seasons – Notes from Bambi

Time for ……

There’s a time for everything, says one biblical writer. As the summer has now definitely gone, there’s still time. Many will recall statistics about the last few months; the wet weather, the effects on insect species and other populations. Now the swallows are leaving for another year and the wildlife watchers are counting the skeins of pink footed geese across the sky. There’s a time for coming and a time for going.

I’m just back from a visit to Devon, somewhat south and west of Longdendale. One of the the things they hold in common is disused railway lines. By the late 1960s decisions had been made to close most of the railway lines in Devon, except the main ones through the county. They weren’t economic enough for some. Instead small roads were filled with fume emitting vehicles a new roads were built to take all the traffic. The disused railway lines became just that, disused, until the age of slower travel by off road routes came along and we tried to join them back up again. These are the routes we have been walking along.

Additionally one section of local rail line has been re-opened, to Oakhampton station and other small projects have big ambitions. The station at Oakhampton seems to be thriving and has an interesting museum. Of course, it costs more to re-open a railway now than it did to close it then.

Oakhampton Station, once again on the main line.

Religious communities can find it difficult to see ahead at the benefits and costs to changes in community life. It’s not unusual to hear members in many such places moan about the lack of younger members often in the same breath as they complain about those that are present.

The village of Sticklepath used to be on the main road route to Oakhampton. John Wesley came that way and preached at the white stone. A few years ago the small parish church was faced with closure. But today it is a space shared with the village heritage centre and the worshipping community, one at each end of the building.

So too on Lundy Island the church has a new life for visitors but is still celebrating the old one as a place of worship. The Landmark Trust re-purposes old buildings of interest and we’ve found them intriguing places to stay.

Evening at Winsford Cottage Hospital, care of the Landmark Trust

We face similar challenges in our high streets. Don’t make the mistake of thinking the Rule doesn’t embrace community change. The buildings can get a new life along with the people. What’s required is faithfulness in prayer and service, not unswerving adherence to activities that no longer contribute to holy communion.

From my remembered bible: There’s a time for everything under heaven.

Direct my prayers to the opening of your ways.

Janet Lees, the wandering anchorite of Longdendale., 9th October 2024

Summer

Dear Benedict

I know that summer is nearing it’s end when the valley becomes full of fluff and geese calling. The fluff comes from the thistles and willow herb so abundant here. As the deep purple of the heather wanes, the fluffy seed heads of these proliferant plants explode and set the next generation free on the wind. The geese are also getting restive. Morning and evening they call, their own Lauds and Compline ringing out across the valley as they encourage their companions. It will soon be time for a long flight.

There’s always something on the move in the valley, from tiny bugs to large lorries, some more welcome than others. In chapter 61 of your Rule you explain the welcome that other monastics might expect when visiting a community. In your time too, people were on the move, looking for a place to put down roots and live alongside like-minded people. Although you earlier express your dissatisfaction with gyrovagues (those that wander about) in chapter 61 you seem more accepting that folks will wander about, and more ready to welcome those who do, providing they are not too disruptive.

As one of the more disruptive ones, that made me laugh. Summer, is for me a time of wandering (but then Spring, Autumn and Winter may be as well!). Like the geese I tend to keep my liturgy simple, morning and evening, thanks, reflection and commitment to the valley and the day. I visit my favourite places, watch the sun cross the sky or some other weather, plant my feet on familiar paths. I have snippets of psalms to accompany me and I know the Watching One is awake in the hills (Psalm 121).

A friend reused this old lamps from Bambi to make plant pots.

From time to time I stop on someone’s doorstep: the community foodbank perhaps, to take a turn in deliveries whilst someone else is on holiday. After finding some treasure in a skip I delivered that to my friend who has a reuse, recycle and repurpose shop in the high street. Once a month I join a small group of repairers who try to puzzle out how to extend the life of items bought in by other villagers to the Repair Cafe. So far I’ve eaten more cake than repaired things.

How disruptive was I? Well, you’ll have to ask the others about that. Meanwhile, I’ll keep company with the geese.

From my remembered bible: The Watching One is always awake.

Watch me as I wander.

From a Friend of Scholastica and a Member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.

