wonderingpilgrim

Chaos & Grieving

In these days of chaos, I am traveling with the daily meditations of Matthew Fox and Richard Rohr. They give me occasion to reorient my questing heart to respond rather than react to each day’s rapidly unfolding events. Today Fox draws our attention to the rising awareness and questioning about the antichrist. In simple terms,Continue reading “Chaos & Grieving”

Ponderables

The traffic of my mind can get quite busyPondering questions that leave me dizzyDoes history repeat or does it rhyme?How many ways do we conceive of time? Where do things begin and where do they end?Is space linear or does it somehow bend?How does my mind conjure such thoughts?And leave my reasoning tied up inContinue reading “Ponderables”

Sleeves Rolled Up

Eco-philosopher David Orr describes hope as “a verb with the sleeves rolled up.” We have our eye on the ball, nose to the grindstone, and shoulder to the wheel. It is cumbersome to keep working in that position! Despite the wonder of mixed metaphors, each of these phrases speaks of focus and not giving inContinue reading “Sleeves Rolled Up”

A reminiscence: CMF vs Nasho

When I turned 18, the looming lottery of National Service was on the horizon. In the year males turned 20, marbles were drawn from some mysterious government barrel. If your birthday was on a selected marble, you were “called up” to be a Nasho. This involved 10 weeks of boot camp and two years ofContinue reading “A reminiscence: CMF vs Nasho”

My socials are escaping!

My socials are escaping I don’t know what to doFacebook has gone wildand Twitter’s X’d out too Friends are emigratingFamily’s looking roundInstagram and Messengerand WhatsApp’s where they’re found. BlueSky, Reddit, MastodonIf Meta we would escapeNow how to fit their iconsAcross my phone’s screenscape? LinkedIn, Nextdoor, TumblrPinterest – all set out to inspireAnd find their wayContinue reading “My socials are escaping!”

The Sin of Empathy?

Following more than fifty years of Christian ministry, I heard this phrase for the first time only a day or two ago. As a somewhat amateur confessor long familiar with the seven popular labels for sin (plus some extras), I was intrigued to see how or where empathy might fit in terms of the originalContinue reading “The Sin of Empathy?”

There’s a Mirror in My Study

There’s a mirror in my study‘Robe doors concealing boxesFilled with files and papersOf unsolved paradoxes It makes my room seem twice as bigAnd really much more spaciousWhen at my desk I see myselfI think I’m twice audacious! (c) Dennis Ryle, January 2025

Riding the Trains

Up it popped on a nostalgia siteSouth Australia way back whenAdelaide Station, I recall this sightFrom when I was a boy, aged about ten. Sharing a platform, all agleamThe Overland to Melbourne, great delightAnd a Mt Lofty special getting up steamSAR 522 -mountain engine of might. As if to answer a young boy’s dreamI rodeContinue reading “Riding the Trains”

My car needs oxygen!

It typically runs on 91 but I’ve been advised to run a couple of tankfuls on 98 – the increased octane will be beneficial, my mechanic says. It’s coming up to 230,000 kms. Soon I’ll have to buy it a Zimmer frame! This calls for a haiku. Engine light aglowIt might be low octane fuelBoostContinue reading “My car needs oxygen!”