Dear Benedict<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even after 3 days\nit\u2019s a challenge to write to you again! Developing positive habits\nisn\u2019t easy for a 21st century woman. Much easier to turn over in\nbed again, look at my social media or eat chocolate, so it\u2019s good\nto be reminded to \u2018Stir yourself\u2019. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve known\ncommunities of people that didn\u2019t seem able to stir themselves.\nPassionate about nothing, unengaged, going through the motions of\nworship and service, I found them draining me too. It didn\u2019t seem\nto matter how much of my own passion and enthusiasm for the gospel I\npoured into such situations, it all just soaked through the cracks\nand disappeared. The realisation that I was gradually becoming more\nangry in such contexts was eventually enough to enable me to walk\naway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And try again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I remember having\ndepression about 20 years ago and how I struggled to stir myself. A\nthin grey blanket shrouded me and the workings of my mind and body\nwere gradually replaced by woolly stuffing. I struggled to connect\nwith my family and friends and with the world around me. I shut\nmyself away in our small house and hoped it would go away. That there\nwas, one evening a turning point, amazes me still. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was sunset. The\nsun had gone down behind the ridge line of the hill and the dark\nnight curtain was creeping across the land, much as the darkness\nseemed to have crept over me. But the sun had not entirely gone.\nThere was a line of yellow, orange and purple reaching up from where\nthe sun had been. The vivid colours arrested me. I could only gawp at\nthem. And then I got some pastel crayons and paper and swept those\ncolours over it, rubbed them with my fingers and let the amazement\ngrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After that, I did it\nagain and again. More colours, more paper and ever so gradually the\nlight came back. I had stirred myself in response to something that\nhad stirred me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In these COVID times\noften think of Julian or Norwich, agreeing to become an anchorite in\na small church in East Anglia in the 14th century. After all of\nEurope had been decimated by the Black Death, and possibly her whole\nfamily had died, she took a vow to remain sequestered for the rest of\nher life. I know that you don\u2019t promote the solitary life in your\nRule (maybe it never worked out for you, maybe you were just called\nto a different project) but she has often inspired me, as the first\nrecorded woman to write a book in English. I think of her in her cell\nand what it might have meant to stir herself as she went about her\nday in such a small space. Probably she had the hours of prayer and\nworship to give her day some structure and she had people who called\nto speak with her. Maybe she had a cat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m not a cat\nperson but I don\u2019t begrudge one to Julian. And she probably had a\ncandle. So there she was alone with cat and candle and thoughts. As\nthe darkness came on, maybe it would be time to stir herself and\nlight the candle, or stroke the cat. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A proverb: It\u2019s\nbetter to light a candle than curse the darkness (the origins of this\nproverb are uncertain).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From the Gospel: The\nlight shines in the darkness and the darkness has never extinguished\nit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stir me.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n From a Friend of\nScholastica and a Member of the Lay Community of St Benedict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Benedict Even after 3 days it\u2019s a challenge to write to you again! Developing positive habits isn\u2019t easy for a 21st century woman. Much easier to turn over in bed again, look at my social media or eat chocolate, so it\u2019s good to be reminded to \u2018Stir yourself\u2019. I\u2019ve known communities of people that … Continue reading “To Benedict (3)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,24,28,35,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-covid19","category-dark","category-mental-health","category-rule","category-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions\/195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foowr.org.uk\/notesfrombambi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}