Ashes

Today is Ash Wednesday. Not something I grew up with, and even a couple of years ago I was trying to get my head around. Lent, yes, but Ash Wednesday? Being part of a L'Arche community gives me the great growing experience of meeting and knowing Christians of many, many different backgrounds. Where else would I have ever met an Armenian Orthodox or Mennonite in the north of Scotland? And seen them praying together? Such an experience tells me that the fruit of a life ranks much higher than what people say they believe. So...Ash Wednesday has entered my spiritual world as a significant and meaningful day.

We had a simple service at L'Arche, with help from Fr. Mel, an Episcopal priest from the Black Isle. The ashes, he explained, remind us we are human and that one day we will die. The shape of the cross reminds us of the amazing deep love of Jesus, sent by God to save us from sin. And the dust also reminds us we are precious, like gold dust, to the Father.

Today I'm reminded of my humanity and frailty, but also of the depths God's love. Lent calls me to come away and spend time with my Father. Lent in L'Arche reminds me this also a joyful time!

A story with a view

One for the Godly Play community...in the most recent GP newsletter they included a few stories about unusual locations for storytelling - on a frozen lake from Rebecca Nye probably comes top! However, I recently had the chance to tell The Great Family in one of the world's most beautiful - and famous spots. 

The team I am part of at L'Arche had the rare opportunity to spend the day together - with the previso we didn't go too far and didn't spend much money! Hmm, a challenge. Happily we are less than ten miles from Loch Ness, so we planned a day on the beach there, with a barbeque.

There is always one tiny problem with planning such days in Scotland...the weather. But we prayed and hoped and trusted. And had one of the most beautiful days possible, it was calm and wonderfully warm. Being on a beach, albeit a rocky one, was a good place to wonder about Abram and Sarai's journey, as we pondered on our journey together in L'Arche. Seasoned and sharp-eyed Godly Players will spot a few extra stones in the desert. Each of us placed one in response to ourselves in the story. 

We also broke bread together and thought about the hospitality of Abraham, and what that means for us in L'Arche as we welcome folk, well known and new, each day. This icon sits in the house at L'Arche and often reminds me to go beyond the necessary in my welcome, as well as to take my own part in the feast to which I am invited.

PS No, Nessie did not come to join us for the story - maybe she's just not ready yet!

Images of Holy Week

Getting ready for Holy Week

The week ahead is usually one of the busiest - and best - of the year for me as I prepare for Easter with my family and also in our L'Arche community.

 Today the boys and I started on our Easter garden. We have been adding a stone each day of Lent to a big plate of 'wilderness' that also contains a wooden figure of Jesus and a bare twig. We used the plate again, with a layer of compost in it and placed the stones neatly to make a path to the 'tree'. There is golden star on it - my youngest put it there earlier in Lent - today he reminded me, saying it was there because God is watching - oh how his words touched me...

We sprinkled on some wheatgrass seeds, watered them and then covered them with the bare dust - hopefully we'll get some green shoots for Easter! We also used some airdrying clay to model a tomb, using a big jar to hold the shape We'll remove it when the clay is dry. T had the idea to beat the clay with the back of a teaspoon to make a rocky texture - it looks good. We'll add that in to the garden on Friday. Then on Saturday we'll take time to add flowers and other plants, and who knows what else might be suggested. T has already made a bird from clay.

The little bean we planted  - that reminded us of a curled up baby - has sprouted and shot right up. I love how the green growth has pushed it's way straight out of the dried out dead looking husk.A little resurrection right in front of our eyes - from the baby bean.

In L'Arche this week, we meet for one of the most important events of our year. We very rarely celebrate Communion or Eucharist in our community, as we are so very ecumenical and it has never been easy to find a way through the questions surrounding different interpretations of Communion. However, what we can do, as most L'Arche communities in the UK do - is celebrate a simple form of the Passover meal, miming the story (if anyone is interested I can email a simple script)and sharing the basic elements of the liturgy and meal. It is a quiet meal, set to the background of music. Afterwards it is followed by footwashing, a sign of mutual care and love. My boys have been able to participate since they were young, and will do so again this year. It is a beautiful  moment in the life of our community.

On Good Friday we will walk together around our garden at L'Arche, miming a simple Stations of the Cross. You can read about it here.   The words and prayers are based on the book The Story of the Cross, The Stations of the Cross for Children by Mary Joslin. I was given this book and it's a good one in opening up this practice to non-Catholics, in a simple, helpful and well-illustrated way. We will finish with Taizé prayer around the cross. The children enjoy the walking with others, the mimes - especially the soldiers - usually their Dad is one of them! Many others join in as the other people on the route, with simple costumes. Various people will be asked to say the prayers, so in this way, there is a part for everyone, to draw us all in together. In past years this has been very profound.

Other books I like for this week are the fabulously illustrated The Easter Story by Brian Wildsmith and The Tale of Three Trees by Angela Elwell Hunt. I'm looking forward other ideas for marking this week here.

Our Journey in Lent

Lent has arrived. It isn't something I grew up marking, but as I've got older and explored ways of living my faith, it makes a lot of sense and has always proved to be a rich time. I'll admit I'm not too good at giving things up, but I do like the idea of taking things up, or making time to do things that bring me closer to God. More thinking time, more reading time, more praying time...which I suppose means giving up that time when I might be doing other things. It's always felt like a rich time, rather than a gloomy season. I like the simplicity of Lent.

As a family we are using a figure of Jesus (made by my beloved) in the wilderness on our kitchen table. We'll add a stone to each day to mark the passing of Lent. Then we will make a garden at Easter time. We also shared together the 'Mystery of Easter' last Sunday. The boys seemed to really enjoy it. I really love this story and all the meaning it conveys.

