Life is turning aside to the eternity that awaits you.

[Gabrielle Dean]

Sunday’s gospel includes the parable of the pearl of great price, so today, this lovely poem. And special shout out to Christabel for her vision of community, who, after reading the gospel passage at Morning Prayer, 'bought the field’ so that the houses that join the church could be built. 

THE BRIGHT FIELD- R.S. Thomas

I have seen the sun break through

to illuminate a small field

for a while, and gone my way

and forgotten it. But that was the pearl 

of great price, the one field that had 

treasure in it. I realize now

that I must give all that I have

to possess it.

Life is not hurrying

on to a receding future, nor hankering after 

an imagined past. It is turning 

aside like Moses to the miracle

of the lit bush, to a brightness

that seemed as transitory as your youth

once, but is the eternity that awaits you. 

Eucalyptus (probably ficifolia) caught in the glow of a sunset