Contemplative Inquiry

I have lived in Gloucester since January 2022. Specific locations in the city affect me in different ways.

The physic garden at Llanthony Secunda Priory is one of them. It feels both open and tranquil. Earth and sky are strongly present and jointly nurturing. It is a good space  for unpressured reflection.

I was in the garden yesterday afternoon, feeling my way into 2026. It was a bright moment in the day, about an hour before the still early sunset. It was cold but not freezing. I was feeling good in myself. I wondered how my life with Elaine will  unfold now that we are both a little more mobile. I reflected on the dance of loving and being loved.

As a left the garden, I acknowledged my fears about the wider world. I walked to another favourite place, very  close to Llanthony, where the Gloucester canal begins its journey out of the city. There is irrepressable bird life in the foreground and a (to me) liberating expanse of water beyond. My picture doesn’t tell me what’s around the corner and I am reminded to live with unknowing. I didn’t walk any further on this occasion.

Returning home, I learned  the news from Venezuela – in particular  the kidnapping, as I would name it, of the President. I fear this may become yet another running sore in the life of the world. Modern Druidry, my spiritual anchor, has a strong commitment to justice and peace, where  each is understood as compromised by the absence of the other.

Druidry isn’t an ‘above the battle’ path. Whilst not mandating any specific partisanship, this path does assert political values and points to a willingness to engage. So, in 2026, I’m asking myself more specifically where to put my limited energies, and how justice and peace work meshes with my contemplative inquiry. Indeed, this is where my inquiry has now arrived.