This morning, as we were finishing a breakfast of vegan pancakes, the phone rang. It was a friend of Clare's telling us about the death yesterday of our friend Russell aged 94. He was taken ill while out in his vegetable patch. He went indoors and slipped away peacefully. He'd been planting seeds and transplanting seedlings with a friend who helps him maintain the beautiful hillside garden around his house. It's a feast of rich colour at this time of year, as well as producing food for them. He often spoke to me about the divine mystery embedded in nature, what I'd call 'The world as sacrament'. There could be no better place or occasion to take his leave of this life.
It's just three weeks since he and Jacquie came and had lunch with us. He's been frail for some time, yet his mind was active and alert, conscious that his days were numbered, but still looking forward, questioning all that's seems to be going wrong with our world. That day he gave me a book. He'd bought a dozen copies to share, regarding it as an important contribution to addressing impending global crisis. 'Team Human' by Douglas Rushkoff is about the malaise of technologically induced social fragmentation and the need to re-fashion society around ideals of teamwork and collaborative partnership in which all are truly equal and power is shared. I look forward to reading it.
Most of Russell's life was spent working on team and community building, as an adult educator and engineer working in management. This was driven by his radical inquisitive faith in God, and a deep sense of the spiritual reality which pervades all things in this world as well as above and beyond it. Early in adult life, his questioning faith led to him being pushed away from a rather traditional conservative protestant church, towards the investigation of Rudolf Steiner's teaching. Wherever he found himself, he started an Anthroposophical Study group. He was keen to share his journey, but even keener to encourage others to pursue their own.
Our friendship has endured over the seventeen years since we returned to Wales and Clare became involved in the development of Cardiff Steiner Initiative. Jacquie is a Eurythmist like Clare and they work together in the Fountain School, so it was natural that their spouses should have conversations of their own. He was as practical as he was a thinking man, and gifted artistically also. He will be mourned by a great number of people in the UK, America and Europe whose lives he touched.
At the end of the afternoon we drove over to Dinas Powis to visit Jacquie. I had this idea of planting a lit candle in Russell's vegetable plot to honour the time and place where his passover began. Clare found a small glass lantern jar for a protective container which was suitable. Jacquie was pleased at this suggestion so we went into the garden and installed the light among the emerging seedlings. The words 'Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies ....' from John's Gospel came to mind, and we pondered on them for a while as we stood there.
We stayed for a while and ate supper with Jacquie and a friend who'd come to stay with her. The fact that his end came swift and peacefully was a surprise if not a disappointment, as if he was in a hurry as Jacquie said. Russell lived, however, ready and well prepared to go. He was used to living with daily pain and suffering, and conscious that any day could be his last. Not really in a hurry to go, he said to me once, but looking forward to the spiritual adventure that lies beyond. That's what I call a good life's end.
Our friendship has endured over the seventeen years since we returned to Wales and Clare became involved in the development of Cardiff Steiner Initiative. Jacquie is a Eurythmist like Clare and they work together in the Fountain School, so it was natural that their spouses should have conversations of their own. He was as practical as he was a thinking man, and gifted artistically also. He will be mourned by a great number of people in the UK, America and Europe whose lives he touched.
At the end of the afternoon we drove over to Dinas Powis to visit Jacquie. I had this idea of planting a lit candle in Russell's vegetable plot to honour the time and place where his passover began. Clare found a small glass lantern jar for a protective container which was suitable. Jacquie was pleased at this suggestion so we went into the garden and installed the light among the emerging seedlings. The words 'Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies ....' from John's Gospel came to mind, and we pondered on them for a while as we stood there.
We stayed for a while and ate supper with Jacquie and a friend who'd come to stay with her. The fact that his end came swift and peacefully was a surprise if not a disappointment, as if he was in a hurry as Jacquie said. Russell lived, however, ready and well prepared to go. He was used to living with daily pain and suffering, and conscious that any day could be his last. Not really in a hurry to go, he said to me once, but looking forward to the spiritual adventure that lies beyond. That's what I call a good life's end.
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