12 of 12, December 2009

This was a very interesting day, which might be viewed as going from the sublime to the ridiculous. John and Anne had invited me to a Quaker day of silent reflection. It began shortly after 10, with an introduction, and then our time was spent in contemplative silence. I am not good at making time for meditative kinds of things; it’s too easy to get caught up in the rush of doing the myriad items that get added to “To do” lists. So, it was kind of hard but good to stop and reflect on things that matter personally; things that often get relegated to being small things in our lives but which are or should be significant (in fact, it was beneficial just to spend time deciding what those things are). At lunchtime, where the meal was also taken in silence, I went out into the garden, and because I still wanted to capture some photos to represent my day, I looked for small things that interested me. These are in the 12 of 12 collection (link below). During the morning and the afternoon, I read some scriptures (both Book of Mormon and the Bible), mostly focusing on Christmas and Easter kinds of things, plus I also read a bit about what Quakers believe and do, together with reading a few of the letters of Simone Weil (a philosopher who seemed to be searching for God (the session facilitator had brought along a rather eclectic collection of things that she thought people might want to read)).

It was interesting to end this event, to start talking again, and to get back to mundanities (new word!). It was an unusual experience, but one I appreciated having.

Shortly after 4pm, the three of us were heading north and east towards Cambridgeshire. Not far from Ely we stopped at The Anchor pub (another of Anne and John’s Great Places to Eat in the Middles of Various Nowheres!) for an excellent meal, and we eventually arrived at our Ely bed and breakfast around 9pm. With the night being relatively clear, I thought I might head out to the famous cathedral to try to get some night photos (one of which is above right) … and of course I had my GPSr with me, so I picked up a couple of caches as well (why not? says I).

Further details and a set of 12 photos can be found here.