#niniancommunity

COMPLINE | NEW WINESKINS | LENT 2020 We are reading this Compline ‘to complete the day’ as a community during Lent, where + indicates a new speaker, and italics are said together: O God of life, this night,  darken not to me thy light. 

As I sat in our yellow car, and overlooked a windy welsh beach, equipped with a flask, fruit cake, and 2 good friends.. I hit the big three zero.  In the year of build up, the final year of my 20s, I drew up a list of ‘30 things to do before I turn 30.′

Some of the items on the list comprised of ‘creating’ things:

[1] Carve something out of wood (I made a spoon) [2] Mould out of clay (...a bowl) [3] Cultivate a sourdough starter (Yep, even though short lived) [4] Ferment a ginger beer starter (It happened, but was also short lived.) [5] Follow the saponification process and make bars of soap (...scented bay & bergamot) Others on the list comprised of ‘achieving’ things: [6] Learn to drive [7] ...then roadtrip in Europe (FR & ITL) [8] Swim in seas, lakes and lochs (conquering my unease around water) [9] Start eating and enjoying fish (Highlight: cooking fish, directly over coals, wrapped in newspaper & dipped in sea water!) [10] Develop my taste palate (I sat brewing & sensory exams, wine, coffee, & organic acid tastings) Some were more ‘lifestyle’ based: [11] Regularly Sabbath: divert daily, withdraw weekly, abandon annually [12] Establish a morning rhythm of waking up with a grateful heart [13] Stretch! to touch my toes [14] Carry on learning OT Hebrew (setting time aside weekly) [15] Start giving blood Some, just for fun: [16] Cook on the beach at sunrise (#Jesus) [17] Host around a really big table (many times) [18] Let the music play! ...Go to some gigs (BSS & BBC NOW) [19] Try a whisky from each of the Scottish regions (...this one will roll in to next year!) [20] Own an axe (...I now have a Swedish steel, Hultafors trekking hatchet) Others, practicing ‘presence’: [21] Befriend at the bus stop (I met David) [22] 30 campfires (Documented on Instagram) [23] Tell a story / Capture a moment (Speakeasy 25th Anniversary Booklet) [24] ‘Teach us to care for those entrusted to us’ (Living out the prayer of St. Ninian) [25] Present to place: Forage & preserve. (We made wild garlic pesto)

Others, not completed in the way I had hoped: [26] Step towards self sustainability... by keeping chickens (BIG DREAM... one day!) [26edited]  Step towards self sustainability... by reducing plastic and only using bars of soap (smaller dream) [27] ‘Tabernacle’... a physical place of prayer within our home/community [27edited] ‘Tabernacle’... establishing rhythms of morning and evening prayer meditation within our community

[28] Publish a prayer book [28editing] Install pop up prayer rooms & create small booklets... one day, then, publish a larger prayer book. [29] Sleep on a beach overnight (not completed at all... will have to do this next year.)

As the year began to draw to a close, I grew frustrated at my uncompleted list.  It mirrored my disappointment at reaching 30 without feeling much sense of achievement.  Then, one evening, during community Advent prayers, I saw it from a different perspective.  Richard Rohr* writes about how Advent reveals that ‘perfect fullness is always to come,’ as Christian history ‘lives out’ a kind of ‘deliberate emptiness’ (#notyetnow): 'The theological virtue of hope is the patient and trustful willingness to live without closure, without resolution, and still be content and even happy because our Satisfaction is now at another level, and our Source is beyond ourselves.' The list has been fun, and motivational, but was never meant to be prescriptive.  As I enter year 31, I am reminded to be less ‘purpose’ driven and more ‘presence’ orientated, less ‘trapped’ in my own worldview and more ‘open’ to possibilities, less ‘impatient’ and more ‘trustful.’  And I begun the year ahead... 30 years and 1 day old... amid the garden mud, discovering some surprise potatoes, forgotten about, and left over from my attempts at gardening, and accidentally completed [30] Grow-your-own, from seed to plate.

RETREAT REFLECTIONS | BRING ME IN TO YOUR MOVEMENTS GOD Taken from Daerwynno Silent Retreat, July 2017, this guide may be used at a personal or shared silent retreat.  Go for a walk in nature.  Find somewhere to sit alone, and be still.

Reflect: “How noisy am I! Daily clatterings, banging milk jugs, tripping up, footsteps down quiet alleys, voicing opinions, analysis after analysis,  zipping up, breaking  down  boxes,  turning on the washer, the tap, the kettle,  rustling paper, typing, clicking, crunching the oven ignition,  over and over,  chomping, scrubbing, closing doors,  climbing in to bed, tossing and turning head and pillow.”

NINIAN COMMUNITY | WE ARE 4 'Come close. See far.'

Today we celebrate 4 years of our Ninian Community! These pictures where taken from and around the Cave of St. Ninian, at the Isle of Whithorn in Scotland. The following inscription was written on a pilgrimage signpost: 'Deep peace of the flowing air to you. Deep peace of the running wave to you. Deep peace of the quiet earth to you. Deep peace of the shining stars to you. Deep peace of the Prince of Peace be upon you.' 

NINIAN COMMUNITY | BUSY SEASON

1 flat car tyre, 2 peas in a pod, some potatoes, 3 moving outs (2 moving ins), 4 awaiting move to #93. £5 for a boot load of wood, Supplying 250g coffee for #96 …community 7 days a week? 8 corn bags sewn, Raclette for 9… 10… make that 11, Birthdays: 20 & 50 an eco washing ball, and many soap nuts

“May the blessing of our love, and our strong joy in blessing, call out new growth in everyone we know and meet.”

CLEAN UP AT THE BUS STOP Everything I see I see through a dimmed glass darkly…

But, what if I remove my glasses scratch, or clean the camera lense back. Will clarity, then, not appear itself to me?!

Safer in ‘metaphors’ that bring 'meaning’ to existence and satisfy my hunger for purpose. But 'mystery’ broods deeper.. stirs enigma.. without offering resolution.

And if light isn’t actually a 'thing’, but casts other 'things’ in to 'being’, Then what of love and it’s creation of 'be'longing.

In true 'not yet now’ mentality, all I see is blurry bokeh-like bright pin points of light…

NINIAN COMMUNITY | ACROSS SMALL HOUSES

We are The Ninian Community, now residing in Pentwyn, ‘reclaiming a sense of family and belonging, by providing a safe space for growth and becoming.’*

Being split across 3x small homes, we are challenged at finding doable shared rhythms, both in our houses and across our houses. Being split across 3x small homes, we are blessed at walking the local pathways between our places, and discovering that together, we have more surface area to go around.

Budge up around the dining table! Sharing thanks before we start. That wheelbarrow Christmas. Mattress moving, and garage sharing.

Planting potato seeds, Foraging wild garlic by the stream. I’ll bring a salad. You bring dessert. Meeting our neighbours... moving slow- ly past first name basis. See you at the bus stop. Can I... Borrow the big pan? Have help filling up my tyres? Energy. Joy. Simplicity. Growing in honesty and vulnerability. Getting to know you... becoming known by you. And discovering our “togetherness” value. All the while our God is beside us, within and without us.** Pushing back our boundaries...*** leading us in to true presence and generosity.