For Quartz it is a time of lent. We follow the journey of Jesus towards the cross. we have done this before, and we will do it again. Each time is new though, and the pattern is one of resistance and growth. Resistance can be dynamic, creative, full of life. Just as trees grow from the earth sustained by soil, wind, and rain. Finding form from the process rather than in denial or opposition to it.
This journey is a pattern we repeat every year, and every Sunday though! The journey does not end at the cross, it repeats, just as Jesus death on the cross is not the end. In Pauls letter to the Romans it is even described as the beginning. Another Genesis. But how could the beginning of the story happen long after people started living in in?
We are taught that stories should have a beginning a middle and an end. but we live in the middle of our story, don’t know where it ends and sometimes have moments where we totally re-understand what the beginning stages of it mean. We need to develop skills in #SensingMeanigfulness. Recognising patterns, making connections, and trusting a continuity of identity that adapts and persists because life leads through a changing environment. Even the mighty oak tree is also an acorn, a sapling, a mature tree, tables, chairs and a home for all the creatures who live in decaying timber.
The journey through lent can be a time of metanoia. Our hearts and mind change at different rates, so we take time out for a season to let go of things and take up the core elements we are passionate about. For Christians this can be a journey following Jesus into the wilderness. Acknowledging hunger, but recognising that we will always be ‘hungry’ for more than food. Trusting in God’s protection, but not chancing it. Perhaps most significantly during lent passing through hell rather than seeking to dominate, however benevolent we think our rule would be.
This is not a blueprint to build a colony but it is a guide to being a seed, and learning to grow. It is not submission to dominance, but it is learning to adapt and endure. Always searching for the light.
This post was inspired by visiting the V&A in Dundee. We walked round an exhibition of Palestinian embroidery. We followed a story of threads holding memories. The invisible stories of lives becoming visible, and colour flourishing in rubble. It is not an easy journey, but it does have very current relevance as well as historical significance.
I was reminded of the tree of life stone on Devorgilla bridge in Dumfries, and the many ‘trees of life’ and vines which grow throughout the illuminated manuscripts from these islands.
- What things remind you of places you call home?
- What patterns can you recognise in your personal and your community life?
- In what ways could they “poke through” and flourish as the fabric of life is woven around you?
Perhaps we could work on a collaborative “Tree of Life” project. Inspired by Palestinian embroidery as resistance we could Embroider motifs onto cloth. This could become a visualisation of the tree of life connecting, many rooms in the great architects house. Life growing from the roots, finding a way.
#SensingMeaningfulness #SensingSpirituality #Embroidery