P. Ferguson image, March 2028.
Within the Cathedral of St. Martins, Ieper
A being must carry the shadow to embrace the light, and blend these vital breaths to make harmony.
(Tao Te Ching, 2nd Century BCE))
I see them as light across a column rising in support of the vaulted ceiling. Music plays softly in the background as footsteps tread across the stone tiles of black and white. The voices rise together answered by a single voice. In the near distance the sound of water. If you can’t fight and you can’t flee flow.
P. Ferguson image, April 2026.
There are no spoken words here unless softened voices from one close by ear to another. I have walked this hall before, but today is the impressionist’s pallet of colored light on the great column I witness. There is joy in my heart to see such colour. At first a poppy, a bluet, dandelions and then daisies. These gifts from a gentle hand, the brush strokes of heaven.
The song of light and joy brings breath to the stillness. There are within, commemorations of those who saw this land in shock. Now today a place of tranquility and echoes. Once shattered and since rebuilt. A parent and child…two generations, both generations witness to conflict.
P. Ferguson image, April 2026.
Who has walked within this great structure from both sides of the fence? As I sit I contemplate peace and flowers of light painted against stone. One wishes these colours to further pass across the markers of the many. Though petals of colour grow in abundance at their base…it is this pallet of light that today brings me hope.
From a spontaneous note written at St. Martin’s Cathedral.
April 30, 2026