Spilled sweets

Dear friends,

We are just into June and have had our first taste of sun that can burn as well as sooth our tired skin and crumpled spirits, and I have a sea of pale blue Love in the Mist round my front door.  But the pieces I am sharing on my website today http://www.janeupchurch.co.uk/ were written a couple of weeks previously when the sun was soft and the rain was fresh. 

The first is a sabbath story of taking time to linger.  Sabbaths don’t work when they are legalistic deniers of busyness, but filling them with the pressure of leisure loses the balm of resting and awareness.  This isn’t about Sundays, just about taking time to feel the magic around us.

The way of lingering

Ooh, magic, magic.  The garden is full of soft sunshine and dappled shadows, the scent of blossom, the hum of bees and the song of birds.  It is a gentle, beguiling world softened by the play of shadows which still hold a slight moisture from their night’s sleep.  The leaves of the birch tree shimmer in a dance with a quiet rustling as the breeze lifts them, then lets them go.

To read the rest go to http://www.janeupchurch.co.uk/view/words

I had a wonderful party and birthday.  I felt like a kid, spoilt with lots of friends and presents and fun, and I am still living off the high.  This is a piece I wrote on the day of my party.

Spilled sweets

It has rained through the night and now the garden is fresh and wet, full of the scent of it.  Any breeze causes another shower to fall as the trees loosen their stored drops.  They look as fresh as someone after a shower, exuding clean, wet happiness.  The hosta leaves are holding the bigger treasures, round jewels you can see through.  The garden is full of sound as birds and insects celebrate, and you can sense the smell of watered soil underpinning all. 

To read the rest go to http://www.janeupchurch.co.uk/view/words

I have been so enjoying writing my prose pieces, my ‘words of keeping’, over this last year that I have hardly written a poem save those for Word Live.  But this week I have, inspired by the way the families we live with create an environment that forms who we are. 

I live on the shoreline of my family

I live
on the shoreline of my family,
wading in the waters that keep
our lives breaking against each other,
the noise of the waves
a thrum that thaws each thought
without notice.

To read the rest go to http://www.janeupchurch.co.uk/view/poems

Thank you to those who have replied to my earlier newsletters or pieces posted.  To contact me click on ‘Contact Jane’ on the website or email jane@janeupchurch.co.uk .  (Don’t try to reply to this email.)

Enjoy your June!

Love Jane