by tashmcgill | May 30, 2015 | Poems, Prayers
I wrote this piece in the last few days.
It’s a simple prayer really; it has a lot of uses and it echoes a number of sacred acts.
i.
my body welcomes your body
my blood rises to meet your blood
our body welcomes your body
our blood rises to meet your blood
come to me deep, i am hungry
i thirst over and over
collide in me, divine
ii.
my face turns to the sun
turns to the sun to feel warmth
my blood and bones touch your
body and blood and bones
under the sun
i drink you in
iii.
my body welcomes your body
our blood rises to meet your blood
i hear the song of the tui
the fantails dance beside me
by this i know, the body knows
death and life are coming
my body touches your body
tells my soul, thirst no more
hunger not, here is our body
death and life colliding
in our oneness
Words About The Body
There’s a ritual many of us partake of each week or month that has a tone of Holy Sacrament. It is visceral, complex and symbolic. We take bread and say that it is the body of man. We do not say it is ‘like’ the body of a man, we say simply ‘it is’. We eat the bread and our bodies respond. Tastebuds activate, tongues moisten and the body welcomes the body back inside. We take wine or juice and pour it. This time, even more primitive, we say that wine is blood and we swallow deeply, blood into our blood. Lips flush, cheeks redden and we taste.
The intimacy of eating and drinking, the act of consuming another person’s body is not unlike other intimate acts. Oneness is the goal, union and communion the objective of these acts. The body willing, the mind open, the heart and soul receiving one person into another. Adopting that personhood into ourselves.
What a gift of beauty, what an act of love to welcome another’s body into your body and to realise the Christ ritual of Holy Sacrament is deeply personal; the idea of communion with the Divine a holy sacred and intimate one.
by tashmcgill | May 30, 2015 | Tasting Notes
Amongst whisky drinkers, there are two types of people – those who love the smoky, growly and utterly unique peat of Islay and those lesser mortals. Well, they just don’t care for it. Still, it would be hard to find a single character within either sect who cannot appreciate the sentiment and passion behind Ardbeg Day.
Ardbeg Distillery on Islay in the Inner Hebrides.
Every year, around the 30th of May, Ardbeg release a limited edition singular expression with a theme or profile that adds to the legend of this distillery. This year the release of Perpetuum will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the distillery founded by John McDougall but restored to it’s former glory in more recent times by Glenmorangie. (Ardbeg closed for the second time in 1991, before being purchased by Glenmorangie in 1997.)
Why so much fuss about an NAS (non-age statement) whisky? Well whisky has always been and will always be about stories. So here’s my take on the who, where, what, when and why of the Ardbeg legacy… may it live on in Perptuum.
Where: An isolated cove near Port Ellen on the south coast of Islay, accessible at the end of long, purposeful road. Isolated enough that it was once the domain of smugglers, pirates and hard Scottish coastmen. Close enough for Loch Uigeadail (which means ‘dark and mysterious place’ in Gaelic) to be it’s primary water source; the very location of Ardbeg creates exception amongst the world’s great whiskies.
Who: A legacy beginning with a farmer and clan descendant of the Lord of the Isles and more recently embracing Dr. Bill Lumsden; one of the foremost distillers and whisky creators in modern history. His work to create the flavour profiles of two distinct yet equally important houses (Glenmorangie and Ardbeg) sets him apart as one of the great distillers of our time. This whisky, still made by hand and on a very human scale carries the essence of a people not easily dissuaded from great craft. Not to mention the Ardbeg Committee, a membership some 110,000 strong who ardently pursue and imbibe Ardbeg’s great malts.
What: Whisky, because whisky. Malt, peat, dark and clean waters of Scotland alongside her salty, crisp Islay air. Enough said. One of the best whiskies in the world.
When: Today and in short supply, the Perpetuum is only available at the distillery itself or at an Ardbeg Embassy around the world for the first two weeks after release. There are three in New Zealand – Sam Snead’s House of Whiskey in Auckland, Regional Wines & Spirits in Wellington and Whisky Galore in Christchurch. I’ll be at the House of Whiskey from 12pm to taste, laugh and celebrate this legacy of 200 years from first legal distillery to today.
And most importantly; why?
