At twenty minutes to eight the after-hours bell went off. It was an old buzzer. His father had wired it to sound through the whole building so a delivery driver at the front door could raise somebody in the stockroom, and it came up through the floor and the shelving and the soles of Odell's shoes. He sat still until it stopped. Three children were standing on the step. They stood a hand's width from the glass. The one in front wore a skeleton...

There are women who seemed, in 2004, to rule the roost in Findhorn. Organising meditations, leading Taizé, focalising, saying the things, keeping the place running. Some died too young. Some stayed too long, making such little income, that they couldn’t afford to leave when it all collapsed around them. Like the grasshopper who sang all summer. The one who works in the Phoenix shop will throw your chocolate at you, as if it was a curse. If you...

Geraldine Brooks is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist. Horse is Lexington (Darley) was called the greatest American thoroughbred racehorse of the 19th century and champion shagger. It covered a record number of mares and produced a record number of champion-winning racehorses. I’m sure you get the picture. Theo stumbles upon a picture of Lexington by accident. An elderly neighbour is leaving junk outside her house after her husband died. A sign...

Bad-luck-in-a-tartan-coat was a periphery person at Findhorn. Moved through the Park like a shark, eating for free and using newcomers. Her negative energy was such a suffocating black hole of frustration, you couldn’t wait to get away from her. Thus, she re-created her abandonment issues – and newbies got some teachable moments. She got away with it for years, her narc mask never slipping in front of people who lived there. One of my Findhorn...

The book of Job is about the innocent suffering. Chuck Missler says, in his series of sermons on the book of Job, that people say they like the book of Job because it explains why the innocent suffer but it doesn't answer that question. Oswald Chambers points out that it is much more an expression of suffering. This is useful to some people. We don't have to understand why something happened. The book of Job doesn't tell us why the innocent...

Have been feeling a bit deflated since the weekend away. Don’t feel like doing more than kitchen pottering. Live music and theatre, especially bizarre theatre, is so life-affirming. It filled up my cup. All the creativity, everyone enjoying themselves, laughter, applause, not a word of the news from the wide world. Being in the moment, breathing in and breathing out, " Look around, look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now! ". Away...

The nun came in after full dark, from the direction of the grave. Her lips were moving as she came through the door, and they stopped when she saw the girl at the hearth. She said nothing about the afternoon. She knelt and lifted the pot off the fire, spooned millet into a bowl, and set the bowl on the mat by the girl's knee. Then she sat back on her heels on the other side of the fire. In the corner, Gorō had gone to sleep sitting up, his back...

Had a wonderful, bittersweet weekend away at the Findhorn Bay Festival. Sublime concert by ‘The Allt Project’ on Saturday evening. Music to melt your pride. Bizarre and beguiling musical theatre ‘The Sailmaker’s Palm’ by ‘Oceanallover’ on Sunday afternoon, and some beautiful pier-side-theatre, ‘Miss Mary’, who got us all up dancing, then left us to it. Stayed at Cullerne House, overlooking Cullerne Garden, which, full of memories of love,...

Am very much enjoying slow mornings reading fascinating stories about semi-precious stones, rather than reading the news. Don’t read anything until I’ve lit a candle, (for ambiance, not night blindness), and made whatever breakfast dish have decided upon. On rainy mornings, as the parents trot up the hill taking their kids to school, admit to mildly Schadenfreudelistic thoughts, such as; no commute, no reason to rush, tra la la la lah. This...

Our Story and Poem for September, very kindly chosen by hudsonmoon