We all have an ambiguous relationship with Authority or power and so we should as Christians. I wonder when you last felt powerless? To be powerless is something we all fear briefly clothed, but God laughs when we take it too, so we anxiously remind ourselves of all our virtues and capabilities. Our instinct as […]
Blog: Pictures-Books-Reflections
Silence
Posted on by James Woodward
‘Silence’, said Seraphim, ‘is the cross on which man must crucify his ego’; ‘Silence transfigures a man into an angel; it is the spiritual practice which most surely preserves inner peace.’ He was constantly repeating the words of St Ambrose, ‘I have seen many who were saved by silence but none who were saved by […]
Writers Rooms : David Starkey
Posted on by James Woodward
Starkey offers this commentary: The room is in an 18th-century house and was fitted out by one of the more bizarre figures of mid-20th-century British public life, Sir Hughe Montgomery Knatchbull-Hugessen. Hugessen retired here in disgrace to write his family memoirs. He did so in this room, and I have a copy of the […]
Writers Houses : Karen Blixen
Posted on by James Woodward
Karen also known by her pen name Isak Dinesen was born at Rungstedlund in Denmark on 17th of April 1885 as the second child of Wilhelm and Ingeborg Dinesen’s five children. She came to Africa in 1914 to marry her half cousin and carry out dairy farming in the then British Colony of Kenya. Her […]
Surprise
Posted on by James Woodward
surprise Expect nothing. Live frugally On surprise. become a stranger To need of pity Or, if compassion be freely Given out Take only enough Stop short of urge to plead Then purge away the need. Wish for nothing larger Than your own small heart Or greater than a star; Tame wild disappointment With caress […]
opening
Posted on by James Woodward
opening The Opening and the Close Of Being, are alike Or differ, if they do, As Bloom upon a Stalk. That from an equal Seed Unto an equal Bud Go parallel, perfected In that they have decayed. Emily Dickinson, The opening and the close
Peace
Posted on by James Woodward
The peace of wild things When despair grows in me and I wake in the middle of the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the […]
water !
Posted on by James Woodward
water If I were called in To construct a religion I should make use of water. Going to church Would entail a fording To dry, different clothes; My litany would employ Images of sousing, A furious devout drench, And I should raise in the east A glass of water Where any-angled light Would congregate endlessly. […]
Don't tame me !
Posted on by James Woodward
the shout The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab and my loitering. I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world. from Walt Whitman, Song of myself
awakening
Posted on by James Woodward
awakening Enter the turret of your love, and lie close in the arms of the sea; let in new suns that beat and echo in the mind like sounds risen from sunken cities lost to fear; let in the light that answers your desire awakening at midnight with the fire, until its magic burns […]
eternity …..
Posted on by James Woodward
wild flower To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour. From William Blake, Auguries of Innocence
you will greet yourself…..
Posted on by James Woodward
LOVE AFTER LOVE The time will come when, with elation you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror and each will smile at the other’s welcome, and say, sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was your self. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your […]
wondering
Posted on by James Woodward
wondering I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. Both in and out of the game and watching and wondering at it. Backward I see in my own days where I sweated through fog with linguists and contenders, […]
The genious of Gormley
Posted on by James Woodward
I was determined to make a significant detour during August to see some public sculpture on Crosby beach and this short piece gives me an opportunity to show off some of my photographs. The journey to Liverpool was not in vain and I was able to glimpse again at first hand the sheer genius of […]
THE ASTONISHMENT OF AGE – learning from Jung
Posted on by James Woodward
When my friend’s mother developed dementia, he was discouraged that each day she seemed to be losing so much. Then he remembered a saying from Taoism: In the way of learning, each day we gain more and more. In the way of the Tao, each day we have less and less. So often […]
Never standing still !
Posted on by James Woodward
(taken by JWW Savill Gardens June 2014) tree not even for a moment do things stand still: look at colour, in the trees Seiju, his death poem (d. 1776, age 75)
Smile
Posted on by James Woodward
smile Then new events said to me, ‘Don’t move. A sublime generosity is coming towards you.’ You are the fountain of the sun’s light. I am a willow shadow on the ground. You make my raggedness silky. The soul at dawn is like darkened water that slowly begins to say Thank you, thank you. […]
Vacation Suprises (5) Llanyblodwel Church
Posted on by James Woodward
On the road out of Oswestry travelling up the Tanant valley you will find a small village, Llanyblodwel, and tucked away the church of St Michael and the Archangel. It is beautifully kept and open each day for visitors. The church is believed to have been erected after the arrival of the Normans and its […]
Vacation Surprises (4) Aberystwyth
Posted on by James Woodward
Aberystwyth is the principal holiday resort and administrative centre of the west coast of Wales. It is also home to the University of Wales Aberystwyth and the National Library. This excursion was especially worth the long journey across the hills through the rain to be greeted by wonderful blue skies. This brief piece gives me […]
Vacation Suprises (3) Richard Herbert
Posted on by James Woodward
A bright day took the car South and West towards Montgomery and the glad open door of St Nicholas Parish Church built in the early 13th century. You can see the effect of the blazing sun on this Welsh Shropshire border town! The most conspicuous object in the south transept is the splendid Elizabethan canopied tomb […]