Wednesday 5 January 2011

I have these spoons

My friend Margery was a Christian artist, working mainly in stained glass.  She also designed and made beautiful banners for churches, for which she used her own lettering alphabet that she had designed herself. She was a teacher too - of art - for many years.

Margery was a person of deep faith.  Her whole life was founded on prayer and lived in the flow and current of the movement of the Holy Spirit.  I loved her very much, and she was a dear friend.  She died about seven years ago, in her mid 80s.

I have various things that belonged to her.  It is not my practice to hold on to possessions, even when they have special associations, otherwise before I know it the possessions start holding onto me, and you get the Sorcerer's Apprentice effect going on.  I don't like my life and options to be dictated by the proliferation and requirements of inanimate objects!  "Problems arise where things accumulate" (Toinette Lippe).

I have two stained glass panels that Margery made.  They are really beautiful works of art.  I have not yet found the right home for them, because they are spiritual work not worldly, and they are wonderfully wrought, not shoddy work.  For now I keep them with me, and one day I will find the right place for them.  I don't hang then in my own windows because I have such a hunger for light that I want all the light all the time from all the windows.  But they are beautiful.  I had a nude that she painted - which she stipulated must never be hung in a living room where men might see it, it must always be hung in a bedroom.  It is such a graceful, lovely picture.  That has gone to my friend Rosanna.  I have a portrait of a dignified old lady that Margery painted.  That fits in any room really well, so it hangs in our living room over the fireplace.

Then I also have these spoons.  Margery used them for measuring out glazes and powder paints when she was teaching art.  They are old and battered (which I personally feels adds to their delightfulness), because they are very vintage!  Now, I don't really measure anything.  My cooking is of the 'some of this, some of that' school, and  I just heave in a bit from a jar, no spoon comes ito it.

I am clearing out things at home at the present time, going through streamlining and sorting and house-calming.  We have several large bags to go to the charity shop, but I don't want to send these spoons to a charity shop, because they would be thought worthless as they are old and battered.  But they aren't worthless, they would be really excellent for anyone who needs to measure out powders or drizzle liquids carefully.  And they belonged to Margery, so for decades they were the tools of hands dedicated to prayer and praise and healing ministry.

What I want to know is, would one of you like these spoons?

If so, check the comments section to make sure no-one else has already put up their hand for them, and I wll send them to you.  You are safe to send me your address in a comment, because it will come to me by email for moderation.  I will not publish it with your address it, I will publish a comment saying 'The spoons have been claimed by Sister (or Brother!) X', instead, and send the spoons off to you.

If you have them, please treasure them.  Margery and I spent countless hours together, talking about life and the things of God, praying and laughing and drinking Lapsang Souchong tea.  She was a woman of pure heart, a soul of real integrity; and, though her income was tiny, her wants were so few that she always had money to put by so that she could respond to the nudgings of the Lord Jesus and help people who were in need.  She liked to give to people and situations that didn't come under the wing of any charity or welfare benefit.  She used to send money to a black African pastor who lived in a South African township in the days before apartheid ended, to keep him and his family going and his work for God as well.  She used to listen quietly and notice when young couples were struggling and hadn't enough for rent and food or special projects, and she'd help them.  Every time she gave, she asked God a) whether to give and b) how much.  Margery believed that money is a very potent force that can do as much harm as good, and that it must be used strictly under God's direction to bring blessing.  Out of God's direction it becomes a curse.

Here is a picture of the spoons so you can see their form and size.  You will see they are very ordinary and shabby looking - wabi-sabi spoons!  Their specialness is that they carry with them women chatting and prayig quietly in the afternoon sunlight, drinking tea together, and art students learning under the tutelage of a person of pure soul and unusual grace.  They bring with them a murmur of something beautiful, a memory of friendship.








It may be that nobody here wants them at all!  If that's the case, I shan't mind.  I'll just keep them until the right person comes along.



19 comments:

Bean said...

