Tuesday 12 December 2006

The grass withers

I am reminded by today's meditation (here) that things decay. I watch the garden drying out. And you realise that whereas once everything sort of had a residual moisture that meant things could last for a couple of days. Now we are all watering so modestly that as soon as a heat blast comes the water goes.
[I bought three or four hanging baskets of zinnias and petunias and they are in such wonderfully friable soil (much better than I would have used) that they flourish when all is well but they dry out like nothing].
Of course Isaiah is reminding us too that we are a drought zone.
I have just rung my bereaved friend as we wait for Chris's funeral tomorrow, at least we remind ourselves that such stuff is drought making! I have rung she who is taking the funeral (and who must be obeyed) and we talked along much the same lines.
I am just about to go to spiritual direction, and I will be saying how S & I have pushed the envelope in the last 24 hours to talk together for more than the 10 mins we can usually cope with, and in so doing perhaps arrived at an uncomfortable place...but a necessary one. We dry up and wither very easily.
Isaiah promises that the drought will not be the prevailing feature in our lives, I find this harsh and at times unbelievable. And have a degree of anger about a whole range of things which are drought creating.....but in some way a little part of me is in touch with the fact that there is a constancy in God that is there even in drought. Even though the drought is bloody awful.

6 comments:

Gay Erasmus said...

stephen, i am thinking of you and your friends and keeping you all in my prayers.

Anonymous said...

What is Spiritual Direction? Is it anything like clinical supervision?

Take heart: "I am the living water, whoever comes to me will never thirst"

Stephan Clark said...

Thanks GE for your thoughts.
Chris, Spiritual Direction is not quite like clinical supervision though it has certain common features.
Basically I see a director once a month and we talk about what is happening in my life and relationships with God and people.
Over the years it helps me to understand more of how God works in my life, and how I can respond effectively to that.
After 30 odd years of it, there are times when it seems to work!!

Anonymous said...

I haven't heard of a "director" before. Who can be one, what are there quals, do you always see the same one?

Stephan Clark said...

Chris, many people don't like the term "Director" which has all sorts of power overtones.
Once upon a time such people were called Soulfriends or Spiritual companions.
They are like fellow-pigrims who share something of the journey on the road and listen to our issues and help us reflect. They don't really tell us what to do or direct us in that sense. But perhaps they help us to find the right direction when we have spun ourselves around a little too often.
Having said that there are courses (billions of books have been written on matters spiritual) and some people are deeply committed to doing this discipline well.
I don't consider this is one of my things, but I do have an interest in professional supervision which is also a discipline that is not well understood.
if you Google these sorts of terms there is quite a lot of interesting stuff

Anonymous said...

Ver interesting, thankyou very much.