#watch #mataara
Tag Archive: waters edge
The wairua moved over the face of the water – it saw plastic, sea life struggling, coral bleaching, sea levels rising in the islands til there is no clean water to drink, no food to eat, and it wept and wept… then, in pools and lakes, glaciers and rivers, raindrops and tears – a reflection of someone determined to fight. #spirit #wairua
Over the past few months I’ve been privileged to host Annique Goldenberg at the Cathedral working in the Living Water project. This project explores our connection as a community to our local water source the Birrarung (River of Mists) aka the Yarra.
Incorporated into the paper are water from the Birrarung, linen from tablecloths that have offered a lot of hospitality, calico from retired altar cloths, pulped paper from service sheets, hymnals and prayer books – it’s beautiful to see those elements honoured together in this new form.
Also as part of the project we were invited to whisper a memory of a river to ours as part of expressing connection and I shared mine from sitting on a rock amongst the stepping stones across the Maribyrnong with the water moving all around me. It was good to remember the stillness and rapids, the hush and the rush, and the feeling that this river lives here, even as I do.
I invite anyone coming through the city to pop in and have a look. There is also a great little photo exhibition in for International Women’s Day celebrating significant Anglican women in the history of Melbourne.
The Maori word for water, wai, can also mean tears or a river or a song. Doesn’t that make so much sense?
And when Mary’s waters break: tears, a river, and a song. #water #wai #adventwords2019
This weekend some friends and I did a hike in Kinglake National Park finishing at Mason Falls. The conversation was as wide ranging as our footsteps, as we were washed by rain and the knowing that the world is beautiful… beautiful.
The gorgeous Dusk Liney of Inspirit Creative recently ran a customised (pretty damn special) contemplative birthday for me down at Pipemakers Park. As she as gifted, so are we all. Please be encouraged to use this for your own reflections on 2017.
Wurundjeri Garden
Mosaic
This mosaic depicts Aboriginal life before European settlers arrived. Find a place around the mosaic to reflect on your own life this year. Create your own Mosaic/picture – using illustrations, colours or words – that reflects how you experienced 2017.
Capture the good, the bad, the ugly. What surprised you? What enlivened you? What challenged you? What were the unexpected gifts?
Fireplace
Before you leave the Wurundjeri Garden, if there is any part of this year that you would like to leave behind, make your way to the fireplace.
Take a piece of paper, put that image, word or feeling down on paper, and burn it.
Early Settlers Garden
Footprints
As you walk to the next station, pause and place your feet on the child’s footprints. Take a moment to be still and be present to your inner child.
Whisper to her what your heart yearns for her to hear.
One sided Table
So much of the year is spent preparing food for others. In this moment, come and sit at the table. Think about the hospitality that you show to others and imagine the ways in which you can show that same beautiful hospitality to yourself.
What would it be like for the Divine to prepare a table for you? What would feed your soul? How can you show that hospitality to your soul this year?
Take a walk over to the apple tree and think of an apple dish that captures that imagining. Write it on a sticker and place it on your clothes.
Pipeworkers Garden
Dry Garden
Take in the fig tree, the succulents and the drought resistant plants. Each of these plants have survived dry, hot, tough conditions. It is actually in this landscape of lacking that they grow.
Sit here and acknowledge the dry places in your life. Think about the qualities that have grown in you within the dry parts of this year. Write them on a post it and stick it to the dry plant captures that quality.
Grapevine Colonnade
Then walk under the pipe colonnade shaded by the grapevines. Allow the coolness and shade to wash over those dry places. As you come to the end, sit with the sun mosaic.
Ask God / the Divine / the Sun to shine on you this year, to shine you with light and warmth. Name the desires of your heart and lay them at the Sun as offering.
Picnic Circle
When you’re ready, come and find a place on the blankets and we’ll gather in a circle to reflect together.
Per my previous post, I delayed longer than I usually might to write this up because I’ve struggled to digest and know how to respond to all I heard… I still don’t really know how to respond I think I need to trust to that unfolding, and in the meantime, for whatever it’s worth, this is some of what was in my head and heart as I left the forum…
I walk away cognisant of all the ways I get to walk away… the river waters’ shimmer seems more beautiful, the air more sweet, the clouds and sky more open – I see and see again the freedom that I have like a fish coming to awareness of water and knowing it for what sustains me. If freedom is like oxygen then we are suffocating these people.
We know. Australians know. The nurses know. The guards know. The psychiatrists know. The teachers know. The politicians know. The High Court knows. The UN knows… and the asylum seekers ask: how can they know but nothing has changed?
risky journey in the deep water
carried lots of dream seeds with me
but now, dream seeds I have none
replaced my name with a number
please, please, call my name
risky journey in the deep water
save their life in the deep water
but killing them on arid land
replaced my name with a number
please, please, call my name
risky journey in the deep water
call us we are your neighbours
call us we are your friends
please, call us by our names
don’t want to leave our country
if we can but live free
please, call us by our names
“What can I do?” asks the nurse
“What can I do?” asks the doctor
“What can I do?” asks the teacher
First do no harm.
“What can I do second?” asks the nurse
“What can I do second?” asks the doctor
“What can I do second?” asks the teacher
Take a second.
What agency, what power, what strength do you have?
Use it.
Talitha Fraser
What can I do?
petition ~ direct contact ~ Refugee Action Collective ~ advocacy ~ financial support ~ actions – personal/political/liturgical ~ letter(s) to politicians ~ song ~
existing campaigns e.g. GetUp or LMAW ~ use your forums and voice e.g. blog
I pick up the leaf
and I say to the leaf
be my compass.
I can see you,
hold and touch you,
you leaf are real.
Will you show me?
Will you tell me how?
Please share the secret
of your being.
Talitha Fraser
itellyouarise 