I Am Said I (Huruma)

‘The Lord has abandoned me; the Lord has forgotten me.’ Everyone knows what this feels like at some point or time in life. The sense of abandonment, desolation and isolation that can befall us for whatever reason and for no reason at all. In times like these we can be confronted by, what I call, the tyranny of joy. Not that there is any tyranny in joy itself but there are people who slap us in the face (that's how it feels) with a version of it and present it to us as if it were something that can be turned on at will. It’s like saying to a depressed person, “snap out of it” – the “don’t worry, be happy” kind of thing. These comments are well meant but totally unhelpful because they are powerless to create joy. They remain external to us. The response of the Lord God to our sense of abandonment and desolation is, first, that He enters into the experience with us and offers us a Word that is relevant and has a power within it to stir even the tiniest flicker of joy. He res...

Be holy in all that you do, since it is the Holy One who has called you. (1 Peter 1:15) The Climb The Cloud The Vision and The Voice Word without Speech No Sound The Holy One Calling Be Holy I am struck With amazement Astonished Transported To the hushed Half-light Of Saturday night's Cathedral Waiting For confession's Mercy The ardent Thirst for holiness Inflaming My soul Centre-point On the horizon Of my destiny Hope that Sustains My every endeavour The mountain The valley The desert and The river Of my heart Oh my Holy One My Love I offer you Childlike obeisance On the earth floor Of my life Glimpsing glory Through a prism Of clay

Winter was slow To release its grip On the springtime                                             Of our content Adulthood barely tasted We tested fresh waters Finding new reasons For laughter And how we laughed In the Spring of seventy seven In the loving Of countless homeless Children in Care Going together after work To the Continental Where we drank as little As fast as we could afford When we hadn’t A soda-and-lime or a Pint of Harp between us We went to Seapoint For the last dance for free Throwing down our coats The girls threw down their bags On the floor where we danced Together in our circle And the Memories  Did Bohemian Rhapsody Better than Queen So it seemed to us Dry ice and all And the night would not Be deep enough And we being slow as Winter Gate-crashed the party ...