Dear Friends,
I hope the week has been a good one for you – if it hasn’t I hope you have found the strength you needed to meet the more difficult bits of it.
Our attachments are a bit of a hotchpot today. The one I’d like to draw your attention to in particular is ‘Bamboo’ – an Indian legend. It seems to me to have meaning on several different levels – so many parallels to so much of our Christian story. We hope you will reflect on it – we would be interested to hear what meaning it has for you.
For our blessing this week we have a Gaelic one, Libera’s ‘Deep Peace’. We certainly wish you & your family that ‘Deep Peace’.
With our love & prayer
Bamboo: an Indian Legend
Once upon a time there was a beautiful garden. Of all the dwellers of the garden, the most beautiful and beloved was a gracious and noble Bamboo. Year after year, Bamboo grew more beautiful and gracious. Often when the Wind came to revel in the garden, Bamboo would toss aside his dignity. He would dance and sway merrily, tossing and leaping and bowing with joyous abandon. He would lead the great dance of the garden, which delighted his master’s heart.
One day the master himself drew near. Bamboo bowed his head to the ground in joyful greeting. The master spoke: ‘Bamboo, I would use you’. Bamboo flung his head to the sky in utter delight. ‘Master, I am ready, use me as you want’. ‘Bamboo’, the Master’s voice was grave, ‘I would be obliged to take you and cut you down’. A trembling of great horror shook Bamboo. ‘Cut….. me….. down ….? Ah, not that, use me for your joy, O Master, but cut me not down.’ ‘Beloved Bamboo, if I do not cut you down, then I cannot use you.’ The garden grew still. Wind held its breathe Bamboo slowly bent his proud and glorious head. There was a whisper. ‘Master, if you cannot use me unless you cut me down, then do your will & cut’.
‘Bamboo, beloved Bamboo, I would cut your leaves and branches from you also.’ ‘Master, master, spare me. Cut down and lay my beauty in the dust, but would you take from me my leaves and branches also?’ ‘Alas, if I don’t cut them away, I cannot use you.’ The sun hid her face. A listening butterfly glided fearfully away. ‘Bamboo, Bamboo, I would divide you in two and cut out your heart, for if I do not cut so, I cannot use you.’ ‘Master, then cut and divide.’
So the master cut down Bamboo and chopped of his branches and stripped off his leaves and divided him in two and cut out his heart and, lifting him gently, carried him, to a spring of fresh sparkling water in the midst of the dry fields. He put down one end of broken Bamboo into the spring and the other end in to the water channel in the field. The spring sang welcome. The clear sparkling water raced joyously down the channel of Bamboo’s torn body into the waiting fields. Then the rice was planted and the days went by. The shoots grew. The harvest came. In that day was Bamboo, once so glorious in his stately beauty, yet more glorious in his brokenness and humility. For in his beauty he was life abundant. But in his brokenness he became a channel of abundant life for his master’s world.
He is Going Before you to Galilee. Mark 16
A reflection on this verse by Brother Roger of Taize.
Jesus, light of our hearts,
since your Resurrection
you always come to us.
Whatever point we may be at,
you are always waiting for us.
And you say to us:
‘Come to me, you who are overburdened
and you will find relief’
April Blessings
Finola Cunane
May the God of Spring brighten your days and grace you to be a light in the lives of others.
May the God of Colour increase your awareness of the gift and beauty of who you are and may you share your giftedness with those around you.
May the God of Surprises enable you to locate the sacred in all of life’s experiences and may you be enriched by all that crosses your path.
May the God of Wonder awaken your soul to the wonder and goodness that dwell in our world and may you share your new-found wonder with those who are close to you.
May the God of New Life nourish the life that is within you and lead you to newer and ever-fulfilling horizons.
May the God of Love fill your heart with an ever-fulfilling capacity to love and may you share this love with all those you meet.