When I was appointed Superintendent of Belfast Central Mission and we moved into the manse on the Malone Road she at last got her wish and in spring it is a joy to look out on it each morning as it is coming into bud and finally full bloom, until the inevitable fall of the blooms with their sticky petals.
She also recently came across a letter she had written one springtime to her mum talking about "feeling her sap rising" with the change of seasons, a phenomenon she experiences and notes every year.
But this year both in terms of weather and emotions, spring feels more like autumn, as we prepare to move again. In many ways I had hoped that my appointment here would see me through to retirement. But, for various reasons, it was not to be, and I go where I am sent...
So I find myself in a season of "lasts" - last board meeting, last church council, last school assembly, and many more to come this week, made more difficult because of uncertainty re who/what comes next here.
But that isn't up to me...
So here are a series of haiku that reflect the season I find myself in...
Sap rises and buds form;
Harbingers of the springtime
and new beginnings.
But, these buds will be
the last that we will see as
we draw the curtains.
As the flowers fall,
tears may freely fall with them.
Emotional rain.
Reminders to us
that life will continue on,
witnessed or unwitnessed.
This tree preceded
and will long outlast me
and my memory.
But, these buds will be
the last that we will see as
we draw the curtains.
The bridal blooms will
soon appear, and disappear.
Another season.
Petals fall to leave
a brown sticky residue,
to be washed away.
tears may freely fall with them.
Emotional rain.
Reminders to us
that life will continue on,
witnessed or unwitnessed.
This tree preceded
and will long outlast me
and my memory.
Selah
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