Day 19 of the End to End in 2019 was also Holy Saturday, the day between Good Friday and Easter Day when we think about Jesus being in between. In 2020 in between seems to go on a long, long time.
In 2019 I was walking along more old lanes lined with trees and flowers. This was a persistent image of the walk in the west country but I never tired of it. In 2020 I walk along the lanes and paths of our part of North Derbyshire. I don’t tire of that either. The butterflies are out and keep me guessing. Added to them are a host of other insects I don’t really know: bees and perhaps bee-flies or maybe hover flies. I may have seen these views before but the blue blue sky reflected in the blue blue water is indeed beautiful. I take another breath and think of those struggling to do that now and those assisting them.
Whatever we do in life, it works best if we can give it our all. I wrote these words last year for Holy Saturday but they are still relevant:
Every molecule,
Every cell,
Is rearranged.
Every vessel,
Every organ
Is reanimated.
Coming back
Was hard work.
As Spring pushes up
We can only imagine
What it took to burst
The gates of hell
And rise again.
So too, we can only imagine what it takes for a body to overcome a virus, a workforce to keep working, for new and creative ideas of how to assemble the resources we need to take shape. Those of us still breathing have an important part to play: be still and breathe, give it your all. Enter into what it is to be human, play your part in the universe.
(on a post box in Wiveliscombe in 2019)
From the remembered gospel:
Jesus breathed on them and said ‘Peace be with you’.
From the rising of the sun, to the going down of the same,
praise God for breath and body,
for cells and sinews,
for care and kindness,
for grace and love,
for death and new life
as we know them in our lives
and through the life of Jesus Christ our Lord,
Amen.
JAL: 20.04.2020 in Longdendale