Is the soul solid, like iron? Or is it tender and breakable, like the wings of a moth in the beak of the owl? Who has it, and who doesn’t? I keep looking around me. The face of the moose is as sad as the face of Jesus. The swan opens her white wings slowly. In the fall, the black bear carries leaves into the darkness. One question leads to another. Does it have a shape? Like an iceberg? Like the eye of a hummingbird? Does it have one lung, like the snake and the scallop? Why should I have it, and not the anteater who loves her children? Why should I have it, and not the camel? Come to think of it, what about the maple trees? What about the blue iris? What about all the little stones, sitting alone in the moonlight? What about roses, and lemons, and their shining leaves? What about the grass?
‘Some Questions You Might Ask’ by Mary Oliver
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Image: Mute swans (Cygnus olor) and cygnets, Wolvercote Lakes, Oxford, June 2016.
Photo: Charles J Sharp, used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International licence.
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In St Mary’s prayer cycle for June 2020, today we pray for our church community, including those who have joined us recently over the internet.
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Please donate if you can!
In these unprecedented times, St Mary’s is reaching out and supporting our community in many ways, especially online. But with Services in church cancelled, we no longer receive income from collections, nor from hiring out the church and hall buildings.
If you can help us financially to continue to offer Christ's love to our community in these difficult times, as those before us have done down the centuries, please consider making a donation by debit/credit card and to Gift Aid it if possible, by clicking this link to 'givealittle':
Thank you!
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If you would like to contribute to these reflections, please do email Katherine Cox at kvcox-therapy@gmail.com
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To keep up to date with how we continue the life of St Mary’s in these difficult times – including our ‘Icons of the Day’, Fr Jeff’s and Fr Piotr’s pastoral letters and reflections, weekly Zoom services and more – do please ‘like’ our Facebook page @StMarysTwickenham and bookmark our website www.stmarytwick.org.uk
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