My friend Cloister recently spent a few days in Yorkshire, where she was blessed with seven rainbows, or as she called them, seven rays of hope. I can understand her delight, as I recall how I felt during my retreat in September, when I saw two rainbows within an hour of each other (or maybe three - the second one had the faint shades of another rainbow above it). God's eternal covenant, and promise of new life, twice within an hour on the first day of my retreat - that was something special!
The second rainbow began (or ended?) in a field only about 100 yards from my hermitage. I felt as though I could run down there, stretch out my hand and touch the translucence shimmering its way into the ground. But of course, the mystery and fascination of rainbows is that we can never see where they begin or end; we simply see them floating above us, arching into the sky, somehow, somewhere, linking heaven and earth. And so, although I could see this rainbow's end (or beginning?) so clearly, right in front of those trees, I couldn't capture it on camera; that has remained its elusive secret - though one I was briefly privileged to share.
I thought of this rainbow as I read a blogpost the other day about "thin places", those meeting points between heaven and earth, which also contain so much of the wonder of our current feasts of All Saints and All Souls. Therein lie "thin places" in abundance...
The early Celts had an affinity for the spirit world. Gifted with imagination, they found the threshold between this and the unseen world easy to cross. They used to say that heaven and earth are only three feet apart, and that in the thin places the distance is even smaller! The term ‘thin places’ can put words on our own experiences of being drawn beyond ourselves into awesome yet kindly Mystery... (you can read the rest of it here)
This is also, remarkably, my 200th blogpost! How lovely that this milestone should be celebrated with an abundance of rainbows! And thank you to all those who have been part of the journey thus far, providing their own colours and entry points into God's awesome yet kindly mystery...
The second rainbow began (or ended?) in a field only about 100 yards from my hermitage. I felt as though I could run down there, stretch out my hand and touch the translucence shimmering its way into the ground. But of course, the mystery and fascination of rainbows is that we can never see where they begin or end; we simply see them floating above us, arching into the sky, somehow, somewhere, linking heaven and earth. And so, although I could see this rainbow's end (or beginning?) so clearly, right in front of those trees, I couldn't capture it on camera; that has remained its elusive secret - though one I was briefly privileged to share. I thought of this rainbow as I read a blogpost the other day about "thin places", those meeting points between heaven and earth, which also contain so much of the wonder of our current feasts of All Saints and All Souls. Therein lie "thin places" in abundance...
The early Celts had an affinity for the spirit world. Gifted with imagination, they found the threshold between this and the unseen world easy to cross. They used to say that heaven and earth are only three feet apart, and that in the thin places the distance is even smaller! The term ‘thin places’ can put words on our own experiences of being drawn beyond ourselves into awesome yet kindly Mystery... (you can read the rest of it here)
This is also, remarkably, my 200th blogpost! How lovely that this milestone should be celebrated with an abundance of rainbows! And thank you to all those who have been part of the journey thus far, providing their own colours and entry points into God's awesome yet kindly mystery...
Happy bloggiversary, Silvana! May you have many rainbows to share in the next 200 posts
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