At L'Arche, we met together on Tuesday for our traditional feast of pancakes and I shared the story again. As I had my head in the story, it was hard to tell how people received it, but there was a lot of 'wondering' and interaction as I told it, so I think it went well.

 As a community, we also decided to use the material for the 'Faces of Easter' in each of our Community houses - so I had to prepare no less than six sets of materials! Happily, one house took on the job of cutting out and laminating the pictures. We are using the material from the CD Time and Space to Wonder.  I managed to find some lovely and inexpensive purple fleece for the underlay needed.

Our friendly Episcopal bishop also came to L'Arche to host an Ash Wednesday service. He is very good at connecting and communicating. I gave him a basket of fabric, figures and other props for Jesus' baptism and temptation and then sat back and watched him bring the story to life, along with ashes, oil and water.

Two blogs that I've found helpful and inspiring for Godly Play are hosting a Lenten Link Party that I've decided to join in with. Thank you for the invitation, Wonderful in an Easter Kind of Way and Explore and Express!

New Life

Happy Easter! We have been having a busy but wonderful time, with lots going on at L'Arche. You can see a bit of what we were up to by visiting the L'Arche blog. And otherwise, we have been getting in a bit of time with friends and to relax and walk a little too. Crazy weather too - yes, that is me in a hammock with four inches of snow on the ground - and enough sun to dry the sheets! But it is so wonderful to be out and about, climbing trees, wandering the hills and woods. New life indeed.

A Table! And Gardener's Revenge Salad!

How was your May Bank Holiday? (For those of you that have have one, that is) We thought about a wee trip over to the west coast, took one look at the weather forcast and swiftly made other plans! We headed east, not too far, in search of some clement weather and maybe...a table.

We've had a tiny kitchen table for over a decade, ancient and lovely, but really, with friends, far too small. And wobbly to boot. We've been hunting for a while, in and around various charity shops, but didn't find anything that really fit the bill.

We thought it was high time we paid a visit to an antique & reclamation place not too far from home. It's a great cavern of delights! And swiftly we found just the thing, a splendid old table, missing a couple of leaves (but not a problem, we can improvise and cover up!), slightly battered, but very sturdy and can be extended to feed an army! Hurrah! Oh, and cheap too, even better.

The boys enjoyed some fabby vintage toys - including a rather slendid Harrods tricycle. The beloved table was very carefully tied to the roof of the car and the journey home had to be along the back of the back roads, at a very dignified pace. But we made it! And with a bit of borrowed muscle, got it into pride of place.....

I also bought a lovely old table cloth, and it does look rather nice on my new table, but I'm not sure it would survive more than one pasta sauce incident. So, I have other plans for it...

I admit that I do love a certain Swedish purveyor of cheap household things, but it feels so much nicer to be using an old table and cloth, with their sense of story. Who made that cloth I wonder? It is beautifully stitched.

Well, it certainly is nice to have space to spread out meals on the table. And what's on the menu? Haha! Gardener's Revenge Salad! Recently, in The Guardian newspaper, I read that Ground Elder could be eaten. I duly told my husband, who is PLAGUED by the stuff in the L'Arche garden. No matter what you do, every year, up it pops! We checked it out in a few wild food books, and yes, it can be used like spinach, or in salad.

He tasted it a few days ago, and is still here to tell the tale, so we had some for supper. The verdict? The small, young leaves are the best, and they have strong flavour, part lemony, part celery. Quite edible, although, I prefer it mixed sparingly with other salad leaves, and a good salad dressing. A few walnuts go well with it too.

My dearly beloved however, ate a plateful with relish! If he can't exterminate the stuff, at least he can eat his way through it. It must be the first time Ground Elder has made him happy. I think we are going to have some good times around that table....

Celebrating May

This is (probably) my favourite month in the Highlands, and our trees are slowly greening up. Beech trees are my no. 1 favourite tree, probably because I spent an awful lot of childhood in and around them. But since moving here, Larch have also taken a place in my heart. They aren't terribly majestic, but their cones are lovely and flower-like, and the soft green needles are a beautiful colour. And they are such graceful trees.

Indoors and out, everything is popping up, full of promise and fragrance. Our seedlings are doing well...

And joy! The first radish of the season. Not ours, but from the L'Arche polytunnel, brought home as a contribution to our Friday Lunch with Syd, Lil and Gina. They were crunchy, with just a hint of peppery bite. And how best to eat them? We had them dipped into a thick mustardy vinaigrette, but the French smear them with butter and a sprinkle of salt. How to make a perfectly healthy food totally decadent!

This weekend, we had another film night in the living room. This involves dragging mattresses downstairs, the telly out the cupboard and making a big bowl of popcorn. Then settling down with a flick all four of us can enjoy, and then snoozing off together. Naturally, the setting up of such an arrangement causes a certain May madness....

Not much sleep but a lot of fun....

Another celebration was a birthday BBQ at the wonderful Abriachan Forest. Just the sort of party we most enjoy. The woods are full of trails and treehouses and all sorts of lovely little surprises hidden away. A beautiful community project and really inspiring.

On our way home, we almost witnessed a terrible tragedy, but Featherglen readers will be relieved to know that Mama Duck and her 13 ducklings didn't end up in the local funeral home, but were last seen heading off into a lovely big garden with a stream...phew!

And on the creative front so far this month? Well, tired out by all of last month's activities, all I managed to do was sew my finished (the knitting) cardi onto the one I was already wearing! Argh! At least a nice glass of wine was quickly proffered to help me unpick it all...