Saturday 21 January 2012

Time

Strolling through Jesmond Dene yesterday I came across St Mary's Chapel. I'd not known the history of this twelfth century chapel until I read the information board at the site. This in turn prompted me to look it up on the internet. Well worth it for the interesting history. In fact there are quite a few interesting pages on the net about Jesmond. Of course there are all sorts of interesting stories of which we are not aware all about us. Later I heard Nimrod from Elgar's Enigma Variations on TV. This prompted me to buy a copy for my MP3 player and this afternoon after a walk with DC through the Dene we both listened to Nimrod. Such a beautiful piece. 'What is it that is so moving?' I as asked DC. His answer pointed to various technical ways in which Elgar has created the music. 'Yes, but what is 'it'? Not how has he pointed to 'it' but what is 'it'?' I asked. We mused on this for a while each expressing the 'it' for us. Each noting how the piece brings about an awareness of Being and all that might be, all that is; temporal and eternal. I find the Lark Ascending takes me to some similar awareness. How changed our world from those days of pilgrimage in the twelfth century and yet how similar our quests seem to be.

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