The top picture is a huge zoom-in to a tiny detail from my finished piece for a residency at the 2016 Rural Christianity Conference (bottom picture). I was hearing about all the things the church could and should do as well as all the barriers which people from churches believed that were in the way of growth (a sad outcome to seek in my opinion). I heard of exciting developments and disappointments. What I heard again and again was, “well, at least we can make tea.” Hurrah! This is Holy living if ever we want it. We make tea, we connect, we have conversations. It’s far less expensive than any huge campaign and hits at the nub of what it means to be in community with people. It’s what seem to be the small things which make the biggest difference. Some people in the 50501 marches in the USA reported that they were in tears when all they did was walk. They realised that they were not alone. A community of people who simply walked together made more difference than any quazillion dollar media hit. People sat, watched, cheered. Others made posters or banners because their mental health can’t do crowds. Others handed out water. Others drove by and honked. A series of seemingly infinitesimal actions added up to a huge message for the whole planet of nations to hear. Justice for everyone with no barrier of any kind. All from a cup of tea. A smile. The small connection. That’s the big win.
Things are stirring
Below is a photograph of hands taken by my Pete at a Greenbelt workshop where I was Artist in Residence. I was drawing what was happening, then later, I digitally altered the image (Vector) to make it concise. It speaks of peaceful conversation as there are no hands raised in opposition to others. It speaks of agency as people are close to each other and relaxed about it; they all made a personal choice to be there without coercion. It speaks of acceptance, as there are multiple hues of skin. It speaks of collaboration, as those whose hands are resting on a shared surface of shared documents, seem to be doing something together.
It’s a nice image. Because I digitised it, it looks a little like an illustration of what could potentially be possible in some part of the world at some time in the future. It looks like I made it up.
I didn’t. The image below it is Pete’s photo of my witnessing the peaceful conversation between people with agency who accepted each other. They were agreeing together about how to include people who felt no agency, no acceptance, no peace. The apparent imagined picture is real.
I stress the reality of this because, though Greenbelt is a moment outside of other moments and nothing like the battlefields of the countries we can name, there are real conversations as I write this and as you read this. People are taking their time to use their agency for those who have had theirs stripped from them. People are not sitting idly by while other people are maimed, starved or killed. People are not twiddling thumbs while our planet gasps. Our planet is not idle about repairing itself and life on it. Media is filled with protests across the planet for people and earth. Some media is filled with reportage of formal acts and judgements which curtail the greed and overreach of leaders. Not all people are focussed on peace and repair, of course. But so many are.
If you are one of the actors for renewal wherever you are, Bless you. Take heart. If you support those actors, Bless you. You are needed. If you wish you could do something and have no idea what, sit awhile, breathe, listen. You’ll find that small thing. It could be something like choosing to hope. Adopting hope will change the way you have your next conversation. Things are stirring. Feel it.
A year!!!
Today, we celebrate a year in our new home country. This date last year, we arrived exhausted after two exhibition tours, organising leaving the UK, sorting and packing for Australia and travelling what seemed a lifetime and back around the UK during all of the exhibiting, sorting and leaving. Now that we’re a year in, we can say it was utterly wonderfully worth it and we’d have gone through more in the UK to be able to celebrate the life we have now. If you ever worry about big changes and all you’d need to go through to make them, all I can say is… Leap!
Here we are, mid leap at Singapore airport. Fabulous.
Upside Down
So, Halloween is coming at the end of next month. For northern hemisphere people, it’s going to be dark and magic for All Hallows Eve. Ours will have that special night probably in glorious sun, with families gathered on community corners and gardens all enjoying the costume spectacle. Last year, we arrived in time to wander around the neighbourhood and felt so alien! Well, we’re now where the seasons and events are upside down. It takes some getting used to.
In December, I wrote to you about how to decorate for Christmas when we take away all the references to deep midwinter. As we enter Spring, I realise that this is the first time it won’t be associated with Easter. Back in cold Autumn April, I found it truly difficult not to rely on the usual Spring associations for new shoots from the dark earth, having to archive my favourite ‘Now the Green Blade Rises’ hymn. A few weeks ago, we watched an Aussie period drama where the core scenes were a Christmas in June celebration. It’s not just hard for just us, but for all the settler immigrants who come from the northern hemisphere.
Me being me, I remind myself of a truth I use whenever I have to figure out something difficult; “the reverse is also true.” In the midst of a horrific event, there is goodness working in and at the same time. As people experience trauma, there is strength working at the same time. We make it through awful times because treasuring life is active as well. The glorious events we celebrate are shared by people feeling anything but glorious, but the celebration carries them.
