Hello all! It is good to be back in the saddle after my holiday and big birthday. Thank you too for all the cards etc as well. It was lovely to receive them and for your thoughts and good wishes. I have received a beautiful bouquet of flowers through the post, but with no sender details or a card. If it is you or you know who might have sent it, please would you private email me so I can send a photo and express my thanks.
This week off has sent me thinking about how do we mark this terrible time, how can we show others in the future, what it was like and how we, personally managed the pandemic. How can tell what it felt like to be isolated, perhaps on our own for all those weeks, to not be able to do as we wanted or celebrate the special things together? How church life was managed, how empty buildings and spires pointing heavenward pointed to deep issues, how time, colour and form entered into our beings in a new and exciting way. How reflection could be seen in our daily lives.
It is a time to put down in a scrapbook not only what happened historically, factually, but also emotionally, the brokeness, the nurturing, the reshaping etc that we've experienced. I know that many of you keep a daily diary, but this scrapbooking isn't really about that. It is about letting those who follow us, our dearest and dearest, our church community or indeed or own communities experience something profound about how the pandemic affected us, our very living, our lives, our thoughts, our inspirations and the God who is behind all of us, still caring, still loving, still wiping our tears away, has been experienced. It is something which needs to be created to enable others in years to come, to have at least a taste of what it was like. In doing this we are opening ourselves not only to God but also to others and it will change us.
It can involve collaging, colour shape, pressing wildflowers, recording receipts, stories, photographs, writing poems, travelogs, trying poetry perhaps or story writing. You can record in writing certain musical passages or youtube references. You can use textures and materials if it helps convey a feeling or an emotion. Just be creative and experiment! If you are beginning to meet with grandchildren let them help you create something for the scrapbook, whilst outside and socially distanced.
Talking of mixed media, are any of you familiar with slam poetry, a cross between storytelling and spoken word poetry etc? It is certainly something I haven't experienced before and maybe is initially uncomfortable in its style. Think about trying it out for yourself and putting that into your scrapbook, though obviously you could put it in a written form. It doesn't need to be perfect in style and can follow a much looser structure to reflect your raw emotions or a stream of consciousness.
Have a look at Sarah Kay who is a slam poet - she has some good ones to listen to and absorb. My favourites I think are Jellyfish and If I should have a Daughter, thinking and speaking about what might be through storytelling, dialogue and poetic shapes. It is a new way of opening up minds, making our feelings, thoughts, imaginations and emotions challenged as we record Coronavirus 2020 and for however long this goes on. It is too a new and different way of meeting with our God, who is in all things, whether we acknowledge that or not.