Two days ago my beloved wife and lover died suddenly. She was 84 years of age and had lived a full and significant life but I still found it a shattering experience and I am still trying to come to grips with it – as are many others. The cards and the letters are pouringRead more
Journalling
The worship yesterday was everything anyone could have asked for – and it almost didn’t happen! It was Pentecost and the congregation was scheduled to join with the other Churches in worship. The Council, however, decided that in the light of Marg’s death, we should meet as usual. And I am so glad we did.Read more
Yesterday I found myself saying aloud “O Maggie, my love! What am I going to do without you?” I don’t think I have ever valued “journalling” more than I do now. Journaling seeks to deepen life as we live it, to clarify the significance of life, to let it all hang out and express toRead more
In one way it was so quick. One moment my beloved Margaret was alive, the next she was unconscious, and within twenty four hours she had died. In another way it was one of the longest days I have ever endured. On the night she died, family and friends kept what could only be describedRead more
I had a phone call this morning from Rob who had heard of Marg’s death from Kathy. Rob is a great guy who was a fellow protester in the Gulf War in the nineties. He is an authority on non-violence and was bankrupted when he refused to pay the proportion of his tax spent onRead more
I received an email this morning that resulted in reciprocating tears. Sharon is a Church of the Saviour associate with whom we stayed when we first went to the States fifty four years ago. We have been friends ever since, and hers was the first face that greeted us whenever we visited Washington DC. SharonRead more
Seven weeks since my beloved Maggie died and she still is central in my morning meditation. Simone Weil got it right when she defined prayer as “Attention taken to its highest degree”. What a tragedy that many still see it as making a request of a guy in the sky to pull some levers. TheRead more
It is now six weeks since Margie died and the “shock” of it has now diminished. The full realization of “life without Maggie” has now become what might be described as an “existential fact”. It’s hard to describe the feeling. It certainly isn’t “depression”. That is not one of the things with which I haveRead more
It is almost two months since Maggie died! I find that almost unbelievable. It really does feel like yesterday – so important and crucial was the event. Life, however, goes on. Indeed it is one of the few things of which one can be certain. Descartes with his “I think therefore I am” was onlyRead more
Terry, a practicing Catholic, took our service yesterday and commenced it in a striking way. “He had heard,” he said, “that we had suffered quite a few deaths recently and he wanted to remind us of Bonhoeffer’s great words”. “There is nothing that can replace the absence of someone dear to us, and one shouldRead more
