11th December 2019

Christmas cards are written- oh miracle of miracles! I don't do many but it's always the most gruelling Christmas task, which it shouldn't be because it's a lovely excuse for a sit down.

Today's Northumbria Community meditation is another favourite, and perfect for this Advent season of spiritual preparation;

Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart,
and try to love the questions themselves
as if they were locked rooms
or books written in a very foreign language.

Do not search for the answers, which could not be given to you now,
because you would not be able to live them.
And the point is to live everything.
Live the questions now.
Perhaps then, someday far in the future,
you will gradually,
without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.

Rainer Maria Rilke

At this time of year it can feel like normal life is on hold, we push certain things away and that can include our need for answers, depending upon what's going on in our lives. The meditation reminds us that answers can come not necessarily from our own searching but from the gradual passage of time; simply living our lives in the present can lead to a slowly unfurling answer to those unresolved things.