compassion
A friend told me of visiting the Dalai Lama in India and asking him for a succinct definition of compassion. She prefaced her question by describing how heart-stricken she'd felt when, earlier that day, she'd seen a man in the street beating a mangy
Blog: Pictures-Books-Reflections
Tulip
Posted on by James Woodward
tulip
Perhaps the tulip knows about impermanence
and that is why, on a green stem
it carries a wine cup in the wilderness
Hafiz, (re)transl. Tom Davis
Learning from Self !
Posted on by James Woodward
There is a famous story that Gandhi told of himself and the girl who was addicted to eating sweet foods.
The story goes that a troubled mother one day came to Gandhi along with her daughter and explained to Gandhi that her daughter was in the habit of eating far more sweet f
Where do we look for God?
Posted on by James Woodward
And so it is with the glory of God expressed in human creation. It is not only in the ardent lover, the faithful friend, the wise counsellor, the trusting child that we see God's glory. There is glory also in the anger of the oppressed, the pain of the wounded and the lonelines
Discovery
Posted on by James Woodward
Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself, and know that everything in life has purpose.
There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from.
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
From Windsor to Sarum
Posted on by James Woodward
By way of completing the circle of communication I can see that social media has its advantages by way of sharing information! So after six years here in Windsor I am looking forward to the challenges and opportunities of a new phase of my work and life. Here is the Press Re
In the End – our choice for Love ?
Posted on by James Woodward
You see, only love can move across boundaries and across cultures. Love is a very real energy a spiritual life force that is much more powerful than ideas or mere thoughts. Love is endlessly alive, always flowing toward the lower place, and thus life-giving for all, like a grea
Light
Posted on by James Woodward
light
O splendour of what is, by which I saw
the high delight, the true communion:
please show me how to say all I could see.
Up there there is a light. The light is God.
Creation contemplates its own creator,
and only in that seeing is there peace.
It stretches in a
Compassion and Patience
Posted on by James Woodward
Compassion and patience are the absolutely unique characteristics of true spiritual authority, and without any doubt are the way both Francis and Clare led their communities.
They led not from above, and not even from below, but mostly from within, by walking with their brothe
Blossom
Posted on by James Woodward
blossom
There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.
From Li-Young Lee, From Blossoms
people vote for different reasons!
Posted on by James Woodward
crystal
I am unjust, but I can strive for justice.
My life's unkind, but I can vote for kindness.
I, the unloving, say life should be lovely.
I, that am blind, cry out against my blindness.
Man is a curious brute — he pets his fancies —
Fighting mankind, t
Air Forces Memorial, Runnymede
Posted on by James Woodward
The Air Forces Memorial, or Runnymede Memorial, in Englefield Green memorial dedicated to some 20,456 men and women from air forces of the British Empire who were lost in air and other operations during World War II. Those recorded have no known grave anywhere in the world, and m
Spiral
Posted on by James Woodward
spiral
wine the colour of day
wine the colour of night
wine deep purple
o topaz blood
wine:
starlit son
of earth
wine, smooth
as a golden sword
wine like a spiral seashell
wondrous
loving
marine
unconfinable in one glass
or one song, or drunk alone:
choral, gregarious
and
Writing the Self: David Lodge
Posted on by James Woodward
‘Quite a good time to be born’ – by David Lodge
As an avid reader of biography and autobiography it is intriguing, I think, to wonder about the criteria of choice at work in the writing of such texts. Put simply, what you put in and what you leave out? What might
Hughenden Manor
Posted on by James Woodward
The manor of Hughenden is first recorded in 1086, when formerly part of Queen Edith's lands it was held by William, son of Oger the Bishop of Bayeux, and was assessed for tax at 10 hides.
Benjamin Disraeli, British Prime Minister (1868 and 1874–1880, and Earl of Beaconsfiel
Strange Glory : A life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Posted on by James Woodward
‘Strange Glory’ by Charles Marsh
It is always extraordinary to be reminded about the gaps – and sometimes very significant indeed – in our knowledge. The life and death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer is one of these areas. Born in 1906 and executed by the Nazi regime i
Easter
Posted on by James Woodward
a stone at dawn
cold water in the basin
these walls’ rough plaster
imageless
after the hammering
of so much insistence
on the need for naming
after the travesties
that passed as faces,
grace: the unction
of sheer nonexistence
upwelling in this
hyacinthine
Easter eve
Posted on by James Woodward
Glorious Collect for Easter Eve
Grant, O Lord, that as we are baptized into the death of thy blessed Son our Saviour Jesus Christ,
so by continual mortifying our corrupt affections we may be buried with him;
and that through the grave, and gate of death, we may pass
Holy Saturday
Posted on by James Woodward
When Death Comes
When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse
to buy me, and snap the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox;
when death comes
like an iceberg between the should
Sunday pause for Thought
Posted on by James Woodward
thorn
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread:
you put this rather beautifully,
and gave me leave to sing my work
until my work became the song.
In sorrow shalt thou eat of it:
a line on which a man might ring
the changes as he tills the ground
from which he w