10 April 2024 A Candle in the Window Peter Millar
Words to encourage us in these times.
Why I wake early:
(a truly affirming poem by the well-loved poet Mary Oliver)
Hello sun in my face.
Hello, you who made the morning and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips and the nodding morning glories
and into the windows of even the miserable and the crotchety
best preacher that ever was
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe to keep us from ever darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light --
good morning, good morning, good morning.
Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.
The blowing wind:
And Jesus said: The wind blows wherever it wishes. You hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. It is like that with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
God of the energizing Spirit, help me,
for just once in my life to take a risk for You,
even if it is a small one,
without the usual safety nets,
so I may understand
the words You spoke
to those who wanted,
like ourselves,
endless security
rather than Life. Peter
Remembering: This week the world community is mourning one of our great theoretical physicists, the Nobel Prize winner Professor Peter Higgs, of the University of Edinburgh, whose life work changed forever our understanding of the Universe. Peter Higgs, a truly humble person, was greatly loved by his colleagues across the world, and by his students. His discovery which came after 40 + years of research will be remembered for generations to come.
A surprising pilgrimage:
Several months ago I started to write a book about my experience of living with incurable but treatable bone-marrow cancer for the last eight years. The book did not work out, but recently I have brought out a small booklet, perhaps especially for those with chronic illness or long-term cancer. In the booklet I reflect on some of the various paths we may take in our lives which can help us to keep going through long and often tough illness. The booklet is called ‘a surprising pilgrimage’ (for I have always believed that life is a journey or a pilgrimage in which there are many unknowns). In reflecting on this journey with cancer I have not shied away from the pain, frustration and loneliness which accompany a long period of serious illness. The following words, written by a good friend, encapsulate the core theme of the booklet which I hope will be an encouragement to many people. Peter
This beautiful little well-illustrated booklet is an encapsulation of Peter's eight years of life with myeloma and the effects of medication which as many readers will know can be difficult to manage.
The book reflects Peter's gift of communication: sharing what has been wrought into a piece of art, the art of living while in the shadow of death. Like other kinds of art, the managing of this has been a transformative process - a pilgrimage indeed - for him and for an unknown number of others with whom he has shared parts of that journey. He is not alone in having gone through very dark times and physical and mental anguish as well as times of warmth, human and animal friendship and the experience of self giving care by nursing and other staff in the hospital, and in places of respite and beauty like the Maggie's Centre. Different aspects of that experience are here put into uncomplicated thoughts and stories for others, whether experiencing cancer or not. We have all been close to illness in our families or among friends. You will be drawn in by the lightness of touch, the humour, the honesty about those dark times, bouts of depression, inner loneliness and by his appreciation of the care and prayers, love and compassion that attend him from his loving family, the medical profession, co-cancer patients and many friends. He plays down his own role in his survival, rising above the cancer by his strong life force, his faith and his trust in humanity and in the power of nature.
But it is not a book to parade these aspects of himself: it is to enable others to know that we are all part of a common humanity, and that whatever our circumstances, nothing is too dark never to see a star. Just look at the beauty of the photographs!
The booklet is both thanks and gift: thanks to those many others who have shared expertise, stories and ways of being with him during hospital sessions and at Maggie's, and the gift of sharing the experience of illness over eight turbulent years.
These words were written by my friend Pat Bryden, a well-loved teacher and a life-long campaigner for justice and for peace.
