Happy New Year

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More Light …

At midnight the wind was biting and the Lakeland sky black. Then there arose within a murmuring assembly an inner warmth and childlike delight in darkness illuminated by moments, flares, sparks of light, loudly announcing their presence. Until the wind blew over each, ‘and it was gone.’

May all of life beneath the wide firmament be vivified in 2026 by such a warmth, such delight, and innumerable moments of clarifying light. Moments both come and go, ever so fleetingly – and it’s in their very transience that each of us grows.

May we gently use the gift of words, then – in every language under the sun – to tell of such moments, and to learn from, and re-member them. May we humans become ever more the poets, the co-creators, of well-lived lives, for all life …

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Light

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Light …

What is it – in and about a child – that brings light and love into the very air around us?

May such a light, and such a love, and a consequent peace prevail – wherever you may be upon earth, and from wheresoever you became light

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The meaning of life?

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Enjoying the passage of time

@morimindset

Asked about ‘the meaning of life,’ Jimmy Carr responded with a five word answer: ‘Enjoying the passage of time.’

Now, in ‘the in-between times,’ the liminal spaces in my days and nights, I’m asking myself ‘what have I been enjoying; what am I enjoying; and what do I hope to enjoy?’

This concentrates my mind. On thankfulness.

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Mid afternoon

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Wrap up well!

For a decade or more, in common with many, my chest has protested the arrival of winter’s cold. The rest of me protests that, cold notwithstanding, a decent walk is still a good idea. So I wrapped up well!

Home now, mug of steaming hot chocolate in hand, I review the quickly snapped photos of my ambling – and thankfulness wells up within me. This life, this world, this love, this Edinburgh – are amazing! And I remember a line from a hymn learned in primary school

He gave us eyes to see them, and lips that we might tell …

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Lights

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An evening in quiet candlelight tonight, mindful of ‘the saints’ – and of the sadnesses and gladnesses, the needs and the delights of humankind the world over.

And – having visited Gdańsk, Gdynia and Kraków in the past twelve months – a part of my heart is with friends in Poland tonight as I think of them celebrating All Saints-tide. Warm remembrance for them – the thousands of lighted candles in their burial places bringing to mind not so much death as life – the continuing lives of those who live on in the hearts of humankind here in this temporal world.

How grateful I am for my daily sense of our global connectedness. How mindful I am of our need to sit quietly sometimes to bring to mind and heart the gentle light that is at the core of every human presence, albeit sometimes well hidden.

Am I too pre-occupied to light a candle, with my iPad in my lap? Shall I be distracted? Or maybe take a nap? Ah, but I recall the last time a single candle stilled my mind: so, yes, I’ll light one, and sit with it and all the saints – connected, all of us, with a global humankind

Sometimes a gentle light surprises in the quiet of the night.

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Rounding out the morning

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Eagle Poem

To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can’t see, can’t hear;
Can’t know except in moments
Steadily growing, and in languages
That aren’t always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty.

Joy Harjo

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Awe

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I read this morning @genuinely.healthy that

Neuroscience shows awe slows down your perception of time. When you witness something vast – stars, mountains, or oceans – your brain expands the moment, stretching seconds into memory. That’s why awe makes life feel longer, richer, and more meaningful. It literally bends how you experience existence

I concur. Here in the wide green spaces of Holyrood, beneath a volcano that last erupted more than 40 million years ago, I know daily experience of awe. It calls out my soul to encounter the very Universe in which I am placed, the love that sustains me, and the greatness of the gift of life in me and in all things. Yes: awe expands my perception of time, and of love.

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(There’s a Piper in the doorway of St Anthony’s Chapel here, and the haunting melody of his music is echoing around Holyrood Park)

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Heck, it’s hot!

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flower clock

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200 years of braille
steamy hot city centre
only the shadows are cool
sheltering under the trees
city siesta
cool churches, like St John’s, welcomed
St Cuthbert’s basks in sunlight
Victoria Street 🎶 .. don’t stop me now …
thousands on the Royal Mile – with sea view 😅

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Early …

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Early … and oh, so calm and quiet – my soul, and the loch.

I’ve been watching a heron for a quarter hour or more. And I think he / she has been watching me.

And then on towards mid-morning. Hot, dry and very out of puff after the climb up to St Anthony’s Chapel but, all year round, the view is always worth it. And above the sound of my heart’s pounding I hear ‘rest awhile’ – and I do. Then it’s time to wend my way down towards breakfast …

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Atop Salisbury Crags

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It has been a hot and sticky day in Edinburgh – but the humidity made for some beautiful misty views across the Firth of Forth to Fife this morning – and a modest degree of satisfaction about having hiked up to the top of Salisbury Crags – a healthy contribution to today’s 17,500 steps …

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Holyrood Snapshots

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Mixed weather, changing by the minute, makes Holyrood an exceptionally photogenic place. Morning and evening walks, often along the same route, showcase the dynamics of the area. Here ancient and modern meet, and it’s said that time spent alongside any body of water is good for us. I have a favoured bench beside St Margaret’s Loch in the shadow of the ruins of St Anthony’s Chapel. There I wonder sometimes whether a stranger might be able to tell how much I love this city and its marvellous mix of cityscape, countryside, seascape and skyscape all in one?

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