In A Nutshell

This was one of the banners which was hung in church the other week for Harvest Thanksgiving

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It reminded me of this lady - Julian of Norwich. She was a mystic, and an anchorite, born around 1342, and living nearly 80 years in what was then England's second city.

I really must find out more about her. Her 1395 treatise called  'Revelations Of Divine Love' was the first book written in English by a woman.' In paintings she is usually depicted holding a hazelnut, having written these words

. . the Spirit showed me a tiny thing the size of a hazelnut, as round as a ball and so small I could hold it in the palm of my hand. I looked at it in my mind’s eye and wondered, “What is this?” The answer came to me: “This is everything that has been made. This is all Creation.” It was so small that I marvelled it could endure; such a tiny thing seemed likely to simply fall into nothingness. Again the answer came to my thoughts: “It lasts and it will always last because God loves it.” Everything—all that exists —draws its being from God’s love.