MAY


MAY... the month of slow rambles around the garden with a cat; puss being necessary to reduce my pace so that I notice the small things usually overlooked. Reaching the apple trees no longer in blossom, I discover the calyx: a five-pointed star, beneath which the seed bearing fruit, as yet no bigger than a pea, is beginning to show.

I think of the many circles and cycles there are in our lives today. I think of people long past for whom the circle was the perfect shape. I think of the Asian mandala - a circular figure as the religious symbol of the universe; of Celtic caim - and encircling prayer made whilst a circle was traced with the finger:                                  

Circle me O God

Keep hope within

Despair without.

Circle me O God

Keep peace within

Turmoil out.

Circle me O God

Keep calm within

Storms without.

Circle me O God

Keep strength within

Keep weakness out.


O LORD, the unfolding of your Word gives light;

Petals opening in the dark.

A flower of light, seen clearly in the dusk of day.

Ephemeral as a fire-fly, or steady as a distant star.

A light of promise, enlightening our dark minds

With a seed of hope,

A seed of contemplation.

Deep in the earth is the mortal combat.

The seed-case splits: Life has triumphed.

So fragile the delicate tendrils,

Yet stronger than death.

Potent with life, powerful to move

The dull inanimate.

Thrusting into your Life, deeply rooted

In the womb-earth.

The first birth.

Introduction Trees in the Garden