“Cherish the Past, Adorn the Present, Construct the Future”

Sue and I recently spent a few days in North Wales. It was our first break away together since we married in March, at the very beginning of “lockdown”. Sue called it our honeymoon. It was lovely to spend some time away together, so needed. We spent time enjoying some of the natural beauty and other less than natural beauty. One morning we went to Portmeirion, made famous as the setting for the cult 1960’s television series “The Prisoner”. It was designed and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975. It is a strikingly beautiful place to behold, decadent. It looks like a scene from a fantasy movie It is almost like a full sized model village. Some perhaps would say it is a pure “folly” as it serves no real purpose other than it being beautiful to behold. Maybe that is a purpose in and off itself, as life is surely more than prosaic utility. It was certainly a joy to get lost there and in the beautiful gardens and sea front. It did not feel like a “folly” to me. A thought that came to me as we wandered up to a “folly” built within the incredible natural gardens, with flora from all over the world. As we were wandering round we discovered a beautiful cemetery dedicated to beloved pet dogs. We spent a little time there as we were grieving the loss of “Poppy”. In the centre of the graveyard was a beautiful statue of a dog. Sue asked me to take a picture of her with it and then showed me a picture she had drawn of standing with Poppy in the very same pose the night before. Some may say that these sentimental feelings that we have for pets is a folly. Maybe it is, but I am not convinced. These loves, these feelings are what make life what it is. Who is to judge what is folly and what matters in life. I would say that anything that raises the experience and expression of love in a person is never folly. We should mark these loves too, they are never folly.

As I grow older I have a deeper respect for the life I have and have had. I know the people I have known and the experiences I have, made me into the man that I am. It is the past that truly allows me to bring the moment alive. The bringing of the moment I live in alive today helps me create something for the future. Not merely for myself but for others too. Well it seems that this is the philosophy, or something like it, behind the “folly” of Portmeirion. Clough William-Ellis book about the place is titled “Cherish the Past, Adorn the Present, Construct the Future”. When I read this I thought to myself, I like that, it speaks to me and as you can imagine it got my homiletic consciousness going. Maybe this is how we should live, something that got me thinking about gratitude and how to live with gratitude. Gratitude is not simply a passive thanks giving, it is an ethical way of living by recognising the gifts we have been given, often unearned, creating something beautiful with it and thus building something for those who will follow us in the future. It is about expanding our experiences of life and truly living in the “Long Now Moment”, in so doing you truly connect the past, present and future and widen your understanding and experience of life. This is not “folly”, this is life and this is love.

I would like to share a story with you.

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said :  ' I am blind, please help.'  There were only a few coins in the hat.

A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, "Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write? "

The man said, " I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way."
I wrote : ' Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it.'

Both signs told people that the boy was blind. But the first sign simply stated this fact. The second sign told people that they were so lucky that they were not blind. It’s no real surprise that the second sign was more effective.

As the song goes “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til its gone”

We do not always notice what we have, the blessings we have been given until we either lose them or truly notice that others do not have them. So much of life is given unbidden, is a real grace a free gift. So much so that we do not always appreciate the fruits we are surrounded but.

We need to learn to offer thanks and praise for what we have been given and to use these gifts in creative and positive ways for the good of all.

A good and useful life is one in which we count our blessings, one in which we enjoy our days with a heart of gratitude. I know the challenges of these last months have given me a greater appreciation of the life I have. My problem is that I don’t always “adorn the present”, something I need to practice more. I do though attempt to “construct a future”, leave a legacy for others by what I create.

There is no doubt that this year has been a difficult one, the troubles are not over. They will not end soon, there will be many more challenging days ahead. We have all known much loss, that said we have also perhaps found new treasure and love within the troubles. Maybe we have had time to reflect on the past, this is difficult at times, but there is also treasure there. Maybe, if allow the past to bear fruit we can find ways to adorn our present and from this construct something for others to enjoy in the future. It matters what we do in this time, not only for ourselves but for others too.

The story I just shared reminded me of an old friend who sadly died a few years ago. I spent quite a bit of time with him over the summer that his life came to an end. I was thinking of this as I thought about how I would be unable to do this at this current time. When this pandemic is over I hope I never forget the precious gift that is being in the company of others. The beauty of being close to another, to simply shake hands and or hug. We do not know what we have got until it goes do we.

Those last few weeks and months with my friend, as his life came to an end were painful, but also beautifully moving. I recall other moments with congregants who have passed over the years and other friends too. How those moments have enriched my life and hopefully made a better person who can adorn his present and therefore construct something better for the future.

My friend had over the last twenty years of his life had lost his sight and had also had to face many other physical difficulties. Finally, he slowly succumbed to cancer. What moved me greatly about him was how he accepted whatever happened with Grace. He did not waste his life wishfully thinking that he could have back what he had lost. Don’t get me wrong of course he grieved his losses, particularly his sight, but he adjusted and he accepted. I remember several years ago marvelling at his ability to memories passages from books he had read. His memory was a real marvel as he developed a new gift that he would never have known but for the loss of his sight. He found ways to adorn his present, despite the real losses he knew.

The greatest gift he gave to me as I sat with him over the last few weeks of his life, was listening to his stories. He shared a rich harvest with me. It was both a blessing and a joy to sit and listen to him. He did all the talking. In fact the last thing he said to me, just two days before he died was “The next time you come Danny, I’ll let you do some of the talking”, sadly there was not a next time.

My friend lived a full life. Like any full life there were many things that he got wrong. There was some regret, but not too much. Those last few weeks he passed on much of his knowledge to me. It was a fruitful time as I harvested so much from his life. It has adorned my present. I have been able to pass some of this on to others and helped construct something for the future. I have nurtured those seedlings that he planted that I hope will bare fruit at some point in the future.

This year has been hard for all of us. That said I do see seedlings and shoots of hope that can bear fruit in the future.

I am glad the memory of my friend returned this week, it has helped adorn my present. I offer thanks and praise for the life that my friend lived and harvest that I have shared in. I offer thanks and praise for all the lives I have known and all that they have given to me and countless others, the wisdom that they shared. I offer thanks and praise for all that has been so freely given and I hope I can make the most of it and pass it on to those who follow. I hope I can construct a future from it.

Harvest is a time to offer thanks for all that has been given us. To do so we need to see what has been given to us. It is so easy to see what we do not have and therefore fail to see the gifts that we are surrounded by, gifts that are there for all of us to share in, gifts that are so freely given.

How do we do this? Well I suspect all we need to do is live by what seem as the “folly” of Portmeirion”, to live by the principles that Portmeirion was envisioned and constructed by, in the words of Clough William-Ellis “Cherish the Past, Adorn the Present, Construct the Future.”

So let us be thankful for what we have and what we have to share and see the gifts we have to give to others. For one day those very gifts may well be gone.