{"id":798,"date":"2025-08-26T14:50:39","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T13:50:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rebelrebel.org.uk\/?p=798"},"modified":"2025-08-26T14:50:39","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T13:50:39","slug":"strawberries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rebelrebel.org.uk\/?p=798","title":{"rendered":"Strawberries"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Reflection #107 (15th June 2025 at Essex Church \/ Kensington Unitarians)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who knew that there were so many poems about strawberries? We’ve enjoyed several already in our service today (‘The Strawberry Poem\u2019 by Keaton St. James<\/a>, ‘Strawberries\u2019 by Tamara Madison<\/a>, and ‘What is Given\u2019 by Ralph Murre<\/a>). I only want to offer a very short reflection of my own to go along with them. And, as I said at the very top of the service, I want to acknowledge that it might seem a strange decision on my part to swerve at the last minute to this apparently whimsical theme, given the state of the world and all its terrors. I had been planning to talk about theological matters, but I didn\u2019t have the heart for it, and then I chanced across the poem ‘Ye Tang Che’ by James Crews. Its closing lines seemed so perfect: <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

You can \/ reach out, pick the strawberry \/
\ngrowing in front of you \/ and place it in your mouth, \/
\nenjoying every bite \/ without sugar or cream, \/
\neven while the tigers \/ keep nipping at your heels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doesn\u2019t it feel as if the tigers are, increasingly, nipping at our heels? Even if we\u2019re not living in Gaza, Tehran, Ukraine, Sudan or any other spot on this earth that is blighted by war. Even if we\u2019re not (yet) living in a state like Trump\u2019s America. I\u2019m not going to stand here and list all the horrors that we all know about. We are all too aware, most of us, of so many unfolding global catastrophes \u2013 and it is an important part of what we do here, to bear witness \u2013 and to lament all the evil and injustice that\u2019s happening in the world \u2013 we\u2019re not going to stop doing that. And, in whatever small ways we can, we have to do something to help put things right. That\u2019s something we talk about most weeks, we encourage each other in our personal commitments for justice, and we strive to be a counter-cultural community of resistance, in our modest way, by embodying a different way of being in the world, that\u2019s centred on love, justice, and peace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But at least once a year I think we need to pause and remember that even in the worst conditions we can still connect with pleasure, and beauty, and joy. As we read the news headlines we might feel we are caught between two thousand tigers \u2013 not just two \u2013 but it is important not to get drawn so deeply into despair that we fail to see the metaphorical strawberries that are still within reach. Perhaps it\u2019s in these extreme circumstances that we need them the most. I appreciate these words by M.J. Ryan which I included in Friday\u2019s email: \u2018It is precisely because life is unpredictable that we have the duty of delight, a responsibility to relish, cherish, and value the gifts we have been given so that when they are taken away \u2014 through death or other changes that life’s impermanence brings our way \u2014 we will not have to also bear the pain of having failed to appreciate what we had.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of you may be familiar with the work of adrienne maree brown, perhaps her most famous work to date is a book titled \u2018Pleasure Activism\u2019, and she\u2019s one of a number of voices in recent years \u2013 I\u2019m also thinking of Tricia Hersey who wrote \u2018Rest is Resistance\u2019 which we read in the Better World Book Club last summer \u2013 voices reminding us of the risk of burning out, if we take the woes of the whole world on our shoulders, and act as if we are not allowed to rest until everything is put right. There\u2019s an important message to take note of \u2013 about this balancing act which I also alluded to last week in our service on \u2018Faith\u2019 \u2013 we need to remain engaged with both the troubles and the delights of this simultaneously terrible and beautiful world \u2013 it doesn\u2019t help anyone if we close ourselves off to either dimension \u2013 and taking pleasure in strawberries (or whatever else it might be that we choose to take pleasure in) can recharge us so we\u2019re ready to return to the work of saving the world. Yes, we\u2019ve got work to do. But we can\u2019t do it (or worry about it) 24\/7. We need to take a holistic view. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to share some words on this from adrienne maree brown. She writes: \u2018Pleasure reminds us to enjoy being alive and on purpose… True pleasure\u2014joy, happiness and satisfaction\u2014has been the force that helps us move beyond the constant struggle, that helps us live and generate futures beyond this dystopic present, futures worthy of our miraculous lives. Pleasure\u2014embodied, connected pleasure\u2014is one of the ways we know when we are free. That we are always free. That we always have the power to co-create the world. Pleasure helps us move through the times that are unfair, through grief and loneliness, through the terror of genocide, or days when the demands are just overwhelming. Pleasure heals the places where our hearts and spirit get wounded. Pleasure reminds us that even in the dark, we are alive. Pleasure is a medicine for the suffering that is absolutely promised in life… Feeling good is not frivolous, it is freedom.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So that\u2019s the very simple takeaway message I have for you today. Despite everything that\u2019s going on in the world, we can \u2013 we must \u2013 take our pleasures where we can. We are still here, and there are still things to be glad about, so let\u2019s make time for joy and take in the good. Savour the strawberries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to close with one last strawberry poem. I feel like this one was a bit of a gift from God \u2013 when I woke up on Saturday morning it was in my email box \u2013 the poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer writes a new poem every day and this was her freshly minted offering yesterday. It couldn\u2019t be more in tune with what I wanted to say. \u2018Please\u2019 by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are one who has practice
\nmeeting the pain of the world,
\nwe need you. Right now we need you
\nto teach us it is possible to swallow
\nwhat is weighty and still be able to rise.
\nWe need you to remind us we can
\nbe furious and scared and near feral
\nover injustice and still thrill at the taste
\nof a strawberry, ripe and sweet,
\ncan still meet a stranger and shake
\ntheir hand, believing in their humanness.
\nWe need you to show us how
\nwe, too, can fall into the darkest,
\nunplumbed pit and learn there
\na courage and beauty
\nwe could never learn from the light.
\nIf you have drowned in sorrow
\nand still have somehow found
\na way to breathe, please, lead us.
\nYou are the one with the crumbs
\nwe need, the ones we will use to find
\nour way back to the home of our hearts.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflection by Jane Blackall<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n