We are half way through the ‘Sanctuary’ poetry collection now, and we hope you have been enjoying the poems shared so far.
‘The First Lesser Heaven’ brings a reprieve to the emotional weight of the previous poem, and a checkpoint for the whole collection. It invites us to slow down, take a moment to bask in the present moment and find sanctuary for ourselves right where we are.
Here are some words from The Poet on this poem:
“If this collection can be seen as both an invitation to experience the spacious welcoming of One Church as well as an offer to find sanctuary in God through our personal journey of faith, ‘The First Lesser Heaven’ acts as a peak of a hill that is our ever-undulating walk with God.
“It was directly inspired by the Easter Sunday morning where some of One Church’s members met at the beach early and over hot crossed buns and coffee, we were given the opportunity to be still and present in the moment with our thoughts, our minds and with our sights on God. After reading the poem “Easter Dawn” by Malcolm Guite together, everyone was encouraged to take 5-10 minutes to walk along the beach on their own and consider the poem, the meaning, the morning air, the arrival of Easter Sunday, and to be completely present in the moment.
“It was quite cold that morning, breeze and the sky a light grey. I walked towards the sea with, admittedly, a heavy heart. It was as if I was carrying the weight of the previous poem into that morning. But as I stood there, breathed deeply, and listened to the ocean gently crashing, I slowly felt the weight in my chest and the burden I had brought to the beach slip away. That was a sanctuary for me. A 5-minute piece of Heaven’s gentle quiet on Earth brought forth on the waves, an experience we rarely seem to have time to find with how busy our lives are becoming.
“So, with ‘The First Lesser Heaven’, I invite you to feel the same. In being still, being present, in taking a moment to breathe, in allowing yourself just 5 minutes to let all the worries be washes away with the tide of your breath, I hope you too can find a moment to be in God’s presence and feel God’s cradling, comforting peace, wherever you are.”
Do you have a special place where you always feel able to forget about all of the burdens and worries of life, and simply be?