Meditation for 7th June 2022
Memories, Ebb and Flow
At the beginning of May, our good friends, Barbara and Ian, took us away for the weekend – a COVID delayed 70th birthday present!
We stayed in Fleetwood, on the Lancashire coast, to explore the history of the town in which Barbara had grown up. She was impassioned about the place and as the memories flooded back John and I appreciated what the town and surrounding landscape meant to her and helped to form the adult she became.
Many of us have special memories about people and places we have known at different times in our lives.
Fleetwood sits on the coast around Morecambe Bay and is a place of beach, river and sands all of which are very prey to the fast tides which race over the sand, often concealing dangerous areas of quicksand.
As I have thought about that place, so much a land of sky and sea, it has become associated for me with thoughts on the ebb and flow of life’s tides – there are good times and bad, times you want to remember and times (and places) you would rather forget.
David Adam’s prayer, Thoughts on Holy Island, which appears below – says “…But surrounded by thee…” and “We meet you, Lord of sea and land. Ebb tide, full tide Let life rhythms flow. Full tide, ebb tide How life’s beat must go.”
The Lord is always there for us, in the good times and the bad, but we need to remember to call on him!
But we also need to appreciate that He asks something of us – to be aware of our brothers and sisters who may be struggling in deep water and need a hand to help them through those waters and onto firm ground.
Perhaps the words of the hymn, I, the Lord of sea and sky reminds us that we are all called:
“Here I am, Lord.
Is it I, Lord? I have heard you calling in the night.
I will go, Lord, if you lead me.
I will hold your people in my heart.”
David Adam
The Edge of Glory
Lord,
There are times when I need to be an island,
Set in an infinite sea
Cut off from all that comes to me
But surrounded still by thee.
Times of quiet and peace
When traffic and turmoil cease
When I can be still and worship thee
Lord of the land and sea.
Full tide and ebb tide
Let life rhythms flow
Ebb tide, full tide
How life’s beat must go.
I must be part of the mainland,
A causeway between me and others.
There are times when I can only find thee
In working with my brothers.
Times of business and industry
Freeing ourselves from captivity.
It’s when we give a helping hand
We meet you, Lord of sea and land.
Ebb tide, full tide
Let life rhythms flow
Full tide, ebb tide
How life’s beat must go.
