{"id":283,"date":"2013-08-22T14:45:16","date_gmt":"2013-08-22T14:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/?p=283"},"modified":"2013-08-22T14:45:16","modified_gmt":"2013-08-22T14:45:16","slug":"p-is-for-presence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/?p=283","title":{"rendered":"P is for Presence"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><!--\n@page { margin: 2cm }\n\t\tP { margin-bottom: 0.21cm }\n--\n--><\/style>\n<p>I find myself using the word &#8216;Presence&#8217; more and more to describe &#8216;that which cannot be named&#8217;, so I thought maybe I should have a go at describing a bit more what I mean and why I use that term.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t actually envisage &#8216;Presence&#8217; in the very visual way portrayed in the famous Quaker painting &#8216;The Presence in the Midst&#8217; &#8211; but I do have a sense of what the artist was (I think) trying to portray.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"product_photo_zoom_url\" title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/shop.fum.org\/PhotoGallery.asp?ProductCode=PresenceintheMidst\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"product_photo\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/shop.fum.org\/v\/vspfiles\/photos\/PresenceintheMidst-2T.jpg\" width=\"495\" height=\"386\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a id=\"product_photo_zoom_url2\" title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/shop.fum.org\/PhotoGallery.asp?ProductCode=PresenceintheMidst\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I am, sometimes, very aware of something beyond myself, beyond ourselves, being present in our meetings for worship. I may call this God, but Presence also seems a good word for it. I sense that others are aware of it too. Sometimes it just is, sometimes it seems to require a response from me. I may, inwardly, respond &#8216;Here I am, Lord, with all my failings and weaknesses, but if you can use me as I am, I am willing&#8217;. I may just say, inwardly, these are all the things that are bothering me right now, let me hand them over for a while, maybe then I&#8217;ll see them in a different light, or maybe I&#8217;ll feel strong enough to take them up again, or maybe I&#8217;ll see that I can lay them down for good.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, and in my childhood, I am sometimes aware of the Presence as a young man, whom I would name Jesus, who stands just behind my left shoulder, or, if I acknowledge him, beside me, who is calm, supportive, and does not make demands, but appreciates being acknowledged. I find it hard to acknowledge him &#8211; I fear I am &#8216;asking Jesus into my life&#8217; and will sound like an Evangelical Christian &#8211; but he is very patient with me, at least so far. It feels good to have an awareness of a Presence that walks besides me.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/walking.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-292\" alt=\"walking\" src=\"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/walking.jpg\" width=\"1691\" height=\"1083\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>On the memorable occasion of my wedding the depth of worship was so strong that we (Jim , Sheila <i>(our registering officer)<\/i> and I) could feel it outside the meeting room in a quite tangible way. That I would also describe as an awareness of Presence.<\/p>\n<p>On another occasion, when I was quite distressed by my life circumstances, I sat in meeting for worship and became aware of being held (by the meeting? by something beyond the meeting?) as a mother might hold a baby wrapped in a blanket. Somehow there was a sense of Presence in that experience too.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/baby.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-291\" alt=\"baby\" src=\"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/baby.jpg\" width=\"1403\" height=\"1016\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>To me, the experience is often very tactile, rather than visual or auditory. All in all, it&#8217;s a very hard thing to describe, but the word &#8216;Presence&#8217; seems, at the moment, to serve as well as any.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I find myself using the word &#8216;Presence&#8217; more and more to describe &#8216;that which cannot be named&#8217;, so I thought maybe I should have a go at describing a bit more what I mean and why I use that term. &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/?p=283\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=283"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":295,"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283\/revisions\/295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stephanie-blog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}