Ember I would be honored to have and own the spoons if no one else desires them. My husband and I would use them. We do a lot of canning, cooking, wine making and baking, and they would not only be useful, it would be nice knowing that they were used for many years by such a Godly woman.
Bean

Pen Wilcock said...

Thanks, friends. I will send a spoon to bean and a spoon to Magdalena.

bean, i'll send the extra-shabby one to you because of St Francis. :0)

So Bean and Magdalena if you email me your addresses I'll pop them in the post.

bean, you can comment here; Magdalena I know this comment box resists you mysteriously, so send me a Facebook messgae with your new address.

:0)

seekingmyLord said...

How lovely! I have just a few old kitchen gadgets from my grandparents home. Most are still used and I treasure them, but you are right in that if someone else saw them, they would have no meaning. The worth is not in the object itself, but in the memories it summons by its presence. What a precious gift you are giving.

Pen Wilcock said...

:0) "The worth is not in the object itself, but in the memories it summons by its presence." Yes indeed. It's easy to see why older people find it such an awful wrench if their chapel has to close or if they have to leave their homes. x

Gerry Snape said...

a wonderful post Ember. Very moving and tender. I'm so glad that someone will be able to make good use of them in the future. We have lots of bits and pieces in the ceramic studio that would be of similar use yet to another worth nothing. It speaks to me of God's love for us being so deep that even if we are just a shard of pottery He will find a use for us so that we know we have a place in His plan. Thankyou,

Pen Wilcock said...

Amen to that, Gerry! :0)

Anonymous said...

I love your posts. Thanks for sharing. I loved the saying house calming.

Pen Wilcock said...

:0) Hi Jill! x

Anonymous said...

Dear Ember;
I can't tell you how many times I have written a comment here and it just fades away, poof! I am learning from you and I thank you. You have much to share. By the way, the singing video was wonderful.

Pen Wilcock said...

Glad you liked the song, but how mega-annoying for you about the fading comments! If I am having problems of that sort, I usually write the comment out beforehand (in a Word document or something), and copy it. Then I can just paste it into the comment box and if it goes adrift repeat that until it sticks. Conquered! :0D

Buzzfloyd said...

Was Badger asleep beside you when you made that video or have you just been eating chalk?

I'm glad the spoons are going to people who will know where they came from. Margery was one of the clearest channels of the Holy Spirit I ever met.

Pen Wilcock said...

LOL! Chalk in the camera, I guess...

Linda said...

I like the idea of grace for each day, and looked at your books that caught my eye after watching your video. Love the sound of the book The Road of Blessing. Was happy Koorong stocks it in Australia. Read a book from Georgie Newman lately and that was good.

Pen Wilcock said...

The Road of Blessing comes out next week, I think. I gave away all my review copies, and ordered some more from Amazon, and their order confirmation says they expect to ship on the 8th. The publication date has been a bit vague.
Grace for each day - yes, that's what He gives us.

Linda said...

They are out of stock or something at Koorong obviously lol, but it may take me a little while to order it anyway. I put a link on my blog so hopefully I can keep checking for stock or maybe order and they will send one when they get stock. I'll try it and see.

Linda said...

Reading the little bit on Amazon, I like p178 about friendships. I don't have a brain that plays mastermind I tell my husband, so I get to a stage of being nice to people like you, but can't work out the last little bit, like about the boundaries you mentioned.

Pen Wilcock said...

No, The Road of Blessing only publishes in the UK this next week, and the overseas publishing date will be later. If you order from Amazon.co.uk you can get it quicker, and the international post may not be more - I'm not sure on that point, but when I buy from the US Amazon their postage is the same as when I buy from UK Amazon. I've never bought anuything from Australian Amazon.

Linda said...

In the past I think Amazon was quite expensive to ship to Australia, but I will check it out, thanks.

Pen Wilcock said...

Hi Tina! Good to meet you! The overseas publication dates seem elusive - I am having trouble getting the info. If you pre-order on Amazon.com, you will get it as soon as they are in. If you pre-order on Amazon.co.uk, you may get it quicker, as it should publish this week in England. I don't know what the postage difference is, but not great, I think.
xx