LETTUCE

"Let there be Dark for us to contemplate"

Anne and I went to the excellent Offa House, at Offchurch, near Leamington Spa for an Advent retreat. Nicola Slee led it. Nicola is a poet and theologian and author of "Praying Like a Woman" (2004) ISBN: 0281055998

The title of the retreat came from a poem by another woman. Basically the themes were like my meditation last week. How can we find the darkness of God in which his gentle light shines. This may mean moving quietly away from a focus on our own strength, our own theology, our own prayers, our own activity and into the kind of unknowing that is meantioned in the authors of the classic Christian texts on cotemplative prayer. John of the Cross, the author of "The Cloud of Unkowing", Therese, Teresa, Mother Julian, and so on.

Anne created a wreath of seasons, and I made a dark sun in gouache. We also took the risk of writing a poem where each of us wrote a line. It may well not be a classic but we enjoyed doing it.

The weekend was liberating for us both. I did not have to achieve anything or learn anything and Anne was able to do a different thing and just enjoy it, to stand out from the crowd and feel OK.

posted by Colin Darling @ 6:30 AM