Shabbat of delight

My dear Friends

Last night was a special occasion, a special Shabbat. For the first time in ages, I had two close friends with me to celebrate the inauguration of the Sabbath (given that we started our celebration a couple of hours after dusk.) My two friends were a young man from a Jewish background training for the Priesthood, and my 'daughter of the heart' whom I hve known for 10 years and with whom I have shared a lot of sorrows and joys.

It was the perfect night: a silvery slip of a moon hung over the landscape, and through the silver birch tree which graces the garden you could glimpse our bright guiding star, seemingly close by. Jews celebrate the inauguaration of the new moon on Rosh Chodesh, 'head' of the month, so it was a double blessing.

My 'daughter' arrived bearing gifts of a delicious desset and pink wine, which perfectly complimented the roast chicken salad, and potatoes.When my other guest arrived, we lost no tiem in bringing in the Shabbat: Clare and I donned headscarves while I sang the blessing of the angels over the candles and blesses in Hebrew song the Kosher wine from Mount Carmel, and the special braided bread.

Blessed art Thou, O Lord, King of the Universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.'

It was a joyful, sharing repast, full of anecdotes and, on a more serious note, a discussion about Gaza and related matters. After the meal we sang Zemirot with my guitar, Sabbath table hymns. One is about our gratitude to God for His feeding and watering of our souls.

When they left, I fell into bed, exhuasted but happy and replete.

Shabbat Shalom!

Sister Gila

Singing in Starbucks

My dear Friends

Some months ago I got chatting to the Israeli manager of Starbucks in the Grafton Centre in Cambridge (Fitzroy Street).When he heard I was a singer, and specialised in Hebrew music, he asked me to do a concert there.

The space upstairs is informal, generous and lovely. It reminds me of some of the venues of my wild youth! (Alexia's stepfather once told me in Paris that I would now have a calm youth-you know what French men are like but it was a lovely thing to say.)

So I can have my 'tinkling guitar' and just chill out and sing to some extent what the punters want to hear, whether it be folk music, Jewish music, protest music, Beatles or whatever. I am blessed with a wide repertoire. One of my favourites is 'Catch the wind' by Donovan, a little known number but one which proves what an incurable romantic I am!

I got the guitar out this morning and have started practising. Hopefully the audience, which will be 'movable' from about 7pm onwards, will realise the message of Peace and Reconciliation and I will have the publicity leaflets and maybe a few copies of The Moving Swan close by. After all I cannot separate my life from the cause!

If you are to hand please come by. I promise you a good evening, as you will probably meet some nice people, to say nothing of Gilan the manager of Starbucks, who will be keeping the coffee shop open downstairs for your refreshment.

A bientot!
Sister Gila

From darkness to light

My dear Friends

I am in the hospital, waiting to see the doctors, who will discharge me today for good. It has been a long haul: from darkness to light. All the time I was in that dark and long tunnel, I knew in my deepest self that the light was at the end of it, the LIGHT, that is Christ, but with my physical being it was kinda difficult to actually feel anything emotionally or especially spiritually.

Now, having attended a radiant Mass on Sunday at the big Church, with all my friends round me, kneeling down between the hymns and the prayers, I felt the LIGHT pierce my being, as if God was actually touching my marrow. I had not felt that for a long time and knew it was a special grace, but from moment to moment it was difficult to hang in there and allow myself to be touched in that way. As I was submitting in the only way possible, I found myself praying for a special Friend and shouting to God amidst the music: 'Why did you take so long, I knew all this was really to bring me closer to you, but you took your time.'

And yet we ourselves have no time: only KYROS, God's time. My personal Revelation and the road to recovery started on the Orthodox Christmas, our Epiphany, which actually means Revelation. I awoke on 6th February and the grace really kicked: I had clarity about my condition and myself, and the healing started from there.

Staying the night in Benigna's house last night, she told me that the future looked bright and sensible. Not a bad word for someone like me, who is totally spontaneous, passionate and seren from time to time at the same time.

It is a privilege to be able to share all this 'on the spot' as it were, and if it is helpful to even one of you I will feel totally happy.

'Look towards Him and be radiant
let your faces not be abashed
The Lord hears whenever I call Him'

Onward and upward indeed.
Shalom and more Shalom
Sister Gila xxxxxx

Observations from the White House

Washington DC Midnight and Cambridge, England 5am

My dear Friends

It was one of those rare and pleasant times when I spent the night at Benigna's, with whom I lived for 16 years. between and 2003. I did such a lot of stuff yesterday, that I fell onto the bed around 9.30 - I am still gaining energy after my breakdown.

Not having a telly at home, I was able to home into the White House, along with the rest of humanity. There's no doubt that Obana is good-looking. 'He doesn't look very black to me' said Benigna, in a completely non=racist remark, showing how observant she is (at nearly 91 she has a lot of wisdom)., and how the media are underplaying the fact that Obama is actually of mixed race.

