Enter…

At the entrance to the Maritime Museum in the City of Culture 2017:

#LentenSnapshots2017

Darkness…

Today’s word is darkness and I am continuing the war theme from yesterday’s post.

My picture is of the Ardrossan War Memorial, taken earlier this afternoon on a grey and stormy day.

I am posting it in black and white, as the starkness of the cross stands as a poignant reminder of the darkness of war and of the suffering, pain and despair it brings.

#LentenSnapshots2017

Laugh…

Sometimes life gets a little too serious… so good advice here:

“Laugh as often as possible. You must. Because the world will offer you every reason to weep. So as often as possible, you laugh. That, I think, is part of the Great Love”. (Maya Angelou)

  

Getting up again

  

Breathe

  

Memories (5)

Yesterday marked 19 years since the Dunblane shootings –  the deadliest single targeted mass murder of children in the history of the United Kingdom.  A heartbreaking and incomprehensible day, which changed forever the lives of so many families.

This picture of the memorial in Dunblane Cathedral has been shared and re shared on social media over the past few days, poignant testimony to the 16 young victims and their teacher.





Let there be light…

In the darkest night
it is not possible to believe
that light will come.

Because light has come before,
doesn’t mean it will again.

Hold faith tonight
for those who see the darkness
stretch before them –

who know no other truth than that –

whose barren-ness prevails,
who are buffeted by despair,
who cannot breathe for fear.

Join your prayer to God’s:
let there be light.

From Cheryl at holdthisspace

“It has to be dark for the stars to appear” (unknown)

(Picture: Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes)

Hold tight…

A snatch of liturgy for Friday from Cheryl at holdthisspace…  posted for everyone who is having a difficult time at the moment… hold tight

battle-scarred and tired
we watch you lift yourself
again
into the hardness of today

the cliches sit on the edge of our
tongue
left unspoken
in respect for their futility
and your new hard won wisdom

hold tight
we whisper
a prayer for ourselves
as much as you

hold tight

(Picture was taken by no1 daughter of no2 daughter at Culzean Castle park)

Wilderness way…

I never willed
these forty days
in the wilderness,
tempted by
the demons
of accustomed scars.
But no other way
leads home.

Nancy Compton Williams (found at inward/outward)

Photo is ‘Travelling through the Chihuahua desert’ by : Sylvia Stuurman en Ernst Anepool.

Darkness is necessary

God asks nothing, and demands nothing, like the stars. It is a life with God which demands these things. You do not have to do these things unless you want to know God. They work on you not on him … you do not have to sit outside in the dark. If, however, you want to look at the stars, you will find darkness is necessary. But the stars neither require nor demand it.

(Annie Dillard)