Violets

Dear friends,

I now have wonderful Inner Wellies cards to give or send to people with the poem on the front so they can be kept as a memento as well as giving details of the book on the back.  If you would like one, let me know on ‘Contact Jane’.  Thank you to all those who have bought the book.  If you haven’t, you can read the intro and a few pages on the PDF file if you use this link: http://shop.christianeducation.org.uk/9781905893355 .  It’s also the link if you want to buy one (Inner Wellies: Creative Space for Soul Searchers, £7.99 inc. p&p). 

I feel much better than I did last time I posted – spring has really come, and I’ve had a holiday!  The first two pieces on my website http://www.janeupchurch.co.uk/ were written a couple of weeks ago, and already things have changed.  Spring is like a conversation with each flowering plant or tree a word that opens in turn, one after the other, building into the full sentence.  The daffodils are gone now but there are pale pink and lemon white tulips.  The white pear blossom has finished but the apple blossom has opened and turned from deep to pale pink.  And scattered throughout my whole garden are violets.

VIOLETS

The sun shines, I come.  I sit in the gentle air, in the waiting warmth, in the bowl of blue and am welcomed into spring.  Spring, and holiday.  It is still and timeless like memories of summer.  The birdsong is all encompassing, no longer in the background it fills centre stage with murmuring, cooing, and sharp, sweet trilling.  The trees are opening their arms to the sun and you can sense the surge in them as buds are fed ready to burst with green.  They are swelling from the grey bark like remembered dreams, ready but not rushing. 

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

My other piece on Words of Keeping looks at the importance of holidays, of time apart, to nurture love and to notice some of our little ways that need fixing. 

LOVE CAN HANDLE THEM

I’m in my garden in the spring sun, warm in the cool air like Irish coffee.  There are bees humming in the mahonia flowers that spill their perfume in eruptions of yellow.  Some tulips are tasting the cool air like morning tea, proper and erect; others have no discretion and have peeled back their petals to reveal all.

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

The last piece is a poem from Word Live comparing Jesus as the bread of life with the manna in the wilderness.

JESUS, THE BREAD OF LIFE

Because I believe,
you are my bread.
You are my food,
my diet of heaven.

To read the rest go to http://www.janeupchurch.co.uk/view/word-live

Thank you for all the support and positive feedback I get.  If you want to email me use ‘Contact Jane’ as you can’t reply to this newsletter.  And do post comments on the website.

Love Jane