Saturday 19th October 24

Brief Thoughts Inspired by the Tombs of Philip II (Father to Alexander the Great), Tomb of Alex IV (Son of Alexander the Great) – 19th Sept
Sparkly gold as if fashioned yesterday, like Christmas decorations made for the nativity. It lasts millennia, untarnished, like God’s love, his beauty exploding with truth. A room filled with a life but there is no breath only memories, a funeral pyre sieved for its treasure.

The Monasteries – 20th September

Men and women, (monks and nuns), perched atop the strangest rocks, standing aloof, praying apart. And yet there is such thirst for the beauty and surety of the Lord, we queue up and down the steps. Plaster icons dripping the story of God. From the ceiling to the floor. Your story, stylised, painted in silver and gold, and yet flowing with the sense/feeling of your presence.

We cannot know the power of these high placed rookeries. Where folk come to marvel and leave perhaps a little changed.

A Coach Trip Through the Mountains – 20th September
Rocks leaning and lowering over a road that twists and turns like a flailing snake, climbing and driving through the earth mined for its heart, leaving scars livid and bare. Olive trees, like velvet reaching to the sea. From below their trunks circled with age. New branches growing from the outer edges. Where you would come, to the fringes, to the margins, where there are questions and muddle and unhealed brokenness. Like an olive tree, we flourish and grow from the old wood. Age twisted and pruned.