Stones
He asked me why we now had a bowl full of stones on the table in the Meeting Room.
And I found it very hard to explain- and found myself blathering.
The one thing I couldn't bring myself to say was the truth- that the idea came not as a thought but as an inspiration.
Circumstances conspired, I made connections, I asked a Friend who does wood-turning to make the bowl, I collected the stones off the beach. I didn't really "think" about any of it.
But I didn't want to spell this out because it would have seemed like I was giving myself airs.
(Damn, I'm too retiring!)
So I made up some reasons for him. Stones connect us with the earth, They're incredibly ancient. Handling one is like using prayer beads. But these are all rationalisations, afterthoughts and, to be honest- none of them are particularly Quakerly. I don't know if I convinced him because I wasn't convincing myself.
"Ah," he said, "I thought there might be some deep spiritual reason...."
And I said, "These are spiritual reasons."
But the deep spiritual thing is something you either see or you don't, either feel or you don't. As the poet said, "Had I been able to express myself in another way, I would have done so."
I'm rather given to doing things like this on the spur of the moment. Thus far I've got away with it, but the stones may prove to be a bit too much for the Meeting to handle. We'll see. Still, they're portable; if people don't want them on the table (which people are inclined to think of as an altar- though Quakers supposedly have no truck with altars) I can move them elsewhere.
One thing I wish I'd said to him- because it sounds so deep- is "stones are the bones of our Mother..."
And I found it very hard to explain- and found myself blathering.
The one thing I couldn't bring myself to say was the truth- that the idea came not as a thought but as an inspiration.
Circumstances conspired, I made connections, I asked a Friend who does wood-turning to make the bowl, I collected the stones off the beach. I didn't really "think" about any of it.
But I didn't want to spell this out because it would have seemed like I was giving myself airs.
(Damn, I'm too retiring!)
So I made up some reasons for him. Stones connect us with the earth, They're incredibly ancient. Handling one is like using prayer beads. But these are all rationalisations, afterthoughts and, to be honest- none of them are particularly Quakerly. I don't know if I convinced him because I wasn't convincing myself.
"Ah," he said, "I thought there might be some deep spiritual reason...."
And I said, "These are spiritual reasons."
But the deep spiritual thing is something you either see or you don't, either feel or you don't. As the poet said, "Had I been able to express myself in another way, I would have done so."
I'm rather given to doing things like this on the spur of the moment. Thus far I've got away with it, but the stones may prove to be a bit too much for the Meeting to handle. We'll see. Still, they're portable; if people don't want them on the table (which people are inclined to think of as an altar- though Quakers supposedly have no truck with altars) I can move them elsewhere.
One thing I wish I'd said to him- because it sounds so deep- is "stones are the bones of our Mother..."