YOU COME TOO I’m remembering Barry tonight. One June evening while our house was being built, he said to me “You really need to see what the house looks like from the inside. It’s starting to feel like a real house!” Then he played his best card, “Now the windows are in you can really see how the views are going to look.” As I always said when we had this conversation, much as I hungered to see how my …
Heaven is Now Little pieces of deep happiness. I am watching the late afternoon of the sweet, tiny phoebe, swaying on a small branch, flashing after insects. In between her darting sorties she is simply resting, abiding in the soft late spring day. Now that she has eggs in a former robin’s nest attached to the back of my house, the annoying, raspy calls of “phoebe” have stopped. Surrounded by risk, she is fearful of attracting one of many predators—the …
The Gift of Handwork My beloved grandmother gave me gifts to guide me on my life’s journey. Her main wish was that I would practise a faith “because it would be a comfort to you”. And in my own way I work at that every day, and it has become my foundation. However what I am remembering here is that she also taught me to prize handwork, both as a survival skill and a steadying pleasure. Her own needlework came …