Its not the colour I pick up on.Its the fact that, although in some way Obama is in line with his great ancestor Martin Luther King, he doens't quite have the grace and poetry of this great man. To me the key is poetry, I have a Dream etc, and even about Yitzchak Rabin there was a certain poetic strain. This is made poignant due to the fact that he moved from terrorist leader to peacemaker, before he was assassinated in 1995.

I would like to tell you more about this key event in Israel/Palestine as it has had such a bearing on wold events today, and I was in the country when he died.

So more later
Hope Obama and wife won't be too squeaky clean
Love and Shalom
Sister Gila
p.s. If you want a good night out in Cambridge, come and see and hear Suitcase Cabaret, performed by the band from Clare college and the actors from the ADC theatre. I am sittting with a few of the Clare students now. performed in a veriety of unusual venues, such as Jesus Chapel, Clare Cellars and the Jesus Shop.'

'Come and See'!!

Shabbat Shalom

My dear Friends
Sabbath has fallen again. None of us can rest easy in our beds, knowing that there is so much violence going on in what we know as the holy land. The situation, as ever, is complex, and it is very tempting to take sides, especially as the violence coming from the Israeli side seems to know no boundaries.

When my mother, God rest her beloved soul, was living in a Jewish care home in Golders Green in London, an Orthodox Jewish man came from Ireland to visit his mother, who, by chance, was sitting in the chair next to my mother's. We fell to talking: I never told him I was a Christian but did tell him what were my aims in life. Shalom and more Shalom.

I think, my dear, this man said to me, that if we were to describe ourselves politically, you would be on the left and i would be on the right. But I do admire you - you are sitting in the middle of the road with the cars coming at you from both directions.

Its very difficult to be objective, but as Christians that is what we are called to do. The only thing that keeps me going in all this is that my people, who are perpetrating such an injustice at the moment, seem to be hurting internally at the moment with a very deep wound. Holocaust or whatever, who knows. We all need the love of Christ, which John Paul II showed when he went to the Wailing Wall some years ago and drew such attention and admiration for his peacefulness.

I was staying in the Scottish Presbyterian hospice a little while later, when the manageresss came over to me. 'I never know anything good could come out of the Vatican, she said to me.. Neither did i ... I retorted... But when the Pope was here and spread the Peace of Jesus across this land..

We can pontificate and we can pray. We can march and hold up banners. We can stand alert and be ready to do our part.

Shabbat Shalom
from a land where for the moment there is Peace.
Sister Gila

Greenness

'Who would have thought that my shrivelled heart would have recovered greenness?

It had gone quite underground...llke a mother root full blown'

This is from one of George Herbert's famous poems, and one of my favourite of all time. Its amazing how the heart can regenerate, after lost love, illness and so on.

George Herbert was an Anglican in the 17th Century in England, not far from here in Little Gidding, under threat by the dreadful Civil War in England at the time, which crossed all sorts of religious divides. He was a supreme poet.

In the absence of emigrating, I am changing the title of the 2nd part of my memoirs from 'Point of Departure' to 'Making a Chiming of a Passing Bell', lines quotedl ater on in the same poem as above, and making the point that at any, what we perceive to be an 'ordinary' or 'dull' moment, we can make a a ravishing sense or eternity out of it, as long as we have a mystical eye for it and we don't miss opportunities.

My dear mother used to tell her life story at busstops in Glasgow, enlivening the day of many folk I am sure.

LIfe is plodding along nicely, I was home last night and to be sure again at the weekend. I hope to include one or two different photos on the Blog soon, as I am sure you will appreciate!

Peaceful Sabbath, shabbat shalom

reflections on the situation in Israel/Palestine next time

Sister Gila

Onward and upward

My dear Friends

You may have wondered why the Blog entries have been a little sparse over the last few weeks.The truth is that I have not been well, alternating between hospital (psychiatric) and home, so everything has been a muddle.

It is difficult to know causes, reasons, etc, only that when i returned from Canada I was very stressed, what with my cousin dying unexpectedly and having to fly across the country and back. Then having taken on all the tesponsibilities, communities and charities. but for which now i am grateful as all good things, especially the love of Friends in my life, are returning.

I have made a big decision, but a sensible one- I have decided not to emigrate. All I need in Canada will still be there, and as a religious friend said: It has been a brave adventure, in which nothing is lost. And I already plan a little holiday in May of June to see my friends in Toronto, especially the elderly Bishop, and my oldest friend in Canada, in Cambridge, Ontario, where i went in 1988.

The idea of community more locally is not lost either, but more of that at a later stage if I may.
In the meantime, I wish you all the good thigs I would wish myself in the new Year, strength, good health, love and music (not necessarily in that order!)

And always Shalom, more of that later especially in israel/palestine
Love from
Sister Gila