In the Church of England, ordinations take place at Petertide in the summer months, and I've attended some recent anniversaries of the ordinations of the very first women to be priests. It brings it all back, the struggle first to be ordained at all and then over many years to be accepted ... and then one Sunday in church recently this was the reading from Isaiah 6. This is always read at ordinations, and I was chosen to read it in Carlisle Cathedral at my own, so it has always had special resonance for me.
In the days before that Sunday I was working on this page, not knowing where it was going (as is so often the case). Over a painted background I was putting down collage, in the case of the pieces top left and right they were pieces colour copied from older journals. Its good to recycle!
I have been trying to get away from my default position of simply putting a frame around a page, so this was what resulted from those efforts. Then the page got "stuck", both through the intrusion of Real Life and just not knowing what it was meant to say.
Then after I'd heard that Sunday reading I came home and wrote these words on the page - something responded to so many years ago ... and yet also particularly relevant right now when a new sense of calling prompts us to be moving on when we'd imagined ourselves settled here to the end of our days!
So it was important to be reminded that, retired or not, in sickness and in health, and at (nearly) 65, God's unexpected beckoning finger can still call you into change and new experiences. We're ready to go once we have a completion date for the new property, and in the meantime very busy organising the 90th birthday celebrations for my darling mum in law, and helping a very dear friend make the difficult transition from independent living into a care home.
Lots to keep me busy and make me extra tired, so forgive me if in the coming weeks I am more absent than present here. By the Autumn we hope to be well settled in our new home and life, and back to blogging more than occasionally!
Rosie
3 comments:
And what a living embodiment of those verses you are, Rosie - ready to respond and change your planned future ... Hoping the move goes smoothly (and they are stressful things by nature!) and that you stay well throughout all the ups and downs. Your page is, as ever, lovely to the eye; and I hope that those rich tapestry-like patterns around your figure herald the fabric of your new life ahead.
Thank you for your pages, they really inspire me especially at the moment as I just got out of hospital and am now on crutches when I was fine 2 weeks ago. n impinged nerve has turned my life upside down and I have a much more uncertain future. Thank you for the inspiration in your life and your art. Thank you
Hello, Rosie! I was on Pinterest, looking for art journal ideas for the creative writing class I teach at a high school in Texas, and I discovered your blog. Your work is a delightful reflection of the kind and giving disciple of Christ you are.
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