Janet Lees, Longdendale, 28.08.2022.

Green

It isn’t so long ago that I recall all the Sunday’s after Pentecost were numbered. The numbers varied depending on when in the year Pentecost fell and that in turn depended on when Easter had been celebrated. Anyway, there were always a lot of Sunday’s after Pentecost. Time enough to forget the life changing power of the Spirit and sink back into post-Pentecost lethargy.

More recently a different habit has been suggested. The period after Pentecost should be considered as Creation Time and celebrated with this in mind. A time to take a look at our world and celebrate the diverse stories that the word Creation embodies.

For me the colour green is one of my favourites. The valley is currently full of all things green: so many shades, so many species. Words cannot describe them all. I go to green places and drink it in like some kind of environmental smoothie. It all reminds me of walking through the green on my End to End in 2019, every green day of it.

How green is my valley? (the Hope Valley in Derbyshire)

A blade of grass is a solar panel of cells making energy freely from sunlight. I salute each one. At the moment we are waiting for the report on Roughfields to see if the local council agrees to ‘Keeping it Rough’. I have reported on the myriad of species that makes a home on Roughfields throughout the year. Creation time is not just after Pentecost, it’s life long.

From the remembered bible: We shall go out joyfully and the trees will applaud loudly.

May we keep it green!

JAL in Longdendale, another green valley in Derbyshire, 02.06.2021

To boldly go!

Dear Benedict,

We’re still in lockdown in England which limits how far we can go. The wanderer in me is frustrated so I wander in other ways, up and down local footpaths looking for frogspawn and other signs of Spring, across social media looking for posts about these things. Of course I’d love to be out there and I’d particularly like to be out there in Bambi.

Bambi is my small ageing campervan, but it is also my oratory, not that I knew what that was before becoming a Lay Benedictine. Vocabulary is just one of the ways in which groups create their own language known only to insiders. We all need to watch that.

Anyway, back to Bambi, the Mobile Chapel of St Scholastica. It is currently unfortunately still under winter wraps. But to have a place to pray was a long held yearning for me. Fortunately, I had my own room when I was growing up and could arrange it to my preference. Searching for places to pray is part of my life long journey, one I very much enjoy as some of the most unexpected places can turn into a oratory, or prayer place.

Hermit’s Ledge, a prayer place in Longdendale.

‘Simply go in’ to that place, you write in chapter 52, whether mobile or not, roofed or roofless. It’s good to have a space that we set aside for worship and the continuance of our relationship with God. I’m pleased to have found some lovely ones here and there. At the moment the ledge on the edge of the valley serves this purpose well, opening up as it does onto the side of the reservoir at the end of the Longdedale Valley. Many moods may be encountered here and once in a while the whole place opens up as a wide reflective mirror. I call that the Mighty Blue.

The Mighty Blue: reflection at Bottoms Reservoir in Longdendale.

It’s an awesome sight and it has been one of my mainstays over this third lockdown. A place of extremes, where great and small things meet in the eye of God. About 400 yards from my house it is a fitting oratory for the days when I am less mobile.May you know such a place.

From my remembered bible: Keep me as the apple of your eye, shelter me with your wings.

God is eye to eye with me.

From a Friend of Scholastica and a Member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.

Holy Ground!

Dear Benedict

Today I went on a walk as usual, a short journey from home and back again. I was not going for or for a long time and I’d be back for lunch. It was as described in chapter 51 of your Rule.

Bob dropped me off at Torrside Crossing on the Transpennine Trail (TPT) and I set off towards home. I’d hardly gone any distance at all when I saw that the very waterlogged ground of the trail on the bridleway side had been churned up by a heavy vehicle. I could hear it up ahead and soon saw it and the path it had taken as it flailed its way along the small trees and bushes that lined the path.

A bit further along and a different vehicle blocked the footpath. The driver soon moved it. I introduced myself and asked about the work. It was part of a large maintenance plan, I was assured. But that in itself left me with many questions. The path has been torn up before, I’m afraid and each time there are promises to reinstate it, which usually just means ‘wait for nature to get back to work’.

