Flowers and Blood and Mercy and Miracles

•                                                             (Photo by Devilal: Wikipedia Commons)

So, today London happened, and today, 33 civilians were killed in Syria in a US-led airstrike on a school which was being used to house refugees. And today, as on so many days, many are weeping for their lost brothers and sisters, and for the seeming loss of hope and love and compassion, none of which is ever truly lost because we are human and humans hope and love and care, in spite of and because of it all.

And everywhere humans are at this moment lighting candles and lifting prayers to their God, or Goddess, or gods, or no god, and will care all the more fiercely because of a day like today, and some will hate and call it care and not the fear that it really is, and some will lift up weapons and some will lay down their weapons because they are sickened by it all. And no doubt tomorrow, somewhere, more will die needlessly and more candles will be lit and so we go on in our broken and bewildered way. Because this is what life is, or part of it anyway. It isn't worse than it has ever been. It just is.

And we don't have to say that 'they' won't win, because there is nothing to win and there is no 'they'. There is only us, spinning around on this messy, precious little planet filled with flowers and blood and mercy and miracles, and we have to make it work. And we might not know much but what we can know is that we are all going to die trying. And we don't have to say that we aren't afraid, because we are allowed to be afraid. And I won't be looking at images of people bleeding and dying on Westminster Bridge, or of a man lying dead because how it 'just is' twisted his heart into this act of violence. I will be thinking of the candles and lighting my own. And there are just too many words, and never the right ones, so I will just say that this is how it is. It isn't going to stop, or not any time soon, and so we must find a way to love life and one another all the more because of it. There is nothing else.

Today, London happened and children locked inside Parliament with people dying outside sang to offer comfort and lift people's spirits, perhaps not knowing whether they would live or die themselves. We all need to remember to sing and just keep on singing. 

Talking with Drew of Everbranch about the Crossbones Graveyard

Here I am talking to Drew of the YouTube Everbranch channel about Crossbones graveyard, an unconsecrated graveyard for outcasts, mainly medieval sex workers and paupers, in the heart of Southwark very close to London Bridge. I have written very little about Crossbones here, although it is one of my most beloved sacred sites, one where I truly connect to all that I find holy; in the land, in others, and in myself. I will write more about it soon when I fine the words but, for now, this. With many thanks to Drew.

You can find out more about Crossbones and the work to remember the 15,000 people who are buried there, almost 9,000 of them children, at the new Crossbones website crossbones.org.uk.