Yesterday I read right through Clare's blog. Today, in my darkness, I read back through some of my own and found some helpful nuggets. [Perhaps that is what this blog is really for?]

here's a bit I found particularly relevant:

"we can continue - even in total darkness, even when we don't know where our next footstep will take us. then is the time for trust.   

This is a power which you have given us, and not just on good days: to always be able to walk forwards, if only we will it."

that poem also
the one about the field.
this is one I need to look at over and over: I see that now.


my ploughed field.
the one I passed by, half-recognising - even at the time - just like the poet does, that it was beautiful - even incomparably so - but failing to realise that this was where I needed to stay because buried there was indeed the Pearl of Great Price. 


the ploughed field featured so prominently again during the fireheart days.
the same ploughed field I always remember from the short retreat with Fr Tim Radcliffe in that farmhouse near Oxford.

which takes me somehow back to treasure chests.
or the treasure chest.
the one in the front porch at Chelmsford Hall.
the one with seven locks in my story (still unfinished on the blog by the way)
and the one in Spalding church in 1999.
this chest contained the same Pearl of Great Price.
the same Pearl of Great Price which lies under the ploughed field.