'Do you have time to linger?'
A planned retreat at Hilfield Friary had to be cancelled, but resourceful members of our Diocese found a way around that, by making a short film instead.
Watch the clip here.
Mainly led by the Revds Hilary Bond and Jonathan Herbert, a reading of 'Invitation' by Mary Oliver in a meadow starts with the words:
"Oh do you have time
to linger
for just a little while
out of your busy
and very important day"?
A meditation in a vegetable garden about working with Creation includes footage of dewy leaves and overflowing handfuls of large blackcurrants. This is followed by thoughts on the abundance of God's gifts to us, with stinging nettles proving surprisingly useful for butterflies - and for us.
A segment filmed in a courtyard muses on how much life there can be, simply on and in between paving slabs: flowers, ants, moss, lichen.
"A stupendous amount of life!" says Jonathan Herbert:
"Life coming out of the cracks - life coming out of brokenness too. Somehow the seed gets in there, and new life comes."
Thoughts on the inherent goodness in nature are accompanied by wild flowers, global warming with recently-charred woodlands, and the surprising news of conker trees being endangered features Hilary Bond sitting under a young horse chestnut tree, saying:
"I might one day have to explain conkers and conker trees to my grandchildren, because they don't exist any more."
This online retreat is equal parts Christian meditation, video diary and call to action.
Watch the full 14-minute short here.
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