I was disturbed by the use of flailing to trim the hedges and trees as I’d heard this were not a good idea. Spring is advancing and timing did not seem great. I walked on a bit further looking for the TPT contact information on my phone. I love this trail and have walked the whole thing coast to coast. I was not expecting to find this happening on my doorstep but it was a pressing matter as you mention in chapter 51 and needed attending to.

Further information from my smartphone confirmed that hedges and trees should not be trimmed or cut between 1st March and 1st September, according to the RSPB website amongst others. I was therefore puzzled as to why this work was going on at this time.

Then I saw the frogspawn. I’ve been searching for it recently and have seen several other patches on the trail. This was not a patch I’d seen before but it was right in the path of the work if the hedge flailing machine carried straight on. It was holy ground.

Now what to do? I fired off several tweets to the TPT. I spoke to a few other walkers coming by. I walked back to the driver and spoke to him about the frogspawn, showing him the place it occupied in the path. He was polite and listened. Are driver’s trained to spot frogspawn I wondered? How would they see it from their vehicle?

Amphibians are amongst the fastest declining groups of wild animals in Britain. Yes, we can make garden ponds, but they already have their own holy ground and return to the same places year after year to breed.

A frog seen on the TPT almost exactly a year ago.

Once I’d returned home, and eaten my delayed lunch, I emailed TPT about the work and restated my questions. My social media has been replete with too many examples of natural destruction this month already. I don’t live near the route of HS2 but the environmental damage that is being done there without any regard for the current inhabitants appals me.

We must learn to reverence the earth, to treat these places as holy ground. I want to share the TPT with other creatures, especially those that hop.

From my remembered bible: God’s voice came from the bush saying ‘You are standing on Holy Ground’.

West African Proverb: Tread gently on the earth.

I’m hopping, Holy One.

From a Friend of Scholastica and a Member of the Lay community of St Benedict.

Time!

Dear Benedict,

I can’t decide if time goes more or less quickly during a Lockdown. It certainly seems odd, nearly one year after the first Lockdown to be seeing the seasons begin to repeat. I make my daily pilgrimage through Longdendale, stopping to admire each breaking bud or gaze at the reflections of the valley. These are my hours, my opus dei.

Snow Moon setting over Longdendale, photo by Bob.

In a community things need some organisation. It helps to have a timetable for community activities, especially the most important ones as you point out in chapter 47 of your Rule. One of the gifts of the COVID year to our Lay Community has been a very full timetable of on line events developed since Easter last year (see website for details).

However, the gyrovague in me is still off up the valley in my ‘What shall we do about Janet’ habit gazing at the moon and admiring the reflections of the valley. My smartphone replaces my rod and staff as essential equipment.

There’s a lot to see here even after a year. Each day reveals some other glory, as the psalmist puts it.

There are no bells in the valley so no one summons me home, only my tired legs and the promise that God will grant a quiet night.

From my remembered bible: The sun announces God’s glory from one end of the day to the other.

Glory to God!

From A Friend of Scholastica and a Member of the Lay community of St Benedict.

Tools for the job!

Dear Benedict,

I wonder if chapter 32 is the shortest in your Rule? In a couple of paragraphs you make clear that Benedictine spirituality extends to all aspects of life and work.

A few years ago I won a dibber in a local raffle. Today it had its annual outing, dibbing in some bulbs for the Spring. I have now put it away again for future dibbing. I am very fond of tulips. Here are some from last Spring.

But I won’t need my dibber again for a while. Much of the stuff I own is like this: seasonal or occasional in some other way. I try to treat them carefully and make appropriate use of them. I sometimes think I have too many things, but that’s another matter. It seems fine to have two of something, like cheese knives for two different kinds of cheese. They don’t take up a lot of room after all. But down sizing remains an issue in our small house and I can’t help thinking we still have too many of some items.

Being responsible about stuff is important. The world is neither an endless source of things or a bottomless waste tip. The inequalities by which some have too much and others nothing continue to exhaust me. As Christmas approaches I resolve not to buy stuff for folks that they don’t need and to spread out some of my resources to those who need more.

Meanwhile, I’ll look after my dibber until next planting time.

From the remembered bible: To everything there is a season… a time to dib and a time to put away your dibber.

Thanks for providing me with the tools for the job.

From a Friend of Scholastica and a Member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.