Have you noticed the wattle is in bloom? As I drove into Newcastle today wattle blooms lined the road; the golden yellow and green standing out against the more subtle green-grey of the tall gum trees in the distance. Wattle heralds Spring and newness. For a moment the beauty had me transported to a place of calm and reverence and I tried to recall the words to the song “Cootamundra Wattle”. I found the music and felt the gentle touch of God’s healing as I listened again to the words.
You see, August is the month when my husband Peter passed away, and as I listened to the words, I started to cry. The song speaks of memories, the bittersweetness of life, the wonder of nature and looking at life from a child’s perspective. I felt strangely held by the song even as I was captured by this moment of grief. It was a recognition of a profound love and memories that I treasure.
But the song didn’t leave me there in grief. The final verse reminds us of the importance of being present in the moment and attentive to our lives here and now. It prompts us to go outside and listen. It coaxes us towards God and has us reflect on what living can easily be missed, with these words :
There’s all the colours of the rainbow in the garden woman,
And symphonies of music in the sky.
Heaven’s all around us if you’re looking,
But how can you see it if you cry.
We all feel grief at times. Maybe like me, you find music and song one of the places where you find a deep place of healing. As Henri Nouwen puts it:
“Jesus came to sing a dirge and say: ‘Cry with me.’ Jesus came to play a pipe and say: ‘Dance with me.’ There is a secret place in us where the Spirit brings new life. There is a creche where the Child is born in you. There is the broken soil of your soul where the seeds of grace can grow in you. The Spirit of God within us says: ‘There is a time to mourn and a time to dance.’ The Spirit of healing that makes us mourn is the same Spirit that makes us dance. The mystery of the dance is that its movements are discovered in the mourning.”
This month Bill Gillard says in his editorial that we can be ‘touched by God’s Spirit in different ways if we set out to experience it.’ We rejoice in the various ways that we can be touched by God and in turn touch others.
Listen to Cootamundra Wattle (reflect on how you have been sustained by God’s Spirit at times in your life)
Anne Bonnefin
Communications Co ordinator
Community of Christ Australia