Here’s what Dr. Bill Lumsden has to say;
“Ardbeg’s character has endured for 200 years and we hope it will continue for centuries to come. The 2015 Ardbeg Day anniversary bottling, Ardbeg Perpetuum, celebrates this milestone year with a recipe that includes some very old and young Ardbeg, silky Ardbeg from bourbon barrels and some spicy Ardbeg from sherry casks. The resulting expression combines classic notes of dark chocolate and treacle with sea-spray, peat smoke, vanilla and a hint of sherry casks, to create an unforgettable single malt with an after taste that is never-ending.”
Tasting notes: olive on the nose but the taste in the glass soon overpowers with creamy, vanilla oaky notes, hints of licquorice, white chocolate, cranberry tartness. Finishes with traditional medicinal notes and salt. It’s a tribute to classic Ardbeg expression. Sits at 47.4% abv.
Sláinte!
by tashmcgill | May 29, 2015 | Church, Leadership, Youth Work
To my long-time love;
It has been a long time since I seriously considered calling it quits on our relationship. Even though I no longer depend on you, the Church, to tell me how to live, or to provide connection with other people of faith—I’ve stuck to the belief that somehow, we are better together than we are apart.
I am facing a choice because I don’t know if you are good for me anymore. The best way I can describe it is being ‘unequally yoked’. It reminds me of advice you gave when I was a teenager; warning me about my relationship with people who didn’t share the same faith or convictions.
Yes, I do think we are unequally yoked and it’s not me, it’s you. Monday to Saturday I have been listening to the edges of society where God’s Spirit is hovering. I feel myself being stretched and enlarged until Sunday, when I have to squeeze back into the shape and size you want me.
I never thought it would be possible, but maybe I’ve outgrown the shape you made for me. I’m bigger than you can handle, in so many ways.
Embracing the sacred and divine Feminine
I’m tired of broken promises and false hopes of shaping the future. I am a capable, intelligent, strategic and compassionate communicator and a visionary for the Church. Stop offering lip service to honouring and empowering women to lead and have a voice within your walls. You don’t need to tell us you believe in women, just let us lead not because of our womanhood but without regard for it.
We’ve known each other too long for you not to trust me now. When I say to want to contribute, don’t make me jump through hoops and knock on doors. If you don’t trust me, say it straight and let me move on. The power of my sex won’t change.
Embrace me, a reflection of the sacred Feminine in the real world—intelligent, gifted, passionate and willing. Embrace me or say no. Your ‘no’ won’t ruin me as much as chasing your ‘yes’ has.
Staking a claim for the significance of every human being
The political and sociological debates you engage with around LGBTQ issues let me know you’re thinking and talking about it.
I want you to start turning from conversation to action. How you respond to this group of people is going to define our future, the future of your relationship with me as well as ‘Them’, as you so often refer to my friends and fellow spiritual seekers. Straight people are leaving the Church because the tension you’re asking us to hold is untenable. We must live out our words.
But I think I know something you don’t. I’m The Generation. We’re all just in it together, one generation defined by being together and alive now.
Disrupt the conventions
I’m tired of hearing about the ‘Next Generation’. Did I slip straight from the ‘next generation’ where I was ‘full of potential’ to being past my use-by date in my thirties? You just don’t look at me the same anymore. I can’t seem to hold your interest.
But I think I know something you don’t. I’m The Generation. We’re all just in it together, one generation defined by being together and alive now. Young people aren’t any more likely to bring about hope than older people. We are all as close as each other to the grave, because life changes in a moment.
Disrupt the conventions and assumptions. I’m not suggesting you need to give up your hope for the cool kids, those twenty-somethings you’re so pleased to have held on to, but every denomination I’ve encountered is trying to engage with the ‘next’ generation while pacifying the baby-boomers who are still largely paying the bills.
Defining the relationship
When I try and talk this through, you say ‘you don’t want it to be over’ and that I need you, as much as you need me. I have to disagree. I carry Church in my pocket. My smartphone is all I need to read the Bible, download teaching, listen to worship tracks and even journal my prayers. I can tithe to Christ-centered causes and I can ‘fellowship’ in community via Facebook, Twitter, blogs and text messages. I can Skype and Facetime to pray with people I care about and sometimes, church happens around my kitchen table or fireplace. It happens Monday–Sunday.
I don’t know where we go from here. It’s not an ultimatum; it’s just a chance for us to be honest with each other. Maybe we’re both stuck, not knowing how to be what we need from each other. Where should we go from here?
Originally published for Christian Today.
