Wondering Pilgrim

Blogging about this Blog

That lull in the lazy week between Christmas and New Year invites a somewhat indolent review about all sorts of things – including this blog’s “on again/off again” appearance. I’ve just finished messing with some WordPress themes to sharpen its look. I’m still faced with the question “What is it for?” I’ve used it now for a number of years, starting from the time blogging was the all-new rage for expression on the web through the time it was thought to have run its course.
In some ways, the blog has served as a journal, a more public expression for processing thoughts and ideas, ranging from the whimsical to the serious. This has been entirely separate from my private journaling. It was never meant to garner a wide readership, but I have been grateful to see comments, statistics and feedback that suggest my writing resonates with some.
In redesigning the theme, I’ve decided for now to keep it clear of categories, menus and widgets. I want to keep it as simple as possible and my mind jumps around too much to keep consistency with such things. So there will be a mix of rambling commentary, poetry, prayers and other such things, perhaps only identifiable by tags if I remember to apply them.
I have one or two books I’m drafting and this could well be a practice board for writing them. I used a gift voucher yesterday to buy some titles I thought might inspire my writing, so we’ll see how it goes.
I’ll complete this as has been my habit lately with a Collect and a Haiku. The idea of composing Collects arises from a recent workshop with Irish poet Pádraig Ó Tuama. A Collect is a summary expression offered to the Creator using a thematic titular form and that includes a petition and a thanksgiving. A Haiku is a strict 5/7/5 three-line verse that comments, sometimes ironically, on a thought, feeling or experience.

Collect
O Silent Communicator Who inspires our words, grant us the capacity to forge words of steel that heal and build, that the stories we share might bring illumination and understanding to the Grand Story with which You fill our being.

Haiku
Why do I write blogs
Casting words to the ether?
It makes sense to me!

Advent Gifts Unwrapped – foreboding joy

Well, there they are – Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love!
Perhaps the most challenging has been Joy, associated yesterday with the Gospel of Matthew’s focus on troubled Joseph’s angelic visitation commanding him to proceed with his betrothal to the strangely pregnant Mary. Thus the introduction of Brené Brown’s phrase “foreboding joy” – the sense that yes, there is something big to embrace, but get ready for struggle along the way – the call to engage vulnerability with gratitude.

Collect
O wounded One who engaged human life in fullness knowing the journey ahead, grant us the courage to embrace the full panorama of our human experience with gratitude and abandonment, that we may know the depths of your joy.

Haiku
Hail foreboding joy
Grasping fast the thorny rose
Gifting aroma

COVID – the second journey

Half-way through self-enforced isolation, this is proving a more interesting journey than the first (about nine months ago). More aches, more sleep, more sookiness. But today seems to be turning a corner – energy returning, focus longer lasting, aches subsiding. Glad I qualified for the antivirals – they’ve certainly kicked in. What might a suitable Collect and Haiku look like?

Collect
O Sustainer who tears down to build up, keep correcting and adjusting that in the Universe that is dissonant and out of balance, that the birth of your purpose may reach its perfect conclusion.

Haiku
Another life form
The virus seeks rightful place
But it is not here.

The Great Chip Famine

Local media is leading a lament on the scarcity of chips. WA pubs can no longer guarantee these sides with the Parmy this side of Christmas. Massive floods and a broken supply line in the East have dried up the supply of potatoes – so chips and crisps are off the menu. (Mind you, bare supermarket shelves tell us many other staples have temporarily disappeared as well)

Hence today’s Collect and Haiku:

Collect
O Great Provider who sent manna to the Children of Israel in the Wilderness. Grant us the sense of proportion to realise how well we remain fed in a world that is hungry. Transform this realisation into compassion that is motivated to share what we have with others. In this is your Glory revealed.

Haiku
No spuds to make chips
So easy to blame supply
Why not grow our own?

Measuring the lifestream

I’ve reached the stage in life where one is advised to monitor one’s blood pressure. The ancients viewed the red fluid coursing through our bodies as the source of life – a lifestream as it were. It’s something to contemplate as one slips on the cuff and listens to the whirr of the pump.
It deserves a Collect and a Haiku.

Collect
Source of All Life, pulsing and throbbing your love-power through all Creation.
May my coursing lifestream synchronise with the rhythm of your flow
so that your Way may be unfolded without obstruction and your glory revealed.

Haiku
Blood pressure machine
Hooked to my receiving arm
Telling out my life

Passing the Piece

The church service act of “passing the peace” had a different slant as we exchanged clay tokens resembling doves. These had been created by the family of those conducting the service. My “dove” was decidedly different – it looked like a hybrid of some kind of bird and my country’s unique monotreme – the platypus. “Passing the peace” became something like “passing the pieces” of the chaos that often overtake our lives. Hence the following “collect” (thank you for the inspiration, Pádraig Ó Tuama) and haiku.

Collect
O Great One who formed the Universe from the Chaos of the Void.
Gather our pieces and make them whole. May the beauty of that which makes us unique in our diversity point to your all-embracing love and grace so that we may know our completeness in You. Amen.

Haiku
Clay thing in hand
Whispering a call to peace
Grace of the Other

Strange Critters from the North

As if our strange great southern land
Was scarce of critters that are in no way bland
With roos and echidnas and platypi galore
Wallabies and quokkas sniffing at the door
It seems that December is a time to import
Additional life forms of a festive sort.

“Elf on a shelf” has been around for a while
Growing in number, and adding new style
And renditions of Santa from overseas lands
Create warm fuzzies as they offer glad hands.
But the elf whatever his shape or size
Has a new rival that evokes our surprise!

Yes, “Caesar in a freezer” has become quite topical
An appropriate visitor for our climate so tropical
A sophisticated Roman with lots of class
Lifts the lid on the freezer, as bold as brass
Is he inviting us in to escape the heat?
Or pondering egress for a meet and greet?

The season of Advent is full of attraction
There are plenty of novelties to provoke distraction
The themes of hope and peace and joy
Point to a love that nought can destroy.
The climax occurs with the Incarnation
And this is the cause of our true celebration.

Elves and caesars and critters all
Gather at Bethlehem’s animal stall
There to gaze in wonder and thrall
At the Creator’s answer to our deepest call.