Music of Eternity — Section 1 :Welcome
This blog is a response to the daily prompts in Robyn Wrigley-Carr’s Advent book ‘ Music of Eternity’ inspired by Evelyn Underhill. spck publishing. A journal of half-formed , tangent thoughts. Each new day I add my thoughts to the top of the page. There is a new blog page for each section of the book.
WELCOMING GOD’S COMING
Day 6
Your Kingdom Come
https://unsplash.com/@capturelight
Robyn Wrigley Carr asks us today how conscious are we of the little signs of the Kingdom and how ‘might we see things, persons and choices from the angle of Eternity?’
This question, following on from Evelyn’s writing about the parables of the Kingdom of God, had me mulling over the sad fact that so often it is at a funeral I learn the most amazing things about people’s lives. Ordinary people who are in fact extra ordinary people. Lockdown presented me with the opportunity to spend more time with various people , via zoom and in pairs outdoors. I learnt some incredible stories of resilience, love, perseverance and ongoing endurance which completely changed my relationship with these people. Scales of assumption, scales of privilege, fell away and I was able to see more of them as they shared some of their story with me.
I admit I am quick to judge. I always have been but through Grace I am learning to admit this prejudice to myself and check back in, to try and look again, listen again. Yes we need those eyes of eternity , but we also need the artists, the stories and the storytellers to help us discover them.
I love this photo by John Thomas. I found it when looking for pictures of ‘elderly hands’ . What I love most is the fact that the hand holds the new growth, the leaf and seed. A parable for today in an image.
Day 5
Hallowed Be Your Name
For God is Great …. furious beauty…Bow before the beauty of God Ps 96 and ..every cloud is a flag to your faithfulness. Soar high in the skies , O God! cover the whole earth with your glory! Ps57
So today’s chapter took me from the solidity and heat of yesterday’s volcanic rock to the wonders of the skies. I loved the imagery of nature in this chapter because being in creation really does draw my spirit to adoration.
I took the sunset photograph above a few years ago when tramping home from work on a snowy day. I taught for several years in a school which I could walk to, uphill through some lovely Chiltern beechwoods. Some days I had to make myself stop and look up as I was so absorbed in everything I had to get done, rehearsing a difficult conversation , or mulling over how I could have handled something differently, that I rarely noticed anything. Once I was stomping along feeling exhausted and cross about something when I heard a sound. I looked up and there on the track ahead was a fallow deer — standing still right in the middle of the path. We stood and gazed at one another and, in a way similar to St John of the Cross’s woodland pool analogy, in that held gaze I recognised the Face I longed for — the Face of God. For the deer and I at that moment were respectfully acknowledging our sisterhood in God.
That moment also prompted me to Thanks. Thanks for the reminder to look and gaze at beauty, thanks too for both my earthly and heavenly Fathers. (Ever since reading about Harry Potter’s patronus being a deer , like his Father, I have always felt connected to my Father when I see one.)
Day 4
Waking to God’s Eternal Action
Words that unsettle me in this chapter : overshadowing , penetrating, losing all, willed surrender. It’s a trust issue . Never quite wanting to relinquish control because that leaves me open to being extremely vulnerable. So distractions for me are possibly an escape from going to that deeply contemplative place in my relationship with God.
However the image of the volcanic landscape helps me here. In that heated remoulding, sometimes explosive and sometimes creeping, forms new rock — granite. Granite is slowly cooled igneous rock which means minerals and crystals form within it. Granite is strong and contains treasure!
Perhaps in my slow relinquishing of power I will start to see the gems growing, the minerals, the stardust in my hands and from that will spring trust, and from trust, joy.
Rhyolite lava, on the other hand is granite magma which has been erupted before lots of crystals have grown, its cools quickly and therefore contains small or no mineral crystals perhaps proving what Evelyn says later in the chapter — ‘ The spirit of Joy and the spirit of Hurry cannot live in the same house.’
Day 3
Eternal Love brooding over creation.
