers were just growing on the side of the road, or in a hedgerow, and how many times would we all have driven or walked past them?
And yet each is a tiny miracle all of its own!
Wouldn’t it be good to stop and gaze at these little beauties once in a while and be reminded of how beautiful this world can be?
The world can be so beautiful.
I took this photo earlier this year, at dawn,of The Wrekin, in Shropshire.
The colours of the morning were so fascinating, and perhaps all the more special as they were constantly changing, and I knew that soon they would change from sunrise to morning.
I draw strength from the beauty of the world I see around me.
Maybe we all can?
When I came across this flock of ewes and lambs in March this year, they looked at me as if to question my right to be in their field.
Whose earth is it anyway?
Is it ours to do with as we please? Or is it “shared space” – even shared creation, as many living things actually create the environment we need for life.
It is good to be made to stop and think.
Perhaps the earth is more sacred than many of often think.
Perhaps we should behave more like guests than owners.
Whose earth is it anyway?
This week, the Wrekin – that beautiful distinctive hill of Shropshire photographed here – was crowned by cloud and mist. It was something beautiful but indistinct.
Just as life sometimes is so confusing, so disorientating, such a muddle.
The end of the day can be an opportunity to discover the meaning of the day. Was it in a beautiful sight? Was it in a precious relationship? Was it in a powerful moment of experience? Was it a day without anything special, just the usual, wonderful gift of life?
Isn’t life good when we have had a meaningful day?
What causes you confusion in life
And what brings you meaning ?
“Sure Man was born to meditate on things,
And to contemplate the eternal springs
Of God and Nature…”
Thomas Traherne, “Dumbness”
Colemere is small, tranquil lake in North Shropshire, which I have posted about before, and this beautiful mute swan lingered near the banks on a recent visit.
Reflection seems to be as natural for us as humans as it is to the surface of water, and it is something that is distinctively human.
I saw beauty in these simple, but complex, reflections of light and dark on the surface of the water, just as I did in the simple white beauty of the swan.
And I agreed with Thomas Traherne: “Sure Man was born to meditate on things“.
His lines are from a beautiful, thoughtful poem called “Dumbness” (in the sense of not being able to speak), and you can read the full poem here.
When the world speaks to us in such beautiful, reflective ways, it is good, very good.
I hope these reflections, and Traherne’s poetry, have spoken to you.
Lif4Gd 