Magdalene - The Seven Devils

Photo by Brad Fowler

by Marie Howe

“Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven devils had been cast out” —Luke 8:2.

The first was that I was very busy.
The second — I was different from you: whatever happened to you could not happen to me, not like that.

The third — I worried.
The fourth – envy, disguised as compassion.
The fifth was that I refused to consider the quality of life of the aphid,
The aphid disgusted me. But I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
The mosquito too – its face. And the ant – its bifurcated body.

Ok the first was that I was so busy.
The second that I might make the wrong choice,
because I had decided to take that plane that day,
that flight, before noon, so as to arrive early
and, I shouldn’t have wanted that.
The third was that if I walked past the certain place on the street
the house would blow up.
The fourth was that I was made of guts and blood with a thin layer of skin
lightly thrown over the whole thing.

The fifth was that the dead seemed more alive to me than the living

The Faith Muscle

The thing is, feel good experiences fade quickly. They don't sustain us when times are hard. One dance class at the gym it great fun, but it's the weekly commitment that takes away the chest pain when I run for the bus. The idea of faith as a duty undermines it as something that doesn't give back. Imagine going to the gym every week and never feeling or seeing the benefit. In reality, we see a gradual improvement and feel physically stronger, but often that strength is only apparent when it has a heavy weight to lift. 

-p. 32, Issue 2, <Magnify Magazine>

倫敦手札｛八｝

開始下雨了，倫敦市區的牛津街上已經掛起聖誕節的燈飾。我們曬在狹窄房間的衣服原本兩天就能乾，現在需要更久，而往往好不容易乾了又要洗衣服了。為了多爭取一兩天稍微寬敞的房間，我原本在窗邊的位子讓給了曬衣架，我想那個位子要到明年春夏才有可能歸還給我了。起風又落雨的城市，總是會喚起一些微小的，撫慰心靈的儀式，比如用吹風機把衣服吹得暖呼呼後立馬穿上。季節的挪移似乎也會讓人願意嘗試新的口味，昨天和R到超市挑了一盒肉桂口味的紅茶茶包，開心到此刻。

前幾天傍晚我用手機找好了路線，要從市區到R學校與他會合。行經陌生的社區路口等紅綠燈時，或許我東張西望看起來有些迷失，身旁的白髮老先生用極致英國式的禮貌問我，妳是不是想要到什麼地方。收起手機停下音樂告訴他目的地，老先生經過一番短暫的蹙眉沉思，並且喃喃自語替我排練了一次左轉右轉後，指往一個和Google Map不同的方向。我不好意思告訴他我的智慧型手機告訴我有捷徑，只是道謝，祝他晚上好，就走往他指示的路徑。

然而這不是一個老先生勝過搜尋引擎的事蹟。我怕又遇到老先生，故意繞了一小圈後，還是走上原本計劃的路程。當然，這段微不足道的小小插曲使我比預期的還晚些到達目的地，但是白髮老先生為陌生女子陷入沉思的誠懇畢竟太值得駐足。有的時候他人綿密的柔軟與短暫的良善，真的會使人自覺引以為傲的明智和堅強，簡直多餘得令人惋惜。

老先生臨走時問我，are you expecting it to be very close? 而我沒告訴老先生的是，我感覺自己離想到達的地方，還好遠，好遠好遠。

再長的路都得走，而我最終還是得走上自己的，人煙稀少的旅程。可是路途上因為旁人的溫暖而多繞點路、多花點時間，好像其實，滿值得的。