“The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that its center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.” ― Black Elk, Lakota Medicine Man quoted by Keith Giles (https://www.patheos.com/blogs/keithgiles/2021/11/gospel_according_black_elk/?fbclid=IwAR0iGFLO1vtQ1nNX-btiGN6RoI6n2yy0kKGO826l_TJB5WXc7567QI96m3M
I find Black Elk’s recognition of the Spirit within all, the stardust, the ocean, the trees, the rocks, the mammals, the insects, the moss and so forth very prayerful. The delicate interdependence of all in the universe is frightening and joyous at the same time. Even viruses are a part of creation and a very successful part too! If God’s spirit is everywhere, within all, then the traditional western view of a hierarchical creation dangerously shifts the balance of power towards ourselves and away from the community of beings God created.
As I read and contemplated this chapter I had an image of the ocean, high winds of the Spirit brooding over it , whipping up the waves — frothy chaos and caverns of briny green. Then sinking below the surface , below the chaos there is an opaque layer of blue-green bubbles and light which gradually gives way to a darkening stillness. Our instinct is to kick for the surface to fight against the depths — to exist in the chaos — not to dive deeper.
I am not a strong swimmer myself so rarely dive beneath the waves but those I know who are more adept and confident than me speak of the both the peacefulness of diving down , of the wonderful feeling of gliding through the water, held, above, below and all round — at one with the elements. Then there is the exhilaration of surfacing and breathing in the salty air. I imagine myself letting go and sinking down, being held for a while in the unfamiliar, still, cold and quiet world beneath the waves, facing my own humanity. Aware of the storm above but sheltering in the deep. Please don’t try this at home!
So how can I bring these thoughts together. How might I join in what God is doing in my community? Perhaps by waiting beneath the stormy surface, being patient until I find that first peace that Black Elk speaks of . Then I can surface and join the chaos, exhilarating in the energy rather than thrashing around in fear.
Day 2
Mighty Symphony of the Triune God.
I found some of the analogies in the chapter uncomfortable — particularly the one of deaf people at a concert. Although as Mthr Victoria helpfully reflected perhaps this was an illustration of how we miss so much when we rely on our dominant senses. How we fail to feel the fullness of the ‘symphony’ of the orchestra that is God.
Encouraged by Robyn Wrigley-Carr to reflect back over my ‘mature’ life and see the melodies of God playing I am encouraged to see not just a single melody line but harmonies that weave around the melody. Also periods of silence where, as in Cage’s famous composition 4'33", the sounds of life in creation, without and within me, create their own melody. There are riffs away and then returning and the tune connects with the tunes of others in my life — sometimes discordant and sometimes complementary. A single line melody can be beautiful but how much more exciting , moving, compelling when those harmonies arrive — swelling the sound , the vibrations, making the hairs on your neck stand up, your feet tap, your body sway. And then when the music stops there is the resonance that lingers .
The Triune God shows us the harmonies of community
As Sondheim, who left us this week , wrote in his song Being Alive puts it …But alone
Is alone
Not alive
Somebody crowd me with love
Somebody force me to care
Somebody let come through
I’ll always be there
As frightened as you
To help us survive
Being alive
Day 1
The lines which resonated most with me today were …“ We are so obsessed by the importance of our work, our friends and our interests. If we put ‘His’ worship last and our needs first, all proportion goes. Then, instead of the expansion that comes from selfless adoration, our souls contract.”
When faced with the unfairness, the senselessness of actions that lead to brokenness in our world, the inequality of power and impending climate crisis I feel my stomach tighten , my breath held, my eyes sting and my soul does contract as my hope fades. Alternatively I seek distraction, a stepping out of one life into an easier one.
I wonder what would happen if instead I simply stopped and attuned myself to God, took a moment to adore, spent some time in silence in the dark or the cold, paused and really saw God in someone before busying myself in trying to respond to them. Waited for God’s welcome to expand my soul, breathed deeply and freely and cried. Maybe then Hope returns, not as just a feeling but as a motivational and resilient, force.
