Lace Curtains and Indigenous Flags

 I have spent the last few days staying with a member of the staff team in my new role at Uniting College in Adelaide. I always find being in someone else's home fascinating. You get to know them on another level just by being in their space. Each bookshelf holds a thousand memories and fridge magnets hold dozens of stories to be told (or not). 

In the dining room of this house was a rustic table that had obviously witnessed many meals, conversations and other homely activities. I sat at the table each morning for breakfast. The first morning I was struck by the view through the window. Delicate lace curtains framed the view of a beautiful lush lawn and shady trees. Part of me felt I was back in Belgium, particularly Bruges, peering out the windows where the beguines had once lived. Partially hidden inside, but somehow firmly connected to the outside world. 

The lawn separated the house from the neighbouring church and visitors came during the day to sit on the grass to rest, refresh, and regroup. Going about my morning breakfast routine I wondered how the women living in beguinages might feel about the visitors constantly peering in their windows from the green outside.

Although I loved studying the beguines and found their stories and works extremely transformative in my life, there has often been a niggle that I was spending so much time engaging in a culture and time so removed from my own. Would it not be more useful to study something related to this country? That is a questions for another day, but my experience in this dining room allowed me to hold the "both and" for a moment in time that was quite profound.

My hosts told me the story of the designer of the Australian Aboriginal flag, Harold Thomas, who once lived in the house. It was at this very table that the flag was designed. I listened intently to the story and wondered whether there were paints, crayons, pencils, clay once spread on this table. Our staff gathering the next day saw one of the signed flags spread on the table ready for our Acknowledgment of Country. 

Somehow, in that moment, at that table, worlds met and all the tensions of different cultures and times were held together. At a table of hospitality, todays and yesterdays, another moment of grace and generosity was created. All of my questions, my wonderings, my tensions were held together in peace and love. 

2026 Word of the Year - Clearing

 On choosing my 2025 word of the year - home- I thought I possibly might be writing this new year blog from our new home in the hills of Perth. Instead we continue to learn patience and hope the building will commence in the next week.In the last month we have walked a fine line between making our block compliant to bush fire safety rules and maintaining the beautiful trees. This has involved some intentional clearing. Aspects of this have been easy as we removed weedy trees that have become invasive in this area. Other trees have been difficult to remove, but essential for obtaining a building permit. As we have been clearing, we remind ourselves that we are making room for the home we dream of living in and plant new native trees to replace them a little further from the house zone.

In the last few days, I have been clearing out my home office. I have lever-arch files full of resources I haven't looked at in years and enough half-used tea lights to hold a number of Taize services. A clear out is well overdue! This has been spurred on by the fact that I am commencing a new position today. Today marks the transition from working for the Uniting Church in Western Australia to beginning my role as Director of Pastoral Theology and Ministry Studies with Uniting College for Leadership and Theology in Adelaide. My home office will be getting a lot of use in between trips to Adelaide and I need it to be uncluttered and have space for new books related to the topics I will be teaching. 

As I have been sifting through the many files I have become aware of the many things I have held on to - not only physically but also emotionally and spiritually. I have been surprised at how easily I have let go of  years of orders of service, sermons, liturgies, notes from workshops, thank you cards - the list goes on. As expected, there has been the occasional item that I have decided is worthy of keeping and some of the material is on my computer. However, there is something about this transition that has brought out the ruthless declutterer in me.

Although my choice of "clearing" as my word for 2026 is related to these two physical acts, there is a deeper more profound reason for my choice. Early last year, my supervisor gifted me a poem during one of our sessions. I say gifted because it remained with me throughout the year and continues to speak in profound ways despite its brevity.

Clearing

by Martha Postlethwaite

Do not try to save

the whole world

or do anything grandiose.

Instead, create

a clearing

in the dense forest

of your life

and wait there

patiently,

until the song

that is yours alone to sing

falls into your open cupped hands

and you recognize and greet it.

Only then will you know

how to give yourself

to this world,

so worthy of love.

The first three lines speak into my obsessive need to do, achieve, try the next new thing. The rest of the poem speaks of my desire for my life - to be more open, more patient, more attentive, more discerning. I particularly love the image of the song that is mine alone to sing falling into my open cupped hands. That is not going to happen as I rush from one thing to another. My desire in my new role, which I also expressed to the interviewing panel, is to have more space to go deeper - a deepening in relationships, a deepening in knowledge and research, a deepening in my own relationship with God, a deepening in my contemplative life of being present and attentive.

In the last couple of years I have been attempting to do this amongst the busyness of my roles. I have been trying to do build this "home" without clearing any trees. I have been trying to "work in an office" cluttered with things from the past. I now have an opportunity, as I commence a new role, to be intentional about how I want to live my life. I am fully aware this won't just happen with the flick of a switch. I have been working with my spiritual director and supervisor on this for the last six months. I am determined and I am nervous. It is all too easy to slip back into well worn patterns of seeking value and affirmation. And, just like the clearing of our block and my office, the clearing will undoubtedly be accompanied by some grief for the things I want to continue grasping.

2026 will be the year to create a clearing in the dense forest of my life. I know what I need to do and must face the resistance. For those close to me, hold me accountable in my clearing and help me not to be too eager to fill the space. May 2026 be a year when we witness each others songs falling into our open cupped hands.