Holy Moments

In Cross Chapel this morning for the final rehearsal for the lunchtime Advent Concert. Listening to Robert the tenor do a solo with lovely piano and flute playing. Spirit rises in me and I am weeping with joy and appreciation. It's a holy moment. I haven't earnt these moments (unless in a past life!) them seem to be part of how I am wired. Again and again I am blessed with such moments; they have changed my life for the better. I am grateful.

Richmal Crompton and I

Richmal Crompton who wrote the Just William books – who I was named after at it was on the radio when my mum was pregnant with me(!) – always wanted to be a serious novelist. She did have one such book published, which I have read and it is OK, but it was the William books that hit the spot. As a teenager I wanted to be a poet and fiction writer and have written off and on ever since but never with any great success – a few poems published and the odd short story mostly online. I have enjoyed at times reading my poems and getting immediate audience reactions but it did take it out of me so I stopped doing it. Anyway instead and almost accidentally I became an academic aged 43 and to get and keep a full time post I had to have stuff published in academic journals. At the time I got some great support from my PhD supervisor Prof John McLeod. And more recently, now no longer in post I just write on request, usually the odd book chapter and paper. A new voice has emerged from which is more personal, more autoethnographic and less referenced. Curiously this part off me feeds over into sermons and homilies when I am asked to take a Unitarian Service at Cross Street. 2 of my favourite recent papers, which I enjoy re-reading, were published by the extraordinary Journal of Critical Psychology, Counselling and Psychotherapy are ‘On becoming (a) patient’ which draws on my 13 days in hospital with a broken leg in 2014 and ‘Hymns to the silence’ 2021 about my spiritual experiences and music. So, I have learnt that my conscious ambitions are not necessarily what happen to me but are general pointers. A writer Yes but probably not fiction. In the late 1980s I wanted to run some therapy groups in the USA. I sent about a dozen letters to contacts there but nothing happened – probably coals to Newcastle as it were. But I also wrote to an American contact in Japan. He replied that he was about to write to me to invite me over. I had 3 lovely visits over the next few years. So perhaps I can honour what I have done and the good ways I have been put to use; not about my personal ambition but about what is needed from me.

Lets grow

During Covid, Brexit, Ukraine War food supplies to the UK have been disrupted as has harvesting. Climate change is going to make all this worse. So we need to grow and harvest more locally and eat less meat. Ideally our government would set targets and support this. We can grow more in our back gardens and in pots and more allotments would be a good thing. Dig for survival! And we need a different better relationship with each other and with our planet. If you like a Buber I/Thou relationship. So there is a need for a healthy and inclusive spirituality to be part of this new life.