David Cornick is surrounded by God’s lessons

In her poem, ‘Thirst’, the American poet Mary Oliver talks to Jesus about her spiritual life as she walks towards a favourite pond, and glories in the ‘beautiful lessons’ with which God surrounds her at each step. A passionate lover of nature, but never a ‘quick scholar’, she prays for more time, for ‘Love for the earth / and love for you are having such a long / conversation in my heart.’

That conversation lies at the heart of my spirituality too, albeit in a different register. I can just about tell an oak tree from a pine, and a mallard from a swan, but I’m no patient, observant naturalist like Mary Oliver. I too, though, find myself surrounded by God’s beautiful lessons – the first snowdrop to fracture winter’s grip, the autumn sun setting over the River Blyth at Southwold, the enthusiastic tail of a beloved dog – but also the subtle cadences of the poet, the harmonies of Bach, Hockney’s splashes in swimming pools; and sheer genius of architecture, from Ely’s medieval lantern to Piper’s baptistery window at Coventry…

David Cornick is a former General Secretary of the URC

Image: ©Jack Blueberry

___

This is an extract from an article published in the December 2024/January 2025 edition of Reform

Subscribe to Reform