27th of April 2020

Today’s Reflection is chosen by the University Chaplain Revd Dr Harriet Harris.

This poem, written by PhD student Martha Pollard, reminds me how we are both grounded and liberated by our earthiness: the need to dust, and the reminder that we are dust into whom life is breathed. Martha is also a Counsellor, and a staff member with the Eric Liddell Centre. Thank you, Martha!

Easter Cleaning 2020

I felt a bit lost until I started cleaning.

Containing the dust cloud when emptying the hoover

felt like victory, taking all of a bin bag plus blind manoeuvring

to reach all the places where accumulated particles

refused to budge. Then oh, when the machine started, what

satisfaction to run it across the floor, see the carpet start

to look groomed and tidy, put in order

albeit briefly, until we drop more crumbs.

What a relief to leave the screen and start to scrub.

By the time I’d reached the kitchen I was in full swing,

whirling vortex for the floor and bleach for countertops.

Earthed in inescapable reality of dust, my lost self

found it remembered what it has come to know once more

of resurrection: it is here among us, ever-arising from dust.