Parting gifts – part four/5 – weather fronts

Parting gifts – part four/5 – weather fronts

Weather fronts Generally you have to pack for all weathers in this kind of work. You never know what weather front is coming in to the life in front of you. What was a sunny day last week may be a great storm, or what was weeks of bleak grey drizzle, the skies have...

Parting gifts – part four/5 – weather fronts

Parting gifts – part three/5 – unuttered words

Words The folk I've worked with in general all have too many voices, too many words in their heads. Turns out words can be the most unhelpful thing. Turns out that some space and silence and pause are not only beautiful but necessary. Turns out that chaplains, for me,...

Parting gifts – part four/5 – weather fronts

Parting gifts – part two/5 – dreams

Dreams I had been brought up to dream big and do something significant. Not by my family so much as society at large with all its inspirational quotes and ideals. Like we have to make our lives count. And there is of course something to be said for that. But all this...

Parting gifts – part four/5 – weather fronts

Parting gifts – part one/5 – stories untold

Untold stories I need speak about them for their stories are not often told Lives with great lines going through them Stripped back humanity Niceties are gone But so is pretense Which is refreshing But what is unearthed is achingly devastating like bare roots like...

Ensemble

Ensemble

If you take a good look around, in most people’s lives you will find an ensemble. Some may call it your team, some may call it wherewithal, some may say they are a ‘self made man’ and have no need for such things. I do not think I have met anyone who has attained...

holidays

holidays

In spite of everything we managed a holiday. Family in a van. Changeable weather. Changeable moods. Same sky. I took paper and pencil and wrote a poem a day, by way of capturing them as they passed by. If you wish sit back, read, listen and take a trip with me, see...

Toast and Tea

Toast and Tea

There was a time in recent years past, and for you it may have been in recent weeks or months. It may even be right now, where we sink below the level of comfort. Find ourselves in financial dire straights. This horrified me, like I was always skating atop the abyss...

Transformation

Transformation

I don’t know about you, but I have come to be very cautious around the word ‘transformation’. It makes me nervous. It comes loaded with power and assumption and disappointment. To me one of life’s greatest cons is that something can be transformed instantly, like the...

Life is dappled

Life is dappled

Life is dappled don't you know Not all bright field Not all pitch black Not all twilight Not all dawn Life is dappled don't you know Not all sunset Not all dusk Not all half light Not all starlight Life is dappled don't you know More like puddles of sunbeams strewn...