The stones will cry out

A response to Mike and Julie's Forest Church session on "The Stones will cry out". This was written on the slopes of Ashley Walk where the New Forest's sands and gravels preserve the ancient coasts and rivers from a time long gone. Carved into those vast accumulations of sediments from a warmer clime, the long, low valley slopes are remnants from the Tundra cold, the summer melt of permafrost sliding sheets of slushy gravel into seasonal meltwater streams. The stones remember it all.

 

Stone flowers

 

In another frame of time

Where centuries are but a blinking of an eye

These landscapes wrinkle, curve

Grow deeper valleys 

And more elongated streams.

 

The stones awake from million-year long sleeps,

They chatter, flow, grow round or shatter with

The energies of water and

The agencies of ice.

 

Some are buried deep again

Until the epochs change and landscapes rearrange.

Others bleed their substance to the soil and by the toil 

Of human hands coax food

from lands.

 

And we, imbued,

By essence of the stone, grow bone

And feather it with flesh.

 

The body we conceive as ours

Is but the bud and bloom 

Of stone-grown flowers.

 

 

 

Alistair McNaught April 2022

 

 Strength from weakness

January Forest Church 2020

The theme for this session was "Exploring winter's beauty and strength with twigs and branches".

Winter seems to be a barren season for a tree. We too have barren seasons. We started with a short reflection Alistair had written for the session:

 

Twig and Leaf

It's getting darker; colder.

The days grow short.

You struggle 

to photosynthesise,

struggle to be fruitful.

You are weary from insects,

ragged from storms.

You have one job to do,

one thing you are good at

and been faithful to pursue.

But now,

unfathomable changes far beyond you

undermine you.

So you surrender.

One by one you drop the leaves,

proud leaves, once beautiful,

marvellous leaves creating sugar

from the alchemy

of light and air.

But that time has long since gone

and so

you let it go.

Now you are naked, exposed, unfruitful.

Birds that once nested

in the shelter of your boughs

won't even roost

in the bleakness

of your nakedness.

You who have given so much for so long

have nothing left to give.

But you are twig,

connected into branch and bough

and trunk and root and tree.

Slow as the creeping winter stars,

sap stirs and nutrients from another world,

from deeper places than you know

seep into cells.

Buds swell,

bark strains.

The slow growth miracle 

begins again.  

 

Types of winter twigs and buds

David Chappell  had kindly brought a selection of twigs illustrating the way twigs and buds arrange - opposite, alternate and - like the oak - spiral. He also had examples of winterflowering twigs and a range of dogwoods whose colours brighten winter hedgerows even when leaves and flowers are absent.

 

The activity

 The options included 

• walking around the garden at Fairwinds simply spending time noticing twigs and buds close up, a luxury we rarely afford ourselves,
• collecting twigs and weaving the thin flimsy structures into strong and flexible mats,
• touching and handling twigs from the large twig based mammal shelter by the compost heaps.

As the darkness came down there was something beautiful about hearing the murmer of voices in the garden against the background call of the rooks and the evening song of the blackbirds. We had benches arranged around the firebasket and many people shared their thoughts and experiences from the session. I loved listening to people speaking by firelight, recounting the different things they'd taken from their time of reflection. 

 

 

 

We ended up with refreshments and Terry's delicious baking (Tahini blondies and Chocolate brownies) on the decking / conservatory - all doors and windows open to minimise Covid! The younger people among us divided their attention between the cakes, the treehouse and the trampoline!

 

Really looking forward to the last of the Fairwinds-based winter sessions which Diana will be leading. More details to follow!

 

Alistair