Tag: Kay Gibbons

Spring Equinox

My friend Julia has sent me the following article reflecting on yesterday’s Spring Equinox. It was written by her friend Jane Upchurch, one of a monthly series she sends out on the eve of every new moon. I am pleased to pass it on, with Jane’s permission. For more information and further writings by her, Google her on http://janeupchurch.co.uk/category/praying-for-the-planet/

Dear friends,

Tuesday March 21st was the new moon, the time we particularly remember our beautiful planet in prayer, meditation, awareness or involvement, with love, hope and gratitude.

This is the time of the Spring equinox. We are moving from winter to spring, from dark to light, from cold to warmth, from bareness to the vibrant flush of spring flowers and new-born leaves. Let us also move from anxiety and dismay at world events and the state of our planet to love and hope. Let us sow these seeds into the thirsty soil.

Equinox

This is it, the official beginning of spring. Oh, the long awaited date and season and sun. The sun is white, sitting over the tops of the houses to the East, diffused through the thin cloud that heralds the start of a glorious day. It is still cold from early evening to early morning marking the hours of the sun’s absence, but it builds to a warmth you can live in during the day.

I love this day, the changeover from winter to the early train of summer. I love that everywhere today is the same, we all have twelve hours of day and night, equal night, equinox. And as we sail smoothly into our opening light and new season of warmth, so the south tilts into its fall, into darkness and the call of winter. Today is a magic day, yet most people won’t notice it save perhaps a smile at the new-found warmth of the sun. We live on our planet like strangers, not recognising its journeys or its moods, sheltered from the weather and with a ready light to hide the dark.

Celebrating an equinox or solstice acknowledges the birthdays of our home, enjoying the relationship we have with the earth on which we live all our days. It is also enjoying our relationship with the Divine, whatever that means for us, seeing God in all things – the new sun rising, the hazy air sharpening, the primroses covering the lawn in gentle yellow welcome, the quickening of spring awakening the buds, calling the call to life that echoes in our blood.

I desire to be out here today but I cannot, so can I take these elements of earth, air, fire and water and hold them in a burning cauldron safe in my heart? Can I trust as trees do, or will I always bother and fuss before I find the path? Is it part of the human condition, part of my makeup, a jigsaw dance between the bother and the bliss, learning to carry all the bits equally well, living in memory and faith at the same time, trusting as trees dig roots into deep soil, trying to enjoy all parts of the journey and not just the destination. Today I have things to do that will call me away. Today I hang my needs on the wheel of the sun and let it turn me.

Jane Upchurch

Daffodils of Spring. Photo: Gill Henwood

O GOD,

we thank you for this earth, our home;
for the wide sky and the blessed sun,
for the ocean and streams,
for the towering hills and the whispering wind,
for the trees and green grass.

We thank you for our senses by which we hear the songs of birds,
and see the splendour of fields of golden wheat,
and taste autumn’s fruit,
and rejoice in the feel of snow,
and smell the breath of spring flowers.

GRANT US a heart opened wide to all this beauty;
and save us from being so blind that we pass unseeing
when even the common thorn bush is aflame with your glory.

Amen

Nativity Greeting

Nativity Greeting, art design by Kay Gibbons

Christmas greetings through the usual card sent by post has been disrupted this year because of the industrial dispute between the Royal Mail managers and their hard-working and mostly dedicated staff, so most of my greetings have been sent by email.
I wanted, therefore, to have a special design.

Who better to approach than my dear friend Kay Gibbons? She and I have known each other for a long time but more recently, over the past year or so, I have come to know her art too. She is described as a multidisciplinary artist and she works in a variety of media. These include glass, paint and stone.
She lives near Oxford and has taken part in Oxfordshire Art Weeks.Next year she will be mounting an exhibition in the Oxford area,
Her designs are amazing and she uses bright colours, swirling conceptions, geometric presentation, and a sense of movement which delight and inspire the senses.
For me, just pausing to ponder her work gives sheer joy and uplifts me.
I can’t fully put my finger on it but it is expressive visual poetry. She uses colour and shape to open a window to the numinous.
You can judge for yourself by looking her up on Instagram.

Above is the commissioned ‘Nativity’ that I asked her to design for me.
I would like to offer it to the followers of Mr G’s Ponderings as a greeting to you all in this Christian Festive Season when we give thanks in a special way for the birth of the Christ-Child. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who look at my blog and take the time to reflect on what we post. I am very encouraged and grateful.

Not all of you are Christians but every faith has an experience of light triumphing over darkness; of goodness overcoming evil and of hope overlaying despair.
Every faith speaks to individual hearts as well as to faith communities. There is the aspect of personal belief leading to how we are to live our life under God.

In our present human darkness and struggle which stretches from Ukraine to Iran; Afghanistan to Syria and as we struggle with the global migration of refugees; the consequences of natural disaster, poverty and hunger, and the lasting effects of Covid, we can, and many do, feel overwhelmed. For some, faced with all this, there is a test of faith, for others a quiet desperation.
This year’s midwinter festival comes at one of our planet’s weakest moments. We are fragile, vulnerable and afraid.
So Jesus, coming into our world as a vulnerable babe in very unpromising circumstances can be, for us, a reminder that God has us held in the palm of his loving hand. He knows our fears and our needs. The Incarnation of Jesus is about Loving us from within.
Love comes to seek us out and it is the God who is pure Love who will lead us through.

