‘I was very close to my grandparents. I went to stay in school holidays with my maternal grandfather. I called him Data. In the evenings, when my mother and the rest of the family were chatting in the front room, I used to go into the kitchen where Data was always working, preparing food for his family.
When he finished, he sat down and we had lovely, wonderful conversations which I will never forget. We talked of life and poetry, Wales and hymns! I had learned a bit of Welsh and, when I asked him to hand down his black Baptist hymnal, I asked for help in reading some of them. One of my favourites was ‘Arglwydd Iesu, arwain f’enaid at y Graig sy’n uwch na fi’. Translated, it means, ‘Lord Jesus, lead me to the Rock that is higher than me.’
‘There is a Rock that is higher than us, isn’t there?’, I asked.
‘Oh yes and it’s always there.’Â He spoke with tears in his eyes.
That was the last time I saw him. He died peacefully in his sleep. I was 16.
In those days, no-one spoke about grief to a teenager. It was 1961. I searched for something to soothe and comfort me and, one day, in a junk shop, came across the book ‘Mysticism’ by Evelyn Underhill. I bought it for a few pence as I had recognised, just through browsing through a few pages, that it would suit me. I read it at home and was entranced. I wasn’t the only one to have such experiences and feelings!
I went to college, trained as a teacher, struggled a lot with various illnesses including clinical depression. But still that book helped me…
I can’t remember how I discovered the WCCM newsletter but I DID and absorbed so much from it. This must have been in the 1990s. I still have a book in which I have written passages that were of key importance to me. I still use them. I was a lone meditator for years.Â
Then I had an enquiry from someone fairly local who was looking to share meditation with someone. He was given my contact number. We met regularly for a while then another friend, whose meditation group had folded, asked if she could join with us. It is still going and we meet once a fort night. The group has anything between 3 to 12 members at a time. We have moved around. Two churches which were happy to house us started to have other activities at about the same time. We even held a meditation session in a member’s huge yellow van. Then came Covid and we just kept in touch online.
Success stories don’t belong here. But the ability to experience peace (especially as things are as they are in the world today) is wonderful. We share deeply. What a blessing.’
Diana MorganÂ
Wales Team member