11: This street, well known...

This street well known. These paths we tread. 

By Lesley and Anne

Words by Anne....

It turned out to be a collaboration: it was Lesley’s ‘turn’ and she was musing on:

ADVENTURE: to dare to go forwards (or to ‘adventure’) we need to tread the paths we know and go beyond into the unknown; from the familiar to the unfamiliar and this takes courage. The hope in adventuring is that we journey and grow towards more fullness of life.

A balance of the familiar with the unfamiliar can make this easier - not everyone has that luxury (for instance if you’ve had to leave all that is and who is familiar behind). 

But then work came along and an emergency took the time she had put aside to create it. So, I stepped in and tried to do something with her ideas (or at least the ones she’d shared!). Hidden behind a curtain that creates a sense of fogginess (The Cloud of Unknowing), we look down on the well-known streets and well-trodden paths but notice that the streets get new names: “adventure”, “risk”, “joy”, “wander”, “weep”, “hope”, “look”, “wisdom”, “love”, “learning”, “share”, “see”, “wait”. These are the “well-trodden” paths and streets of our lives and in advent we can take a moment to see where we have walked, do walk and will walk and remember we do not walk alone. And mirrors – to help us look in new ways and to see ourselves, where we are.

Anne