None of us know, at this moment, what 2023 holds for us. However, working together across all sorts of divisions, boundaries and misunderstandings, we can make a huge difference to our future direction and security – and that of the earth itself. We have a stewardship of our planet and therefore a duty to all of Creation to do t

In the face of just 10 or so despots who think they have some right to impose their will over the billions of others, we need to return the earth and the care of all to God. The best way we can do that is through sharing God’s love for us with all inhabitants of the earth from human beings to blades of grass.

In whatever form you see God’s light, the birth of Jesus is, for Christians, the incarnation of that light and that love.
Love flourishing in all hearts is my Greeting to you this Christmas.

Words of a poem by Christina Rossetti Love came down at Christmas.(slightly adapted)

Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, Love Divine,
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and Angels gave the sign.

Worship we the Godhead,
Love Incarnate, Love Divine,
Worship we our Jesus,
But wherewith for sacred sign?

Love shall be our token,
Love be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and all creation,
Love for plea and gift and sign.

Christina Rossetti

Kay Gibbons : Mary & Jesus

Lunar Incantations

I have been a friend of Kay Gibbons for quite some time but recently I have also got to know her art as well. She recently produced the Calligraphy art above. I asked her if she would write something about the personal and artistic process involved

Lunar Incantations by Kay Gibbons

…..’half past three,
The lamp sputtered,
the lamp muttered in the dark,
the lamp hummed ;
‘Regard the moon,
La lune ne garde aucune rancune,
She winks a feeble eye,
She smiles into corners,
She smooths the hair of the grass….
The moon has lost her memory ..
A washed out smallpox cracks her face ….

T. S. Eliot, Rhapsody on a windy night.

These descriptive words about the moon inspired me to explore lunar imagery in Eliot’s poetry , especially in this poem, Rhapsody on a Windy Night.

I attempted to paint an image but was dissatisfied with the outcome and left it for a couple of days . When I returned I could see within the image ‘the moon smoothing the hair of the grass,’as in the lines of the poetry and I played along with the drawn lines and emerging image before me.

I added the words and their imprecise lines seemed symbolic of being lost in the dark of the night, partially visible by the light of the moon across the landscape. A happy accident for the Calligrapher within, to be able to add a sense of meaning to something which jarred against my need for the perfect line.

My process is one of thought and quiet meditation lifted with the joy of a babbling brook when it all falls into place and my understanding of Eliot’s words is satisfied by the art before me … tinged with a niggling desire to tweek a bit here and there as Eliot would have done too ..

T S Eliot inspires within me a creative welling response to a dialogue between word and image; between poet and artist.
I am delighted to encounter and explore Eliot’s poetry with its imagery and translate it into my own visual interpretation born out of a lively response to his own expression of feeling and emotion.

My work is a personal visual translation of Eliot’s words and intonations, the incongruities, the dichotomies, the discordant resonance inspiring a intriguing , meditative yet playful reflection on his words . Poet , Artist . Artist , Poet .

The arid dry texts of the ‘A’ level set texts transitioned during lockdown into a passion to interpret visually. Eliot’s words with my own subjective interpretation onto the artists paper .
A dialogue between words and pictures .the pouring out of creative energy in response to an emotional , intellectual stimulus.

An interplay between two destinies ..
Poet and Artist

And so in the dialogue between
La lune and Earth .

Kay Gibbons.

[] Kay is an artist who lives in Oxfordshire. She will be exhibiting there next year.
You can find lots more of her art on Instatgram – kaygibbons_art.glass.sculpture.

As Advent approaches…

A reflection by my friend Kay Gibbons

If Jesus were to be born today God would have a mighty problem (not that he has trouble with such things! He seems to overcome all sorts!)

Pubs are closed – so, no room at the Inn ? (takeaway pints doesn’t really get round this problem)

Three wise men are only allowed to travel great distances to buy things ( eg eBay purchases) but NOT to offer gifts.

Shepherds have to work from home so can’t travel beyond the field to visit others as they are already in a bubble with their sheep.

Gatherings of more than 2 people from different houses are only allowed to meet in public places. Or is it 6? Or 8 ? Or maybe 15?

We can’t have the holy family incurring a £10000 fine because others were overjoyed and wanted to meet up.

Think Angels would be allowed because there are no restrictions on drones in Covid legislation. So anything hovering is permissible,I guess?

So ,

How do we get round this??!!!

We are ALL in the Holy Nativity bubble and the star shines brightly above our heads and in our hearts. The Holy Nativity takes place in all of us, God born as one of us, in us as individuals and as the Church . It is up to us to get on our phones and on social media to let a somewhat disjointed world know about the Holy Nativity during a time of lockdown, of Covid and beyond! I’m sure the annunciation if it were to happen in this time of cyber communication would have been on Zoom,or maybe FaceTime. (But maybe not, God doesn’t necessarily conform – after all, Virgin birth ? Who could have thought that up ? He doesn’t always stick to the norm.)

Maybe not necessarily on our phones and social media. Just sharing the joy of the Holy Nativity in our lives with those we meet daily.

Love Kay