Many of us have spent a lot of time looking through windows over this past year. The restrictions on our freedom have encouraged us all to spend more time being attentive to the natural world. And many of us have found that our sense of being more attuned to the natural world has nourished and sustained us.
Each week during Lent, Margaret and Chris Goddard, who have been shielding since last February, share some of the things that they have noticed through their window and how it has helped and continues to help sustain them.
We, Chris and Margaret, have been shielding since the beginning of March last year. Apart from driving to a ‘safe place’ to walk a couple of times a week, when we are able to, we spend some of our time walking in the garden or enjoying it through the window. We are fortunate to have two small trees in both front and back gardens, some shrubs, flowering plants, and a bird box. We find we are valuing much more highly the wealth of plant and wildlife that we can see through our window. These five reflections give something of our experiencing of shielding.
Week one: Trees
If you have a tree outside your window stand or sit and look. If there is not one where you can see it, you can use the picture at the top, or any other picture you can find, or imagine a tree that you know.
We have a magnolia tree in our garden. In spring it produces white star-like flowers. It does not look much at the moment, but it is covered in buds.
Meditation
Our tree gives me hope: hope on three counts.
Hope because, in time, the buds will cast their protective silky cases and burst out into beautiful flowers, giving us real pleasure.
Hope because the coronavirus appears to be being brought under control, and so meeting with family and friends and enjoying their company, in the flesh, becomes much more likely.
Hope because the season of Spring points us to the new life when the whole of creation, and relationships within it, will become good, just as God intended.
Something to think about…
What do you hope for in the near future?
What do you hope society will be like a few years from now?
What/who do you place your hopes in?
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