Readings
Never again
Never again, I said
It hurts too much to lose.
But then time passes and
My arms reach out
And take another
Rescued dog
With wide and worried eyes
To heal and hold
To love and nurture
To laugh at and with
To cry with
Share joy with and
Be comforted by.
I count the
Dear old friend
Dear old friend
I stand here lost
Your collar and lead in hand.
What do I do now?
Tears fall silently
Into the silence
Where you are not.
Where are you now?
I close my eyes
I let my body feel you
Soft against me
As you used to do.
And as the days pass
And I carefully
War
It is strange
How times change
What once was
Considered outrageous
Into what is now
Deemed
Right.
When I was 15
In school one day
When asked to find a simile
For war
I said
Futility.
And uproar then ensued;
For
I had failed
To see
How that would
Sound
To those
Who had
Returned
Locks
What is it to lock
To shut away?
To preserve?
To keep safe?
To save?
But why?
To seal your heart from hurt
To keep everything inside
Safe and dying for want of freedom
I will unlock my imprisoned heart
I will throw away the key
Into some deep deep loch
I will free my
No more poppy petals needed
Peace means not-war
Peace means no violence
Peace means we will have learned not to fight over disagreements
Peace means humanity will have finally grown up
Peace means kindness without limits
Peace means there will be enough plough shares to go round
Peace means equity between all people
Peace means trust and respect
Peace means
Lead me from Death to Life, from Falsehood to Truth
There are dark and painful times
when I know a dying inside,
a dying of the soul perhaps,
when all my spiritual energy is drained,
when I have nothing left to give.
I need to find the strength
to move from these times
to choose life, to affirm life,
to begin to feel
once again fully
The divine embrace, viewed through a window
Written following worship by Julio Torres – Beloved Community in the Divine Empathetic Embrace and a meditation while Peter Flower played ‘Spring’ by Vivaldi on the piano. The rain was steadily and silently falling on the trees outside.
The Fingers of the Fir.
Evergreen, save the touches of
Injury from her long life, waved.
Moved, conducting
Psalm 23
A Version of Psalm 23 by Rev. Maud Robinson
Love is my shepherd; I shall not want
She bids me lie down in green pastures
She leads me beside quiet waters.
She restores my soul
She leads me in paths of righteousness for her name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the