Down under, we’ve been working on seeing so very much in new ways. These upside down celebrations, turned inside out and taken from the seasons in which we’ve known them, have new things to say. What is also true is that so many people have only known these celebrations in the seasons of their homeland. In this new life of ours, we’re taking time to see what has also - always - been true. To find the stories underneath creation’s seasonal associations is helping us see deeper truth in relation with creation in new and significant ways.
Lighten up, Elizabeth. Here is a little slice of my painting One, digitally simplified and turned upside down. Even a painting we know well can be seen completely differently. 😊
So what IS this retirement malarky?
I’m not retired really, I say often to those who ask. Im still an artist. I’ve finished a painting this year. And what else have you produced, achieved or accomplished, Elizabeth? How are you proving your worth? How have you earned your time off? My word, all those expectations of all those years do add up. I observe that we go to school and as we’re there, we focus on our future income - if we’re part of the world’s 98%. What will we create, learn, manage, serve, help, administer, and all the rest, which will allow us to eat, be housed and clothed, be safe? How will we build and be a responsible member of family? How will we serve in our community? Do we serve in community? How will we fit in?
So many questions face us all of our lives and few of them are - how will we learn who we are? How will we find and hone our strength to breathe? What do we need to flourish as a human being rather that what do we need to fit in? Now I’m to the point where I can say that I managed to do those survival things and to be more or less productive, I’m to a point in my life where people say how glad they are that I’m resting. I’ve earned it. What?! Rest? When did that get to be part of the picture? I missed the class on what that was supposed to be. Thankfully, I’ve been forced to start figuring it out, seing as moving half a planet away has been a bit exhausting. Resting has been needed. It’s also given me time to stop and look around. I’m deeply grateful that we’re not having to keep being employed and that for many, this is quite a privilege (which makes me push the “are you earning it Elizabeth?” button). To those at my stage of life, I wish you well. I quite get the confusion.
Here’s a picture of me smiling, taken by me and, with great fun, edited on my phone with Adove Capture. I’m grinning. It’s getting a little more usual.
Environment stuff and the 'end of the world' -- Hope :-)
I’ve been doing a good deal of walking and watching in woodlands, taking in the plants and landscape, as you know if you read my newsletters. Today’s podcast listening suggested that I share much of my learning with you. As you know, I face the hard stuff head on because of historical behaviour and present commitment. One of the thoughts from from this podcast, ‘Finding hope at the end of the world”, has confirmed my predeliction to see the hard stuff. Timothy suggests that the Empire model currently in wide operation, is based on a human centric point of view where people see the earth, and all which is in it, only as resource, something over which we have dominion. That pattern, with humans in the middle like the spider in its web, is to devise an ideology, deny the reality of the consequences of imposing that ideology, then despair when it doesn’t work. Layer a shallow optimism on top and we keep going. A progressive theology from First Nations and many faith peoples around the planet is that we are intensly connected with earth (we are, indeed, made from its minerals and more; literally, from dust and to dust we’ll return). This indigenous model is that humans look into the reality, grieve if there is reason, then hope in the power of Divine/human/earth partnership to change the future direction (which we’ve caught sight of when staring into reality). I leave you to all the further reading you can find when you go to the podcast and look to its resources list.
Looking for an image, I was shocked to see the below drawing I did at a Minister’s conference 15 (!) years ago. I listened to various readings, reflections, conversations and this emerged at the end. I entitled it Word becomes Flesh. Back then, my deep self seems to have been connected to our relationship with creation, but my brain just wondered why all the land and sky was there. My title says nothing about physical and spiritual connection with the ground we’re sitting or walking or sleeping on to simply be and move in our lives. It delights me these fifteen years later that my body knew what my head and heart are only waking to.
Ebony very old ones!
Some oldies in every way!!!! A lot of you know that I’m an artist, and you know that from my visual theology days. Before I was called to ministry (right from stewarding an exhibition BTW), I’d been a professional artist since my teens. My first degree was fine art and I’d expected to teach. I was even accepted to do a teaching Masters in art. Which, I am shocked to say, I turned down. There were other things in store clearly, and not at the Columbian School of Fine Art in Washington DC. The UK whispered to me and a few years after settling, I was illustrating. These very fuzzy, very old (on so many levels) cards were for Ebony products in Milton Keynes. They wanted images of non-white people and I was delighted to oblige. Very delighted. These days, I’d say, “can’t you find a black artist?” But that was then. I see many things differently now.
